eZedia Products

iMovie Plug-Ins

Back to eZeScreen

eZeScreen™ 1.1 for iMovie™ Documentation

eZeScreen™ allows you to overlay chroma key movies over an iMovie™ clip. Similar to blue screen and green screen effects in Hollywood, you can adjust transparency and fade levels of any selected color. eZeScreen overlays are supplied with the installation or create your own.

The procedure to add an eZeScreen effect to your iMovie clip is:

eZeScreen iMovie Effect Window

1. Create or open your iMovie project.
For more information on working with iMovie, refer to the iMovie electronic help system.

2. In the clip viewer, select the clip that you want to add an eZeScreen effect onto.

3. Click the Effects button.
The Effects pane is displayed.
(Please refer to Diagram 1)

4. Select eZeScreen from the list of available effects.
When eZeScreen is selected, a Configure button appears near the bottom of the Effects pane.

5. Click the Configure button.
The eZeScreen dialog box opens.
(Please refer to Diagram 2)

6. Click the Choose button.
A file dialog box opens. The file dialog box allows you to browse the computer and select any QuickTime supported movie to use as the eZeScreen effect.

eZeScreen Configure Window

7. Locate and select the desired QuickTime supported movie.
The eZeScreen installation provides sample QuickTime movies in the eZeScreen Movies folder, which is located in your Documents folder. The eZeScreen Movies folder can be selected quickly through the eZeScreen Movies shortcut, located in your Favorite Places.

8. Click the Open button to select the desired movie and to close the file dialog box.
You are returned to the eZeScreen dialog box. The masking movie appears in the preview area of the dialog box.

9. Click the Size button.
Sizing handles appear around the edge of the masking movie. Size and reposition the masking movie as desired.

10. Click the Pick button.
The mouse pointer changes to a crosshair [ + ], which is used to select the chroma key color.

11. Move the mouse pointer crosshair [ + ] over the movie and click to select the desired chroma key color.

12. Drag the Tolerance slide bar to the desired level of color matching.
The Tolerance value allows you to match colors that are close to the selected chroma key color. A high tolerance value allows for more similiar colors to be included in the transparent area.

13. Drag the Transparency slide bar to the desired level of opacity.
Low transparency values are more opaque, while high transparency values are more transparent.

14. Drag the Smoothing slide bar to the desired level of edge smoothing.
Low smoothing values display sharper edges, while high smoothing values display smoother edges.

15. (Optional) Select the Show TV Safe check box to display a preview area that should safely display on a television screen.

16. (Optional) Click the Reset button to reset the color values back to the originals.

17. Click the OK button to apply the configured options and to close the eZeScreen dialog box.

18. (Optional) Re-select eZeScreen from the list of available effects.
This updates the preview window located in the upper right corner of the Effects pane and provides a small animated preview.

19. (Optional) Click the Preview button to view the effect, one frame at a time, in the Viewer window.

20. Click the Apply button to apply the eZeScreen effect across the selected clip.
When you click the Apply button, an update message and progress bar appears across the clip face in the clip viewer. The update message displays the progress across the total number of frames in the clip. Applying an effect does not affect the original clip. If you want to remove the effect, click Restore Clip.

21. (Optional) Click the Commit button to apply the effect against the original clip.
The Commit button will not be available until the effect has been applied across the entire range of frames in the clip. When you add an effect, the original footage is still retained on your hard disk. When you click the Commit button, the eZeScreen effect is written into the DV clip and the original clip is deleted. If you do this, however, you won¹t be able to change the effect or restore the clip. This step is required if you wish to add a second effect over the first effect.

Requires QuickTime.