Apple Announcements - iMovie & iDVD

At today's Apple event, it was announced that:

iDVD Lives! There had been rumors that iDVD would be removed from the suite, but like the creature that couldn't be killed, it is still in the suite. No demo, and I wouldn't be surprised if it hasn't actually changed, but lets be grateful for small mercies.

iMovie '11 -Steve Jobs introduced iMovie 11, saying that their goal is "to do extremely sophisticated editing, really easy." The new features are:

  • All new audio editing,
  • One step effects
  • People Finder
  • New themes
  • Movie trailers

Randy Ubillos came up to demo the new release. It features the same project and event views.

Audio Editing: They've added audio wave forms displayed below the clips. It has a nice simple interface for adjusting audio level and for creating an audio fade in and out for a clip by simply clicking and dragging. In addition, you can select part of a clip, and then adjust the level (and fade in and out points) for that selection.

Audio effects: added several audio filters (the ones he demoed were more like "fun" filters that distort voices to raise or lower the pitch/speed.)

One step effects: more like auto-editing, you select a clip and then apply and you're done; the two effects he demoed were one that repeated a clip at a slow speed with a "Replay" label over it. A second effect was more complex; a white flash is added followed by a still frame from the paused clip (but Ken Burn's effected) and then transitioning back to the clip. Neat if the effect matches what you want.

Movie Trailers: They've added fifteen movie trailer themes. These include music, titles and graphics; you just insert your video clips. They looked quite cool; though I'm sure we'll all get quickly bored with them!

Perhaps the most interesting part of this feature is the Storypanel they've added to help you assemble these. It will be interesting to see if this feature can be used for other things.

iMovie 11 Storyboard View


He also noted that iMovie 11 supports 24 frames per second.

And iLife 11 is available today.

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