Just a technology I explored yesterday, hope someone might find it useful...
How to make static titles over video clip for iMovie (or any other QuickTime DV editing application).
You will need:
Adobe Photoshop (I used v. 7.0, not sure if Elements would work)
QuickTime Pro (I used 6.3)
iMovie (I used 3.0.3, but 2.1.2 should work just as well)
In Photoshop:
Create a new (720x480 px, transparent fill) .psd file as a template for your titles.
Type your title (creating a new text layer), using whatever font of combination of fonts you want. You can use layer effects as well (Drop Shadow, Stroke, etc.), just make sure you stay within "TV-safe" area, use NTSC colors (there is a filter to adjust that), and remember, that QuickTime does not seem to support Photoshop's layer "blending modes" other than "Normal" very well (the default setting for Drop Shadow effect is "Multiply". If you change it to "Normal" and tune your drop shadow using the transparency slider in the Effects window, you will have a better idea of what your final result will look like, especially if you place a sample frame of the target clip on a layer under it).
Turn off visibility of all layers (if you have more than one) you don't want to show in your title clip, and save the file as ".tif" file, uncheck the "Layers" checkbox, so you would have a "flat" image, but KEEP the "Transparency" option in the secondary dialog window CHECKED. I used non-compressed, Macintosh byte order format to save my titles.
In QuickTime Pro:
Open your "whatever.tif" file in QuickTime Player (the file will have a black background, it's fine, it's in fact transparent, there is just nothing behind it, and "Graphics Mode" is defaulted to "Copy"), then "Edit" > "Select All", "Edit" > "Copy".
Open target DV clip in QuickTime Player, "Edit" >"Add Scaled". This will place your single frame on top of the existing video track and stretch it to the length of the target clip. Alternatively, you can select only a portion of the clip and place your title over that portion only.
Select "Get Movie Properties..." from the "Movie" menu. Select "Video Track 2" (the one you just added) from the left drop-down, and "Graphics Mode" from the right.
Set the mode of your track to "straight alpha" (the black background will turn transparent), then go to "File">"Export...", and export the composite movie to a DV stream.
Import the result into iMovie and feel proud.
How to make static titles over video clip for iMovie (or any other QuickTime DV editing application).
You will need:
Adobe Photoshop (I used v. 7.0, not sure if Elements would work)
QuickTime Pro (I used 6.3)
iMovie (I used 3.0.3, but 2.1.2 should work just as well)
In Photoshop:
Create a new (720x480 px, transparent fill) .psd file as a template for your titles.
Type your title (creating a new text layer), using whatever font of combination of fonts you want. You can use layer effects as well (Drop Shadow, Stroke, etc.), just make sure you stay within "TV-safe" area, use NTSC colors (there is a filter to adjust that), and remember, that QuickTime does not seem to support Photoshop's layer "blending modes" other than "Normal" very well (the default setting for Drop Shadow effect is "Multiply". If you change it to "Normal" and tune your drop shadow using the transparency slider in the Effects window, you will have a better idea of what your final result will look like, especially if you place a sample frame of the target clip on a layer under it).
Turn off visibility of all layers (if you have more than one) you don't want to show in your title clip, and save the file as ".tif" file, uncheck the "Layers" checkbox, so you would have a "flat" image, but KEEP the "Transparency" option in the secondary dialog window CHECKED. I used non-compressed, Macintosh byte order format to save my titles.
In QuickTime Pro:
Open your "whatever.tif" file in QuickTime Player (the file will have a black background, it's fine, it's in fact transparent, there is just nothing behind it, and "Graphics Mode" is defaulted to "Copy"), then "Edit" > "Select All", "Edit" > "Copy".
Open target DV clip in QuickTime Player, "Edit" >"Add Scaled". This will place your single frame on top of the existing video track and stretch it to the length of the target clip. Alternatively, you can select only a portion of the clip and place your title over that portion only.
Select "Get Movie Properties..." from the "Movie" menu. Select "Video Track 2" (the one you just added) from the left drop-down, and "Graphics Mode" from the right.
Set the mode of your track to "straight alpha" (the black background will turn transparent), then go to "File">"Export...", and export the composite movie to a DV stream.
Import the result into iMovie and feel proud.