Chienworks,
Excellent offer! I've been using the Dazzle Webcast Theater previously (for a small fee of $5.00 p/month) and would welcome having access to your site. I just received Video Factory in the mail yesterday and really like it so far. Have been using Videowave 5, Ulead Video Studio 5&6, and Moviestar and trying to get around all of the bugs. You can check out a couple of my shows at dazzle.com, go to webcast theater gallery, search on Hawaiian, hit the view button. Thanks again for your offer.
Aloha,
Randy

Great post....I hope to see alot here, even it is just something silly. I just want to see what others are doing, and maybe some good editing ideas.

I uploaded one into that directory to get us started. This one most definately falls heavily into the silly category. It's actually a filmmaking class project by the kids in my church's youthgroup, and they asked me to help on the editing with them. So my only involvement was that i own a computer with Sonic Foundry software installed on it. They did all the rest.

http://www.vegasusers.com/vidshare/

The file is deathofasamurai and is uploaded in both WMV and RM formats, and also at 56Kbps and 256Kbps for both formats. To access the WMV formats, click on the links to stream them in MSIE, or right-mouse-button click to save them to your drive from MSIE or Netscape. To access the RM formats, click on the .ram links to stream them or right-mouse-button click on the .rm links to save them to your drive. The video is about 13.3 minutes long.

ps. Oh, to be blatantly honest, this was edited in Vegas. But there's absolutely nothing it it that couldn't have been done in Video Factory.

To help get this thing going, I just sent you a short movie. A tribute to our dog who passed away last December. I sent it to vidfact@chienworks.com.

It was made up with only photos since I did not own a camcorder. I think it turned out well. It will give some ideas of what can be done with VF.

It was only the third project I have done so far.

Hope to see a lot more input on this gallery project.

-Tim

Tim,
Tried to watch your movie but got a runtime error. Death of a Samarai ran fine (see what you mean Chienworks, but they get an A for effort).

Chienworks,
I'll send you a file tonight when I get home.
Later,
Randy

Chienworks,
Noticed the stop motion with text overlay. What's the best way to do that? Take a snapshot of the frame and overlay text for 4 seconds or is there a feature in VF that I don't know about?
Randy

Thanks for letting me know. I just sent Chienworks another copy.

I tested it here first and it works fine.

-Tim

Stewartr, yes, creating a still image is the best way to do that. Vegas has a nifty feature called "velocity" that is even easier though.

Tim--Good job. The zooming is really impressive and adds a nice effect.

Thanks. I like that effect as well. Although it seems to be a little confusing to use. Like you hit the END button, then change the zoom/pan for the end of the shot, then hit the CLOSE button.

To me it should be, set the begining and hit the BEGIN. Then select the zoom/pan and hit END.

But at least it works. Everytime I need it I have to search the help file again to remind me how it works ;-)

-Tim

I think it's very clear the way it works now. I especially like the fact that the cursor moves to the beginning and ending frame when those buttons are pushed so you can see it in the preview window.

But the interface could use some improvement. Instead of Begin and End "Buttons", they should be "Tabs" which reveal "Begin" and "End" tabbed windows. Anything that can be "transformed" should be within the tabbed windows and anything that cannot be transformed should be outside the tabbed windows. For instance, in a text item, it is possible to enter different text for the "Begin" and "End" buttons, but the "End" text is never used. This should be outside the tabbed window since it cannot be transformed.

I'll be adding an upload feature tonight. It's been pointed out to me that not everyone can eMail large files.

Thanks Chienworks! I'll be using it for sure!

Tim, good show!

Randy

The upload feature is there now. It seems to be working ok. There is a file size limit, and the uploaded file won't be accessible immediately. It will sit waiting for me to review it first before it gets placed in the gallery.

http://www.vegasusers.com/vidshare/

Have fun! Let's see your cool stuff :)

Tim;

I just reviewed your movie - very nice job. I just completed a similar project (still photos with cross-fades) for my daughter's graduation reception. One thing I noticed was how much nicer your photos renedered than mine did. Could you tell me what resolution you scanned them at? I did mine at 300 dpi, but I am thinking I should use double that. Or am I on the wrong track?

Any insight you could provide would be greatly appreciated. If you would like to email me, my address is dan@dmhamm.org.

Thank you for your time.

These photos were taken from my old digital camera. I think the best it does is 640x480. I just loaded one of the pictures up in photodeluxe and it says the dpi is 72. All my photos are less than 300kb.

I don't think you need 300 dpi when your goal output is a TV screen with a lower resolution then a computer or printer.

Good luck and post it when your finished. I'd like to see it.

-Tim

DPI really doesn't have any meaning in video. The thing to worry about is overall pixel dimensions of the image. The final output of digital video is approximately 655x480 pixels, and if you're not planning on zooming/cropping, then any size above this is just wasted. What you will use DPI for is to determing the resolution to scan. If you're scanning 6x4" prints, then scanning them at 150 DPI will result in a 900x600 pixel image, which gives you a comfortable amount of extra size for cropping. An 8x10" photograph will only need to be scanned at 70 DPI to fill the video frame, and a cameo print will have to be scanned at 300 DPI. But once the image is scanned, all that matters is pixels.

The only reason to have a larger image would be for cropping/zooming in/panning. Even then you only need as much extra size to make the smallest cropped part 640x480. Not only is any size above this wasted, but when Video Factory renders the output file it will have to resize the image, and resizing it can cause it to be fuzzy or blurry.

Hmmm, now that's interesting...

I would have thought that providing a higher resolution would be better for the rendering process. But you're telling me that if I scan a picture with, say, 1024 x 768 pixels, that it might turn out more fuzzy than one that is scanned at 800 x 600 which is closer to the final resolution? Have I got that right? Seems odd - but as I said, I am totally new to this.

Hammer, that is absolutely correct. When the rendering process resizes the picture to the final video frame size, it has to resample the pixels and information will be lost. Pixels will be averaged together, and then a "smoothing" algorithm applied to cover up any aliasing affects. The greater the reduction in size, the more pronounced this will be. The best method is to size the picture to 655x480 in whatever photo editing software you use first and sharpen as necessary before importing it into Video Factory. That way you have complete control over the final version and the rendering process won't have to resample it.