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WLMM 2011 Menu Item… Images with multiple visual effects

WLMM Multiple Visual Effects

Recipe:
  • Add an image to your project… I drop them into the work space using a file manager
  • Add the first visual effect… as usual using the drop down selections
  • For the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc…. don’t do the same thing as the newly selected one will replace the first one, giving you the impression it’s a one-only app
  • Hit the drop-down list at it’s bottom (on the right side) and look for the  words “Multiple effects” at the lower left… select it.
  • Add or remove visual effects and move them up and down into the sequence you want them applied

Garnish with text overlays and music to taste…

click on the image to see the sample video clip

enjoy!!….  PapaJohn

www.papajohn.org

 

from iPod Touch app to facebook

a minute in a zen garden 

the path to take:

1 – add flowers, butterflies, rocks to the garden

2 – shoot the scene on the iPod Touch with a camcorder

3 – edit a bit with MM2.6 and WLMM… add effects, music, text

4 – auto publish from WLMM to facebook

PapaJohn

www.papajohn.org

Moved My Blog

To allow readers’ comments and at the same time control SPAM I’ve moved to Bright Hub for future postings… here’s the link
 
 
…. followup note on Feb 8, 2011… now that this blog has been moved to WordPress where I can moderate readers’ comments, it’s time for me to reconsider using it.

 
PapaJohn

Widows Live Movie Maker – custom effects

For many users the enjoyment of using Movie Maker comes from making custom effects, transitions, titles and using them in new creative ways. Microsoft provides ‘hooks’ into the Movie Maker to let the user community use their new creations.
The first custom effect for Windows Live Movie Maker was made by monkman828, a red effect. He provided the .wlmx code in this forum thread.
 
 
This breaks the ice for custom effects, transitons, and titles in WLMM. 

From Camcorder to Movie Maker… on the road

We just returned home from a little driving vacation, during which I checked ways to get video clips from my mini-DV camcorder into my Windows 7 laptop, a computer that doesn’t have a firewire port. It was interesting….
 

The camcorder is a Sony TRV-80 and I routinely shoot widescreen 16:9.

Without a firewire port on the laptop, I couldn’t get the clips directly from the tape as DV-AVI files, as I usually do. But the camcorder has a feature that copies footage from the tape to a memory stick. That worked OK but the copy is standard 4:3, distorted from the original widescreen to fill the different shaped frames.

By connecting the camcorder to the computer with a USB cable I was able to copy the ‘standard’ clips from the memory stick to the hard drive. I first tried editing the clips with Windows Live Movie Maker. That worked but wouldn’t reshape the clips to force them back to widescreen. No matter which way I set the aspect ratio for the project, WLMM kept the standard aspect ratio and added black borders.

I turned to MM2.1, which I carry on a thumbdrive. It ran on Windows 7 and reshaped the video clips to fill widescreen 16:9 sized frames.

Windows 7 is out… what next?

After almost 2 years of beta testing, and then hosting a release party on Oct 22, 2009…. now what?
 
My article at Brighth Hub about Movie Maker in Windows 7 has been my far-and-away best seller all year, about an operating system that doesn’t include Movie Maker.
 
I enjoy exploring things you can do with limited versions of software and low-end computers. For example, last night I used my newly upgraded Windows 7 low-end Toshiba laptop to author and burn my first-ever Blue-Ray Disc… notable in that the laptop doesn’t have a DVD burner or enough free hard drive space to store the source files and disc project. 
 
I used an attached external USB2 drive, a little Toshiba 500 GB one, as the location of the source files, the disc project, and the burned ‘virtual disc’. The process was flawless and the m2ts video files on the disc played fine in WMP on the Toshiba, and imported/edited in Windows Live Movie Maker (WLMM).
 
Back in my XP system that doesn’t have WLMM, the m2ts files wouldn’t play, but I was able to easily convert them to WMV files with my all-purpose Xilisoft Video Converter.
 
PapaJohn
 
 

Upgrading a Vista Home Basic Laptop to Windows 7 Ultimate

In the past I always reformatted the hard drive of a computer as I installed a new operating system. It’s quick, easy, and starts the system off with a clean slate.

This is the first time I’m taking the ‘upgrade’ route, a much longer setup that will let me roll the system back to Vista if it doesn’t work well enough…. and carry my existing files and settings forward if it goes great. This blog entry will be an ongoing diary of the upgrade.


Preparation

The computer is a Toshiba laptop, a 32-bit low end Satellite L35 series model purchased 6//10/07 for $399 after rebates at Office Depot. It had Vista Home Basic installed, with other software added by Toshiba. My two year older, larger, more powerful, HP Pavilion zd8000 laptop started running into power and heat related issues, so the Toshiba became my every day companion at my daily sessions at Barnes & Noble. It’s been doing well for the two years so I’m hesitant at going from Vista to Windows 7… as always, I’ll do it cautiously. 

The catalyst is the upcoming Windows 7 party. The box of party stuff arrived yesterday, with a Windows 7 Ultimate signature edition disc included. I’ll be hosting a party at the Portage, Michigan Barnes & Noble on October 22, 2009… 8 to 10 pm if you’re in the area. 

This blog entry is an ongoing diary of the steps taken and how things went…

The full diary has moved to a page on my website… see

www.papajohn.org/UpgradeToWindows7.html

PapaJohn

www.papajohn.org

Talking about Share on the next level with Windows Live Movie Maker!

 Passing along a blog entry by Karthik Anbalagan 

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Share on the next level with Windows Live Movie Maker!

By now you’ve already seen how quick and easy it is to make and share a movie using Windows Live Movie Maker.  So instead of showing you how to post a video to an online service, I thought I’d discuss an alternative way of sharing your content using Movie Maker, Windows 7, and Xbox 360.  With so many great web services available to stay in touch and exchange media with friends and family, it’s easy to forget that sometimes the most enjoyable form of consuming your own content is to sit down with the people you care about and flip through an album or watch a home movie on the television.  But how do you get your Windows Live Movie Maker creation up on the big screen?  Well, you could always hook up a PC to your TV or burn a physical DVD, but let’s try something a little more “on-demand” than that.

I’m an avid climber and I love taking photos up in the mountains, but sometimes the grandeur of the scenery is lost when I show people my photos and videos on a laptop screen or share them through a web service. Instead, I’ll put my movie together in Movie Maker and display it on the TV by streaming through my Xbox 360.  This way, when I have friends and family over, we don’t all have to huddle around the computer screen – we can sit back with a snack and share the experience. 

Keep in mind, this post assumes a few things;

1. You’re running Windows 7 on your PC.

2. You have an Xbox.

3. You have a home network set up.

If you’re running Windows Vista, you should be able to accomplish the same result. Click here for information on streaming using Windows Vista. With that said, here’s how I do it on Windows 7.

First, I need to make a movie. I want to put together a slideshow combining photos and short video clips I took during the climb with an awesome soundtrack.  I’ll start in Windows Live Photo Gallery, where I can see all of my content.  I’ll select all of the photos and videos I want to use, click on the ‘Make’ button, then select ‘Make a movie…’ to launch Windows Live Movie Maker.  I’m going to use AutoMovie to quickly compile my content into a polished movie.  Then, I output my movie using our 1080p profile for maximum resolution and maximum viewing experience.  I save the movie to my local hard drive in a folder that is part of my Videos library.  I have this library set up so that its contents can be streamed to other devices on my home network.  Here’s how you can do this:

First, click the start button icon in the lower left of the toolbar. In the Windows 7 Start Menu search box, type “media streaming” as follows:

Launch ‘Media streaming options’ and you’ll see this:

Turn on media streaming, and you’ll get the following options:

Be sure to name your media library, which by default will be the name of your computer.  That’s all there is to it!  You can customize the settings if you like, but as is, anything in your Pictures, Videos, or Music Libraries will be visible to other media-streaming-capable machines on your network, including your Xbox 360.

Now that my movie has been saved and my media streaming options are set up, I turn on my Xbox 360.  Under the ‘My Xbox’ heading, I navigate to my ‘Video Library’ and select it.  At this point, I’m asked to select my source.  My Xbox sees my computer as a source and lists it as an option, so I’ll scroll down and select it.  Once I’ve done that, I can navigate by folder and find the movie I just created.

And that’s it, I can control playback straight through my Xbox and watch the movie with friends right in my family room.  The great thing about this is that you only have to set up media streaming once.  After that, anytime you save a movie on your computer, it will be visible to your Xbox so it’s ready to go whenever you want to watch it on your TV!

  

On a similar note, since we live in such a digitally connected world, I get my friends asking me to share my movies online so they can watch it again later.  Sharing to YouTube is always a great option, but what if there’s a different online website they regularly visit?  No problem – Windows Live Movie Maker shares the same online publishing platform as Windows Live Photo Gallery, which means developers can write publishing plug-ins to any website or service using our Software Developer Kit (SDK) and whatever SDK is available from that service.  Check out this page for a list of plug-ins that have already been written, and for more information on how to write your own plug-in using our SDK, visit http://dev.live.com/photogallery.  If you’ve written a plug-in, please tell us about it!

Thanks and happy streaming!

– Karthik Anbalagan

 

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Talking about The “grown up” side of Windows Live Movie Maker

Passing along a blog from Mike Morrison of the Movie Maker Team 

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The “grown up” side of Windows Live Movie Maker