Showing posts with label How to. Show all posts
Showing posts with label How to. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

How to Make a Simple Movie/Video in Windows Movie Maker

If you're a PC person, Windows Movie Maker is a sweet program for it's easy to learn and when you get the hang of it you can put together slideshows, music videos, documentaries, or any other kind of multimedia project that you want. This article will provide a simple step-by-step for adding and editing video files, music, special effects, subtitles, credits, titles, and transitions, as well as saving the final product to your computer or a DVD or CD.

Open Windows Movie Maker from "All Programs" on the Start menu, or click the Windows Movie Maker Icon on your desktop.

Open Windows Movie Maker from "All Programs" on the Start menu, or click the Windows Movie Maker Icon on your desktop.

Click on the "Tasks" button on the top to open the "Movie Tasks" bar on the left.

Make sure the program is in timeline mode. You should see a place below for Video, Audio/Music, and Title Overlay. If you see a horizontal line of boxes, press Ctrl+T

The bottom section of the screen should look like this.

Under the "Capture Video" category, click "Import video" to start uploading video files to Windows Movie Maker.

Browse for and select the files that you want to include in your video.

Browse for and select the files that you want to include in your video.

Drag the first video you want into the "Video" area of the timeline at the bottom of the screen.

To cut a video file into two pieces, play the video file and pause it at the place you want to cut it. Then, click the "Split" button below the video playing area, or press Ctrl+L. You can do this either in the timeline or in the "Collections" area.

To cut a video file, click this button (outlined in red).

To upload picture files, such as for a slideshow, click "Import pictures" and follow the same procedure. To reduce or increase the length of time a picture plays, drag the ends of the picture file in the timeline.

To add a music or other sound file, click "Import audio or music". Drag it to the "Audio/Music" area of the timeline.

Music or other audio goes here.

To add an effect to a picture or video file, such as grayscale, film age, fade in, speed up, etc., right click the file in the timeline and click "Add Video Effect". You can also click "View Video Effects" in the sidebar under "Edit Movie" and drag an effect onto the desired file in the timeline.

To add an effect to a picture or video file, such as grayscale, film age, fade in, speed up, etc..,

See the left sidebar for additional options, like adding transitions and credits.

And this is how you make a simple movie/video using Windows Movie Maker and here are some tips for you :

  • WMM is pretty self-explanatory. If you want to add subtitles, titles or credits, click "Make titles or credits" in the left sidebar. If you want to add a transition, click "View video transitions". There are many different aspects of Windows Movie Maker, but these are just the basics. After you get these down, it's easy to figure out how to do other things with the program.

  • After finishing your video, you can save it as a video file with one of the options under "3. Finish Movie". This way you can watch your video without the WMM program.

  • If you're not sure how to do something, press F1 or click Help>Help Topics up on the toolbar. You can search by topic for how to do something like adding credits.

And for further more understanding watch this simple video tutorial here:



Monday, March 11, 2013

How to Choose a Free Web Host

What are some of the things you should look for when choosing a web host?  The criteria for choosing a free web host and a commercial web hosting solution are slightly different although they do overlap.

Choosing a Free Web Host


1. Advertising :


Most free web hosts impose advertising on your website. This is done to cover the costs of providing your site the free web space and associated services. Some hosts require you to place a banner on your pages, others display a window that pops up every time a page on your site loads, while still others impose an advertising frame on your site. There is really no hard and fast rule which is to be preferred: some people hate a pop-up window, other webmasters dislike having to stuff banner codes onto their pages, and many people cannot stand an advertising frame (which may cause problems when you submit your website to search engines). Whichever method is used, check that you're comfortable with the method.

2. Amount of web space :


Does it have enough space for your needs? If you envisage that you will expand your site eventually, you might want to anticipate future expansion. Most sites use less than 5MB of web space. Indeed, at one time, one of my other web sites, thefreecountry.com, used less than 5MB of space although it had about 150 pages on the site. Your needs will vary, depending on how many pictures your pages use, whether you need sound files, video clips, etc.

3. FTP access :


FTP is the most common method used by people to transfer their web pages and other files from their computer to their web host's computer, so that it can be viewed by anyone in the world.

Some free hosting providers only allow you to design your page with their online site builder. While this is useful for beginners, do you have the option to expand later when you become experienced and their online page builder does not have the facility you need? Online site builders also have significant disadvantages.

FTP access, or at the very least, the ability to upload your pages by email or browser, is needed. Personally, I feel FTP access is mandatory, except for the most trivial site.

4. File type and size limitations :


Watch out for these. Some free hosts impose a maximum size on each of the files you upload (including one with a low of 200KB). Other sites restrict the file types you can upload to HTML and GIF/JPG files. If your needs are different, eg, if you want to distribute your own programs on your pages, you will have to look elsewhere.

5. Reliability and speed of access :


This is extremely important. A site that is frequently down will lose a lot of visitors. If someone finds your site on the search engine, and he tries to access it but find that it is down, he'll simply go down the list to find another site. Slow access is also very frustrating for visitors (and for you too, when you upload your site). How do you know if a host is reliable or fast? If you can't get feedback from anyone, one way is to try it out yourself over a period of time, both during peak as well as off-peak hours. After all, it is free, so you can always experiment with it.

6. PHP and/or Perl :


It's quite possible for a website to work even without PHP or Perl access. For example, you can always use one of the many free script hosting services available that provide counters, search engines, forms, polls, mailing lists, etc, without requiring you to dabble with Perl or PHP scripts.However if you really want to do it yourself, with the minimum of advertising banners from these free providers, you will need either PHP or Perl access. Note that it is not enough to know they provide PHP or Perl access: you need to know the kind of environment your scripts run under: is it so restrictive that they are of no earthly use? For PHP scripts, does your web host allow you to use the mail() function, which allows your scripts to send email? For Perl scripts, do you have access to sendmail (a computer program) or its workalike?

7. Bandwidth allotment :


Nowadays, many free web hosts impose a limit on the amount of traffic your website can use per day and per month. This means that if the pages (and graphic images) on your site is loaded by visitors beyond a certain number of times per day (or per month), the web host will disable your web site (or perhaps send you a bill). It is difficult to recommend a specific minimum amount of bandwidth, since it depends on how you design your site, your target audience, and the number of visitors you're able to attract to your site. In general, 100MB traffic per month is too little for anything other than your personal home page and 1-3GB traffic per month is usually adequate for a simple site just starting out. Your mileage, however, will vary.

Not satisfied with the free web hosting service and you want a magical paid web hosting then wait until my next post choosing a "Commercial Web Hosting Service".

How to Build a Professional Looking Website For Free

This is how to build a web-site that you will love and won't have to pay for.

Prepare your website plan. Before setting up an account for a free site, decide what the focus of your site will be. Collect Information, pictures, and write some of the text ahead of time to familiarize yourself with your idea and get comfortable with the process. Decide if you will use artwork or photos on your site. Make sure your photos/artwork/music is royalty/copyright free.

Use Google or some other search engine and look for web sites offering free web sites and compare some of your choices. Remember that when using a free services, your website will be supported by advertising to allow you to get in for free.

  • Keep in mind if someday you might want to bump your freebie site up into a higher level and look for those sites that offer that feature.

  • Some sites also offer tools to help the technically challenged in creating their sites. Certain sites also offer levels to get you started off immediately and let you come back later to upgrade and update later as your tech skills grow.

Choose your web-site offering free service. Set your password and username and WRITE THEM DOWN. You would not believe how many people actually forget within an hour of setting their accounts up.

Use Google or another search engine to find images/sounds/graphics that relate to your site - don't forget to get permission give link backs crediting original artwork or material that you are allowed to use.(Link backs are small hyperlink graphics or text words with the original creative site's web address that your visitors can click on to see the original creator's site).

Find a free WYSIWYG editor. This stands for What You See Is What You Get and is an excellent way to be introduced to the world of building and creating websites.

Consider using website templates. Utilizing website templates allows you to quickly use a pre-made design which you can choose and replace the text with your own to produce a great looking website. Be sure to look for a simple design layout as more sophisticated templates may be difficult to edit until you’re more skilled. Template galleries can be found at css4free.com and oswd.org.

Here is a featured video for better understanding creating a website :)

Video

If you need some more help regarding choosing a free host for your website read this "How to choose a free web hosting"