What Is iMovie? A Guide On Getting Started.
iMovie is a lightweight video editing app for macOS and iOS IMovie is perfect for beginners or those who don’t need professional grade video editing software. It is very easy to use. However, for users who have no experience with video editing in general, the program can seem daunting.
What is iMovie? When iMovie first launched on iOS devices, it was a very simple version of the Mac desktop app. Today, the two applications are very similar in capabilities, although the interface of each is adapted for the Apple device for which they were designed.
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iMovie for macOS Vs iOS
In fact, Apple specifically designed the two versions of iMovie to work seamlessly with each other. This means you can launch a project on your iPhone or iPad and then simply AirDrop it to your desktop or MacBook and continue editing where you left off.
If you don’t have a macOS device at all, that’s not a problem. The iOS version of iMovie is more or less functional, just like the desktop version. You can start, edit and complete completed projects simply by using your iOS device.
However, as you can imagine, the two versions have slightly different interfaces. One is for touch input and the other is for mouse input. However, you can now also use your mouse with iOS!
For this tutorial, we’re going to use the macOS version of iMovie as our foundation, but all the basics should move smoothly to the mobile version.
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What can iMovie do?
iMovie is based on the same software framework as Apple’s Final Cut Pro package, a fairly expensive professional-grade video editor. So, in terms of performance and stability, Final Cut is great.
However, you should moderate your expectations for editing tools. In iMovie, there are not only bare bones, but only bones, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Less is often more, and it makes little sense for novice users to be faced with a million dashboards filled with unfamiliar terms.
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This way, with iMovie, you can do all the basic editing tasks. This includes importing media files, cutting clips, placing them on the timeline, and adding screen titles. iMovie also offers green screen support, basic special effects, and color adjustments. With just these few features, you can create amazing fundamental video edits.
Whether you’re just getting started filming with your new iPhone 11 Pro, or are dabbling with drones like the Mavic Mini or Air 2, iMovie is a great way to enhance that content. From what your mom loves on Facebook to what millions of people around the world want to share.
Create a new project
The very first step in your iMovie journey after opening the app is creating a new project. A project is a workspace that you will use to collect all the elements that will go into the final product together and then edit them into the final video.
So, with iMovie open, click Create. Then click Movie.
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It’s time to take the content.
The first step: Get your media
Now that you have a new project open, you really need all the media that you are potentially going to use in your project. This can include video clips, sound clips, music, and the like.
Here we will try to keep it simple and use a few video clips. We’ve just downloaded some cool videos from Pixabay, which offers public domain and free content. You can also take music and photos from them if you like.
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Once you’ve downloaded the clips to any folder of your choice, you need to import them into your iMovie library.
To do this, simply click File and then Import Media, or click Import Media from the My Media tab in your iMovie library.
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Now navigate to where your clips are, select them and click Import Selected.
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Once you’ve selected all of the media to import, you’re ready to start building your video project.
Put your clips on the schedule
Your video is collected on a “timeline”. Each clip is dragged to the timeline in the order you want to use them. As you can see here, we’ve dragged our four clips onto the timeline in the order we need them. All you have to do is drag and drop the corresponding clip from the library onto the timeline.
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You will notice that there are different tracks on the timeline as well. For example, there is a special track for background music.
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There is a game head that “slides” along the timeline. Wherever the playhead is, you will see the current “frame†of your video displayed in the preview window, which is the cumulative combination of all the audio, video, text, and other elements that you compose at that position.
Division of syllables
Now that you’ve organized your clips, you need to cut them into the segments you want. To split a clip, simply move the playhead to the point where you want to cut. Then Alt-click it and choose Split Clip.
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Your original clip now magically consists of two clips! You can move the two clips anywhere in the timeline, but here, since you don’t want the rest of the clip, just press Alt, click on the beat you don’t want, and hit Delete.
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It’s time to note that video editing with iMovie is non-destructive. The original clip is completely intact. So feel free to chop and drop things in the timeline however you like.
Add titles and transitions
So now we have the clips in the shape and order that we want to see. This is a good time to add some more spices to your produce. Titles are text elements that you can place on your clips. This is useful if, for example, you want to tell your audience the title of your video or otherwise provide them with additional information.
To add a title, go to the Titles tab. Then drag any title you like onto the clip where you want the title to appear.
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Now just click on the dummy text in the preview window and enter your own.
Then we’ll add some interesting transitions between our clips. Just switch to the Transitions tab and drag the transition to the space between clips where you want the transition to occur.
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good start
Congratulations! Now you’ve learned enough about iMovie to put together a basic video. However, in order to really create something that looks and sounds great, we suggest you explore the following iMovie features when you feel comfortable enough to move on:
- Splitting a clip’s audio
- Trim clips
- Adjust color and contrast.
- Replacing the background in green screen footage (Chroma Keying)
- Adding Music to Your Project
Even though it’s a relatively simple program, there is actually a lot of depth to iMovie So take your time to learn its more advanced features.
Finish your movie
To complete this basic iMovie tutorial, let’s export the movie we have. Remember exporting a movie is not the same as saving your project! Be sure to save your project through the File menu as you would in any other program.
To export your movie, click the small Share button in the upper right corner. Then click File. If you don’t want to send videos directly to YouTube, for example.
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In this window you can see how long your clip will be and its approximate size. You can adjust the resolution and quality here, but in most cases you can just leave the defaults in place.
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If you are satisfied with these settings, click Next, select a save location and finish exporting the video. It will take some time to render, but at the end of the process your masterpiece should be ready to show to the world.
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