How to make a movie or slideshow, & upload it to youtube

Ok, I'm no expert on making videos - there are plenty of people on this board with a lot more experience. But if you are a movie n00b like me, this 'how to' post might prove interesting.

Photo Story was used to make the first 'Bikes of the DMF': youtube.com/watch?v=vNDRTtbTMAQ
Movie Maker was used to make the 2nd 'Bikes of the DMF': youtube.com/watch?v=qOMn1BSA3AU

1. Terminology
2. Photo Story - free software
3. Movie Maker - free software
4. Uploading your movies to youtube.
5. Need photos? http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=3492.0 waytogo

1. TERMINOLOGY

I'll keep this simple

- 'movement': you can display a photo just as it is... or you can use the software to add 'movment': e.g. pan the camera left to right, or maybe zoom in/out.
- 'transition': how you get to the NEXT photo. Do you want photo 1 to gradually fade away to reveal photo 2? explode? slice down the middle and split?

2. PHOTO STORY (version 3) - free

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

Photo Story is a very nice piece of software. It is REALLY easy to use - no need to read anything, because it guides you through the process, & it uses the standard Microsoft Windows format. Without reading anything, just by clicking next, next, you can make your first movie in under 5 mins.

step 1: begin new project [NEXT]
step 2: import pictures [NEXT]
step 3: add titles to different photos if you want: I've never used this [NEXT]
step 4: customize motion.
- Photostory AUTOMATICALLY does three things: displays each photo for 5 seconds, adds 'movement', adds 'transitions'.
- or you can take control, and manually decide how each frame will be displayed, & for how long.
step 5: add music. Just click on the soundtrack. Photostory will 'fade' the music out if it is longer than the total time taken for all the photos to display.

TIP: use BITMAP images with this software. JPEGS make it LESS likely the slideshow film can be uploaded to youtube.
TIP: on the LIST of photos on the bottom of the screen, click photo 1 BEFORE you 'add music'. If you don't do this, the music will start at whatever photo you happen to be on.

Advantages.
Ridiculously easy to use. Really nice pan and zoom features. Handles music effortlessly.

Disadvantages.
- 50% of the time, I could NOT upload the slideshow films to youtube: the process would 'fail', even when I used BITMAP images. I got around this by saving a file as an avi movie, then opening the movie in Movie Maker, & then saving it again!
- youtube compresses the movies you send... and the final product is LESS clear than the slideshow films produced by Movie Maker.
- CANNOT be used to make true movies. This software is for manipulating PHOTOS.

3. MOVIE MAKER (version 2) - free

http://www.soft82.com/download/Windows/Windows_Movie_Maker

Movie Maker is also very easy to use - there is a list on the left of the screen, & you work your way down it. For example, import photos/movies, maybe add some effects and transitions, then save. BOOM - done.

So lets begin

step 1. import photos (or movies) from a folder - standard windows formatting here: these will sit in your work area.
step 2. look to the bottom of the screen: there is a button there labelled 'show timelime' or 'show storyboard': you want it set to the story board setting.
step 3. see the big boxes in the 'story board'?; drag & drop photos or film into them.
step 4: see the small boxes in the 'story board'?: you drag & drop 'transitions' into them. This determines how you move from one frame to the next.
step 5: click the 'show timelime' or 'show storyboard' button to bring up the timeline. This shows you how long each frame is running for, and allows you to adjust that time by 'stretching' or 'shrinking' the duration of each frame by dragging the right had border left or right.
step 6: import music.. and drag it down onto the audio/music portion at the bottom of the screen. Music too long? Just grab the right hand margin, and drag it left!
step 7: when you ready to save, save the movie file as a 640 by 480 size file.

TIP: use BITMAP images with this software.

Advantages.
- More powerful than Photo Story - can actually manipulate film. You can slice film into pieces, mute audio etc...
- films are clearer when uploaded to youtube.

Disadvantages.
- NO panning features at all - you can zoom in and out, but that is the only 'movement' you can add to photos.
- little less easy to use.. but it makes up for it by being more powerful.
- on my computer, the software 'crashes' if I try to add more than 21 photos. You can get around this by adding 20 photos, then saving them as a high quality movie. Do the next set of photos the same way. Then 'join' the two movies together using Movie Maker, and save them as a single movie

Excellent free tutorial can be found here: http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/technology/tutorials/graphics/moviemaker2/MM2handout.pdf

4. SAVING MOVIES FOR YOUTUBE.

To save yourself a whole bunch of headaches, download the (free) software Any Video Converter.

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

Youtube displays movies as FLV files - flash movies. When you upload a movie, it is converted from MPG or AVI to FLV - and sometimes you loose a LOT of quality. So. Use AVC to do the conversion yourself. As an added bonus, when you do the compression yourself, you get STEREO sound on your youtube clip. Nice! waytogo

Take your 640 by 480 sized movie file, and convert it to an FLV file which is also 640 by 480 size.

You can now upload your movie!

Youtube displays movies in 320x240 format. HOWEVER, they are just starting to offer higher quality movies (480x360). When you upload your 640 by 480 movie, youtube displays the SMALLEST version by default: but the bigger version is on file - if you add &fmt=18 to the URL, you can view the higher quality version.