http://www.flipalbum.com/

Flip Album creates an album of photos and displays them in a page flipping manner. The Pro version will also create a MPEG-1 file of the album cycling through the pages. This could be imported into Vegas and edited to get the results that you want. Flip Album Pro also allows MPEG-1 and avi's to be placed on the pages. I haven't tried these features yet, so no guarantees!

I don't know if you're planning on doing weddings in general, or if this is a one-time deal.

Take a look at this:
http://www.digitaljuice.com/products/products.asp?cid=&pid=39

Editing is fun, but there always seems to be something else that you can buy :)
(BTW, I do not work for digital juice, I've only used their products).

John Lanza

You mean just like in theatrical or film productions??? What? They dont do that in a theatrical or film production?? You mean they only do cuts and dissolves?? Oh ok.. you want to do a novelty production just for fun..

I guess my point being that I try to make my productions look professional and all of those silly transitions screams out.. NOVICE... Not trying to be an Ahole just giving a different p[oint of view.. my 2c

Cuts and crossfades is pretty much all I use - maybe a little slo-mo now and then.

As far I'm concerned, I consider the whole process a success if no-one notices the editing!

good point.. Slow mo I use as well; it creates lots of drama.. its fun to watch the tear fill the bride or grooms eyes while watching the video your right on target DVDude

> I try to make my productions look professional and all of those silly transitions screams out.. NOVICE...

That depends on how many you use. I agree with you that making every other transition some wiz-bang 3D event screams NOVICE. 95% of the transitions (maybe more) should be just cuts and dissolves. But having a wedding video open with a wedding album, turn the page after the ceremony leading into the reception, then close the book at the end, is a nice touch that most brides and grooms enjoy. (after all, marriage is a bit of a novelty) ;-) I’ve even used a 3D transition after the toast where the outgoing video wraps around a bottle of champagne and the incoming video is poured out of the bottle and I get compliments on it. Not everyone might like it but most do because it can make the festive occasion special.

Moderation is the correct advice here, not total avoidance. So four (4) 3D transitions between the major parts of a wedding video out of hundreds of cuts and fades does not scream NOVICE anymore than having a few special effect photographic shots with the bride and groom in a champagne glass or a heart over their wedding song sheet music is in their wedding photo album. (Photographers actually charge more for these shots and brides and grooms buy them) A wedding is not a major motion picture event and subtle well placed effects can add to it.

I do a video yearbook for my children’s school each year. Guess what, it opens with the dynamic creation of the front cover the actual paper yearbook from 3D components. The book then opens to reveal the first set of pictures (faculty), the book reappears with a page turn between each of the two major sections and it ends with the book closing. A total of 4 times in a 20 minute video. The rest of the video is cuts and fades except for the fireworks display in the background under the ending credit role of the graduating class names. IMHO, the book metaphor works well for video yearbooks and would also work well for wedding albums in videos.

So the advice I would give a novice is to limit the use of special effect transitions to emphasize the movement between the major parts of their video but not to overdo it. As for nothing but cuts and fades in a major motion picture, I guess someone should tell George Lucas that he screams NOVICE when he uses diagonal wipes between the major scene changes in START WARS. There is a place for everything. The talent is knowing when its appropriate to use it. Let’s not even talk about Monday Night Football. (now that’s a 3D nightmare!) ;-)

~jr

Johnny Roy your right.. I was maybe being snobish.. I make mine as a selection on the DVD
short form - Ceremony
short form - Reception
xtras'
love story
2ndary location
still digital photography package.
Try to get $750 for ceremony and $750 reception.. Extras $495
buy one get one free.. The key is to steer your customer who wants the $750 basic package into the $2000 deal... Anyone else have marketing strategies similiar?? Im kinda new and can learn from others..

>Moderation is the correct advice here, not total avoidance.

That's the magic word - moderation.

On the last project I did (for my niece), I had some (hopefully) interesting stuff in the intro and at the tail end, And the work involved to make the whole thing flow was more extensive than it looks, but the whole thing had the desired effect.

Just to put an idea out there that someone might be interested in, here's what I did:

I rounded up as many childhood photo's of both as I could. I then sorted them so that, where I could, I could roughly match the years the photo's were taken. I chose about 5 of each. I found a pair of photo frames (nice simple, brushed aluminium ones) and took a photo of them on a table with a vase of flowers and a single rose in front of one frame. The second frame rested on an object to raise it a little and put it slightly behind the first. I took the photo into my photo editor and manually created a mask where the photo would normally be, then filled the area with a solid primary color (green I think - can't quite remember). With the mask edge softened a little, this image was then resized and cropped to fit the 720x480 video frame (taking into account the Non-squareness of video pixels. The photo's were scanned and resized/positioned to place them in the frames and chroma-keyed in. This provided the intro, so the photo's dissolve into the next chronological one, alternating between her and him, until the sequence is complete (about 45 seconds). I'd held a mini interview session with the couple prior to the event and still frames of each became the final "framed" photos. Everything else in the image then melted away to reveal the first shot of the interview sequence. None of this was done in Vegas as I hadn't graduated to that yet, so lip syncing the footage from the second camera was a real chore, My final gift to the couple became the set of photo frames I'd used in the video, with suitable photo's taken at the bridal shoot, to kind of bring the thing together.

The tail end shows the earliest photo's, changing to the photo's I actually put in the frames (but keyed in for quality reasons). Other than this and a little slo-mo, everything else was pretty much cuts and crossfades (with some work in the soundtrack to make the reception appear multi-camera even though it wasn't).

I'm not in the business of producing any video for profit, just honing my skills at this point. Should I ever aspire to becoming a "pro", I'm hoping these experiences might help.