OT - MS PhotoStory 3 for picturebook videos

dibbkd wrote on 7/3/2006, 11:01 AM

I know hardly anyone makes claims that Vegas is the best tool for making picturebook videos, and I know there are several really cool apps available for making picture slideshows, but I ran across MS's PhotoStory 3 today and it is REALLY REALLY easy to make quick and pretty good looking videos.

The video below took me less than 3 minutes, and this was the first time I used it:

PhotoStory 3 video

If you have some other app you use to make picture videos, go for it, but if you are currently using Vegas and it's pan/crop to make them, stop now and use PhotoStory 3.

Oh, and it's a free MS download.

Comments

DavidMcKnight wrote on 7/3/2006, 12:10 PM

You certainly can't argue with free, but I do prefer to stay in Vegas and use Ultimate S 2 from VASST (they also have just the photo module called StillMotion). When you're done running the script - which takes seconds, including loading the photos from disk - you're left with a veg file that you continue to tweak if desired.

The important thing - your end result - looks great, btw.

DGates wrote on 7/3/2006, 1:02 PM

I downloaded it and fiddled with it a bit. It does seem easy. I'd like the option of outputting to a avi file. I saw the DVD template, but that's mpeg.

Whatever plug-in I needed before I dowloaded PS3 caused my computer to slow to a crawl, so I restored back to yesterday (so no more PhotoStory). I have lousy luck with MS upgrades/patches. In fact, ever since SP2 screwed me up, I haven't upgraded or patched anything. That has to be close to 2 years. But at least my computer's running the way I want it to.

mr.beebo wrote on 7/3/2006, 2:41 PM

Attended a funeral last summer and the son of the deseased requested I do a last minute montage on his computer the night before. All he had was PS. Looks great, great interface, straightforward. A Jekyl and Hyde she was. I was up all night trying to figure out why the renders skiped and some pics blacked out. I'd have been better off driving the three hours back home and doing it on V6. Anyhow, it may be a good program, but I'll stick with Vegas and Ultimate S.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 7/3/2006, 4:20 PM

very adorable. :)

Only one gripe about PS3 though.... it must render to a wierd codec. I needed to download one to run the video.

douglas_clark wrote on 7/4/2006, 3:07 AM

Yeah...what is the Photo Story 3 codec?

According to the Photo Story FAQ, the codec is included in Win Media Player 10, but not 9.

Very interesting note under "What is the difference between Photo Story and Windows Media Maker":
Another difference is that the WMV file created by Photo Story 3 uses a special codec that is highly optimized for saving videos that are generated from images with pan and zoom. This special codec allows compressing the video to very small file sizes while maintaining high video quality. Windows Movie Maker is optimized for general purpose video files. If a photo story WMV file is opened and saved in Windows Movie Maker, the file sizes will be much higher for the corresponding video quality.

What is the "highly optimized" MWV codec, and can/should we use it for encoding Vegas photo montages?

TheHappyFriar wrote on 7/4/2006, 6:45 AM

i'm guessing not because we can only render up to WMV 9. Maybe in Vegas 7. :)

i had to load up the video in WMP9 for the codec to be autodownloaded. I couldn't find the codec on the web (in my limited searches)

rs170a wrote on 7/4/2006, 7:34 AM

I couldn't find the codec on the web

Windows Media 9 codec.

Mike

TheHappyFriar wrote on 7/4/2006, 8:15 AM

i'm pretty sure I already had this installed. Infact, I know I do because I downloaded all the updated codec's last year & this came out in 2K4. Maybe it's a winXP thing?