Create a custom iMovie transition

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IMovie is mostly a 'canned' software, I am limited to presets for the most part. I understand that there are a few workarounds to adding custom effects (creating 2d video with green background, or images with opacity etc.); however, I would like to create custom transitions/titles/filters that are recognized by iMovie and treated the same as built-in effects. I am exploring a few options:

Option A: design & import
There might be a way to import my designs to iMovie in a way that I am currently unaware of. If such options exist, please let me know what file type I need to do such.

Essentially, I want to see if iMovie can function like Final Cut Pro does with Motion 5 as I am working on a budget and can't spend money for this function.

Best Answer

Your best bet is reverse engineering the existing Transitions if you investment in time costs less than the $50 for Motion which is the official tool for making custom transition effects.

Look in /Applications/iMovie.app/Contents/PlugIns/MediaProviders/MotionEffect.fxp/Contents/Resources/Templates.localized/Transitions.localized and the transition file is simply an xml file with the .motr file extension:

$ head Pan\ Down\ Slow.motr 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE ozxmlscene>
<ozml version="5.5">

<displayversion>5.0.5</displayversion>

<factory id="1" uuid="046e7c74fd734809885d35e99ac9eeb2">
    <description>Channel</description>
    <manufacturer>Apple</manufacturer>
    <version>1</version>

Also, you could hire someone that has paid for Motion to make a trivial transition and test that it works for your needs. That wouldn't help if your true goal is to engineer how it works and understand the tool, though.

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