Comments

ritsmer wrote on 5/26/2008, 8:11 AM
Oh, yes, very much.

You can:
- import the pictures,
- pan and zoom in them in kind of Ken Burns fashion,
- adjust colours,
- put more pics together in overlays,
- add FX's - Sony's own - or special ones like NewBlue Cartooner or pastel painting, oil painting or or or...
- add transitions,
- add music
- adjust the length of the pictures to the beat of the music,
- add sounds and add texts,
- narration and at last render it and put it on a DVD.
Of course: quality costs, and be prepared to use some good playtime nudging the pan/scan etc. to perfection... (whatever that is :-)

I have just finished a "video" from a 2 weeks skiing holyday - and as my video camera said goodbye I had to "film" the thing with my 3,2 Mpix mobile phone and the resulting 12 min. feature consists of some hundred stills put together with sounds, music etc etc. It took approximately 40 working hours to edit that "video"

Have fun
ritsmer
OhMyGosh wrote on 5/26/2008, 8:49 AM
Wow, you go ritsmer! That's the old never say die attitude ;) Seriously though, this slide show question comes up every couple of weeks, and I have to say I don't find Vegas very useful for that. Not to say I don't use several stills here and there with effects and such, but when I'm working with a lot of stills, I use a program made just for slide shows (such as ProShow Gold) and it is ten times faster and better for me. I can always create and save the project, and then import it into Vegas, if that is my final destination. Vegas does a good job if you have the time and patience, but other programs seem to be better suited to the task. Just my opinion. Cin
Kahuna wrote on 5/26/2008, 10:46 AM
Can one add a graphic, such as an arrow or pointer, into a slide show? If yes, how?
Chienworks wrote on 5/26/2008, 11:57 AM
The most straightforward way is to create the graphic as an image file with a transparent background and import this onto a track above the slide show. You can then use Pan/Crop or Track motion to size it, spin it, and position it where desired.

The simplest way is to use a font like Wingdings that contains pointers and arrows. Use the text generator to size and position the graphic characters where you want them.
cmcdonald wrote on 5/26/2008, 6:47 PM
I originally purchased VMS specifically to make slide shows. I have created many slide shows (or actually combinations of slides and video) set to music for sports teams, band, drill team, scouts, and family. The problem I had with the "slide show programs" is that it seems like most can only accept one or two background music files. I also use VMS for transferring old 8mm and Super 8 film to DVD and those tend to be as much as 1-hour DVDs. For this I need multiple background music files. While VMS may not be the fastest when it comes to making a slideshow, it is great having all the options available. Now I am considering moving up to Vegas Pro but that is another story.