Tips on Getting a Good “Ken Burns Effect”
I recently came across this article, and it got me thinking about the Ken Burns effect, a.k.a. animating still photos for video:
From Poynter Online – Meaning in Motion: Ken Burns and His ‘Effect’
Few of us will ever develop a technique distinctive enough to have it named after us, but most people serious about visual storytelling know what the Ken Burns Effect is: the intentional use of movement on still photographic images. The recent release of Soundslides Plus puts this tool in many more hands. As multimedia reporting grows in influence and impact, more journalists than ever need to understand such techniques, which are common in video and documentary work, but new to photography.
This raises a critical question about using pans, zooms and tilts with still photos: Now that we can, when should we?
I’ve been panning and pushing / pulling on still photographs in Final Cut Pro for a long time. It’s a very effective way of utilizing still photos in your video while retaining the emotion of the piece. A few tips I’ve discovered:
• Ease In, Ease Out
In general, with any motion graphics, it is more realistic to use Ease In / East Out on any movement than to have a linear motion from point a to point b. This emulates the motion that a camera operator uses — when a camera pans across a scene from left to right, the operator generally slows down at the end of the motion. You can do this very easily in Final Cut Pro, Motion, and After Effects, using commands like “Ease In”, “Ease Out”, “Easy Ease”. Throw in a slight Motion Blur to add a little more realism – but don’t go nuts with this.
• Choose the Right Resolution
I’ve found that when editing on a DV or any interlaced timeline, using images that are “print resolution” (300+ d.p.i.) can be flickery, problematic, and can cause higher-than-normal render times. When my timeline is 720×480, I like to use images that are 800×600 (at 72 dpi – screen resolution). This gives me the extra 10% or so to zoom in and push / pull or pan left / right.
• RGB / CMYK
Like the previous tip, make sure your still photos are not in the print-ready CMYK color mode, but in RGB.
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