5. Editing Your Video
The simplest way to make a movie is just to grab
some pictures and/or a video, and possibly an audio file for a
soundtrack, and drag them into Windows Live Movie Maker. (A soundtrack
obviously makes more sense for photo slide shows as sound in a video
file would compete with the sound from an audio file.) Then, you can
press Play in the Preview pane and watch your simple, unedited creation
play through to completion. For the very simplest of videos, this is
straightforward; but what if you want to take it to the next level,
adding transitions, video effects, and titles? This section examines
the editing capabilities, such as they are, of Windows Live Movie Maker.
Two things to remember before we get started: you
can have only one soundtrack per project (and that's optional), and you
can drag and drop the clips in the Storyboard pane to determine the
running order of the video. Okay, it's time to get started.
5.1. Adding Transitions
Windows Live Movie Maker supports a small set of
transitions that can be applied to both photos and video clips. These
transitions are inspired by the transitions you see every day in TV
shows and movies, and include such favorites as Crossfade, Slide, and
Roll.
NOTE
In keeping with the theme of Windows Live Movie
Maker, we're oversimplifying. This application doesn't include "such
favorites" as the three transitions mentioned above among others.
It includes, literally, only those three transition types. To
understand why this is an issue, note that the previous version of this
application, Windows Movie Maker 6, supported dozens
of transitions. So while Windows Live Movie Maker is simpler than its
predecessor, it's also less powerful and useful as a result.
We're told, by the way, that Microsoft will be
steadily improving Windows Live Movie Maker over time. So it's possible
that by the time you read this, the application will have been updated
with new transitions and other features. As always, stayed tuned to the
book's Web site at www.winsupersite.com/book for the latest changes.
To access these transitions, click the Visual Effects tab in the ribbon. As shown in Figure 10, the available transitions can be found, logically enough, in the Transitions group.
You apply transitions on a clip-by-clip basis, and
can apply only one transition to any photo or video clip. Also,
transitions apply to the beginning of the selected clip and do not
repeat. To add a transition, select the appropriate clip in the
Storyboard and then click the transition you want to apply. To test the
transition, click Play in the Preview pane. The video will begin
playing at the selected clip with the transition in place, as shown in Figure 11. Repeat with other clips as needed.
NOTE
You can also preview a transition by double-clicking the appropriate clip in the Storyboard.
You can also choose the "No transition" option in order to remove a previously applied transition.
