Within minutes you can transform your high-resolution digital image in to a DV-quality movie that pans, zooms and rotates the once-still image.
Whether creating a documentary or inde-pendent film project, Slick Motion
replaces the need for specialized and expensive video equipment by using the power of the Macintosh and QuickTime to create the pan and zoom movie clips. By starting with a high-resolution image, Slick Motion can use this data to create the highest quality movie possible. With a few simple tools you set the location, scale and rotation of the beginning and ending frames of the movie.
There is a preview feature so that you can quickly get an idea of how your
Slick Motion gives you a simple and easy way to make your still images come alive.
SlickMotion
Using Slick Motion
The Slick Motion application is automatically placed in the Applications folder on your computer. Slick motion is compatible with Mac OS X and Mac OS 9.
Launch the Slick Motion Application and a new project window will appear.
First Frame Pane Last Frame Pane First Frame Settings Last Frame Settings Select image to import Set desired length of movie Create Preview movie Create Final movie
Slick Motion Document Window
Select Image
Click the “Choose” button or use Command-I to select the image file you wish to open. Slick Motion is can read JPEG, GIF, PICT and Photoshop files. It is best to use images at the highest resolution possible. Low-resolution images may produce “jaggies” if it needs to be scaled to a larger size.
SlickMotion
Adjust Settings
After the image is selected, it will appear in both the Start Settings and end Setting panes. The Start Settings pane shows the first frame of the movie and End Setting the last frame. Here are the various parameters you can adjust for the starting and ending frames of the movie:
Location – position of the picture in the pane. The 0,0 point represents the
upper left corner of the image. You adjust the position by either:
• Putting the mouse in the pane. The cursor will change to the arrow and you can move image by dragging it within the pane. Also, holding the shift key while drag-ging will restrict movement horizontally or vertically.
• Enter in settings manually in the Location boxes
Rotation – angle of the picture. Use either the slider or manually enter the
rotation in the Rotation boxes.
Scale – size of the picture. At 100%, one pixel of the image file is 1 pixel
of the video and there is no scaling.
Ease In/Out – delay at the beginning or ending of the movie. When this
option is checked, there is a 1 second pause before/after the motion.
SlickMotion
Preview Movie
Once the starting and end frame parameters are set, it is a good idea to preview image by clicking on the Preview Movie button or use Command-R. It will take a few seconds to create a small pre-view movie. The prepre-view movie is small 12 frame-per-second clip that is lower quality than the final output, but is created quite fast.
Click the Play button or press the space bar to play the movie.
Change any of the settings until satisfied with the results.
Outputting the Movie
The final step is to save the finished movie. Click the Make Movie button (or Command-M)to begin the processing and saving the high-quality DV QuickTime movie. It will take a few minutes to output this file as it is quite large (34MB for a 10 second movie)
Tip – if the file is saved in an iMovie project Media folder, it will appear on the shelf as a clip the next time the project is opened.
The default setting is to save the file in NTSC format. To change the settings for PAL output, go to the Preferences menu item and select the PAL button.
SlickMotion
Saving the SlickMotion Document
At any time you can save the Slick Motion document. This document can be opened at a later time with all of the settings preserved.
Note – to save disk space, the Slick Motion document does not include a copy of the image.
Using the SlickMotion movie with iMovie
The final movie created by Slick Motion can be imported into iMovie. In iMovie, choose Import File (or command-I) under the File menu. After selecting the movie file, it will appear on the Clip shelf.
Using the SlickMotion movie with other applications
If the movie file is opened directly, it will launch the QuickTime Player application. By default, the QuickTime player
shows the DV video in low quality mode. To change this setting if QuickTime Pro is enabled, go the Movie menu and select Get Movie Properties (command-J). In the Property window select Video Track on the left pop-up menu and High Quality on the right pop-up. The select High Quality Enabled check box.
The movie file can also be used by any other application that can import QuickTime movies.
SlickMotion
Keyboard Shortcuts
Command I – Import Image Command R – Show Preview Command M – Make movie Command ; - Open Preferences
Technical Information
Compatible with Mac OS X and Mac OS 9
File types supported – JPEG, GIF, PICT and Photoshop Maximum file size - limited only by memory
Output format – QuickTime DV, NTSC and PAL
Compatible – iMovie 2.0 or later, other applications using QuickTime
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