Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 9/21/2003, 9:32 AM
Far superior to anything I’ve used. In fact, it was the slide show capabilities and second video track that made me buy VideoFactory 2. I do a slide show each year for the graduating class at my children’s school and I get pictures in all shapes and sizes to scan in. I don’t even bother to make them all the same size. I just drop them on the timeline and adjust the aspect ratio to 4:3 and VideoFactory crops them to the right size. Then I use pan and zoom to give them motion. Once you add a sound track, people forget they are watching a slide show and begin to feel it’s a movie. It’s amazing how a little movement can bring life to a static image.

There are specialized products costing lots more money just to do animated slide shows but VideoFactory/MovieStudio has them beat because it does everything they do AND it’s also a darn good NLE as well. You’re gonna be very happy with your choice.

~jr
vwcrusher wrote on 9/21/2003, 1:13 PM
jr,
Thanks very much! Wow, better than I thought!

Can't wait,
Allen
eric321 wrote on 9/25/2003, 3:59 PM
JohnnyRoy,

What resolutions do you do your scans at? As a prior Studio7/8 user like you, I have done my previous slide shows by sizing everything to 640x480 (S8 seems to have a bug where 720x480 images show at strange proportions).

Now that I have pan/zoom capability, I should use a lot higher resolution so I have room to move around, right? You said it doesn't matter the size or shape, MovieStudio crops it correctly. So other that cropping, what size should a graphic be? After I scan, I like to adjust the picture for color/brightness/red eye/take out flaws/etc, and normally that's where I do the sizing too. Should I just not worry about it?
JohnnyRoy wrote on 9/25/2003, 8:48 PM
Yes, you definitely want to have more that 640x480 otherwise zooming in will get pixilated quickly. I’ve been scanning at 300dpi and I find that’s more than enough for the 4x6 photos that I use. That gives me 1200x1800 resolution. The first thing I do is adjust the aspect ratio to match the output aspect and then position cropping rectangle for the initial position of the photo. I then add a keyframe for my pan or zoom and set the final size and I’m done. It goes pretty quickly. I color correct in Paint Shop Pro as I go. You can even color correct after the pictures are on the timeline because MovieStudio will sense the change and pick up the new image.

~jr
rdwhitehill wrote on 9/26/2003, 8:35 PM
Oh my gosh... you'll be flabbergasted by SBMS's capabilities! (I use VideoFactory v2.0c; essentially the same thing...)
The pan and zoom features are incredible and *SO* easy to use, and they breathe life into any slide show. Transitions are very smooth.
Anyway...
I pose a "challenge" to my school students to storyboard and produce a slide show using VF within two hours using existing or web-obtained media, including video, music and optional dialogue. VF is so capable and functional yet easy to use that I am always astounded by the end results that my students produce!
You'llnot find anything else anywhere in this price range or more expensive that rivals this product. Trust me... I've looked and tested a lot of video-editing software. This is as good as it gets.
Doug Whitehill