(1) Import photos into any version of Windows Movie Maker
(2) Drag photos down to spots on the storyboard
(3) Click "Publish Movie"
If you want to put the movie on youtube go there and click the yellow upload button. You can also add free audioswap music from youtube's library.
Click on pictures for a collage, click the green "Hold" button at the bottom of the screen to hold them in the "Tray."
Click the "Collage" button, in the middle of the bottom of the screen.
Click "Settings" on the left of the screen and try different types of collages. Below the collage prevew screen click "Shuffle" to move the photos.
Experiment with all the ways you can format the photos - picture piles, grids, borders, backgrounds.
Click "Create Collage" when you see one you like and save it to the desktop or your "Collage" album in Picasa.
2- Import the collages into Windows Movie Maker by Clicking "Import Media" and browsing
Drag the collages to the "Storyboard" or "Timeline" in the order you wish.
Write out narration notes, and record a voice-over. If you need to get information on your topic, search the internet.
Play the video and redo the parts you feel you can improve.
Publish the video on your computer. Save to the desktop.
3- Go to Youtube, Click on the yellow "Upload" button and as it's uploading fill in the title and description.
The photos were taken with a Panasonic Lumix Digital Camera, 7.2 Megapixel, 6X Optical Zoom, that I bought a year and a half ago on sale. Since Movie Maker is free, and so is Picasa, it doesn't have to cost a lot to have fun with multimedia.
Whether you're a student, an adult paying rent or a mortgage, or a retiree trying to keep up with health care costs, it's possible to do this on an economical budget.
The Audio screen will open. You'll see the "Start Narration" button in the upper right, with the "Stop Narration" button below it. To the right is the volume control, "Input."
About 2/3 of the way down the screen you'll see where you can click an arrow to choose your Audio device from a drop down box. I recommend using an external microphone because the sound quality will be so much better. You plug it into the USB port and your computer detects it and adds it to the audio device choices.
If you are not used to ad libbing you might want to write notes or outline what you plan to say in the narrative. You don't need to narrate the whole video in one long audio clip.
You can start and stop and make many smaller narrative clips. That way if you want to remove some of them and do them over later it's easier.
Wondering what to say? If it's a "how to" video you can give the sequence of steps. You could also report on what is happening at an event - who, what, when, where, why.
Here is how to make a 30 second video message to send to your friends and family, using photos.
When you think "video" you think of TV films but you can make a video out of photos from a digital camera. A camcorder will shoot moving objects. But, you can put digital photos together with music and text overlays to make a video. and upload it to youtube or any video site. Then email your friends the URL and when they click on it your new video will play. Sort of a video greeting card.
First, import the photos into Movie Maker, and import music or add it later from Audioswap on Youtube. Decide on a message or quotations that you want to use a text on top of the photos. Drag the photos down to the storyboard, click on a photo, choose "Add titles and credits," and click to choose your preferences. For text animation in the video below I used "text appears with no motion or fade" as it's easy to read, and the font chosen is "caligraphy." I used copyright free music I bought from http://partnersinrhyme but you can add Youtube's Audioswap music after uploading the video, too.
The video below is an example of using a an audio track that includes your own narrative plus music with sounds recorded by the camcorder in the background too. The directions to do this are below the video.
To add a narrative it's best to use a microphone instead of the speakers that come with your computer. The vocal quality will be much better. I used a Logitech microphone that plugs into a USB port. When you plug it in the computer automatically processed the software to use it.
In Windows Movie Maker 6.0 click on "Tools" in the menu across the top and choose "Narrate Timeline." With your video showing in the timeline, click to start playing it, click "Start Narration" and begin talking. Be sure the microphone button is turned on. When you are done click "Stop Narration."
You can start the narration at special points along the timeline. Between narration clips you can also add music clips. Below this you can add text also that shows on top of the video.
The text on top of the clips might be useful if someone is viewing the video without the sound turned on if the computer is in a library, public place or classroom.
To make the video I used a Canon FS100 camcorder with 48X zoom that I bought a year ago.