Getting Started with Movie Maker

Transcription

1 Getting Started with Movie Maker Where to find it Starting Movie Maker Adding pictures Adding movie clips Adding music Adding effects Adding transitions Working with the timeline Creating the movie Where to find it You can find Movie Maker by clicking on the Start button, it is installed automatically on your computer with Windows (both XP and Vista) (see below)

2 Starting Movie Maker When you start Movie Maker initially it will look like the image below. If you do not see the task pane on the left of the screen, select View from the menu and choose task pane to activate it. The main areas of the screen you want to focus on are the collections area (this is where the media you insert will be displayed) and the storyboard (this is where your movie will be constructed) Adding Pictures The first step in creating your movie is to add media content. In this section you will add pictures (or clipart if you do not have any pictures to import) to the storyboard. Once you know where your pictures are stored, select import pictures from the task pane on the left. A dialog box asking you for the location (folder) and showing the pictures available based on the folder you select will appear (see below)

3 From this select the pictures you wish to work with (by holding down the Ctrl key you can select multiple pictures at a time), they will appear in the collection part of the screen (see below)

4 The last step is to drag the pictures from the collection area into the frames located on the storyboard at the bottom of the screen (see below). Repeat this for any pictures you wish to add to your movie.

5 Adding Movie Clips Adding movie clips is just like add pictures except you select import video instead of import pictures from the task pane. Adding Music To add music to your movie, you will need to add it to your collection area just like you did with your pictures and video. Make sure you know you re the location of your music (it may be on your computer or on a CD) before you start the process. Select import audio or music from the task pane on the left, and just as you did with pictures locate the directory and select the song or songs you wish to add (see below). You can add songs and/or sound effect files as you desire.

6 Once you have added your audio files they will also be displayed in the collections area of the screen (see below)

7 Adding Effects Effects may be added to your pictures (or video clips) once they are on the storyboard. To add an effect, select view video effect from the Edit Movie section of the task pane (see below)

8 To see how the effects will look, you can double click the effect and it will be demonstrated for you in the preview section of the screen (on the right) Once you have added an effect to a clip the star on the lower left corner will be highlighted (see the second picture on the image below)

9 Adding transitions Transitions control the animation for exiting and entering your clips, to create transitions select view video transitions from the Edit section of the task pane. (see below)

10 To add a transition drag the selection to the square between the picture frames (see below), this will control how the previous frame exits and/or the next frame will enter. Again as with the effects, the box will highlight when it is being used. Working with the Timeline Once you are satisfied with the video portion of your movie it is time to incorporate the audio (you should have already imported the audio files to be used as outlined above). Before you can add the audio, you need to open the timeline view of the movie. To open the timeline view, click the show timeline button at the bottom of the screen. (see below)

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12 Once you are in the timeline mode, you can drag the audio selection into the timeline to add it to your movie. First, make sure the collections area on the menu at the top of the screen is set to collections (it may still be set to transitions from the previous step), if it is not, select the drop down arrow next to the dialog box and choose collections. To add the audio clip, drag it from the collections area onto the audio/music area of the timeline. (see below)

13 Audio files (especially songs) are typically longer than the length of your movie. To shorten the length of your audio file, scroll to the end of the audio clip and select the right edge. Holding the mouse button, drag the arrow to the left of the timeline to line it up with your video clips. (see below)

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15 Creating the Movie Your last step is to make the movie (finish the Movie Maker project). The options for making your movie are found under the Finish Movie area of the task pane. This area typically needs to be expanded, to do this select the dropdown next to the title to see the options. Choose save to my computer (you can create the movie directly to a CD or DVD but this works faster) and follow the steps in the Save Movie Wizard. (see below)

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