Windows Movie Maker v.2 Tips and Tricks version 2.0 Page 1 of 7 Windows Movie Maker 2 Tips and Tricks Add Narration and Music to Your Slideshow Movies Teachers will find that they have many ideal situations for building movies using still images, such as classroom projects that show each students work, individual portfolios, and instructional presentations. You can import your still images, add your audio narration, and add music, so both your narration and background music play at the same time. Windows Movie Maker allows you to create movies with still images, such as pictures from your digital camera, scanned photos, drawings or charts, audio narration and music. We recommend that you begin by setting up a project folder on your hard drive, for each movie, and moving all of your source files onto your computer. 1.0 Project Setup Before you open up Windows Movie Maker, create your project folders on your hard drive. Click on My Computer and navigate to the My Videos folder on your hard drive. Inside of the My Videos folder you will create a new folder by selecting File from the text menu, slide your mouse down to New and then over to Folder. Name your project folder. Figure 1.0 Create a New Folder 1.1 Repeat the process of creating new folders until you have created a folder for your images, movies, music, narrations and text files. You should create these folders inside of your project folder, unless you will be using the source files in other movies as well. The main thing is that you can find your source material easily and it is being Figure 1.1 Create a folder for each source type within your my stored on your hard drive, and not on a Videos project folder. floppy disk, CD-Rom, DVD, smart cards, USB drives, Zip Disks or other removable media. (Figure 1.0 and 1.1) 1.2 Removing Source Files: You should not removing, renaming or delete a source file, doing so will result in an error if the file has been added to your project timeline/storyboard. Windows Movie Maker creates a link to source files instead of embedding them into your project to order to keep the working file size smaller. When you save your project as a movie the linked source files are compressed together with the editing instruction file to create your movie. If you move, renamed, or deleted a source file the clip will appear on the timeline with a red X on the clip. Part 1: Build Your Slideshow Movie Now that you have all of your project folders created and your resource material on your computer we are ready to begin. Some material such as narrations will be created during the building of your movie and may not be currently available.
Windows Movie Maker v.2 Tips and Tricks version 2.0 Page 2 of 7 Figure 2.0 Create a New Collection within Windows Movie Maker 2.0 Create a New Collection 1. Click on the Collections icon, you should see the collections menu in the left hand pane. 2. Click on the word Collections (area 4). 3. Now click on the new folder icon, on the icon bar, to create a new collection. The default name for your new collection is New Collection. With the new collection highlighted you can type in a new name to better reflect the contents of your collection. 3.0 Import your Pictures 1. Click on the Tasks icon, you should see the tasks menu in the left hand pane. 2. Click on the words Import Pictures (area 4). 3. A dialog box will open navigate to the picture(s) on your hard drive. Click on the image you want to select. b. To select a series of images click on the first image in the series, c. Then hold down the shift key, and click on the last image in the series. Figure 3.0 Import your photos, sounds, or movie clips into your collections d. To select images randomly click on the first image, e. Then hold down the control key, and select (click on) the additional images. f. Thumbnail images of your pictures will be added to your collection. 3.1 REMOVE: Right click on the thumbnail image and select delete to remove an unwanted clip from your collection. Clips can be removed from a collection without affecting your movie. NOTE: However if you remove an image, sound, or movie clip from your project folder before you compress/export them into a movie you will see a red X on the clip, which means it is not available.
Windows Movie Maker v.2 Tips and Tricks version 2.0 Page 3 of 7 4.0 Build your Movie: 1. In the Contents pane (area 5), select the picture you want to include in the movie and drag the clip to the Timeline/Storyboard. (Remember you can switch between Timeline view and Storyboard view) 2. Repeat step 7 for each image you want to add. Figure 4.0 Adding Images/sounds/clips to your Storyboard / Timeline 5.0 Add Video Effects: 1. Click on the Collections icon, you should see the Collections menu in the left hand pane. 2. Click on the words Video Effects (area 4). 3. Video effects are added to individual clips by dragging the effect thumbnail onto the clip in the Timeline/Storyboard. c. A blue star indicates that you have added an effect to the clip. d. Multiple stars indicate that you have added more than one effect to the same clip 5.1 Remove Video Effects: 1. In Storyboard view, right click on the blue star, select Video Effects from the popup window. Figure 5.0 Add Video Effects b. The applied effects are listed in the Displayed effects window. c. Select an effect from the displayed effects window and then click on the remove button. d. You can also add additional effects from the list of available effects, or move effects up or down on the list. 2. Click ok to accept the changes you have made. Figure 5.1 Remove Video Effects
Windows Movie Maker v.2 Tips and Tricks version 2.0 Page 4 of 7 6.0 Add Video Transitions: 1. Click on the Collections icon, you should see the Collections menu in the left hand pane. 2. Click on the words Video Transitions (area 4). 3. Video Transitions are added between clips by dragging the transition thumbnail between two clips in the Timeline/Storyboard. 6.1 Remove Video Transitions: Figure 6.1 Remove Video Transitions 1. To remove the transition, right click on the transitions icon, between the clips, and select delete from the menu. 2. Simply drag a new transition over the icon to replace it. Figure 6.0 Add Video Transitions 7.0 Add Titles and Credits: 1. Click on the Tasks icon, you should see the Tasks menu in the left hand pane. 2. Click on the words Make titles or credits (area 4). 3. Your work screen will change, to display 5 different options. Your title can be placed at the beginning of your movie, before the selected clip, on the selected clip, after the selected clip, or Figure 7.0 Add Titles and Credits (Multiple Dialog Boxes) at the end of your movie. Select the appropriate link. 4. The work screen will change again, to display 2 editable text boxes. The box on the top is for your heading; the lower box is for sub titles and will appear in a smaller font size. 5. Click on More Options to change the size or color of the fonts. 6. Click on More Options to add a different animation to your title. 7. When you are done a title clip will be added to your Timeline/Storyboard. Storyboard: You can click and drag clips on the Storyboard to rearrange them. Timeline : You can click and pull out or push in the ends of clips in the Timeline to change the length of the clip.
Windows Movie Maker v.2 Tips and Tricks version 2.0 Page 5 of 7 Part 2: Adding Narration and Music You will need an external or internal microphone connected to your computer and configured for recording narration. You should be in the Timeline view when adding narration, If you are not Windows Movie Maker will switch views for you. 8.0 Add Narration: Figure 8.0 Add Narration 1. On the Tools menu (area 8), click Narrate Timeline which is the second icon. (Figure 8.0) 2. The work screen will change, to display the Narrate Timeline pane, choose the device you want to use to capture your narration (microphone), adjust the input level if necessary, and then click the Start Narration button. (Figure 8.1) 3. Narrate the pictures, as they appear when your movie is played back. Click the Stop Narration button when you have completed your narration. 4. SLOW DOWN HERE: Be sure to give each narration a unique name so that you do not overwrite previous recordings. (Figure 8.2) 5. Before, you click save be sure your audio is being saved into your project folder. Consider using a folder named audio, or narration. By default the files will be saved to the current user s My Video folder, unless you select another folder. When you are sure you are saving into the correct folder click the Save button. (Figure 8.2) 6. The audio narration is added automatically to your collection and is inserted on the Audio/Music track on the Timeline at the play head/insertion point. (Figure 8.3) 7. Narration files can be moved if not in the proper position. Note: You can click and drag thumbnails into new collections. Figure 8.1 New Dialog Box Narration Tools Figure 8.2 Save your Narration file with a name that is unique and describes your narration. 8.1 Remove Narrations: 1. To remove the narration, right click on the narration (in the timeline), and select delete from the menu. Figure 8.3 Add Narration to timeline at the play head. 9.0 Importing Your Music Files: 1. Click on the Tasks icon, you should see the Tasks menu on the left. 2. Click on the words Import audio or music (area 4). 3. Now select the audio files that you want to use in your movie. Thumbnail images of your files have been added to the collection. Figure 9.0 Import Your Music files into your project collections
Windows Movie Maker v.2 Tips and Tricks version 2.0 Page 6 of 7 10.0 Add Music 1. Click on the Collections icon, you should see the Collections menu in the left hand pane. 2. Click on your collection. (area 4) 3. Thumbnails will be displayed in the Content Pane (area 5). (Figure 10.0) 4. Click and drag the music file to the end of the Timeline. (Figure 10.0 and 10.1) 5. SLOW DOWN HERE: This step takes some finessing to get it right. Working on the Timeline, with only the Audio/Music track you are going to drag the music clip over the audio clips so that they overlap each other. Tip: Enlarge the Timeline pane with the Zoom Timeline In third icon in tools (area 8), and by dragging the pane bars (area 12). (Figure 10.2) 6. If necessary, trim the music clip so it ends with your picture. Figure 10.0 Add Music to your Movie Figure 10.1 Place music clip at the end of timeline on the Audio Music track Figure 10.2 Drag the music clip over the narration look for the graph as you are dragging. Figure 10.3 Successful Overlap Tip: Creating overlapping audio narration with background music works best with music that does not contain any lyrics or words, such as instrumental music or classical music. A good royalty free resource is available on the web at http://www.sounddogs.com, or do a web search for royalty free music. 11.0 Adjusting the Volume: If you do choose music with words, you can lower the volume of the music clip or increase the volume of the narration. Once the clips have been overlapped on the Timeline, you can click on the clip one time to select the narration, and then click again to select the music clip. Figure 11.0 Selecting Overlapped sounds A Figure 11.1 Selecting Overlapped sounds B
Windows Movie Maker v.2 Tips and Tricks version 2.0 Page 7 of 7 With the clip selected, right click to bring up the Clip Menu. (Figure 11.2) 1. Mute: Will turn off the sound of the selected clip without removing it from the timeline. 2. Fade In: Will start off soft and gradually increase to a normal volume. You will have to play the clip in order to see (hear) the effects of this selection. 3. Fade Out: Will decrease from a normal volume to no sound. You will have to play the clip in order to see (hear) the effects of this selection. 4. Volume: Will open a new dialog box with a volume slider, you can adjust the clips as needed. (Figure 11.3) 5. Properties: Will show give you information about the selected clip, such as duration, start time, stop time, file type, location, bit rate and file size. (Figure 11.4) Figure 11.2 Right Click on the clip to bring up the Clip Menu Trim Music Clip: You can adjust the movie clip or the sound clip by selecting the clip and dragging the end to lengthen or shorten. Figure 11.3 Adjust Volume Level Figure 11.5 Trimming Clips 12.0 Save Your Project: When you are done editing your project, click on the Tasks icon. You should see the Tasks menu in the left hand pane. 1. Choose the appropriate option in step 3, Finish Movie. You have the option of saving the movie file on your computer, saving to CD, save to email, save to the web, or save to DV camera. Follow the onscreen prompts. Figure 11.4 Sound Properties Window Figure 12.0 Select where you want to save your movie? Supported File Types: Audio files:.aif,.aifc,.aiff.asf,.au,.mp2,.mp3,.mpa,.snd,.wav, and.wma Picture files:.bmp,.dib,.emf,.gif,.jfif,.jpe,.jpeg,.jpg,.png,.tif,.tiff, and.wmf Video files:.asf,.avi,.m1v,.mp2,.mp2v,.mpe,.mpeg,.mpg,.mpv2,.wm, and.wmv