VideoImpression Basics #Index topics: Welcome to VideoImpression Basics 1. Adding your own media files 2. Scene detection 3.

Movie editing 4. Themes 5. Trimming videos, audio and text effects 6. Resize Photo Settings 7. Entire movie mode vs. active clip mode 8. Duration 9. Narration 10. Creating slide shows 11. Exporting to VHS 12. Saving projects vs. producing movies 13. Why movie previews may look choppy 14. Why movies look choppy during playback #Welcome to VideoImpression Basics VideoImpression Basics shows you Basic program functions and helps answer some c ommon questions. You can select a topic from the pull-down above, and print eac h topic for easy access later. Feel free to come back to Basics at any time. U sing Basics won't affect any project you may be currently working on. #1. Adding your own media files Files are added to the Storyboard from albums. Albums don't actually store file s, but reference where they're stored. (You can get more information on albums from the Help file.) To create a new album, choose "<New Album>" from the album pull-down. You can add files to it by clicking "Add"(the manila folder next to the album pull-down). A window will appear that lets you browse your system an d select files. Once your files are in an album, you can include them in your p roject by placing them on the Storyboard. #2. Scene detection Scene detection is neat because it takes your video files and breaks them into s maller segments. The original video is kept intact, but the different scenes ar e "bookmarked" for your convenience. Instead of using the entire video, you can pick and choose the parts you like. When you select a file in an album that ha s scene detection, a separate window will appear, letting you see and select the different scenes available. #3. Movie editing In the step 2, you could modify still images, videos and audio files. You can a djust the brightness, contrast and duration of still images. You can adjust the brightness and contrast of videos as well. You can adjust the duration of tran sitions. In addition, you can set the start/end times of video clips. Audio fi les can be trimmed similarly; you can choose the start/end time to cut out secti ons at the beginning or end of a clip. #4. Themes "Themes" are sets of effects and transitions that can be automatically applied t o your movie. They're a great way to blend all of the components together and a dd a specific feel to your movie. Because it's done automatically, the time it will take you to create a cool, personal movie is significantly reduced. You'll need to have audio included in your project to use a theme. #5. Trimming videos, audio and text effects When editing videos, a set of markers will appear on the timer beneath the previ ew window on either side. These markers can be dragged along the timer to set t

he starting and ending points of a movie. The same applies to audio components as well as any added text-the audio or text will begin where you place the "Star t Marker" and end where you place the "End Marker". #6. Resize Photo Settings There are three different settings available under the Options menu. The settin g here basically determines how still images will be displayed in your movie. B est Fit will resize images so they fit completely within the viewing area. Fill & Crop will enlarge images so that the smaller of the two dimensions (length or height) fits in the display area with any excess area cropped out. Stretch to Fit will size images so that the larger of the two dimensions fits, and the shor ter of the two is stretched to fit (this will distort them). #7. Entire movie mode vs. active clip mode VideoImpression lets you preview either your entire movie or a single component. When "Entire Movie" is selected, everything on the Storyboard will play sequen tially. When "Active Clip" is selected, playback will only display the componen t on the Storyboard that is currently selected. #8. Duration The "Duration" pull-down is used to set the display time for still images and tr ansitions during your movie. You can use any value within the pull-down, or typ e in your own over the existing value. The pull-down will become disabled when you're editing a video or audio file because they already have set display times . (You can trim videos and movies by using the markers beneath the preview wind ow.) #9. Narration Adding narration is a great way to further personalize your movies. Before doin g the actual recording, you'll need to set the file name and save location. Onc e you take care of that, click "Start" Recording will stop automatically when th e duration of the associated clip is reached. (The audio will be linked to a se lected component on the Storyboard.) Don't forget to click "Apply"button to add your recording to the Storyboard (it's the arrow button above the Storyboard). #10. Creating slide shows Slide shows are created essentially the same way as videos. You won't be able t o apply a "Theme"to a slide show, however. Also, media edit and save options fo r slide shows are simplified. You can save either to your hard drive or directl y to a CD. Slide shows can be run by double-clicking the EXE file created withi n the save directory. #11. Exporting to VHS Your movies can be saved to a VHS tape if you have the appropriate hardware. Ex porting movies works similarly to recording a television broadcast; instead of t he television being your video source, your computer is. A handy diagram will s how you how to properly connect your computer to your VCR. When you're connecte d and ready to go, click "Start" Your computer will begin playback of your movie , at which point you can begin recording on the VCR. #12. Saving projects vs. producing movies By "project," we mean to say a file that contains all of the settings and each i ndividual component on the Storyboard. When you save your work as a project, yo u can go back and swap components, add and remove them, alter audio, etc. Proje ct files are readable only through VideoImpression. When you "Produce"a movie ( "Step 6: Produce"), you actually create a single movie file. These files can b e viewed by anyone with the appropriate media. #13. Why movie previews may look choppy When you preview movies, they are compiled in "Realtime," meaning your system is

assembling all movie components at the same time that they're being displayed o n your screen. This takes quite a bit of resources to perform smoothly, so you may experience some choppiness, especially if you have an older system or are wo rking with large files or larger amounts of files. #14. Why movies look choppy during playback Several things can be attributed to choppy playback, the first being the amount of available resources on your system, including processor speed, memory and har d drive specifications. One thing you can try is setting your hard drive to DMA mode. This can be done through the Windows Device Manager, which is accessed d ifferently depending on your operating system. Note that not all hard drives su pport this feature.