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February 20, 2011

 For the  next Windows Live Moviemaker  this Tuesday Feb. 22, I hope you will have had a chance to work with the program to get a feel for how it works. If you have a movie completed or partially completed, please make a movie clicking on “save movie” and use the” recommended for this project”  settings and after the movie file has been made..copy the file onto a thumb drive if you have one and we can have a “show and tell”.  If you have had problems with your first movie we will try to resolve them.

 

For the next Sony Vegas Moviestudio HD class on Thursday  Feb. 24, we will spend little time, not a lot, on how the built-in tutorials work . Then we start to get into the good stuff, the video effects.

February 13, 2011

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Windows Live Moviemaker classes will continue on Tuesday mornings. This coming Tuesday morning I intend to do a review of  Windows Live Moviemaker  from the beginning for the benefit of the new people.

 

 For those who are interested, I will start teaching a class on the more complicated program, Sony Vegas Moviestudio HD, on Thursday evening at 7 PM*.  I will be using the basic moviestudio HD program which retails for $44.95.  You can download a 30 day free trial at :

 

Sony Vegas Moviestudio HD

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials/moviestudiohd

 

 will allow you 4 separate video tracks and 4 separate audio tracks ( The Platinum version will allow you to go to 10 audio and 10 video tracks and has a few more video effects as well as including a companion program . DVD Architect..The program costs $94.95 downloaded.)

 

Multiple audio tracks are very useful for adding music or narration.  The audio tracks can be recorded into directly if your computer has a microphone input.

 

Multiple video tracks are useful for green screen effects, picture-in-picture effects, etc.

 

Unless you turn professional, you probably will never use all the potential in these programs.

 

* an alternative time would be Friday afternoon from 1 to 2:30 . we can discuss this at the Tuesday class.

 

Important information about downloading Live Moviemaker

I just found out that the link  below this page to download Widows Live Moviemaker will not work. Apparently, Microsoft will not allow a download if you link to the page from another web page if that web page is not on their approved list...Not to worry, copy the link and paste it into the address of your browser and it will work.

You must download the program from the explore.live.com web page directly to get the latest version with all the goodies.  Cnet and others seem to only have the earlier versions. That is why Paul's version of windows live moviemaker did not have the "automovie themes ribbon".

Also..In order to dowload the latest version of Moviemaker 2011 from the microsoft website, If you are using Vista, you must have installed Service pack 2 and something called a windows platform ( Windows platform is a group of files that allow windows live movie maker 2011 and the other live essential programs to run on Vista.  Windows will tell you what to do and how to do it when you try to run the installer program.

January 11 2011

In our second meeting of the season, we discussed the Windows Moviemaker editing program.

• The latest version of windows live moviemaker will run on Vista and windows 7, but not on xp or earlier computers.
• Earlier versions will not edit .mov files, which are the most common type of video files produced by digital still cameras.
• .mov files will have to be converted to  another format in order to be edited in the earlier versions of windows moviemaker and the free programs that will do this conversion have been very buggy and troublesomein the past.
• The latest version of windows live moviemaker seems to accept and edit .mov files and is super simple and fun to use. However it has limitations.

·         Moviemaker is free, simple and can be downloaded from http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials?os=other.

·         My plan for the season is to have everyone work with moviemaker to get the feel of the program and of video editing in general, and then, when everyone is up to speed on windows moviemaker, do an introduction to the Sony Vegas Moviestudio editing program.  A 30 day trial of the program is available. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE TRIAL PROGRAM NOW UNLESS YOU INTEND TO PAY FOR IT. IF YOU DO, WE MAY NOT GET TO IT IN CLASS UNTIL AFTER YOUR TRIAL HAS RUN OUT.

We also discussed cameras for shooting videos.

• The technology is changing swiftly.  Three years ago you would pay 900$ for a camera that would do High definition video.  Today you can get a point and shoot camera for $110 that will do the same thing. It wont have all the bells and whistles..but most of use never got to use all those bells and whistles anyways . The $900 camera used a tape drive and the video had to be "captured" to use in your computer, a time consuming process. one hour of video takes one hour to capture into your computer.l  THis required a firewire connection..most laptops today dont have a fire wire port. Todays point and shoot cameras create a video file on an sd card and you just copy and past the file into your hard drive.
•  If you are in the market for a videocamera that you can carry in your pocket that will do high definition movies and standard definition movies, $110 will get you a canon A1200
• http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/digital_cameras/powershot_a1200#Specifications#Specifications
• This camera makes .mov files and older versions of window moviemaker cant handle the files.  But, almost any other editing program will handle the files.
• the camera has an optical viewfinder for those bright days when you can not see the lcd screen.
• I you need to have a camera that saves videos to .avi files which older version of moviemaker can use, the canon sd1300 for $180 will do the trick. but will not do Hi definition and does not have an optical viewfinder
• http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer/digital_cameras/powershot_sd_series/powershot_sd1300_is#Specifications

Your homework for next week  is to make a movie with windows moviemaker.

• If you dont have an .avi or a .wmv file and have an older computer, Come over to my place and I will give you a file that will work in older versions of moviemaker. I live at Hibiscus 221 (hence Studio221 ). Call first on my cellphone(956)357-2804
• Try to use the snip and triming functions
• Make a title
• Use transitions

·         Be sure to save your project file

·         publish( save your movie) it to your hard drive as a .wmv file. 

 

see you next Tuesday

 

 

 

 

January 4 2011

At our first meeting of the new year we discussed cameras and the latest version of Window Live Moviemaker.

Moviemaker is free, simple and can be downloaded from http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials?os=other.

There is a tutorial on AutoMovie theme function at http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker-auto-movie-themes-using?os=other