Using iMovie Effects – Overlays and Keyframing

Welcome to the sixth chapter, which is all about using more than one layer of video – and sometimes more than one timeline – to achieve certain effects in iMovie. Now that you’ve been able to complete a fine cut of a video and export a master copy, it’s time to build on those skills by learning some video effects. Some of the techniques in this chapter are intended to be part of iMovie, and some are workarounds. For me, workarounds are exactly what iMovie is about. Some may say that you should just start learning a more fully-featured NLE, but if you need to work your brain creatively to make great videos (and you do), finding workarounds is exercising exactly the right part of your mind for keeping your storytelling sharp and interesting too.

This chapter is going to revolve, mostly, around overlays. I’ve been teasing them for a while, and it’s about time we covered them. Clips are always...