Use video editing software to mix reality and imagination in amazing ways. Your interests, passions and motivation are the keys, followed by hardware, software, and the skills to use them. It's never too early or late to begin... jump in!!
Movie Maker is a very basic movie editing app... use it to learn the basics and make small projects. While you learn, use other software for more advanced features... and move on to pro-sumer software when you're ready.
Happy New Year...
I'm writing an e-book about Windows Live Movie Maker online as a website... when it's finished I'll pack it up and publish. Until then feel free to read it at this link...
The Solution Center supports the Live Essentials suite, including Windows Live Movie Maker which runs on Vista and Windows 7.
Windows 7 with Windows Live Movie Maker is a completely different environment than classic versions of Movie Maker running on Windows XP, Vista and even Windows 7...
In addition to info here I've published articles at Bright Hub over the past 4 years. Bright Hub announced on 12/1/11 the closing of its 'shared success' program and I'll be moving the articles in my hubfolio from there to here, including 13 about WLMM. I'll change links accordingly.
I tested it with a 10 second HD 1280x720 sized wmv file made by WLMM. Here's the result - 10 seconds going forward followed by the same clip in reverse.
Jan 15, 2012 - One of my projects this year is to make a set of about 100 videos from the critter pictures and video clips my brother and his wife took over about 20 years of traveling, and publish them as a YouTube playlist. It's up and running now with the first 4 videos in it.
Dec 29, 2011- Happy New Year...
Nov 22, 2011- Have a wonderful holiday season...
Dec 2, 2011- BrightHub is ending their 'shared success' program. Over the next couple weeks I'll be changing links from articles on their site to new ones here.
Nov 17, 2011- For years I've been using GoToMeeting to conduct one-on-one training or problem-solving sessions. Last night I hosted an open meeting for anyone who wanted to join in.... we covered how to make and use animated menu files from Windows DVD Maker to add a WOW effect to a video, and touched on Pixelan's Pan/Zoom Wizard.
The session went well and I'll be holding more about different topics. See the facebook Movie Maker group for announcements of the dates/times, and links to access them.
Oct 31, 2011- BrightHub is closing down their hubfolio corner, where I have a number of online articles.
They'll move my 5 most popular ones (about WLMM) into one of the main channels and return the others for me to use elsewhere.
More significant to me is how it changes the path I started down toward writing an e-book about WLMM. I was planning on drafting it as hubfolio articles and publishing it when done. Instead of the hubfolio I'll do it in a new website... if you want to follow it, here's the link.
Feel free to comment on the draft as it goes, posting to the facebook Windows Movie Maker group.
Oct 10, 2011- Here's a music video that, in addition to recording and sharing memories for the musicians, demos a couple things about Windows Live Movie Maker (WLMM) projects...
cutting from and to different visual scenes while maintaining perfect audio/video sync
using visual overlays (made by the freely downloaded Essentials Encoder 4)
Click this pointer for a rolling 12 months of new items...
My computers are PCs, not Apples...
I use dozens of video editing apps and utilities. This website is about many of them, focusing on Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker and Photo Story 3 (PS3).
The classic versions of Movie Maker ended with Vista. Windows 7 is a new beginning for movie editing with tools from Microsoft.
My two books about Movie Maker... 'Zero to Hero' and 'Do Amazing Things' cover the basics of the classic versions and the info isn't repeated here. The site is about more advanced subjects, along with help resolving problems. For online help getting started with Movie Maker, use links on the
Tutorials and References page.
As there are no books about Photo Story 3, everything from basic to advanced material is included... but not much for problem-solving.
Many of the website pages are busy with content. And the hundreds of newsletters and Bright Hub articles I've written over the past 5 years provide even more depth. They are all online with links sprinkled around the site.
Click this image or the link under it for a full table of contents to them.
Movie Maker is a wonderful easy-to-use entry-level video editing app included in all versions of Windows XP and Vista. Most people don't know they already have it. You can be up and running in a couple hours, mixing still pictures, video clips, music and audio into amazing home movies, and topping them off with a wide assortment of titles, text overlays, and credits.
Your movie projects can go wherever your creativity and imagination take them. Additionally, in the Home Premium and Ultimate versions of Vista and Windows 7, DVD Maker can take your saved movies and burn them on a DVD.
The latest version of Movie Maker is Windows Live Movie Maker, an optional download for Vista and Windows 7 users. See the Setup Movie Maker > Windows Live Movie Maker branch of the menu.
Photo Story 3 complements Movie Maker by letting you pan and zoom using all the pixels in your high resolution still pictures... it doesn't come with Windows but it's a free download from Microsoft.
The Photo Story Magic group is a virtual Photo Story 3 university, where PS3 buffs showcase their work and provide info about how they do it. Join in... click this widget to browse and view the stories... or the name vimeo in the lower right corner to go to the online service.
If you're not ready to jump into making advanced stories, my website has a full tutorial in the Photo Story 3 branch of the menu at the left.
With Microsoft® Expression® Media you can produce online video and Silverlight packages for the best and newest in website video distribution.
Use the software apps individually or together, along with other software tools in your editing toolbox.
Many of my online personal videos are short examples of amazing things you can do. Links to them are throughout the website.
Use the menu tree at the left to navigate the site. There are hundreds of pages loaded with information, samples and downloads. My goals are to...
Help you do amazing things with Movie Maker, Photo Story, DVD Maker and Expression by sharing my personal experience.
Provide an Online Companion to my book Movie Maker 2 - Do Amazing Things!, published by Microsoft Press on 12/10/03. The companion makes clarifying notes, provides source files, shows samples, and takes you deeper into selected topics... things often done with included CDs or DVDs. Being online, I can easily update it to stay current.
When you're ready to exhibit your work online, you'll need a web host. You usually have some space provided by your Internet Service Provider. There are hundreds of free service providers such as YouTube, vimeo, and FaceBook... and there are fee-based online hosts such as neptune. This picture is a link to my online videos at neptune.
Provide a full tutorial about Photo Story 3, to get the most of using it by itself or hand-in-hand with Movie Maker.
Help you resolve problems with Movie Maker by providing insights into how it works and issues you might run into, and what you can do to resolve or work around them.
I don't have access to the source code, so I rely heavily on the collective experience of Movie Maker users and available information from Microsoft.
Like most sites today, there's a sprinking of commercial ads... appropriate and without pop-ups. When you're shopping online, please use these links... any proceeds I get from clicks or purchases helps keep the site running.
I don't cover the basics of shooting great video with a camcorder or editing with Movie Maker. The info about making amazing movies is more about editing techniques than storyboarding. Bring your own ideas and inspiration, and the site will help you implement them using Movie Maker and Photo Story 3.
Thumbnails and Comments
The website has grown considerably and continues to expand. Look for boxes like this on many pages. I use them to...
• Summarize a page that is too big for an easy read. Scan the thumbnail and move on unless you really want to dig into the page's content.
• Provide personal comments about the topic.
The link above-right to my name... PapaJohn... is to a 33 second intro story made with Photo Story 3 for the 2005 Microsoft MVP Summit. The narrator is Brian at theDVShow.
For topics not covered, use the built-in Movie Maker help file, online tutorials, books, training sessions, my Training and Support Services page, and other resources.
The 'Setup Movie Maker', 'Online', and 'Offline' branches of the menu tree have many other links to available resources.
By design, Movie Maker is an easy to use, yet extremely powerful, digital video editing program, with real time previewing. It's free to all users of Microsoft Windows XP® and Vista, and its comfortable user interface helps you focus your creative energies on your movies rather than the software.
There are many things involved in making a movie: obtaining graphics, video, sound,
music, text and narration... moving them into your computer... editing a project...
and then saving and distributing the finished movie.
Your learning curve may be
easy or steep, and there may be issues to resolve. But the rewards are great, and many people are willing to assist as you go. It's never too early or late to get started.
A utility that lets you create your personal sets of special transitions.
Use the above link or click on the TM2 icon to go directly to the download site for a free trial version...
...and information about what it is, including a full online tutorial... the main site menu at the left includes a branch about TM2 in the Edit Movies section.
Included links are to websites, forums, software downloads, books, activities, events, and training... anything of direct interest to users of Movie Maker and Photo Story 3. The information may be summarized or commented on here, but it is not duplicated. Suggestions for additional links or references are always welcomed.
This website is, and will remain, tightly focused on you, the users of Movie Maker and Photo Story 3. It covers all software features, and related topics from camcorders to burning DVDs and uploading videos to website hosts.
I use online comments and your personal emails for guidance about what to include in the website.
The information on each page usually flows from general to specific, with many pages drilling down to individual posts. When they go down that far, the date of the post is shown, but not usually the name of the person who posted it. The word 'Microsoft' means it was made by someone working for Microsoft. In most such cases, Microsoft employees are responding to posts on their own time, participating in peer support activities.
Zero to Hero was published in early 2003, and Do Amazing Things on December 10, 2003. Use the links on the right to order them from Amazon U.S. Zero to Hero is also available in Polish 'od zera do bohatera'.
There are other book-related links on the Offline... Books and Training page.
One of the branches of the menu is your entry to the online companion for the Do Amazing Things book. It's open to all.
The Zero to Hero book is supported by an online forum hosted by APress/Friends of ED.
When your favorite editing software doesn't have enough features, use those in other apps such as VirtualDub, an open source utility used by millions.
I was more than pleased to write the introductory chapter for the first book about Learning VirtualDub, released by Packt Publishing in May 2005.
I'm not a Microsoft employee. I've received 9 annual Most Valuable Professional (MVP) awards (2002-2010) for working with the community of Movie Maker users.
My grandchildren call me 'Papa', 'John' is my real name, and PapaJohn is my online handle.
This website started March 8, 2003 as a better way to share my personal notes about Movie Maker. It has helped many and I hope it helps you. I roll up information from forum postings and emails, add what I learn from Microsoft, and annotate it with my personal experiences. It is constantly evolving, driven by software and hardware changes, and our collective needs.
A set of HowTo's is the latest website feature... short video tutorials made possible by great screen capture tools such as Camtasia, and better internet capabilities. Linger over a How To button and the tool tip will tell you the topic. Click it and you'll see a short video about the item.
Here's a How To about setting a How To Background Stage. Look for 'How To' logos throughout the site.
Some people wonder if I respond to emails. Yes, but my typical day gives first priority to newsgroup posts, second to forum posts, then to my personal activities, and finally to emails. Emails may get you personal help but not help others. I prefer letting all see the correspondence... and others often respond sooner than I do, with better answers. Having said that, feel free to email me at:
PapaJohn@CharterMi.net
Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
HighMAT and the HighMAT logo are either trademarks or registered trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
. Look for 'How To' logos throughout the site.
