Getting started with Microsoft Photostory 3

Transcription

1 Getting started with Microsoft Photostory 3 This tutorial will take you through how to create a digital movie in FIVE BASIC STEPS. At each step, there are also Advanced Features available and these are listed at the bottom of the page, should you wish to extend your skills. A great feature of the PhotoStory wizard is that it doesn t just go in one direction - you can move between the steps using the Back and Next buttons at any time. Another great feature is that Photostory creates automatic pan and zoom effects to your movie, but you can customise these yourself if necessary. PREPARATION: On your machine, or network drive, create a folder or directory, and name it appropriately. All images, music and Photostory 3 files will be stored in this folder. This tutorial assumes you have located the images you will use to create your digital story. 1. Open Photostory Select Begin a New Story 3. Click Next. (You can also edit a previously made story or play a story)

2 STEP 1: Import your pictures 1. Click Import Pictures. 2. Locate the folder where your images are located and select images that you wish to import. To import multiple images at once, hold the control key down and select each one individually (or if you are importing all images in a particular folder, just press Ctrl+A to select all). Click OK once selected. The images will now load into the timeline. 3. To reorder your images, click and drag and reposition in the timeline. NB: You can always add other images later, by repeating step 2 above. Advanced Features available here: Remove black borders Crop and Rotate images Auto fix contrast, colour levels and red eye Add effects to pictures (eg. Negative effect, sepia etc)

3 STEP 2: Add titles to your pictures 1. Click on the slide you wish to add text to. 2. Type your title into the window and use the various tools to change the font, font color and the positioning of the title on the slide. 3. Click Next. Effects can also be accessed here. Click on the arrows to move through the slides to add text to any image. NB: You may wish to add a blank background image at the beginning of the digital story to hold the title. You can create one in Paint (Image size: 800 x 600) or download some pre-made backgrounds from our Podcasting Resources page. Advanced Features available here: Add effects to pictures (as in Step 1) Click on Save Project at the bottom of the screen regularly you ll be glad you did!

4 STEP 3: Narrate your movie IMPORTANT: Before you record, insert your microphone into the microphone port in your computer. Configure the microphone and sound level by running the Sound Hardware Test Wizard (see picture below). 1. Select the image you want to record sound on. 2. Click on the record sound button. 3. Record your narration. Click on the stop button. 4. Test your voice-over by selecting the Preview button 5. If acceptable, repeat steps 1-4 for all pictures. If the narration needs to be redone, remove the narration by clicking the remove button (see picture below) and follow steps 1-4 again. 6. Click Next to continue. Run the Sound Hardware Test Wizard Step 3. Click to stop recording Advanced Features available here: Customise duration of each image Customise Motion (pan, zoom in, zoom out) Add transitions (eg. cross fade, page curl)

5 STEP 4: Add background music 1. FIRST, click on the picture from which you wish the music to start. For example, if you want the music to start from the start of the movie, click the first picture. 2. Click on the Select Music button 3. Browse your computer and select music files (mp3, wma or wav files) that you have stored. 4. Click Open IMPORTANT: If you are going to distribute or publicly screen your movie, be careful using tracks from an external source. It is safer to use royalty-free music to avoid copyright issues. A list of websites with royalty-free music is available in the Podcasting Resources page in our course. Create your own music (and avoid copyright issues) The Create Music button enables you to take advantage of the onboard music samples of Photostory 3 and create your own unique track. 1. Click on Create Music and a new window will appear (see right). 5. Using the drop-down menus, select the Genre, Style, Band, Mood, Tempo and Intensity 6. Play to preview the music. If you like it, click OK. If not, alter the settings and try another combination. 7. The music will now load into the movie, and the Add Background Music window will return (see next page).

6 8. Adjust the volume of the music track (see image below) 9. Click Preview to test the music at this volume 10. Click on Next. NB: To add more than one music track to your movie (i.e. apply different audio to different sections of the movie), select another image in the timeline and repeat the above process. The new track will begin from the start of the selected slide. Each different track will appear in a different colour.

7 STEP 5: Save your movie 1. Under Activities, select Save your story for playback on your computer 2. Under File name, browse to select the folder where you want to save your movie and give your movie a file name that you will recall later 3. Click on Settings. You may wish to save the movie as a 320 x 240 file if you intend to post the movies online. Otherwise, the default, 640 x 480 is fine. 4. Click on Next, and Photostory will start building your movie into a.wmv file. 5. Once finished, click on View your story to check it out! Congratulations You have now created your own digital movie! Created by Krystie Alleaume, 2007 Screenshots from

8 Customising Motion in Photostory 3 Motion 1. Click the Back or Next button to bring up the Narrate your Story screen (Step 3 above) 2. Click on the image in the timeline you wish to work with. 3. Click on Customise Motion underneath the image preview window and the Motion and Duration tab will appear. 4. Check the Specify start and end position of motion option. Then use the handles on the images to position the start and end images for the desired effect. 5. Click on Preview to see if the outcome is your desired motion for the image NB: Set start position to be the same as end position of the previous picture allows for smooth transitions between the images. Set end position to be the same as the start position deletes the automatically-generated pans and zooms.

9 Duration 1. Just beneath the Motion settings, you will find the Duration settings. 2. If you are happy with the Photostory default of 5 seconds, then leave it as Set duration automatically. If not, select Number of seconds to display the picture and type in your preferred duration (in seconds) 3. Click on Preview 4. If you are happy with the Motion and Duration, click on Save. NOTE: this is a save function just for this image effect it does not save the project. 5. Use the arrows to migrate to the next image (see picture on previous page). Transitions NOTE 1: Photostory 3 defaults to the Cross Dissolve transition While you are customising the motion and duration, you can also customise the transition style between images. 1. Click the Transition tab across the top of the Customise Motion window. The program displays the previous picture and the current picture with the transition effect in between the two. Select transition style Change length of transition 2. Scroll down and select a transition that you like. 3. Click on preview to see if you d like to keep the transition you have selected. 4. If you do, click on Save. 5. Use the arrows below the time display to migrate from picture to picture and repeat steps 2-4 for each image. Created by Krystie Alleaume, 2007