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eZedia Products
iMovie Plug-Ins
 Back to eZeMatte
Creating eZeMatte™ Themes
You can create your own eZeMatte Themes with common graphic editing programs
such as Adobe® Photoshop® and ImageReady™. While the steps outlined below
are written for Photoshop, the same general method would apply to other
graphic programs.
The procedure to create eZeMatte Themes with Adobe Photoshop is:
1. Create a new RGB image, with a pixel size of 720 x 480 and 72 dpi.
eZeMatte will work with both NTSC (720 x 480) and PAL (720 x 576). For the
best results, create your Themes at the same pixel size as your video
format. If you are not sure which Digital Video format you are using, launch
iMovie™ and look at the title of the Clip Viewer at the bottom of the
screen. It will say the name of the Project, the current time, and either
NTSC or PAL in brackets.
If you plan on exporting to a QuickTime movie, then your Themes should be
sized to 640 x 480 for optimum results. 640 x 480 is the size of the iMovie
Viewer window.
2. Create a new layer for your artwork in the image. Create transparent areas
for the movie clip to display through.
When creating an image with transparent areas, you can never draw or paint
on the Background layer. Always create your artwork on a new layer. If you
are cutting out a photo, put it on a new layer and erase the edges around
the subject. You can have as many layers as you like, including text layers,
etc.
3. To see how the image will look as a transparent graphic, hide the Background
layer.
4. When you are satisfied with the results of your editing, save your graphic
with PNG format.
a. Select File > Save As.
b. Select PNG as the Format for the graphic.
To save your Theme with the rest of the included Themes, select "eZeMatte
Themes" from your Favorite Places in the Where pop-up menu.
5. You're done! Launch iMovie and see how your newly created eZeMatte Theme
looks with your video clips.
Things to think about
• If you plan on using your iMovie in iDVD™ or recording it back to tape,
keep in mind that the edges of your iMovie may not display on a TV screen. A good rule of thumb is to
include an extra 40 pixels of border to the outside edges of your eZeMatte theme.
To assist in the creation of eZeMatte themes, eZedia has provided templates for use in Photoshop
(or other graphics programs, too). These templates can
be found on the eZedia website in the May 17, 2002 newsletter archives.
Check out the article entitled Easy TV: A Guide to Creating TV Save eZeMatte Themes
• To make sure your Theme will look good on any background, there are a few visual checks you can do:
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Make the background layer visible and fill it with white. Make sure there are no dark edges on any layers. |
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Make the background layer visible and fill it with black. Make sure there are no light edges on any layers. |
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Add a graphical layer under your artwork. Colorful graphics like desktop wallpapers work well for this. |
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All edges should fade smoothly into the background, no matter what color it is. |
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