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Creating Movies with Windows Live Movie Maker (part 1) - Creating and Editing Your Live Storyboard

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3/29/2011 2:26:06 PM
Windows Live Movie Maker is one of several free programs available as part of the Windows Live Essentials program from Microsoft. You can get Windows Live Movie Maker and other programs by visiting http://www.windowslive.com/desktop.

1. Getting Started with Windows Live Movie Maker

When you are working with Windows Live Photo Gallery, you can select the initial pictures and videos you want to work with, click Make and then click “Make a Movie” to open Windows Live Movie Maker with these items selected. Otherwise, you can start Windows Live Movie Maker by clicking Start→All Programs→Windows Live→Windows Live Movie Maker.

As Table 1 shows, Windows Live Movie Maker works with a wide variety of image, sound, and video formats. This list is different from the formats supported by Windows DVD Maker. The key change is that Windows Live Movie Maker supports AIFF and AU sound formats, and Windows DVD Maker does not.

NOTE

Windows Live Movie Maker can open Windows Movie Maker project files with the file extension .mswmm. When you open a Movie Maker project file, it is imported and converted to the Windows Live Movie Maker format. If you later save the project, it will be saved with the file extension .wlmp.

Table 1. File formats supported by Windows Live Movie Maker
File format/typeFile extensions
Bitmap image.bmp
DIB image.dib
GIF image.gif
Icon image.ico, .icon
JPEG image.jpg, .jpe, .jpeg, .jfif
PNG image.png
TIFF image.tif, .tiff
Word Perfect image.wdp
Windows Meta File.wmf, .emf
Other image types.rle, .exif
Sound formats 
MP3 audio.mp3
WAV audio.wav
Windows Media Audio.wma
Video formats 
AVCHD video.m2t, .m2ts, .mts
AVI video.avi
DVD video.mpa, .m1v, .m2ts, .mp2v, .mpv2
MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 video.mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .ts, .tts
MPEG-4 video.m4v, .mp4, .mp4v
MOD and other formats.mod, .vob
Audio/Video format 
3GPP2 Audio/Video.3g2, .3gp, .3gp2, .3gpp
Windows Media Audio/Video Professional.asf, .wm, .wmv
Recorded TV format 
Microsoft Digital Video Recorder.dvr-ms, .wtv

Windows Live Movie Maker works with files that are already in the proper formats and doesn’t include features for converting formats. When you start working with Windows Live Movie Maker, shown in Figure 1, you’ll see that it has these key features:

A menu ribbon

Has Home, Animations, Visual Effects panes with options for the common tasks that you may need to perform when making a movie as well as View, Edit and Options panes for preview, editing and configuring additional settings. These panes are accessed by selecting the related tab. The menu button to the right of the Home tab is referred to as the Movie Maker button.

A Preview pane

Allows you to preview the video.

A work area

Allows you to manage the media items you’ve added to the video.

Figure 1. Getting started with Windows Live Movie Maker


Using the options provided in the main window, you create movies by following a series of prescribed steps. The basic steps are as follows:

  1. Create your live storyboard.

  2. Edit the live storyboard.

  3. Add effects and transitions.

  4. Add narration, music, and other audio.

  5. Add titles, credits, and captions.

  6. Preview and save your video project.

  7. Publish your movie.

I discuss tasks related to each step in the sections that follow.

2. Creating and Editing Your Live Storyboard

In Windows Live Movie Maker, each video you are producing is created as a video project with a live storyboard. The live storyboard provides a representation of each media item you’ve added to the video in the order the items are played. In this way, the live storyboard not only serves as an outline for the presentation, but it also lets you visualize the project in a way you otherwise would not be able to. At a glance, you can see the work from start to finish, and this is extremely important in the way you conceptualize the project.

As you add media items to your video, you build the live storyboard and set the play order for each item you are including. To your live storyboard, you can add text, effects, and transitions. Unlike Windows DVD Maker, Windows Live Movie Maker doesn’t put pictures into a separate folder. Instead, all media items are added to the same storyboard.

As with Windows DVD Maker, you can select all the pictures and videos you want to use in Windows Live Photo Gallery first, and then add the selected items automatically to Windows Live Movie Maker.

In Windows Live Movie Maker, you can select the items to add to your video by completing the following steps:

  1. Click Home and then click Add Videos and Photos.

  2. As shown in Figure 2, use the Add Videos and Photos dialog box to browse to a folder containing pictures or videos you want to add.

  3. Select the items to add using one of the following techniques:

    • Select an individual item by clicking it.

    • Select a series of items by clicking the first item, pressing and holding the Shift key, clicking the last item, and then releasing Shift.

    • Select multiple items individually by clicking the first item, pressing and holding the Ctrl key, clicking each additional item in turn, and then releasing Ctrl.

  4. The items you selected are added to the storyboard. The first item in the first row will be displayed first, the second item in the first row will be displayed second, and so on.

Figure 2. Adding videos and pictures


As you add media items to the storyboard, Windows Live Movie Maker lists the runtime of the video as the second time entry in the preview area. This runtime may change if you modify the transitions and effects applied.

After you add items, you can fine-tune the play order. To change the play order of an item or a group of items, select the item or items and then drag left, right, up or down until you reach the desired position. To remove an item, right-click it and then select Remove. Removing an item removes it from the storyboard but does not delete it from your computer.

While you are optimizing the play order, you may want to preview the video. As Figure 3 shows, the Preview pane provides the following button controls:


Play/Pause

If you click the Play button, the video plays from the current position in the storyboard. Clicking the Play button again pauses playback.


Previous Frame

Rewinds to the previous frame of the video.


Next Frame

Advances to the next frame of the video.


Timeline

Tracks the video timeline and the current frame position within the video. If you click and drag the Current Frame button on the end of the timeline slider, you can fast-forward or rewind through a video. If you click a specific part of the timeline, you can go to that time in the video.

Figure 3. Using the Preview controls to manage playback


By default, each picture in the slideshow is displayed for 3 seconds, and transitions last for a portion of the display time. You can change the display time for a selected picture or pictures by clicking Edit on the toolbar to display the Edit bar and then entering a new display time in the Duration text box (see Figure 4).

When deciding the length of time to display pictures, keep in mind the prospective audience and the tempo of your soundtrack. If the music in your soundtrack has a relatively fast beat, you may want to use a shorter display duration. If the music in your soundtrack has a slower beat, you might want to use a longer display duration. In most cases, you’ll want pictures to be displayed for between 3 and 10 seconds.

Figure 4. Editing items in your video


Anytime you are working with a video clip, you have several editing options. To view these options, click Edit on the toolbar to display the Edit bar. On the Video panel of the Edit bar, you have sound and video editing options. To control the sound in the video, you can:

  • Click Video Volume and then change the volume or mute the sound of the video.

  • Click in the Fade In list to use the Slow, Medium, or Fast fade in options for the sound.

  • Click in the Fade Out list to use the Slow, Medium, or Fast fade out options for the sound.

You can click the Split button to split the video into two clips at the current position. You also can click Trim to access the Trim bar, which is shown in Figure 5. While working with the Trim bar, you can:

  • Trim the beginning of the video clip by clicking and dragging the Trim Beginning slider

  • Trim the ending of the video clip by clicking and dragging the Trim Ending slider

  • Save the trimmed values and exit the Trim bar by clicking Save Trim

  • Exit the trim bar without saving by clicking Cancel

Figure 5. Trimming video clips


While you are fixing your storyboard, you can use the Undo button (Ctrl-Z) to undo any changes you don’t like, or the Redo button (Ctrl-Y) to redo changes you previously undid.

Other -----------------
- Creating Movies with Windows Movie Maker (part 5)
- Creating Movies with Windows Movie Maker (part 4) - Adding Narration, Music, and Other Audio & Adding Titles, Credits, and Overlays
- Creating Movies with Windows Movie Maker (part 3) - Adding Effects to Your Video & Adding Transitions to Your Video
- Creating Movies with Windows Movie Maker (part 2) - Editing Your Storyboard & Creating an AutoMovie
- Creating Movies with Windows Movie Maker (part 1) - Creating Your Storyboard
- Creating Video DVDs with Windows DVD Maker (part 4)
- Creating Video DVDs with Windows DVD Maker (part 3) - Setting the DVD Burning and Playback Options & Customizing the DVD Menu
- Creating Video DVDs with Windows DVD Maker (part 2) - Adding Your Pictures and Videos, and Setting the Play Order
- Creating Video DVDs with Windows DVD Maker (part 1)
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