Making videos; Which program?

[Teutonic Knight]

I have to make instructional biology videos as part of my AP summer homework. 2-4 minutes long, no larger than 5 MB is possible. I have a Windows PC, so that might make a difference.

The videos I'm planning are in the style of Daniel Floyd's stuff (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jdG2LHair0&feature=player_embedded). That means I would an easy layering interface that can combine images and sound into a simultaneous stream. I have Windows MovieMaker, which comes deault with almost all Windows PCs, but I know there is better stuff out there.

What does the playground suggest for video making?

[factotum]

I'm pretty sure Yahtzee and Extra Credits *do* use Windows Movie Maker--the real trick is in drawing all the frames!

[Nameless]

After Effects is perfect for what you're after. I'm pretty sure you can get a free trial version if you Google it.

[Dr.Epic]

From my experience, Windows Moviemaker seems to crash all the time and is really annoying. I'm sure you can find free, legal programs you can download from the internet. They'd be basic, but moviemaker is pretty basic too.

[Renegade Paladin]

After Effects would do that sort of thing near effortlessly once you learned to use it, but it's very expensive retail. Some universities offer it free to students, though, and there's student pricing for those that don't. I gather you're probably in high school, though, which probably means no such luck. I've never tried the trial version (and don't know what makes it a trial; might be a time limit or it might be one of those deals where you can't save your work for all I know), but you can find it here. (http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=after_effects)

And I find that they were very quick on releasing a new version; I only just got CS5 a couple of months ago.

[valadil]

I liked Adobe Premiere back when I made videos. Haven't had to in 6 or 7 years though.

[Dallas-Dakota]

I'd recommend downloading the Trial of Adobe Premiere CS4 & Adobe After Effects CS4. The trials last 3 weeks if I remember correctly, you can use and save everything.

Not to mention that there are plenty of guides out there, just youtube/google/vimeo them.

Do not disregard guides, because getting the basics is very important, I don't know how much time you exactly have for making the videos?

There are also some other programs like Sony Vegas Pro, which in my oppinion is just worse of a program, and AVID, but AVID is very expensive and doesn't offer a free trial to my knowledge.

Also, remember to export right, it'l save a damn lot in memory. Not to mention that if you want to add (a lot of) After Effects, that'l easily take up a lot of space.

Good luck and have fun!

[Katana_Geldar]

Adobe Premiere, all the way. I don't think Windows Movie Maker lets you use mutiple channels.

I have the entire Adobe CS Suite, but then I have very generous friends. :smallbiggrin: