Question about an effect...

Lou-chan · Post by **Lou-chan** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:55 am

I've recently started to make some AMVs using Windows Movie Maker and since I'm still quite n00b on doing it there is still a lot I don't know.
For example...
How do I make two clips play at the same time, going transparently over each other?

Purge · Post by **Purge** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 9:01 am

windows movie maker cant do that sadly -

Lou-chan · Post by **Lou-chan** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 9:13 am

Aw, really?
That's a shame.
What programs do have this effect then?
(And are still easy to use like WMM?)

Jayn_Newell · Post by **Jayn_Newell** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 9:20 am

Bascially look for anything with multi-track editing and you should be good. As for being as easy, I know I'm not the only one who found transitioning to Vegas to be easy (and honestly, I find it easier than WMM to work with, although the trimmer takes some getting used to). I don't have any experience with other programs though, so I can't really give much advice.

Shazzy · Post by **Shazzy** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 11:02 am

Really nothing is going to be as easy as WMM. Learning curves shouldn't deter you though, the more advanced programs aren't impossible to learn, they just take time and patience. You'll have much more editing power at your disposal...wouldn't you rather that than settle for something because it's easy?

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:30 pm

It is possible to get a simulated effect like overlays in WMM. It involves crossfading the clips together for as long as possible. The ends will not have much, if any of the overlay effect. And you can't control the opacity of one clip over the other one. You can get rid of the un-crossfaded segments but exporting the clip part you need and re-importing it again, but even if you use DV-AVI, you will lose a little quality doing this.

Purge · Post by **Purge** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 9:06 pm

seems a like little to much work willen - you can do the overlay effect with avisynth (overlay command) or get WAX and use that if you can work it out.

headphone_child · Post by **headphone_child** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 9:17 pm

You actually can achieve this effect in Movie Maker if you create a custom transition (as a *.xml document in notepad) that does just that.

Willen wrote:And you can't control the opacity of one clip over the other one. You can get rid of the un-crossfaded segments but exporting the clip part you need and re-importing it again, but even if you use DV-AVI, you will lose a little quality doing this.

You can even control the opacity by setting by using this method, as long as you set what you want in the XML. I have the document that allows overlaying transitions at 5, 10, 15...90, 95%, ect. You could even modify that XML document to allow it to be as specific as 1%, though I don't see the need as each overlay is displayed as a separate transition (and 98 of those is unnecessary).

By the way, if you wanted to try the exporting and re-importing method, just create a lossless WMV profile in Windows Media Profile Editor available through Windows Media Encoder. I'll elaborate on this if requested, though google always works.

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 11:49 pm

Creating Custom Effects and Transitions in Windows Movie Maker

Seems a bit complicated for the average user to do.

And I've heard that even lossless WMV isn't bulletproof either (but better than using DV-AVI for this).

I also didn't want to mention AviSynth for the same reason as the custom WMM transitions - complexity. Although if you are willing to invest some time and learn some basic programming/scripting, you can do some neat things.

As for program suggestions, just about every other mid to higher level editing program can do this, as long as it has multiple tracks to edit with. Some examples are Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas, Magix Movie Edit Pro, and the higher version of Pinnacle Studio.

The one feature people may miss that WMM uses and most others don't is automatic clip generation. Magix has a scene recognition function that can do the same or similar, although I've never used it in my copy of Magix.

Gepetto · Post by **Gepetto** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:23 am

When a person is ready to go about editing xml files for the puropse of overlaying two clips, I say they're ready to drop the training wheels and upgrade from WMM into something better.