That way, nothing looks distorted, pixel-wise, when exporting. Additionally, if you're using various sources of footage, it is a good idea to make sure that all the footage has the same pixel ratio (16:9, 4:3, etc.). If you want to get really dirty on the DV format, you can read about it in this verbose article by Adam J. If you prefer not to work with DV (or want to use DVCPRO50), you'll probably want to pick up a copy of Final Cut and learn how to use that instead. There is no way around it and you'll have to live with the DV format until you export your video. If you have a G5, make sure you get SATA drives instead of EIDE/PATA drives or FW800 if you prefer to transport that drive to other computers outside your network.įirst of all, anything you import into iMovie gets converted to DV (or DVCAM, DVCPRO, or Digital8. If you're on a PowerBook with a FW800 port, try to get a FW800 drive instead of a FW400 drive. It would help if your hard drive is faster than that, like 7200 rpm or higher, and has a larger cache, like 8 or 16 MB. Same with my 3rd generation iPod which I used as an external FireWire 400 hard drive. I have a 800 MHz G4 iBook with 640 MB DDR RAM.
There is a free version but if you want to fiddle with the features of the 15-day Pro trial version, you can download that here. DivX 5.x (freeware): This is used so you can load AVI files properly in QuickTime.ffmpegX (shareware): This is used to convert QuickTime MPEG4 to XviD 1.0.1 files.
D-Volution (freeware): This is used to convert exported DV files into DivX 4.1.2 files.Clip Creator (freeware): This is used to split the QuickTime files into something that iMovie can digest.DiVA (freeware): This is used so you can convert the VOB files into iMovie-friendly QuickTime files.OSex (freeware): This is used to rip DVDs as unencrypted VOBs.Explicit (freeware): This is used to split AVI files into smaller parts.
As of January 2004, new Macs should already have iLife 04 pre-installed so if your Mac is new, you probably have the newest version of iMovie.
iMovie 4.0.1, this is part of Apple's iLife software package that also contains iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD, and GarageBand.Also, if you're a recent 'switcher' (congrats on switching over by the way), when I refer to the COMMAND key, it's the key that has the Apple logo on it.īefore I start off, I'll tell the things I've used so that you can download these while you read this tutorial. If you know how to use Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Express, good for you! This is for the rest of us that can't afford that stuff. In this particular tutorial, I'm going to demonstrate how I used iMovie to make an Anime Music Video. sometimes, it just requires a different way of thinking. But differences aside, there are ways of getting things done on a Mac. If you're one of those people living in the 10 percent of the computer world, like myself, then you'd probably know that the software we use works a little differently compared to people living in the Windows-based world. Making AMV's with iMovie Making an AMV with iMovie