► APPLYING EFFECTS
Remember, you don't have to apply effects (fades, zooms, pans, etc.) to one photo at a time. To apply the same effects to a group of pictures, select (e.g. highlight) the desired group of photos by holding down the CTRL key while selecting the desired pictures.
*NOTE: Holding down the SHIFT key will highlight all the photos between any two selected pictures.
Next choose the desired transition or effect. You can also, under the EDIT option, select RANDOMIZE EFFECTS. Make sure you have only the effects you want turned on.
*NOTE: To turn transitions and effects on and off; click on the transition and effect tabs at the top of the Timeless Tributes™ window and check/uncheck the desired transitions/effects.
Keep the number of transitions and effects to a minimum. Too many effects can make your tribute look "rushed" and "busy". Save special effects such as rippling water or snowflakes for unique photos.
►REAL-TIME EDITING
We encourage you to create your "draft shows" in HTML form… they create quickly (10-60 seconds). Now here is a simple trick - view your HTML show in one window while editing the same show in another. Sounds complicated?... it's not!
1. Reduce the window size so that it takes up the left-half of the screen.
2. Move the playing video to the left-half of the screen… allowing you to view both your tribute video project and the video simultaneously.
3. Now edit as you watch the actual video. Examine captions, transitions, hold & transition effects. Make desired changes immediately to the project file. Don't worry if the video "gets ahead" of you, you can click the replay button at the end and restart the video to fill-in the gaps. This is a great time-saver and allows you to polish your tribute video in 1-2 quick passes.
► TIMING
Don't use too many photo effects (e.g. zooms, pans, fades, rippling water, etc.) or transition your pictures too quickly. Consider the following as a good "starting point" then watch your completed video and "edit to taste".
PHOTO TRANSITIONS - 3 seconds for transitions-in and -out
PHOTO DISPLAY (EFFECT) - 5 seconds
NUMBER OF TRANSITIONS - keep the number of transition and hold effects to a minimum. Start with 2-3. Add unique effects selectively to special photos.
If you follow these guidelines, each photo will take 11 seconds of show time. That means a 40 photo show will take 440 seconds or just over 7 minutes… longer than you might think.
*TIP: A tip provided to us by a customer who wanted to use 50 photos in a 5 minute video, was to take a group of similar photos and speed them up… using only fade in/out and "no effects" during display time. This allows you to quickly show a series of photos with an "upbeat" tempo.
► TEXT ONLY SLIDES
A common practice is to have a text only screen either a prayer, or a leading "In Memory of" screen. This is usually the 1st or 2nd screen. In your "C:/VideoTributes/Photos" directory you will find a "blank photo". This a special transparent photo that you can add captions to. Also note that your "C:/VideoTributes/Slides" directory has a variety of hymns and prayers that you can insert into your video.
► RECREATE VIDEOS QUICKLY
A shortcut to recreating a DVD:
- Open the project file
- Go to TOOLS
- Select CREATE DVD. The project will remember the name and location of your last video file (WMV) you created for this project and launch the DVD Burning software. You won't have to re-create the video (WMV) file.
This works if you haven't yet deleted or moved the video file. We recommend keeping the video file for only a week or so (they are too large to archive on your hard drive and you can recreate them as long as you keep you project file and photos.) Project files take very little room, so keep them and the photos for a year (it is not unusual for families to request additional tribute videos on the first anniversary.)
Don't have the photos and project file?… you can copy the DVD using NEO's copy DVD function. |
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