Windows Movie Maker

Windows Movie Maker Windows Movie Maker uses the terms Collection, Project and Movie frequently. The difference is shown below: 1. Collection. A collection contains audio clips, video clips, or pictures that you have imported or captured. A collection is like a container for your clips, which are smaller segments of audio and video, and helps you organize your content. Collections appear in the Collections pane of Windows Movie Maker. Items in the Collection don’t automatically get added to your movie—you still have to add them to the timeline/ storyboard. Project. A project contains the arrangement and timing information of audio and video clips, video transitions, video effects, and titles you have added to the storyboard/timeline. A saved project file in Windows Movie Maker has an .mswmm file name extension. By saving your projects, you can open the project file later and begin editing it from where you last saved. Movie. A movie is the final project you save by using the Save Movie Wizard. You can save a movie to your computer or to a recordable CD, send it as an attachment in an e-mail message, or save and send it to the Web. The saved movie can be watched in a media player, such as Microsoft Windows Media® Player, or in a Web browser. If you have a DV camera connected to your computer, you can also record your movie to a tape. You and others can then watch the movie on the DV camera or on a TV. 2. 3. 1. 2. Open Windows Movie Maker. The screen shown at the right appears: Importing Pictures 1. 2. 3. 4. Choose Import Pictures from the pane on the lefthand side of your screen. Navigate to the CD and select a picture to import. When it is selected, click on the Import button. The picture that you selected to be imported now appears in the Collections (middle) pane on your screen. Import at least 5 other pictures from your CD. Choose Import Audio or Music from the pane on the left-hand side of your screen. Navigate to the CD and select a sample music file to import. When it is selected, click on the Import button. The music file that you selected has now been added to your Collections pane. Your work up to this point is called a project. Once you add your information to the Storyboard and add some special effects, it becomes a movie. Choose Save Project from the File menu. Be sure to navigate to the location for where you want your file to be saved. Give your project a name. Click the Save button. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Importing Sound Saving Your Project Adding Pictures To The Storyboard 1. 2. 3. 4. You are now ready to drag information from the Collections pane onto the Storyboard. Click on the first picture to be added to the Storyboard. When selected, a blue selection box will appear around the picture. You now need to click, hold, and drag the selected picture onto the Storyboard. Continue dragging pictures onto the Storyboard. Windows Movie Maker Page 1 November 2004 Marsha Lewallen Adding Music To The Storyboard 1. 2. 3. 4. You are now read to drag your music clips from the Collections pane onto the Storyboard. Click on the first music clip to be added to the Storyboard. When selected, a blue selection box will appear around the clip. You now need to click, hold, and drag the selected picture onto the Storyboard. When placed on the Storyboard, a message will appear on your screen indicating that your view must be changed to the Timeline View when adding audio to your project. The Timeline View is neat because it can show you the length of the picture/video clips in relation to the music that you have added. Note: You can toggle between Timeline and Storyboard view by choosing Timeline or Storyboard from View menu. 5. 6. You can go to the right edge of the clip and shorten or lengthen the clip by dragging to the left or to the right. Adding Special Effects You can enhance your movie by adding special effects or elements to your movie that make your movie more interesting:  Video Effects. A video effect determines how a video clip, picture, or title displays in your project and in your final   movie. A video effect is applied for the entire length of a video clip, picture, or title as it displays in your movie. Video Transitions. A video transition controls how your movie plays from one clip/ picture to the next. You can add a transition between two pictures, clips, or titles for special effects. The transition plays before one clip ends and while the other clip starts to play. Titles and Credits. Titles and credits let you enhance your movie by adding text-based information to your movie. You can add whatever text you want, but you may want to include information such as the title of your movie, your name, the date, and so forth. You can change the appearance of the title or credit, in addition to changing the title animation, which determines how your title or credit displays in your movie. To make adding special effects easier to see, be sure that your Timeline at the bottom of the screen shows the expanded menu where special transitions/effects that you add will show on your timeline. Be sure that the word Video in the Timeline has a – sign beside it. Adding Video Effects 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Choose View Video Effects from the pane on the left-hand side of your screen. When you click on a thumbnail of a video effect, it will be previewed in the pane on the right-hand side of your screen. When you see an effect that you want to use, click on it one time to select it. Click, hold and drag the effect to the picture on the timeline that you want it applied to. Continue adding video effects to any other pictures in your file. Choose View Video Transitions from the pane on the left-hand side of your screen. When you click on a thumbnail of a video transition, it will be previewed in the pane on the right-hand side of your screen. When you see a transition that you want to use, click on it one time to select it. Click, hold and drag the transition to the picture on the timeline that you want it applied to. Continue adding video transitions to any other pictures in your file. Windows Movie Maker Page 2 November 2004 Adding Video Transitions Marsha Lewallen Making Titles or Credits 1. 2. Choose Make Titles or Credits from the pane on the left-hand side of your screen. You have the following choices:  Add Title at the Beginning of your Movie.  Add Title Before the Selected Clip on your Timeline.  Add Title On the Selected Clip in the Timeline.  Add Title After the Selected Clip in the Timeline.  Add Credits At the End of the Movie. For all of the title choices, you can also add animation to the title and change the font and the font color of the title text. Choose Add Title at the Beginning of the Movie. Type a Title. Note: As you type, your text appears in the preview pane on the right-hand side of your screen. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 1. 2. Click on the Change Title Animation option. Select a new Animation option. Click on the Change the Text Font and Color option. You can now make any of the following changes: * font * bold, italics, underline * font color * font size * transparency effects * font position Make any changes that you desire When you have made all of your changes, click the Done, Add Title to Movie option. You now have a title slide added to your movie. Continue with any additional title/credits slides that you want to add. Be sure to Save your Project (Save Project from the File Menu). Be sure to Save your Movie File (Save Movie File from the File Menu). Saving Your Work Previewing Your Movie When you Save Your Movie File, the last screen gives you the option to view your movie. If you want to view your movie at other times, follow these steps: 1. Choose Play Timeline from the Play menu to play your movie. 2. Press: Alt-Enter to view full screen. Note: Alt-Enter toggles between full screen and showing the movie in a pane on your screen. Adjusting Your Timeline One change that is often made is to have pictures stay on the screen for longer than a couple of seconds. You can modify the length of any item in your timeline to make it longer or even shorter as it is displayed in your movie. 1. If your Storyboard is showing on the bottom of your screen, click the Show Timeline button so that your timeline appears on the bottom. 2. To make a picture appear on your screen longer, select the picture. When the pointer becomes a red arrow, drag the arrow to the right to make the picture stay on your screen longer and to the left to make it stay on the screen for a shorter period of time. Using AutoMovie This feature automatically adds the pictures in your collection to the storyboard, creates a default title, and a blank set of credits. All you have to do is customize your movie and you have a finished product. To do this, you:  choose Make An AutoMovie from the Movie Tasks pane on your screen (left-hand side of your screen) Marsha Lewallen Windows Movie Maker Page 3 November 2004 Downloading Accessories On the Microsoft web site, you will find Creativity Fun Packs. These are a collection of creative extras-- video titles, music and sound effects. This neat stuff can be downloaded at: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/default.mspx Note: There is currently a Creativity Fun Pack and two Winter Fun Packs. Once downloaded, you must install each component separately—titles, audio, and one for transitions. After each one is installed, they must then be imported into Movie Maker in order to work properly. 1. 2. 3. 4. Choose Import into Collections from the File menu. Navigate to where you saved the Creativity Fun Pack. Each file will need to imported—you can click on the first file and shift-click on the last file in order to select all files at once. Once files are selected, click on the Import button. Font Websites http://onescrappysite.com/ (click on the Fonts link) http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/freefonts.asp http://www.pcfonts.com/index.php http://www.fontgarden.com/ http://www.fontsville.com/index2.php Great Tutorial Site for Using with Students http://www.town4kids.com/town4kids/kids/digitalmedia/moviemaking/movie_main.htm Marsha Lewallen Windows Movie Maker Page 4 November 2004