Basics of Photo Story 3

I often go into the nooks and crannies of Photo Story and Movie Maker... and leave it up to you to study and learn the basics.

On Monday I had a two hour support session with someone who wanted to know how to make her stories look better when being viewed on DVD discs playing on a big-screen TV set. She said she already knew the basics of Photo Story. When we got into the session I found she was using the Sonic DVD Plug-in to PS3, didn't really know what other options for disc making were on her computer, and had been advised that using other DVD software would require going through Movie Maker to convert the story to a DV-AVI file.

Half of the support session ended up being about things I consider 'basics', in large part due to 'mis-information' she had gotten from others. Her already installed Roxio Easy DVD Creator software had no problems making discs from the story files.

That led to me thinking about doing an issue about 'the basics' of Photo Story 3, from starting pictures and audio to a DVD and YouTube.

I'm not good about limiting things to basics, so I might stray once or twice through it.

It takes at least one picture to do a story... but that's all you might need. Instead of browsing through my library, I went to Roy Feldman's Detroit Stock Photography site and got permission to use one of his recent pictures of Wynton Marsalis.

For a background music track, I went to the Wynton Marsalis website and captured a narration file from an iTunes podcast.... Wynton Marsalis, but from a different performance.

One picture and 3 minutes of associated (using the word loosely) audio was enough to start the newsletter project.

Click on the picture or this link to play the higher quality 3 minute story made from the picture. The link to another copy on YouTube is at the end of the details section.

It's been years in coming... the first utility I've tested that successfully converted a Real Media file.... to a Divx encoded AVI, but I'm not fussy. The app is the still developing Source Forge AllToAVI project.

Others had promised but none had passed my simple test. This one was added to my website's Import Movie Source Files > Video > Real page.

If you've done these things before, you can skip this step. If you haven't actually done one or more of them, do a very small pilot project as easily and quickly as possible. Take a couple pictures of the same file type you'll be using... like JPGs from a camera... and slap together a story.

Add background music or audio of the same file type you'll be using for the story project.

Save the story to your computer using any of the quality profile choices... it doesn't matter which one.

Open your DVD making software, start a new project, add the story, burn a disc, and watch it on a stand-alone DVD player/TV. Don't critique it, just make sure it plays. If it plays OK, put your efforts into the big story project with confidence the process will work. If it doesn't, fix it before digging into the project.

Upload the same story to YouTube. When it's there, watch it once and delete it before others start viewing and rating it. Save the announcements for the big project.

Think about the story's title and credits section. It's often easier and better to make some custom annotated pictures and use them in the story than it is to use the titling feature of Photo Story.

With a large picture, it's easy to crop segments to use for title and credit clips... the above is a crop from the upper left corner (1236x995 pixels)... enough pixels to pan and zoom within the story.

For a DVD, the text size can be moderate for easy reading. On YouTube, with the smaller size and higher compression, it's best to have larger sized text. It looks small in the above picture, but notice when watching it that I've zoomed into it considerably.

I made two pictures for the opening title and one for the closing credits. If you want to skip the adding of text on pictures before starting, use the text feature of Photo Story, but if you then wish you had more and easier control of the positioning, try it this way the next time.

When you sign up for Wynton's podcasts on iTunes, they are free downloads. I used the first one on the list that came up, a few minutes from his earlier 'Around the World' performance.

As it played in iTunes, I captured it to Movie Maker 2.1 as a WMA narration file, using the stereo mix option as the audio device.

Photo Story 3 is a 'linear' app... in that you go through it by clicking 'Next' or 'Back' buttons... through the 8 or 9 screens it takes from the start of a new story until you're finished.

The flow of windows or screens is shown at the right. The main steps go from #1 to #9, all hugging the left side of the image.

When you're on some of the screens, there are optional settings to use, or other windows to open... they are shown to the right of the main steps.

Perhaps most confusing in Photo Story is the lack of a menu option or button that says 'Save the Story'... that's the main purpose of the app, yet there's no menu choice to do it. You'll learn by using it that the story gets saved when you set the file name and location, select the quality profile, and press the 'Next' button on screen #6.

You can step all the way through Photo Story from screen #1 to #8 or 9, and then go as far back to #1 as you want... back and forth until you decide to exit.

A great feature is PS3 not letting you close the app unless you give it the OK to not save your project or changes to it. There's no excuse for not having saved the latest project version.

I'll refer to the screen numbers in the image at the right as I go through the steps of making the sample story.

Screen #1 is easy... I'll opt to 'begin a new story'. It'll take up to 300 pictures, but I'll only use a few.

In screen #2, I added the pictures. Rather than using the built-in file browser (#2A), my style is to drag them from my file manager (Total Commander) onto the #2 window.

They end up on the story film-strip (that's what the PS3 help file calls what Movie Maker refers to as the storyboard) in the sequence opened or dropped.

I had used 19 copies of the cropped pictures, 13 of them associated with the opening titles and closing credits.

At #2B, I always opt not to remove the black borders... the motion settings can work around them.

Using the dropdown effects list of #3A, I added the sepia effect to the first two and last two pictures. They are dark and used as background for the text. I figured no-one would notice the change to sepia tone unless I told them. That's what I want, things viewers take for granted, but in subtle ways effect the viewing experience.

I didn't add any narration in Window #4... but in #4B I spent a lot of time with transitions and motion settings. The default cross-fade is my favorite transition, when I use one... many of them I remove so the motion is smooth from one image to the next. For such smooth transitions, you not only need to remove the transition, but start the second image where the first leaves off. That feature alone makes Photo Story 3 invaluable.

In Window #5A, I added the narration file I had made in Movie Maker from the podcast.

Screen #6 is where you give the story a file name, pick a folder to save it to, and select a quality profile. With a story of only a few minutes, saving it often to a finished WMV file lets you see what it'll really look like. It's a good way to check the placement and zoom level for the text, along with the audio/visual synching. Sometimes things are a little different when you view the saved story on a larger screen than they appear in the small preview viewer.

That's all it takes to have the first 'rough-draft'. It's all 'fine-tuning' from here... spend a few minutes or weeks doing it. I probably spent an hour in bits and parts doing the tuning for this sample... always eager to get it out for viewing, but balancing it with the desire to have it worth looking at.

Watch the preview over and over and over... when you see something that needs tweaking, stop and do it. It's usually easier to make a change than it is to make a note and remember to do it later.

I've said it before, but it's important enough to say again... when using multiple copies of the same picture, and changing the pan/zoom from one to the other, I'll use the motion settings to align the starting position of one picture with the ending of the previous one. When doing it, I'll remove the default use of a transition. Doing both of those should result in a smooth change in movement from one image to the next.

I left the default cross fade transitions in for some of the title and credits images, when changing from a copy without text to one with it, or vice versa. I didn't like the text abruptly appearing or ending, so the transition smoothes it out.

I'll often change the duration of the pictures. When PS3 decides a pan should happen in 10 seconds, I'll cut it to 6 or 7, or increase it to 15, depending on the picture and the story being made.

I deleted the opening transition for the first image. If you use the default of fading in from black, the first frame is blackness, which sometimes isn't a good thing to use as the thumbnail for the story on a DVD. Even with the opening frame black, YouTube will pick one that works, even if it's one you don't want.

I took the WMA music file into the GoldWave utility and applied the orchestra hall reverb effect. The new WAV file from GoldWave was used as the final story audio track.

One direction was to an 800x600 profile for my website. I didn't have a need for a disc with the sample story on it, and you couldn't see it there if I did. I substituted the online copy for the disc.

Another save was with my custom profile when heading to YouTube. It's a 24 frame per second 320x240 sized story.

For myself and many, Photo Story 3 has been a fantastic tool over the years. I'm glad the XP version also works on Vista, so it'll be staying in my toolbox for years to come.

I look forward to comments and discussion about this and other newsletters on the forums at:

I'm involved in anything and everything that supports the users of Movie Maker and Photo Story, and adding more regularly. Some are free and others reasonably priced.

TheDVShow is the only weekly Podcast having more useful information about desktop video editing and production than anywhere else on the Web. Digital video editing, nonlinear editing, streaming media, software releases, tutorials, business tips, technical help, download of the day and news on the latest products to make everything easier. It's where professional and consumer desktop video users go to stay on the cutting edge.

Call the phone mail machine to get your technical question answered on the air... call (206)-203-3516

The radio broadcast is from Boston, and the website has downloadable podcast files. The June 19th 2005 podcast was the first 'bi-weekly' show with a segment about Movie Maker 2. The frequency of radio Q&A sessions about Movie Maker has fallen off as submitted questions are minimal. Maybe Vista will perk it up a bit.

Movie Maker 2 - Do Amazing Things (with its online companion on www.papajohn.org ), published by Microsoft Press...

Movie Maker 2 - Zero to Hero - with support on the publisher's forum - Friends of Ed

Learning VirtualDub - published by Packt Publishing in April 2005, is the first book about VirtualDub software. I wrote the introductory chapter about downloading and setting up the software: VirtualDub, VDubMod and AVISynth.

A six page article Making Movies with Vista was in the Spring 2007 Special Edition (page 78). It covered the movie making process from camcorder tape to viewing it on a standard video DVD.

The 2006 Summer Special edition included a 7 page tutorial Create a Ken Burns-Style Slideshow with Photo Story 3.

The November 2005 edition had a well done reworked 6 page reprint of the article about Movie Maker, starting on page 42 after the Happy 20th Birthday article for Windows.

The Winter 2005 quarterly special had a 7 page tutorial Make a Killer Home Movie with Maker 2. The special edition of the video made for it is on my website as a file download.

Movie Maker and Photo Story - www.papajohn.org - the site's goals are: doing amazing things, providing a detailed tutorial for PhotoStory 3, and helping you solve Movie Maker problems.

It's been expanded to include the version 6 of Movie Maker in Vista, along with the new Photo Gallery and DVD Maker apps.

PhotoStory 2 - www.papajohn.org/photostory2/PS2.html - a detailed tutorial about using the earlier version. It's been a long time since I've updated anything on it, but it still gets pretty good viewer traffic.

I'm a regular or moderator on many online forums and newsgroups, the key ones being:

Forums are open to all for viewing, but require registration of those who want to post. Moderators actively participate to ensure the forum discussions move forward and stay on track.

Newsgroups are wide open for all to view and post... moderation is collective by the participants.

Movie Maker/Photo Story newsletter. The subscription is $20 for 52 issues, and a link to subscribe is on the main page of www.papajohn.org or the Products and Services page.

Newsletters issued more than 6 weeks ago are posted by Rob Morris to an Archive Site on his Windows Movie Makers' website. Links from my website pages to specific newsletters make it easier for viewers to see the content of both while browsing a topic.

Transition Maker 2 (TM2) is a utility for the ultimate in making your own personal and custom transitions for Movie Maker 2. It's a joint product from Patrick Leabo, the programmer, and myself.

I've beta tested some of the Pixelan packages , including the new packages for Vista, and think very highly of their people and products.

ProDAD's Adorage packages for Movie Maker 2 are additional sources of very professionally developed transitions and effects. Here are links

I use a lot of professional background music for movies and stories that was created by Randon Myles, and act as his agent in selling tunes individually.

There are 62 tunes available from 4 of his many albums... at 99 cents per tune (MP3 or WMA format). Here's a Sample - 45 seconds from 'Groove 2'. The 4 albums are: In the Fields of the on-Feretin , Music for Film Volume III, the Emerald Way, and the Fourth Door.

I don't have a full set of online samples yet, but if you hear something you like in one of my videos, there's a good chance it was done by Randon. Send an email if you are interested.

My personal database has been an ongoing project over many years, and is now available to others. A tutorial about using it is on the Managing > Personal Database page of my site, and more info is in the database package itself.

It's free for the asking to regular newsletter subscribers... send an email request and I'll return it with the zipped file, which is less than 1 MB.

To others it's $10. To order, use the button on the top of the Managing > Personal Database page.

neptune Mediashare is the preferred file download service for Movie Maker users... there's a 'PapaJohn Expert Zone' where I keep many of my samples and personal videos.

Check it at N eptune and the Distributing > Neptune page of the website, where there's a developing tutorial about how to use the service.

... and mydeo is the preferred video streaming service. Many of the video samples for newsletter are on it.

In conjunction with the Portage, Michigan library , I offer free training sessions about Movie Maker and Photo Story, an intro session and a workshop.

Classes will resume at the end of summer, when schools re-open. We'll be re-inventing the topics offered, as the subject of Movie Maker doesn't draw very many... maybe topics such as making and uploading videos to YouTube, and vacation videos to Trip Advisor... using Movie Maker as the tool rather than the primary subject.

If you can't save a movie because your project has become too complex, e-mail a copy and I'll divide it into manageable sub-projects, and provide detailed instructions about how to render the parts and assemble them into your final movie. $49.95 (no cost if it's not the right solution or doesn't work) - for details, see the sidebar on the Problem Solving > Can't Save a Movie page of www.papajohn.org

Movie Maker 2/Photo Story training and support services start at $75 per hour - send an email - PapaJohn@CharterMi.net and I'll help you determine your needs, and work with you to plan and implement them.

Wedding combo website/video packages - check the Living Projects section of the website for samples of what you can expect for the online portion of a package.

About John 'PapaJohn' Buechler from Microsoft.com

John "PapaJohn" Buechler, of Kalamazoo, Mich., goes by PapaJohn online. An avid user of Movie Maker since its first release, and a regular supporter of the community of Movie Maker users, John received a 2003 MVP award from Microsoft for that support. In March 2003, he started a comprehensive website about Movie Maker 2 at www.PapaJohn.org. He maintains the website, writes books and articles, teaches, and provides support services - all for the community of Movie Maker 2 users. An engineer by formal education, John is a computer database and multimedia expert by business and personal experience. He co-authored the first book about Movie Maker 2 and is actively working on a second one. You can find his advice in the Windows XP Movie Maker newsgroup and in the Windows Movie Makers Forums.

This newsletter is republished with permission of John "PapaJohn" Buechler.
Please note that this is an archive of newsletters and some information may become outdated. PapaJohn, and the webmaster of this site, provides this information "AS IS" with no warranties.

Visit - PapaJohn's Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 2 Newsletter Index

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