If you’re looking for ways to make your digital videos unique, you may want to try out French developer Sebsofts’ Impressionist, an iMovie plug-in that turns your DV clips into moving impressionist paintings, complete with the frame of your choice.
Sebsofts notes that impressionism was born in France during the late 19th century; it uses colors, rather than fine details, to convey the effects of light. When you install Impressionist, it’s added to your effects list. After you select the clip you want to modify, you can tweak the settings by increasing or decreasing detail and adjusting the paintbrush strokes between light and strong. You can then add one of the pre-created frames that come with Impressionist and use the scale slider to resize the painting so it fits the frame.
System requirements call for Mac OS X v.10.2 (Jaguar) and iMovie 3 or 4. You can download a demo from the Sebsofts Web site. The tryout is limited to 5 seconds of each clip, one clip at a time, and text is inserted to remind you that you haven’t purchased the full version yet. A license is US$10.