1. Overview
How to get started making simple movies in Movie Maker.
2. Creating a Basic Movie with Sound
Images You should probably create a folder somewhere wih all your images in that you wish to load (and sound and video files too). This sandbox will encapsulate everything for your movie project.
- Open Movie Maker.
- Click Pictures, browse to pics (Note: For importing .jpg's etc. use 'Pictures' option. For .gif's however use Videos.
- Select the pictures and choose Import. The images will appear in Movie Maker.
- Drag the files into the frames at the bottom in the order you want them displayed.
- Click the down arrow next to storyboard to get Timeline. Click play to view the pics one after another.
- To extend the onscreen time click an image and drag the right hand frame to lengthen / shorten the time span.
Effects Effects are just that - visual effects to be played before, during or after your images.
- Switch back to Storyboard mode (easier to use).
- Under EDIT are various options.
- Click Effects to get a range of different visual attributes and drag one effect onto a frame.
- Transitions go inbetween frames and are a way of linking between different pictures etc. These are dropped onto the smaller squares between frames.
- Titles & credits : This option lets you add text clips before or inbetween frames (or even over the top of them!).
Audio Audio is easily added but can be a pain to sync to your video clips. Persistence is key.
- Click Import : Audio or Music
- Switch to Timeline and import a file.
- Drag the audio file into the Audio/Music box beneath Video (frames)
- Drag the song to the position when it will play on the timeline.
- Drag the left hand side to cut off an early bit of song, the right bit to cut off end.
- By repeating the steps above you can put two songs the same side by side (supposing you wanted to play the start of MySong.mp3 and then a bit from the middle of the same track, you would drag MySong.mp3 into the timeline again and edit.
3. Publish Your Movie
To publish as a WMF, AVI, etc.:
- Click File -> Publish Movie
- Select This Computer, then on the next screen choose the new filename and location to publish to.
- Choose your options ('best' is WMF but there are other types of files you can publish as)
- The file is published to your local folder.
4. Useful Tips
Extracting Stills From Videos
Movie Maker has the additional functionality of being able to take stills from video clips in a more controlled manner
than Windows Media Player where you'll have seen that the print screen button does not work (you can get around
this by using VMWare and snapping the entire VMWare window, but that's another story).
You may find that this feature is especially useful when trying to photograph fast-moving object. Instead of trying to get your
timing correct, shoot a video clip and extract many photos from that! You can see some examples of these on our partner site,
MyGoldenMoments.co.uk.
Extraction is as simple as this.
- Split at required clip (before and after).
- Under tools click 'take picture from preview'.
- Save.