What Movie Maker do you use?

valeyard · Post by **valeyard** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 6:53 am

The programs you guys mention are cost prohibitive.

I don't have 600.00 to spend on a program, I'm going to use to make free music videos.

(and NO, I'm not interested in stealing it)

I'll stick to something free like WMM.

DrngdKreationz · Post by **DrngdKreationz** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 7:03 am

Adobe After Effects 6.0...
Nuff said.

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 9:09 am

valeyard wrote:The programs you guys mention are cost prohibitive.

I don't have 600.00 to spend on a program, I'm going to use to make free music videos.

Hey, nobody ever said this was a cheap hobby.

valeyard wrote:(and NO, I'm not interested in stealing it)

Bravo.

Angry Angel · Post by **Angry Angel** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 12:28 pm

You could always get Ulead Video Studio. It's not my fave, but not bad either. Version 8 is running at about $80 on amazon.com right now, but you could get like version 6 from the amazon stores (you know... "used & new") for as little as $18 (that's for the new software, too). Sure it's not the best thing out there, but nice as a start, I'd say *shrugs* But that's just my opinion ^__^

Angry Angel · Post by **Angry Angel** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 12:30 pm

Bleh I wish you could edit posts... anyway, I was gonna say to just go ahead and download some trials of Adobe, Ulead, Pinnacle or Vegas (well, if you have the download speed ^__^) 'til you find something you like, then see about finding it cheaper at places like ebay or the amazon stores.

rose4emily · Post by **rose4emily** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 6:08 pm

The programs you guys mention are cost prohibitive.

I don't have 600.00 to spend on a program, I'm going to use to make free music videos.

(and NO, I'm not interested in stealing it)

Maybe you missed something in my post, but:

There's nothing expensive or illegal about downloading free, open-source software.

That's part of what makes it open-source, that the source is available to the world. In most cases, it's also available in convenient pre-compiled binaries made by nice people trying to save you some work.

There is a learning curve. This is the case for all powerful applications, but can be especially true for some of the applications I have mentioned (esp. Cinelerra and AVISynth). On the other hand, they also tend to be more flexible and powerful in skilled hands than their commercial counterparts, through the very lack of abstraction between the user and their internals that makes it a bit of a challenge to get used to them.

So, in conclusion, you don't have to spend $600 on a program to make free videos. You do have to spend some time working with whatever application you select to give you the kind of advanced functionality WMM and WMM2 don't offer.

bum · Post by **bum** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 8:35 pm

well, you could allways just get a student discount version of most video editors, which makes things much, much cheaper.

and if ya want a good, cheap editor, get majix movie maker (or whatever their calling thier program now. just google majix for the official site and find the video editor on it. should be about $99 . great program for the price your paying)

emopunk1 · Post by **emopunk1** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 8:39 pm

Angry Angel wrote:You could always get Ulead Video Studio. It's not my fave, but not bad either. Version 8 is running at about $80 on amazon.com right now, but you could get like version 6 from the amazon stores (you know... "used & new") for as little as $18 (that's for the new software, too). Sure it's not the best thing out there, but nice as a start, I'd say *shrugs* But that's just my opinion ^__^

Ulead does a better job than most of the free movie editors I've used. I got Ulead VideoStudio 5 for $12 at Ebay and Half.com (brand new) a week ago and it seems fine. It seems easier to use with smaller clips than when I used DDClip.

AMVfreak · Post by **AMVfreak** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 10:42 pm

Emmm...

MSPaint
Adobe Photoshop
Premiere Pro 7.0

is what I usually use.

Thinking of using After Effects 6.0 for my next one though.

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 11:43 pm

rose4emily wrote:
The programs you guys mention are cost prohibitive.

I don't have 600.00 to spend on a program, I'm going to use to make free music videos.

(and NO, I'm not interested in stealing it)
Maybe you missed something in my post, but:

There's nothing expensive or illegal about downloading free, open-source software.

That's part of what makes it open-source, that the source is available to the world. In most cases, it's also available in convenient pre-compiled binaries made by nice people trying to save you some work.

There is a learning curve. This is the case for all powerful applications, but can be especially true for some of the applications I have mentioned (esp. Cinelerra and AVISynth). On the other hand, they also tend to be more flexible and powerful in skilled hands than their commercial counterparts, through the very lack of abstraction between the user and their internals that makes it a bit of a challenge to get used to them.

So, in conclusion, you don't have to spend $600 on a program to make free videos. You do have to spend some time working with whatever application you select to give you the kind of advanced functionality WMM and WMM2 don't offer.

It's not monetary cost that's the problem -- in most cases, it's "can't be arsed to do x". There are of course cases where available Free/Open Source alternatives just don't do everything people want them to do, but in the case of many AMVers that just isn't the case.

Setting up a decent media workstation with F/OSS software takes significant time and effort to get it right the first time. (After that, you can get one going in a few hours, but I digress.) It takes significant time and effort to learn the software and be able to make it do neat tricks. It may take an exorbitant amount of time to track down bugs. (I've been lucky and have been able to fix or avoid many bugs, but I know that there have been worse cases.)

So -- yes, F/OSS software is a viable alternative if and only if people are willing to hang in there. Unfortunately, most just don't. They find pirating proprietary software to be easier, and do that instead.