New to making videos, dumb questions

[celestine]

Trying to make my 1st video to go onto Youtube. I get the basic idea of combining photos, videos clips audio and text in a timeline/storyboard. My video would just be images and text. Tried to use Windows Movie Maker but it wouldn't let me move text around on top of images so I downloaded the free version of VideoPad. I try to upload photos from my computer into VideoPad but it will only let me access thumbnail versions of the photos which have low resolution and look blurry. The actual photos are in the Windows Photo Gallery which VideoPad can't seem to access. What do I need to do to upload the actual photos and not the thumbnail versions? It's probably a really easy answer. Thanks!

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

".....it will only let me access thumbnail versions of the photos which have low resolution and look blurry. "

 

VP uses thumbnails of your photos, making small copies that it uses on the sequence track as well a even smaller ones to use as thumbnail track. It places these in the cache file, but it also saves a note of where they are stored on your PC. It would take a lot of computer power to manipulate your images full size within the program. Thumbnails and the reduced size image of the preview screens make editing faster.

 

When your final video is rendered, VP uses the reference it made to the image's location to create the movie.

 

However, you may be referring to the thumbnail that Windows Image Gallery displays. In a similar way these are created simply for display purposes but they do have a location on your PC. (In a personel files called "Images" perhaps or an image file associated with the camera program)

If you open the Windows gallery and right click one of these thumbnails you will get the option to open the location of the actual image. This is the location that you should use in VP to get your image.

 

Nat

[celestine]

Nationalsolo:

 

Thank you for that, I've now been assembling the video. More issues:

 

I'm trying to get 2 text clips to play before my 1st image and I have a fade transition between them but the 2nd one always plays shorter than the 1st not matter what I do and I wanted them to play 5 seconds each what do I need to do?

 

My photos don't fill up the video window completely, leaving a blank space on each side. Consequently I can't get the text I want to overlay the image to line up with the image because if I position it on either side it always runs off the edge of the photo and into the blank space, is there a way to make the photo fit the window?

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

"My photos don't fill up the video window completely, leaving a blank space on each side"

 

The VP window has an aspect ratio of 16:9 and in order to fill this from top to bottom and side to side your images should be the same.

(e.g. 1280 x 720 or 1920 x 1080 pixels or similar multiples.)

If you are prepared to lose a little of your image you can use the "CROP" effect to acheive this.

Select the image in the sequence, click the yellow star at the left end and add the Crop effect. Force the aspect ratio to 16:9 and adjust the orange rectangle to the best position. Your image will now fill the screen.

If you use the Scale effect you can stretch out the image on the x axis to fill the frame, but I wouldn't recommend this as it will distort the image and it woiuld be a last resort.

 

"I'm trying to get 2 text clips to play before my 1st image and I have a fade transition between them but the 2nd one always plays shorter than the 1st not matter what I do and I wanted them to play 5 seconds each what do I need to do?"

 

Create a blank frame and place it on the sequence before your first image. This will be the background for your text. (You don't say in your post if you have a clip here or not.)

Now create and place your two text clips on to the overlay track, one following the other. Drag the ends out so the duration of each is about 7 seconds. It's up to you whether you want a gap between them but for this description move them so they touch.

 

Select the first text image and then click the yellow star. Select the "Opacity" effect. Check the red preview line is at the start of the clip and drag the opacity slider to the left so it shows 0%. The blue line will drop to the bottom.

Slide the red cursor line along to the 1 second mark (The little red square on the blue line will turn green,) and slide the Opacity marker to the right to show 100". Move the red cursor line to 1 second before the end of the clip and click the Green cross. This will fix the blue line once more. Slide the red cursor line to the end of the clip and adjust the Opacity to 0%.

The opacity of your text as shown by the blue line will start at 0% (transparent) rise to 100% at 1 second. Remain there until 1 second before the end of the clip and then reduce to 0%. In effect it will fade in and out but will be 100% for 5 seconds. Preview it to check.

Close the effects window. Wait for VP to generate the effect and then repeat it for the second text clip. Your text should follow each other with a 1 second fade out and a 1 second fade-in. Obviously you can adjust these timings within the effects window.

 

Nat