Is WMM right for what I need to do? Advice needed...

[John Blaustein]

Hello all,

I need to take several dozen still images and turn them into what I'll
call a "movie." It may be that it's really a slide show. I want to
have a music track and time cuts and dissolves to the music. There may
also be a voice-over track. I want to be able to zoom in/out of the
still images and also pan. There will be no video images, only stills
(Nikon D2X high-resolution files are the source).

The finished product will be 5-7 minutes and will be shown at an event
for 100-200 people. In addition, the finished product likely will be
duplicated on a CD/DVD to be given to each participant at the event, so
final file format is important. I am imagining that what I produce will
be on a laptop at the event and the laptop will be attached to a digital
projector. (I have not done this before, so it's all new to me.)

I'm on Windows XP. I have used Windows Movie Maker in the past with
excellent results, but I've only viewed those files on my PC (or on the
web). I'm concerned about image quality since I want this to be as good
as possible.

If anyone here has experience in this area and can make a recommendation
on whether WMM is the right software to use, I'll be most grateful.

I won't be handling the video projector, but I can make recommendations. If
you know about video projection hardware that would be appropriate for this
purpose, please give me your thoughts.

Thanks very much.

John B.

 

[PapaJohn]

Consider Photo Story 3... alone or in conjunction with Movie Maker. See the
Photo Story 3 section of my website.

 

[John Blaustein]

PapaJohn,

Thank you VERY much for the quick reply.

Photo Story 3 looks to be very similar to Windows Movie Maker, but perhaps a
better choice since I am dealing with stills alone and no video footage.

I have read through much of your site info on PS3. Great info, thanks!

A couple of questions:

If I want to add two sound tracks -- music and recorded voice-over -- can
the volume for both tracks be independently controlled? In the editing
stage, does PS3 save the two tracks separately so they can be
edited/changed?

For my end use of having my story projected to an audience of 100-200 people
on a 12x16' screen, if I save using "Profile for computers - 4 (1024x768)"
and then use a laptop connected to an LCD projector, will the image quality
be acceptable?

For saving the story to a CD or DVD, it looks like I'd use the "Profile for
creating DVDs" or "Profile for creating CDs." It looks like PAL 768x576 is
the highest resolution. Would that be the best choice, and then use the
Sonic program to burn the DVD?

John B.

 

[PapaJohn]

Yes on the music and recorded voice-over with the volume being independently
contolled... use the preview options a lot to see where your are and make
appropriate adjustments.

yes, the 1024x768 quality level should be fine....at that and higher pixel
levels, you'll risk the laptop not being able to play it smoothly... best to
test it.

my downloadable custom profiles are usually the best to use when making
discs... they're on the Photo Story 3 > Saving page in the 'Heading to
Disc' section.

Sonic apps are fine to make DVDs... realize that they are less in image
quality than the directly projected stories.... you need to adhere to the
MPEG-2 standards for quality when making discs, so a disc is a necessary
quality funnel for the convenience.

 

[John Blaustein]

Again... thank you!

John

Yes on the music and recorded voice-over with the volume being
independently contolled... use the preview options a lot to see where your
are and make appropriate adjustments.

yes, the 1024x768 quality level should be fine....at that and higher pixel
levels, you'll risk the laptop not being able to play it smoothly... best
to test it.

my downloadable custom profiles are usually the best to use when making
discs... they're on the Photo Story 3 > Saving page in the 'Heading to
Disc' section.

Sonic apps are fine to make DVDs... realize that they are less in image
quality than the directly projected stories.... you need to adhere to the
MPEG-2 standards for quality when making discs, so a disc is a necessary
quality funnel for the convenience.

 

[PapaJohn]

good luck with it... even if you run the story through Movie Maker to get
your final video file, you should end up with higher quality than if you did
the pans/zooms in Movie Maker instead of Photo Story 3.