Following a Moving Subject With an Arrow or Circle in iMovie

macmost.com/e-2231 If you want to have an arrow, circle or other graphic follow a subject or object in a video in iMovie, you'll need to first create the graphic, and then use picture-in-picture and the keyframe animation tools in iMovie to guide the graphic throughout the video action.
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[@zedgarden]

thank you man, finally an excellent Imovie motion tracking video tutorial made by an adult who speaks clearly. I was nearly giving up my search as the only things coming up on google were total garbage. Thank you again!

[@davidseibert5268]

Phenomenal. Your timing is perfect. This is precisely what I need for a video I’m working on. You are an absolute gem of a resource. Thank you so much.

[@handiman5]

Gary, you are the absolute best! Not only the technical know how, but more importantly, you KNOW HOW TO TEACH IT!! Thank you.

[@Peace-for-the-world]

Thank you Gary, your videos are awesome!

[@franciscoknopik185]

Gary, you are my favorite teacher! Thank you for your patient presentations, there is just so much to learn!

[@yamintoel7635]

This is what I have been looking for. Thank you gary the great job

[@ElectricWaves]

Thank you so much for this walkthrough! Helped me tremendously!

[@hritvikjain__3594]

AMAZING Gary!! Keep up the good work

[@diamondpaintingwiththebesties]

Thank you so much! This is exactly what I needed! So easy to follow

[@davidhavemann9303]

This is amazing. I can't believe that these tools come built in with an Apple computer. It just takes someone like you to dig them out!

[@ralesandro]

Excellent step by step to create transparent shapes. Thank you!

[@BikeIntelligencer]

Wow, a KZbin video that’s not only accurate and complete but I actually learned something! Thanks for your generosity in sharing…

[@terrymccann1125]

This is exactly what I was looking to do for my son's hockey videos. Great, simply explanation. Thank you.

[@djebless3225]

AWESOME video. Step by step process and I was able to emulate. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

[@iftekharuddin]

Thanks for this video! Great explanations.

[@southbear123]

Great video. Very clear explanation. Thank you very much.

[@BenJett]

Thank you, these videos are so well done. Everything is explained clearly and at just the right pace. Your work is appreciated!!

[@canalwriting4723]

Perfect video on the topic! Thank you. 🙏

[@joeclifton-eo5xk]

Great tutorial. Thank you!

[@pleaseplantme-lawnmowingse3859]

Much value here my friend. Thank you

[@jogabonito1.1]

This video is awesome! Thank you for sharing, it has helped me out a lot.

[@BobbinTalk]

Great tutorial! I would've never thought to use keynote to make the symbol! Thank you!

[@bethellwood2902]

This worked perfectly thank you so much!!

[@PowerPlayerSam]

You can use a semi transparent texture with this to make a spot shadow! Helped a ton.

[@HookCircle]

Awesome, thank you for this great tutorial!

[@marjoriecollado78]

Thank you so much for the help, Sir.

[@naylor2006]

Thank you, was editing a video in iMovie and as well all know iMovie is kinda great but is missing some key onscreen features, this was a perfect guide to help me get an arrow onto my 'movie'.

[@TheUnapologeticKnitter]

Champion video! Thank you!

[@pleaseplantme-lawnmowingse3859]

I had to comment again. I was just thinking how you just changed the game for me and what’s capable with iMovie. I’ve had premier pro however I’m able to produce quality videos simply with iMovie now I can take that even further. Thanks again for the keynote tips/ no fill etc. great stuff thanks for taking the time and uploading really appreciate this !

[@debiduenkel8638]

Thank you for this. You're a great teacher.

[@adityadarekar5497]

Thank You so much for this!

[@seanhendrie5335]

The only helpful video on this topic I have watched, thanks man

[@vsm330]

This is fabulous! Thank you!

[@TC4HGV]

Thank you! Really helped me out !!

[@eyeojo]

Wow, pretty slick!

[@pizzaicecreamOG]

really useful. Thank you!

[@user-th3yx4jn2r]

Thank you! This was just what I needed. Phew!

[@jiannashaju7700]

Omg tysm!! I'm new to ur channel but this thing has totally helped me! Tysmm!!!

[@Jstroke615]

You are the master! Thank you!

[@marke2401]

Thank you Gary!

[@iyofujita438]

Thank you so much for your great tutorial. I learned a lot, and I could teach my son how to do it very efficiently.

[@danieltan513]

Wonderful. Thank you!

[@williamwalksTO]

Great tutorial video!

[@gizmoitus]

Thanks, great video that was very helpful for me. I had some issues understanding how to get the keyframe window to appear. You have to click on the image you are overlaying, then on the video overlay settings (after you've changed to picture in picture) however, on my macbook pro, the control appears inside the actual video preview window in the top left corner. I think this is because i had a 4k widescreen video and your sample video wasn't widescreen, which gave the impression that the controls would be separate.

[@kunaldutt]

Amazing man! Posting a video today using this tutorial :)

[@islamicinsights101]

thanks for letting us know about that Gary

[@nigelcarren]

Mate, you are the best! Thank you 🇬🇧🏆🇺🇲

[@FlameVR7]

I am a very small and new youtuber so this is very educational and great for me.Thank you so much

[@SupriyoGhatak]

excellent video , what I wanted . thanks a lot

[@alicewood3064]

thank you so much this video is perfect

[@garyrussell8222]

You sir; just gained a sub! Much appreciated

[@prodis15]

Thanks for sharing it.

[@DilshadDilliwala]

Thanks for valuable information👌

[@markmitros]

Wow! Thank you!

[@softech4335]

great thanks for this tutorial

[@Hojatikarate]

I wanted to thank you for your tutorial. My daughter is on a soccer team, and I wanted to send a video to recruiters. This was the perfect thing for the video.

[@macmost]

Been there. In fact I used this technique for the same purpose (well, Field Hockey).

[@TalmSawyer]

a-freaking-mazing! thank you!

[@Unit13FREMSLT]

Awesome, thank you!

[@rockchan9677]

Awesome video sir!!!

[@ChinaAl]

OH wonderful. This is so cool. Just what I need. Thanks

[@ChinaAl]

It works! Wow! except my circle got cut in half somehow. I'm working on it.

[@sgm7788]

Great job

[@huardjonathandale3488]

thank you!!

[@rodkelly3525]

Thanks a lot dude 👍🏾 👌🏾 ✅

[@MrSoloDev]

This is awesome

[@planereality3675]

Thank you.

[@KilpatrickBaumpflege]

Legend thanks !!!

[@TRAVELSTUCK]

Thanks a lot .

[@samiqbal]

Amazing info. I need to make a 6 min soccer video for college

[@carlosprovyrivera8522]

Gary great job with this tutorial. I’m an occasional iMovie user but was never aware of ‘key frames’. Do you have another tutorial which explains this in depth with more examples when to use? Thx and keep up the excellent work!!

[@macmost]

See kzbin.info/www/bejne/mYTZmn18gLejmJI

[@platinumspi03]

this is amazing thank you so much. I was wondering if you had a video on how to do this on an iphone using iMovie

[@macmost]

You need to use iMovie for Mac to do this.

[@nayanpatel7037]

thx so much

[@thewildman4300]

Very informative! Quick question is there any way to disable the yellow line that tries to orient the arrow when I'm near the middle between keyframes

[@HiFiInsider]

great video

[@CescoCDN]

Another great video to be saved. Gary, is this the method used when, say in a News show clip, they'll have a circle around a person of interest while the rest of the scene is darkened?

[@macmost]

I doubt any news station is using iMovie. They are probably using Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premier, or some other pro-level software.

[@10club_cc]

Hi Gary, great video, and wonderful timing to find this since I was looking to do this for football highlight videos.. One more advanced question.. rather than an arrow to highlight a player, how could I add a .GIF of something like a flaming circle? The idea being "that player is heating up" or "all eyes on this guys" while players are at line of scrimmage..

[@macmost]

Just drag a GIF file into Keynote and it should work. Then use it instead of the shape.

[@nayanpatel7037]

U R Amazing!!!!

[@ajp.9997]

Do you have a tutorial for the same but using keynote on iPhone and iMovie also

[@FLIXY_BOII]

VERY helpful, but I have one question... How do I put more than one arrow on the screen at once?

[@widlyman5097]

KING STATUS

[@brett123]

Maybe some apple motion tutorials would be great if possible.

[@marcocipriano5922]

Hi! thanks for your video! Is there any way to use different transition animations between one keyframe and the other? for instance if the transition between one keyframe and the other is very abrupt, one would like to have a very short fading between the previous position of the image

[@macmost]

Not quite sure what you are after here from that description, but play around with the transitions in iMovie to see what they each do.

[@marcocipriano5922]

Thanks for your answer :) I think all I needed is to set keyframes right before and after each of my target's moves to avoid any smooth animation. I was working on a gif with a low FPS and the movement of the following item looked like "dancing" around my target rather than following it

[@donrobinson2452]

Hi Gary. You have saved me countless hours of experimentation. I was wondering how you created the spiraling train of moving images of programs in the introduction of your videos. They're moving, but in curves. By the way, I have FCP as well as iMovie. Thanks!

[@macmost]

It is an animation I created in Keynote. Not a simple one either, it took hours to get it right.

[@donrobinson2452]

macmostvideo Thanks Gary. Unlike us, you didn’t have YOU to figure stuff out for you. Many thanks 😎

[@coach_yo]

Awesome, does this work the same for iOS version as well?

[@macmost]

No, I don't think you can do this in iMovie for iOS.

[@Ironmantadio]

Thanks for the great video, but I kept having a problem with the Keynote arrow & the key frame. As I got further and further along in the video (I'd use the right arrow and go ahead 7 frames...5 was just taking forever), the arrow that I made in Keynote kept getting smaller and smaller. This went on until all I had left was the arrow head and no line at all behind it. Do you know why it did this and how I can fix it? Thanks for posting this; I plan to look at more of your really informative videos.

[@macmost]

Maybe you were grabbing it in such a way that you were scaling it too?

[@PowerPlayerSam]

Haha... 5 months late but I think you have it set to "Ken Burns" (which is default) change it in the crop icon (set to fill)

[@carpediem4413]

Can I do this using a slightly animated spotlight beam gif (to make bottom circle cycle a bit) with circle at bottom/player (like a spotlight from above that follows the player in a hockey video game)?

[@macmost]

You can't use an Animated GIF.

[@GraftingTactick]

Top shelf work👍👌 Very informative content my friend #graftingtactick

[@williepoching6088]

Thank you Gary. Question. Can you add another arrow or can you only have the single one?

[@macmost]

In iMovie you can really only do one at a time.

[@williepoching6088]

Thank you

[@greerdenhouter7608]

This tutorial helped so much, thank you! However, I’m having 1 issue. After I put my arrow in, the arrow is slowly sliding up and down on the screen instead of staying in one place. The shape is slowly moving instead of staying still. Can you help with that?

[@macmost]

Looks like you simply have a keyframe there. Look for that extra keyframe and remove it, or start again.

[@michaelgordon2009]

This is such a great video, thanks. I created my arrow in Keynote and brought it into iMovie and placed it over my daughter's head, but when the video plays, the arrow moves up the screen on its own. How do I make it stop doing that? Thanks!

[@macmost]

Just review what you are doing, frame by frame. Watch the video again as I explain each step to make this work.

[@joannayyc1]

Well explained! One question. How do I hide the arrow for two seconds of the screen and then have it reappear again later ? I can’t seem to be be able to split the arrow bar 😅

[@macmost]

You'll need two separate picture-in-pictures, with a gap in-between.

[@mr.dieselbouyz7073]

How to check page layout in Numbers?

[@lKhaight]

I followed this and it was a huge help, but I'm having problems with the arrow eventually disappearing. I noticed that when I use the arrows to tab forward five frames I start to loose it. How can I stop this forming happening? I go from a full size arrow at the beginning of the clip to at the end of a video clip just the tip of the arrow.

[@macmost]

You just have to be careful when you set the keyframes. Sounds like you have one past that point that is not where you want it.

[@2RA9]

Hey Gary can you make a video on how to make circle video in imovies?

[@macmost]

Circle video?

[@bigwoo9656]

How do you get the folder

[@maryellensheedy7000]

How would I draw the objects path? I would like a line that traces motion.

[@macmost]

You can't in iMovie. Depending on your needs you may be able to use Keynote. kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5Wzk2mGd5l6eNU

[@turbulencegaming7377]

had an issue adding multiple without erasing orignal

[@voyager333]

No matter how small I make my arrow before adding it to imove, it's too big!? What size should the arrow be? Many thanks.

[@macmost]

Make sure you follow along closely as I show you how to size it once you bring it into iMovie.

[@freshstartdetail8680]

Somebody may have mentioned this error in this otherwise great tutorial... in Keynote you don't want to make the image square, you want it to be the same aspect ratio as iMovie 16:9. The reason is because otherwise it will automatically chop off your image to fit into that aspect ratio, sometimes resulting in a chopped image (like a circle has been chopped top and bottom so the image now looks like a pair of parentheses). Otherwise this tutorial helped me quite a bit. Thanks!

[@macmost]

Shouldn't make any difference as long as you have the arrow set to crop to Fit, not crop to Fill.

[@freshstartdetail8680]

@@macmost hmmmm ok thank you, where would I find that setting?

[@macmost]

@@freshstartdetail8680 Select the overlay, then click the cropping settings at the top.

[@baileythomas4653]

Awesome video. But for some reason I am unable to clear the background colour. The option to export image without background doesn’t show up. Any idea why?

[@macmost]

Make sure you have set the background of every slide to none.

[@tracyhodgedds]

Hi there. I can't seem to get the PNG image to drag to imovie. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Thanks!

[@macmost]

Where are you dragging it to inside iMovie? Try dragging to the timeline at the bottom.