Hello there, and welcome to this video! Let’s see together everything you
need to know to start using Apple iMovie!
Leave us comments inside the video description to help us improve our
future video guides for this software!
Apple iMovie is one of the best software products used to create your own
videos and slideshows, by editing your media and adding amazing effects and
transitions to these.
When opening iMovie, a startup window opens, divided in three
tables on top. Media is used to check your iMovie libraries, which are
collections of media that share a same topic. You can create new custom
libraries by right-clicking on a vacant space and going to New Event. Then,
you can simply drag and drop your media directly on the open Library. You
can import videos, images, and also audio files.
You can delete existing Libraries by right-clicking on one and going
to Delete Event.
The Theater section is used to import, share and playback your custom
videos and projects online, from any of your devices. The Projects tab
lists all your iMovie projects made, in order to open and edit these back
again. In particular, by using the button next to each project name, you
can play it, open it to edit it, and also rename and delete it.
To see how to start with iMovie for the first time, let's begin with a
new iMovie project. To create new projects, just click on Create New. Here
you can choose between a Movie and a Trailer project. A Movie is used to
create custom videos and slideshow from scratch, whereas a Trailer starts
from a ready template, close to film-like videos. In this very basic
beginner tutorial, we will see just the Movie projects.
The overall iMovie workspace is divided in three main parts: the panels,
the Video Preview, and the overall timeline more below.
Before starting with a new project, it is important to import all the media
needed, such as videos, images and audio files. From the My Media tab, you
can browse inside your own personal iMovie Libraries, and simply drag and
drop your files on the timeline below. You can also use the Audio section
to browse for your own tracks from iTunes, GarageBand, or for special
audio effects available in your Mac.
You can also use the Import button on top, in order to browse inside your
Mac to pick and import your files, or even drag and drop these from an
open Mac folder directly.
All the files imported inside the project timeline are shown as big
rectangles called clips, and are all listed inside the Project Media
library under the My Media tab.
Before starting to edit, it is important to know how to preview the content
of your project.
First of all, the clips inside the timeline already offer a quick and fast
preview of their respective content. Sound clips are green, with their own
sound waveform shown, that indicates the volume level during time. Pictures
and videos are blue, showing thumbnails representing the picture or the
video frames. These also show a reserved slot, that is covered by audio
and sound, especially for video clips.
For an overall preview on the whole project, you can use the Video Preview.
Use its player below, or the Space bar key to quickly playback and pause
both videos and sound. Also, playback in full screen mode by using the
button on the far right. As you can see, a delicate zoom on pictures is
always applied by default.
Especially when you are editing your project, you may need to get faster
previews on it. If you hover your pointer on the timeline and move it, the
Video Preview shows what the overall project frames look like. When your
pointer goes out the timeline, the Preview shows what is under the grey
playhead, that can be fixed by clicking on the timeline. This also fixes
the starting point of the Preview player.
Let's see how to edit and customize your iMovie project!
The filled timeline below is composed by two rows filled by videos and
images, called Video Tracks, and other two or more rows used to place audio
and sound files, called Audio Tracks. Further below, there is also another
row that you can use for audio files.
Each clip can be moved in time by clicking and dragging it on the left or
right. If you have videos with audio, you will move both of course. In
case you want to make video and audio independent, just right-click on the
clip, and go to Detach Audio. At this point, video frames and audio will
be two separate clips.
iMovie manages your project content by using a Storyboard view, where clips
are linked and attached each other. Inside the timeline, there is always a
main Video Track, whose main clips are preceded by a dark marker,
indicating that each of these clips also fix the other clips in time
position. In short, if the beginning of any video, image or sound clip
overlaps a main clip in time, it will be attached to such main clip, as you
can see by the small links that show up. This means that, if you move the
main clip in time, all of the attached clips from other Tracks will also be
moved in time in the same way. Also, if these clips are moved until they
overlap another main clip, these will attach to this new main clip,
depending on it.
The two Video Tracks on the timeline are not exactly the same. In fact, all
the clips that are placed on the first Video Track from the top, are always
shown above the clips inside the main Video Track.
To stretch or shorten the time duration of the clips, just click and drag
from their far edges. You can check the clip duration by looking at the
clip corner on the left. This operation may cut some content shown from the
video or the audio clip affected.
To shorten or stretch video or audio clips without cutting or looping their
content, it is sufficient to change their playback speed. If you right-click
on the clip, and go to Show Speed Editor, a black line appears right above
the clip. If you click and move the marker from the right to the left, you
will increase the playback speed, as the hare icon suggests, and this will
also shorten the clip duration in time without changing its content. If you
stretch the clip, this will be played slower, as the turtle icon indicates.
You can cut, copy and paste a clip by clicking on it and then using CMD+X,
CMD+C and CMD+V respectively. When you paste, the clip is placed where your
pointer is.
In case you want to cut just a part of the clip, just hold the R key from
your keyboard, and click and drag on the clip to select a portion of it.
When you cut, you will affect just the part of the clip within such region.
To split a clip in two, just right-click on it and go to Split. The clip is
split where the grey playhead is. This just works on clips inside the main
Video Track. Remember that, in case you make any mistake, you can go
backwards by using CMD+Z multiple times.
There are other nice things you can make directly on each clip. When you
hover over a visible clip, two markers appear on its extreme edges. If you
click and drag these, you will create a fade transition, where the clip
transparency changes in time in order to make it appear at the beginning
and disappear at its end. This can be applied on audio clips as well, with
the difference that this transition acts on the sound volume.
These fast fade transitions can't be applied on main clips. For these, you
have to use the Transitions tab on top. Choose the right one for you, and
drag and drop it between two main clips, or at the very beginning or end.
Consider that these transitions may reduce the clips duration depending
on the length of the transitions applied, that can be checked by hovering
the transition symbol. Double-click on it to change it. Whereas, to change
the kind of transition, just drag and drop another from the Transitions
section.
Even more, when you hover an audio clip, you can click and pull up or down
the black straight line you see in order to regulate its volume in an
uniform way. Avoid any red waveform, since this causes sound saturation.
iMovie allows you to fully edit the content of each video, image or sound
clip, through several tools available right above the Video Preview, that
turn on or off depending on the clip chosen from the timeline.
For example, if you select any video or image clip, you can use Color
balance and Color correction to correct the colors of the clip; the
Cropping tool to crop the clip by using the nodes on the Preview. If you
select a clip which is not inside the main Video Track, you can also use
Video overlay settings to adjust the way the clip must overlap on the main
clip below it, by regulating Opacity, selecting Split Screen, or applying
a great Picture in Picture effect, regulating the clip size through the
nodes, and the clip placement by clicking and dragging it where you like.
If you select audio clips or videos with audio, you can regulate sound with
the other tools. Use Volume to adjust the volume, the Equalizer to apply
audio filters, the Speed tool to regulate the audio playback speed and
pitch, and use the last tool to apply filters and simple amazing
audio effects.
Keep in mind that you may need to click on the checkmark button on the far
right to apply the changes on some of these tools.
Inside iMovie you can also add text and titles by using the ready templates
under the Titles tab. Choose one, and drag and drop it inside your timeline.
This will create a title clip under a violet color, with duration and
title content on it. This piece of text can be fully edited by clicking on
it and using the Title settings tool above the Video Preview. Click inside
to type in, and edit all the text properties by using the options above.
Let's see how to save your work! Your iMovie project is saved automatically.
You can rename and set your project by coming back to the main page of
iMovie by going to the Projects button.
To render the project content and obtain the final video, just go to the
Share button in the top right corner. You can choose whether to render and
upload it online, on social websites, or render it inside your Mac disk,
by going to File. In the new window, choose the video resolution, its
quality, and settings. Then, click on Next..., and choose the video name
and its destination folder. The render will start on the background, and
you can check its progress next to the Share button.
Thanks for watching this video! Check out our channel for more free and
amazing guides for Apple software!