Best program for manipulating stills outside of FCP?

Hey all,

I have to do a 10-minute promo reel with 100+ stills for a QT-based presentation. All the stills will need a variation of the 'Ken Burns' type of zoom and pan movements, but not just arbitrarily -- I'll need to control exactly where it zooms.

I might use Motion for this but I was wondering about other apps that might speed up the process. iPhoto and Keynote are easy but don't offer specific control of the slideshow settings. I've played with PhotoToMovie as well as the Motion Pictures HD app that came with Toast; wondering if anyone has found a better way to manipulate photos and export to QT?

Thanks,
JK

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SCQT! Self-contained QuickTime ? pass it on!

after effects = TOTAL control!

Quote

after effects = TOTAL control!

Sorry, should have mentioned that I was looking for a QUICK and EASY way to manipulate the photos -- the thought of hours of keyframing animations on 120 photos makes me cringe...

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SCQT! Self-contained QuickTime ? pass it on!

Make Motion Paths out of your most-used moves in FCP. For example, once you have the keyframes for a photo moving left to right, go into the Motion tab where you have the settings and press CONTROL-F. The Motion Path appears in the Favorites bin of the Effects tab in the Browser. Rename it to something you'll recognize (eg. "Motion Path L-R). Now any time you want the move, drag the Motion Path onto the picture.


www.derekmok.com

I like this from Lyric plugins

[www.lyric.com]

Michael Horton
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Thanks Mike! I'll try the demo...

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SCQT! Self-contained QuickTime ? pass it on!

That looks like a handy little plug-in, Mike.

"Quick & Easycontrol" for 100 plus stills and you want to customize each one? That might qualify as an oxymoron. Are they all the same size? Do you want simple pushes / pans or do you want to add some cool 3D tilts / lights? Depending on how simple or how complex you want your moves to be, that could take some work and my experience is in After Effects 7 Pro starting with one animated still (keyframed either 3D Orientation, 2D Anchor Point or by loading a camera & keyframing it's position & Point of Interest). Dupe that comp / change the name to your next still / drop replace the still / tweak the movement. Once you get the first 5 done it gets quicker but there is no "quick & easy control" if you are to custo each animation, I am afraid.

my 2¢...

- Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Take a look at www.stagetools.com and see if that might fit your needs.

I use it to easily manipulate stills to get "Ken Burns" effects. Each can be exported to a QT format.
You can do it from within FCP or outside.

Regards, Cyrus
iMac 27" Intel i7 Quad-Core; 16GB RAM; 2TB HD
Final Cut Studio, FCP X, Photoshop CS5, After Effects, etc.

Yeah, altough what I've seen in Motion 3 is built with tools for for photomotion, I second the StageTools MOVING PICTURE plugin-- or their standalone app for the simplest toolset. I've had good luck with the plugin but the workflow is a little quirky in that you must set up a proxy clip-- I use a title clip which identifies the planned photo -- apply the plugin filter to it, step in, load photo scan onto MovingPicture's stage, animate it and then step out and render it.

The standalone just cranks out your animation in QT format for direct import. The downside is, you must return to the standalone to tweak.

www.stagetools.com

- Loren
Today's FCP 5 keytip:
Set Video Only In and Out with Control I or O !

The FCP KeyGuide?: your power placemat.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Imaginnate from Canopus/Grass Valley is very good for this type of work.

derekmok Wrote:
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> Make Motion Paths out of your most-used moves in
> FCP. For example, once you have the keyframes for
> a photo moving left to right, go into the Motion
> tab where you have the settings and press
> CONTROL-F. The Motion Path appears in the
> Favorites bin of the Effects tab in the Browser.
> Rename it to something you'll recognize (eg.
> "Motion Path L-R). Now any time you want the
> move, drag the Motion Path onto the picture.


I like this idea. Wish I'd known it last year doing my family history video with over 500 photo's!!!