How to Make Your Own Videos for FREE Part 2b

The first thing you will need to do is get Google's Picasa - it is a free photo program that works well with any type of picture not just photos.
Download it at http://picasa.google.com/intl/en/
You can easily load photographs from your camera to Picasa or import saved files to view. My favorite part of acquiring photos from my camera is that Picasa gives you the option to erase from your camera all the photos you are putting on you computer. This saves me time having to delete photos from my camera. There is an area where you can make collages which is one of the things I do for parts of my photo videos. You can make a mosaic, a picture pile, a framed mosaic, a grid or a contact sheet, so your options are pretty good.


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PART 2b

In this article I will help you get familiar with the movie maker menu and we will go over adding a title page. This is what mine looks like so far.

Below is a close up of the 'Movie Maker' menu bar.
The first option we will use is "slide". This option will allow you to add a title page and choose how you want it to look. When you click on slide you will see the same image that is currently in your display window. If I do not change my title page it will remain as seen above.
You are currently in Movie Maker

•  Now click on slide - #1

The next image is the 'Slide' menu bar. This is where you set up the title and credit pages.

• In the box below template (#1)
  type in what you want to use for a title.
• Choose your font (#2)
  it is best to do this after you type the text in because you can easily see what each font  style will look like in your finished page. Once you click on the down arrow a menu shows up. You can see what each font looks like by using the down arrow on your keyboard.
• Choose your font size (#3)
  This works the same as the font by using the arrow of your keyboard
• Choose a background color and text color (#4)
• Finally you want to pick a template (#5)
  You have 11 options to choose from including 'I feel lucky' which will choose one for you. This is one of the areas that you can experiment with. For the title page I stuck with Centered but a couple others will make a nice title page.
  Unlike the font and size options you will have to click on each of these to see a change.
  FYI: The third button next to B(bold) I(indent) is automatic outline - this will outline your text

To save your work click on 'close' - a window will come up asking if you want to save as a draft. To work on your movie again go to your albums and right click on the image of your draft. Click on 'View and Edit' in menu bar that comes up. When your draft opens click on 'Edit Movie' at the top of the menu bar at left.

The next area is the 'Clip' menu bar where you will find your images and have the ability to add or delete them
When you first open this after making the album all the images in your album will show up where the 5 photos are below. You can add images one at a time by clicking on them / highlighting them like the first one below or highlighting them all.
To highlight more than one click on the first one and then hold down 'shift' while clicking on more.
You then just click on the green + (plus) sign to add. If you have a photo you do not want in your selections highlight it and click on the red x to delete.





The following image is of your 'timeline' - you will find your frames and images here and be able to do the editing. I will go over all the sections and their functions.

• #1 - the green arrow is the play button
• #2 - is to add a new text slide - this will add a blank frame to your time line where you can add text.
         Text and styles are done in the same way you made the title page.
• #3 - this red X is to delete the frame you are currently on
• #4 - the volume control
• #5 - shows the time as your video runs, this will help when adding audio
• #6 - shows the information about each frame and also shows how many and which you are currently
          seeing or editing.
• #7 - will allow you to play video in full screen
• #8 - will allow you to show the actual size without stretching

Next I will work on the actual video, adding audio and saving to YouTube.
If you have any questions or want to see something not shown here just let me know.


Marisa Horn
a/k/a kashmier


Youtube videos done with Picasa and windows movie maker
http://www.youtube.com/user/lthrwood

How to Make Your Own Videos for FREE Part 1b

For more articles in this series visit my Faceplate

The first thing you will need to do is get Google's Picasa - it is a free photo program that works well with any type of picture not just photos.

Download it at http://picasa.google.com/intl/en/

You can easily load photographs from your camera to Picasa or import saved files to view. My favorite part of acquiring photos from my camera is Picasa gives you the option to erase from your camera all the photos you are putting on you computer. This saves me time having to delete photos from my camera. There is an area where you can make collages which is one of the things I do for parts of my photo videos. You can make a mosaic, a picture pile, a framed mosaic, a grid or a contact sheet, so your options are pretty good.

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PART 1b

This part of the article covers the second option in collage when using Picasa.

Picture Pile  - it makes your photos or images look like a scattered pile of pictures

Just like with the mosaic you have a host of neat options to choose from to make it look exactly like you want.

This is the menu for Picture Pile under Collage in Picasa. Using the different options you have the ability to do a whole host of great things in order to make a fine looking image.

I am using many of the same photos as I did in part 1.

• select the picture borders - I have it set at none or just a picture without a border.
• select background option - I have chosen white.
• set the page format to what you currently need - in this case it is 8.5 x 11
• you can also set how you want you page to lie - landscape or portrait - this is landscape

The Draw Shadows and Show Captions will be discussed at a later time and the last four buttons are what you choose after you have completed your work.

Important to know - once you save the collage you are always able to edit it.  :)

There is also an option to custom set the page size to whatever you like. I am not sure of what size will be best for a video presentation because I never actually thought about it. My thoughts are square.

If you look at this video I made you will see that the black is not solid in some of the frames and I am not sure if I had the background set at a dark gray or it is because the size of the images were not square. I will let you know at a later date my findings about the sizes.

The following image has only one change and that is the background color. You can choose from colors on the graph or use the dropper to choose a color from the photos on the collage. In this case the color was taken from the pumpkin in the elephants mouth.

Changes in the next image include

• select the picture borders - I have it set at none
• select background option - I have chosen picture - you can select anyone of the photos to use as your background
• set the page format to what you currently need - in this case it is 8.5 x 11
• you can also set how you want you page to lie - landscape or portrait
• Drop Shadow is set
• I have shuffled the pictures

In the next image note you can not see the photo used for the background that is because after setting it for the background I moved it to the back of the pile. In order to be used as a background it has to be in the collage so you have to bury it under the pile and if it still shows use the manual features to make it as small as needed.

I just figured this out, if you want to resize, angle or re-position all the photos at one time select all and the too appears on top of the photos to do any or all of these..

Changes in the next image include

• select the picture borders - I have it set at plain white border
• select background option - I have chosen black
• set the page format to what you currently need - in this case it is 8.5 x 11
• you can also set how you want you page to lie - landscape or portrait

Changes in the next image include

• select the picture borders - I have it set at instant camera
• select background option - I have chosen white
• set the page format to what you currently need - in this case it is 8.5 x 11
• you can also set how you want you page to lie - landscape or portrait

I also scrambled the collage and shuffled the pictures. You can also change the position, size and angle of each photo manually. There are excellent and user friendly tools that can be used by simply clicking on the photo. There is also a drop down menu when you click on an image that allows you to bring the photo to the front of the pile or to the back. This way if you like where a photo is but it is covered by part of another one you can just bring it to the front. This is very easy to do but beware, once you start doing it you may find that you are a perfectionist. Before you know it you have been up all night ... :)

When you are satisfied with your creation just click on 'create colloge' and it will be saved into your picasa library. You can also click on 'desktoop background' to make it your newest desktop image.

I will discuss the other parts of the collage maker next in our adventure on how to make or set up free videos.

If you have downloaded this program and are working along with these articles please message me with any questions I have not covered.

Marisa Horn

Youtube videos done with Picasa and windows movie maker
http://www.youtube.com/user/lthrwood

In my spare time here is how I make cash

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