Editing The Raw Video

In this part we’re going to add music to our vod and save it in a compressed format, ready for uploading. I am going to use Windows Movie Maker, which everyone who uses Windows should already have.

1. Run Windows Movie Maker. It should be in your start menu by default. If you can’t find it, try to do start -> run -> moviemk

2. Select File -> Import Into Collections, and browse for your avi file then open. Again, your file is probably at C:\Program Files\Game Cam Lite v1.4\Media\Videos\war3. Windows Media Maker will take a couple minutes to import your video and split it into video segments.

import
After importing video is split into segments

3. If the bottom of your screen does not look like mine and you have a storyboard instead, hit “Show Timeline” to switch it. Next, click the first video clip then hold shift and click the last video clip to select all of the clips. Drag all of the video clips you have selected to the beginning of the Video part of the timeline below. You should see a graphic representation of the clips in the timeline. If you need to move them you can do that by dragging. Copy, cut, paste and delete also work in the timeline.
timeline
The timeline

Take a minute to save your video project.4. Import music into your project the same way you imported the video. Music files will not be split and you can drag them into the Audio/Music part of the timeline and arrange them however you like.Note: I’ve encountered two bugs with importing music. First, files will not be imported correctly and a 4 minute song might become 15 minutes. Second, after you save your video in a compressed format, a song might change length and become shorter. Your options are to either deal with it or change songs.5. Youtube has a maximum video length of 10 minutes, so if your video is longer than that we are going to need to split the video into parts There are two basic ways to choose split points: either split it at a logical time in the game, or at a song change. I prefer the latter.Here’s how to split your video or audio layer. You cannot split them both at the same time.

  • On the left side, click Video or Audio/Music to choose the active layer
  • Position the timeline cursor by clicking on a time in the timeline above the layers, or watch the video in the preview screen and pause at the right time
  • In the Clip menu, select Clip -> Split. You should see your video or music split into 2 segments.
  • If necessary, split the other layer at the same point. You won’t need to do this if you’re doing it at a song change. In this case you only have to split the video when the song changes

Tip: Use the + or – magnifying glasses to zoom in or out of the timeline.
Optional: You may also want to crop your music to make transitions cleaner.

Save your movie project before moving on.

6. Now that music is added and our movie is divided, we need to export the compressed movie files in parts. This is a little bit tricky because you have to delete parts of your movie to export a single part. I suggest saving a backup movie project as a different name in case things go wrong.

At the point you want to split part one from part two, delete everything after the split point, leaving only part one’s clips. Zoom out if necessary to see more time on your screen.

Then select from the file menu, File -> Save Movie File, and choose for Movie Location ‘My Computer.’ Enter a file name like ‘MyVod_Part1′ and choose where you want to save it. Click Next.

In the Movie Setting screen, choose the ‘Best fit to file size’ option and increase the default size by one or two MB’s. This helps to make sure you don’t lose any quality. Click next and Windows Movie Maker will take some time to save your movie as a wmv file.

save
Save Part 1

7. Get your part 2 (and maybe 3?) back. Either undo your deletions or open the backup saved project. Now delete part 1 (and part 3 if you have one). Move the part 2 files to the beginning of the timeline 0:00. Save the movie file the same way you saved part 1, and do the same for any other parts you may have.You may also want to save a complete joined file to keep or upload elsewhere.8. Watch your saved wmv file to check that everything went well, and repeat to previous steps if necessary.9. Find the folder that you saved your wmv files to, and right click -> properties on the files one at a time. Click the summary tab and change the title to something meaningful. Click okay.
properties
Properties

That’s it for editing your video! Of course you could add fancier titles or effects, but for this guide I am going to keep it simple.

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