Video Effects are fun and very easy to add to your video. Movie Maker comes with 28 video effects already built into the application.

If you are using Windows Vista, Movie Maker version comes with even more video effects. You can find Video Effects by clicking View Video Effects in the Task bar on the left panel.

Watch the Windows Movie Maker video tutorial below for some cool ways to use video effects.



Notes &Tips

The 4 Video Effects I like to use are:

• Ease In and Fade Out - I use them on still pictures, it gives it a perception of motion.
• Slow Down - I use it to create slow motion effect like my son hitting a baseball. Put the right sound effect with it and you got one cool scene.
• Speed Up - I use it to add comical effects. Like kids running and grabbing loot from a pinata.
• This video effect I don’t use as much: Brightness, Increase - I use it to lighten up a dark video scene. Since I’ve gotten better at using my camcorder, I don’t get as much dark videos anymore.

Go easy on video effects. They are only striking if you do it sparingly. And nothing smells more amateurish than a movie with too many senseless video effects.

Homework

• Open your Movie Maker project if it’s not open yet.
• Click ‘View Video Effects’ on the Tasks List so you see the video effects on the Collection pane.
• Double-click on a few video effects to preview them. Not all video effects have motion so you may not see any thing on the preview window.
• Experiment adding Ease in/Ease out to your still picture clips on the time line.
• Experiment adding Slow Down to a video clip and see how it doubles the clip length. Preview the slow motion effect.