Technical Q&A

QTMTB53 - Setting the movie background color (16-August-1999)

Q: I am creating a movie with multiple video tracks of different sizes and aspect ratios. Currently, QuickTime is displaying the parts of the movie outside of the current track's display region in white. Is there a way of giving the entire movie a background color (e.g, black)?

A: Yes. You can simply create another track with a duration equal to the movie duration, and set the track layer value for this track higher than any of the other movie tracks. Then, when the movie is played, the other movie tracks will draw over the top of the background track (because the background track has a higher layer value) and any uncovered areas will show the black background track.

Note that this background track could be a video track consisting of a single background image whose duration is the same as the movie. You need not create a video track consisting of a number of identical frames whose durations sum to the entire movie duration.