iMovie 6 & iDVD: The Missing Manual

Downloading More Transition Choices

Simple cuts, cross dissolves, and fade-ins/fade-outs are all the transitions many professionals ever need. But if you’re feeling hemmed in by the limited number of built-in transitions, you can download plenty more to expand the list. Here’s a quick look at some of the leading contenders in the blossoming Commercial iMovie Plug-ins category:

• GeeThree. At http://www.geethree.com, you can preview and buy plug-in collections that add over 200 new transitions to iMovie’s list. They offer a huge number of different shapes that open up to reveal a new piece of footage: hearts, barn doors, checkerboards, zigzags, page turns, swirls, explosions, drips from the top of the screen, and so on. You can also find picture-in-picture, morphing, and even image-stabilizing plug-ins that take the shake out of unsteady footage.

  Note

  Be sure to confirm that any iMovie plug-ins you install are compatible with version 6. Most previous plug-ins, unfortunately, won’t work right.

• Virtix. Check out http://www.virtix.com to view this impressive set of effects and transitions. Burn Through makes it look like the first piece of film is melting on the projector, revealing the second clip behind it. Dream should be familiar to David Letterman or “Wayne’s World” fans: It creates a soft-focused, warpy, zig-zaggy strip down the center of the frame that melts into the second clip. Fog and Smoke reveal the second clip through a passing haze. If you’ve shot one clip of an ...