QuickTime Pro: Add Title Screen - How?

[dmetzcher]

How can I add an image as a title screen for a QuickTime Pro movie?
I don't want to use a text file, as I can't get control of the format, so I thought that creating an image in Photoshop and exporting it as a PNG file would work. I can add it to the movie, in the beginnging, or wherever, but it only lasts for one frame. When I import text (select a block of text, and do Command+P), it lasts for several seconds, which is what I want. Is there a way to do this with an image?

If not, what can I do to get a title added to a QuickTime movie? Someone suggested that I use Miyu, but that's only for subtitles, which I also need, but I'm only half way to where I need to be.

Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated. I searched the Web and found very little that helped me, which was surprising.

 

[Mikuro]

This is a little bit tricky, but possible. I do things like this frequently. There are two ways you can do it. One using AppleScript, and one without. The AppleScript method is easier, but I'll explain both.

With AppleScript:
1. Paste your image into a new movie in QuickTime Player.
2. Open Script Editor and run this script:

tell application "QuickTime Player" to set the duration of the frame 1 of track 1 of movie 1 to 600

The movie will now be 1 second long. You can change "600" in the script with whatever number you like. The number is in 1/600ths of a second, so 600 = 1 second. Now select all, copy, and paste it into any movie you want.


The problem with this method is that it's only suitable for cases like this, when you have ONE frame you want to stretch out. The non-AppleScript method is a bit more flexible, as it can stretch an entire track (or even several tracks at once).

Without AppleScript:
1. Copy the image you want.
2. Create a new movie in QuickTime Player.
3. Paste the image in, then copy the movie and close it (yes, you need to copy what you just pasted).
4. Open an existing movie.
5. Select the first few seconds of the movie and choose "Add to Selection and Scale" from the Edit menu.
6. Show the movie properties (command-J), select the newly-created video track (probably called "video track 2"), and click the Extract button.

A new movie will appear that contains the image you pasted, only this one will last for several seconds (or however much you selected in step 5). Now just copy this and paste it into any movie you want. You can close and not save the dummy movie you opened in step 4.

The commands will be in different places if you're using QT6, but the basic idea works with any version.

 

[symphonix]

one way I've done it in the past is to take the image you want to be the title, import it into iPhoto, then export just that image as a QuickTime movie. You then have a .mov movie of the length you specify for a slide to be shown for, with a bleack fade-in and fade-out. Copy paste it into your Quicktime movie and you're set.

 

[dmetzcher]

All suggestions so far are great. I created a script for simple jobs, but the other two, from Mikuro and sumphonix, are going to come in handy. Thanks!

How about this: Can you make the title fade in and out? Is this too advanced? Is it something that can be done with a script?