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StillLife - Applying motion to still images Pick of the Week
StillLife iconThe macosxhints Rating:
8 of 10
[Score: 8 out of 10]
If the Ken Burns Effect in iMovie3 intrigues you, but you'd like to do more with it, you should take a look at StillLife. StillLife does similar things as Ken Burns in iMovie3, but with many more options. For example, you can pan along a curve, add multiple "shots" to an image, and even rotate the camera (careful, you could make your viewers quite ill with too many spinning photos!).

The interface is very iMovie-like, complete with a drawer containing images, a timeline and soundtrack bar at the bottom of the screen, and a preview window showing your edits and the end result. You drag images from the Finder into the drawer, and then from the drawer to the timeline, then apply "shots" (pan/zoom/twist effects) to each image. You control the speed of the effect with a "Move" slider, as well as how long each image appears with a "Hold" slider. You can even attach multiple sound tracks (complete with automatic audio fadeout at the end of your string of images).

StillLife supports a few unique export features. First of all, you can create a slideshow very easily by just dragging a number of images into the program and selecting Format -> Like ScreenSaver. When you then export to the video format of your choice, you'll have a standard slide show in a matter of seconds (no pan/zoom effects, just slides). More useful to me is the "Export as iMovie Project." When you use this format, StillLife creates a new iMovie project, with each slide (and its associated pan/zoom effects) as a new clip in iMovie. This makes it really simple to then go in and add really nice transitions and title effects to your animated slideshow.

At $24.95, StillLife is a bit pricey as a replacement for something you can get for free - but its feature set goes well beyond what you get with Ken Burns in iMovie. You can try the program for free, but any exported video will have a "StillLife" watermark applied in the center of each frame until you register.
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StillLife - Applying motion to still images
Authored by: notmatt on Jun 18, '03 01:38:04PM

I've been using stilllife since it first appeared (pre iMovie3), and I find it much superior to the Ken Burns effect.

One thing not described clearly in the capsule review is my favorite feature - you don't use a zoom slider to set the view, you define your views as boxes on the image itself. I find this makes it much easier to achieve the effect you're after.



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Photo to Movie
Authored by: Anonymous on Jun 19, '03 03:35:54AM
I have used Photo to Movie for some time (before iMovie 3) and like it a lot.

It looks like it does about the same things as StillLife which I have not checked out yet.

[ Reply to This | # ]
I have both
Authored by: jecwobble on Jun 23, '03 10:07:25AM

I stopped using Photo to Movie when I got Still Life. Still Life has more features than Photo to Movie, but if you can live without those features, you'll save some money and still have more control than iMovie.



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