Izzy Video 023 – The Ken Burns Effect

All I can say is that I’m absolutely inspired, beyond words.

Found your Vidcast thru iTunes and have enjoyed it for about a month.

Keep up the good work, last episode 23, wow…. You have an unbelievably precious son there. And a perfect tutorial as well…

Thanks.
David.

I’m more interested in how you applied it in FCP. When I zoom in on a still, or use still text, I seem get weird interlacing issues, or there is a strange ‘pixel crawl’ effect going.

I see you’re slightly experiencing that pixel crawl with type in your videos as well, like on the “Born March 23…” section.

I’ve heard people suggest a motion blur, but it doesn’t seem to work. Any suggestions?

Israel,

I had not idea what this effect was called. I have seen it on PBS-style documentary shows. Thanks for sharing the effect and a sample.

I like the idea of changing up the pace of the effect. Is this effect inside a Mac program?

By the way, about half-way through the demo my eyes teared up. A teriffic effect and production.

Israel,

I have using this technique for a number of years for our church mission trips and it is very effective at communicating the purpose of the trips. I have also added a slight rotation on some zooms and pans that gives it an interesting effect.

Art

I first used the Ken Burns effect when I got Sony’s Vegas editor. This is by far the number one effect to use on still photos.

Excellent tutorial Izzy!

I might add as well that half of the “emotional effect” comes from the pan/crop and the other half comes from the audio. I hope you make a tutorial that shows the effect that different music can make on videos!

What programs can be used on a PC that do the “Ken Burns” effect, especially, which ones can do rotation?

As a media instructor I intend to use your helpful videos to train students and staff. They have also inspired me to create my own tutorials so thanks for your help. What program do you use to create your vodcasts?

Could you explain how to actually achieve the “ken Burns” zooming effect? I have tried a few things with setting key frames with still shots but it gets lengthy when you are dealing with 60 stills when trying to create a montage. Is there anything quicker? Thanks.

A great tutorial but I would be interested in a sequel that provides tips on how you achieve this effect with Final Cut or maybe you used some other tool. keep up the good work.

Good intro on using this effect. I’d like to add that I like to use this effect sparingly if I’m doing a montage. I find that if you are doing a slide show type of project that keeping many of the photos static makes the “Ken Burns effect” photos jump out more.

You may want to play around with mixing it up a bit as opposed to always having motion in your photo montage videos.

Hi Izzy,

I appreciate your website and your work. I too have used pan and zoom on stills. I use FCP and have noticed both iMovie and iPhoto has the “Ken Burns” effect funtion. However, iMovie way of applying the “Ken Burns: effect and transitions is faster. I wish FCP had the same simple funtionality without having to “pull” the keyframes after a transition is applied. Do you use a faster/easier technique in FCP or maybe you know of a plug-in?

Oh gosh, I never knew the Ken Burns effect was so powerful. Gives me plenty of ideas for working with photos. Kumar…

I am incorporating video in my art classes and your tutorials have been so helpful. Thanks for all the time you spend making them and offering them to the general public. I am very interested in watching the still frame tutorial #23, but am having trouble accessing it.

Rachel Bakken

Izzy-
Your tutorial is so well done. But as you say,quite simplistic.
I have been creating the Ken Burns effect using Adobe Premier and a plug-in called Moving Picture, which utilizes key-frames to give life to still pictures. You can create complex moves, zooms and pans, with multiple pauses, and varying speeds. Moving Picture is a fantastic, easy to use piece of software.

Could you explain how to actually achieve the “Ken Burns” zooming effect with FCE? Thanks.

I used your Ken Burns effect, works great in the canvas, however, when I export the images get jagged when the Ken Burns effect kicks in, but when the image is still, it looks sharp??? Does anyone else have this problem? Any help here would be great.
Thanks