Movie Maker Tutorial 1. Views Collections/Tasks views: The collections pane archives all of the content imported into Movie Maker. Tasks view allows you to see and carry out basic tasks such as import, edit, and publish. o To toggle see top left: Storyboard/Timeline views: Storyboard view allows you to see the clips you ve dropped into the story in the order they will be played. Timeline view allows you to view/add titles, transitions, effects, and audio. o To toggle see bottom left: 2. Collections You typically want to collect all of your material in a single project folder. You can create subfolders for the content you capture/import. Movie Maker can be flaky when it comes to organization. You really want to establish a consistent filing system and stick with it. Project folder: Go to View across the top and then select Collections. This opens the Collections pane to the left. Under the Imported media folder you can name a new project folder (in this case, just call it test project). Collection folders: to create sub-folders for video, audio, still images, etc., right click on the project folder, select new collection folder, and name it (video, images, audio). Notes: Collections are not necessarily project specific. They will stay in Movie Maker until you delete them. Sometimes collections won t automatically get imported in the right project. Just drag and drop folders to the proper project folders.
3. Importing Today we aren t going to capture video from a DV cam. If you need to do this for your own projects, check out the Movie Maker links from the syllabus. In particular this one: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/getstarted/default.mspx To begin importing material, you should have all of your clips, images, and audio collected and in a folder. Importing Images: 1. From the collection view to the left, click collection project and folder you want to store the images in (in this case images under test project). 2. From the Movie Maker menu across the top, choose FileImport Media. 3. Browse to find your folder. 4. Highlight all of the images you want to import. 5. Click import at the bottom right of the dialog box. 6. Movie maker should import the files into your images folder and they will show up in the collection view window in the middle of the workspace (see below). Image Notes: o Movie Maker can t edit images once they are imported. If the size of the image doesn t work (if it creates excess black space and doesn t fill up the screen, for example), you ll want to edit it in Photoshop and re-import it. o Movie Maker can import.bmp,.dib.,.gif,.jpeg,.jpg,.png,.tif,.tiff, and.wmf file formats.
o To change the automatic duration of imported images go to ToolsOptionsAdvanced. The default is 5 seconds. 3 seconds is typical if you want a shorter option.. Importing Audio: 1. Importing audio is basically the same as images, but you can also choose the project and folder you want to store the files in from the drop down menu above the collection view window (see above). Select audio under project test. 2. From the Task menu down the left, choose ImportAudio or Music (see below). 3. Browse to find your folder. 4. Highlight all of the audio files you want to import. 5. Click import at the bottom right of the dialog box. 6. Movie maker should import the files into your audio folder and they will show up in the collection view window in the middle of the workspace (see above.) Audio Notes: o Movie Maker can import.aif,.aifc,.aiff,.au,.mp2,.mp3,.mpa,.sand,.wav, and.wma file formats.
o Audacity is a good free ware audio program. If you want to play around with recording, editing, and converting files, go download it: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Importing Video: 1. Again, importing video is basically the same process, but we ll do it a slightly different way for the experience. 2. From the Task menu down the left, choose ImportVideos (see above). 3. Browse to find your folder. 4. Highlight a single video file (for the moment) that you want to import. 5. Click import at the bottom right of the dialog box. 6. Movie maker will import the file into your main collections folder and it will show up in the collection view window in the middle of the workspace. 7. To move the file to the video folder, simply go to View across the top and then select Collections, select the proper video folder, and drag the video clip from the collections view window to the video folder. 8. Go back and import all of the rest of the video files into the video folder under test project. Video Notes: o Movie Maker can import.asf,.avi,.m1v,.mp2,.mp2v,.mpe,.mpeg,.mpg,.mpv2,.wm, and.wmv file formats. o It does not import Quicktime videos with the.mov extension. If you need to change the file format, try http://www.onlinevideoconverter.com/ which is an online file conversion site. There are other sites out there you can try if this one doesn t work but I ve had good luck with it. o If you are working with.avi files, which come from digital video cameras you may run into codec issues. Codecs are file compression technologies that encode or compress files and decode or decompress files..wmv and.mpeg files come with their own codecs. But.avi files don t and can use a number of different ones. To account for this, Choose Tools > Options Open the General tab Click/select Download codecs automatically Click OK 4. Working Clips/Images/Audio Preparing Clips: If you have a bunch of clips downloaded from the internet or important from a cam, you ll have a lot of stuff with varying lengths. You ll often want to cut the excess material out of some of these clips and get them down to the shots that you ll
want to include in your movie. You can cut these down before you drag them to your timeline. 1. Click on a clip in the collection view window. It will show up in the movie preview monitor to the right. 2. Drag the Seek bar to a few seconds after the usable shot in the clip (see below). 3. Click the Split the Clip button to the bottom right of the preview monitor (see below). 4. Movie Maker splits the clip into two clips and adds the new one to the collection window. 5. To delete the excess clip, if you know you won t use it, right click on the clip and select remove. Image Notes: 1. You can rename clips by right clicking on them. Sometimes it is a good idea to rename clips according to the particular shot leaving port, coming in to the beach, returning home, etc. in order to lay out the key moments of the story. 2. If you are shooting your own video, you might want to make a list of the content or scenes you ll need to tell the story or document the event before you go out to shoot. 3. You ll often want clips that are very short for a video, 3-6 seconds. But you don t have to cut them right away. You can refine your cutting once you drop all your clips into the timeline. Building Your Movie: Now that you have all of your content imported, you can drag everything from the collections window down to the storyboard. 1. Click on a clip in the collection view window and drag it down into the storyboard. Drop in all of the clips you want to use. 2. Select the image folder and drop in still images between the video clips. 3. You can always click on a clip or image in the storyboard or timeline and drag it to a new place in the storyboard or timeline. 4. At any point in the process you can click on the first clip or any clip and preview the movie by clicking play in the monitor. 5. Switch from the Storyboard to the timeline view (click storyboard to the lower left). 6. Click the plus sign next to Video to split the audio track from the video clips. 7. Drag and drop your music file into the Audio/Music timeline.
Editing Your Movie: Once all of your material is down in the storyboard/timeline, you can do some basic editing. 1. To trim frames off of your clips: a. Click on a clip in the timeline. b. Hover over the front or back end of the clip. c. Click the edge and drag in until you get to the frame you want to begin or end on. (Watch the monitor to find the right frame.) d. You can always undo your trim by dragging the edge back out or using the undo button. 2. To split your clips in the timeline: a. Drag the edge of a clip in the timeline in until you get to the frame you want to begin or end on b. Click the split button under the monitor preview. 3. To change the automatic duration of imported images: a. Go to ToolsOptionsAdvanced in the main tool bar across the top. b. The default is 5 seconds. 3 seconds is typical if you want a shorter option. c..75 to 1.25 is good for transition times. d. Click OK. 4. To manually adjust individual picture duration to fit music: a. Click on a clip in the timeline. b. Hover over the front or back end of the clip. c. Click the edge and drag in until you get to the frame to line up with the time signature on the music file. d. Release you click. 5. To save your file: a. Go to FileSave as (NOT Save Movie File) b. Browse to the directory you want to save the file (usually the same folder you saved everything else to so they are all together). c. Click Save. Save Notes: ***
1. The project file save via Save As does not contain the video, audio, and image files, only references to them. You cannot delete or move your video, audio, and image files until to save the file version of your movie. 2. Deleting clips from Movie Maker s storyboard or timeline doesn t delete them from your harddrive. 6. Effects Transitions: Transitions are effects that smooth the flow from clip to clip. You don t need to have a transition between every clip (not having one is a cut transition). Use them sparingly to highlight the effect. 1. Select the Transitions list from the Collections window. 2. Double-click a transition to preview it in the preview monitor. 3. Switch to the storyboard view. 4. Drag a transition clip to the small square in between the clips in the storyboard. (You can also drag them into the timeline view.) 5. Play the video in the preview monitor to test the transitions. 6. You can drag and drop a new transition over an old one, or move the edge of a transition in the timeline view to change its duration. 7. You can fade in/fade out the audio tracks to match the fad in and outs of the visual transitions: a. Right click on the audio track before the transition. b. Select fade out. c. Right click on the audio track after the transition. d. Select fade in. e. If you don t like the effect, just go back in and uncheck the fades. 8. You can fade in and out on video clips as well with a right click. Special Effects: Like transitions, don t over use effects. Sometimes they can overcome a defect (lighten a clip with poor lighting) or sometimes they can enhance the overall feel (adding motion to a still clip with ease in or ease out). Only use them in these circumstances. 1. Select the Transitions list from the Collections window. 2. Double-click a transition to preview it in the preview monitor. 3. Toggle to timeline view. 4. Drag and drop an effect on top of a clip or image you want to effect. 5. Preview the effect sin the preview monitor. 6. To remove an effect from a clip: a. Right click on the clip. b. Choose video effects. c. In the Displayed effects window, select the effect you want to delete. d. Click remove. e. Click OK.
7. Creating Titles Movie Maker allows you to create an open title, place transparent titles over clips, and create end credits. You can control font, text color, size, positioning, and transparency. You can also control how titles move on and off the screen. Opening Titles: 1. Use the timeline view across the bottom. 2. Use the task view down the left side. 3. Under Edit select Titles and credits. 4. Click add title at the beginning. 5. Type in your title. 6. Click Add title. 7. You can change this title to make it an overlay for the first clip: a. In the timeline view, drag the title clip down to the title overlay track. 8. You can change the title, font color, or animation for the title clip. a. Double-click the title to open the title controls. b. Change the title, click change animation, or change font. c. Select a different font or animation d. Click done. 9. You can change the title duration by clicking on the edge and dragging longer. Scene Titles: 1. You can add/change a title for a clip in the middle of the video just like you can for the title clip. a. Click the clip to open the Task window to the left. b. Select titles and credits under Edit. c. Select title on the selected clip. d. Type in the title. e. Click Add title. 2. This time let s hack around on the font. a. Click the clip to open the Task window to the left. b. Select titles and credits under Edit. c. Select title on the selected clip. d. Type in the title. e. Select change font. f. Select various font elements you want to change. g. Click Add title. Closing Titles: 1. Use the timeline view across the bottom. 2. Use the task view down the left side. 3. Under Edit select Titles and credits.
4. Click credits at the end. 5. Type in your title and info: in the grid you can add starring in the left and the person on the right, for example. 6. Click Add title. 8. Save Your Mix While you ll probably have to experiment with formats when you get ready to do your videos, for now just save what you ve done to email, which compresses the movie to a size that is easily transferrable. Later you ll probably want to save to the computer and then experiment with other compression and file conversion options. 1. Use the task view down the left side. 2. Under Publish to, select Email. 3. Wait for it to compress. 4. Select, Save a copy of my movie to my computer. 5. Give it a title and select a folder. 6. Click Save. 7. Then click cancel rather than attaching to email. 8. This should give you a file that is around 7-9 megs. 9. This you can email or put on a flash drive.