LESSONS 3 and 4 (COMBINED): NAVIGATING, EDITING and PUBLISHING in MOVIE MAKER

[.Mitch.]

Mitch - I used to get this all the time - resulting in a crash whenever I tried to render. Since I was able to render in a high quality, what I used to do was to split my video up into three parts. Firstly, I would make a backup of my movie maker file. I would then delete 2/3 of the entire movie, including the music for the entire movie. I would then publish the first 1/3 of my movie. Once that had been successfully rendered, I would use the 'undo' to re-add the parts of the movie I had originally deleted and then delete the part I had rendered, rendering the second 1/3 of the movie. I would repeat this until my movie was now rendered in three parts.

I would then import the 3 rendered parts back into movie maker, put them together, add the music back in, test to ensure the transition between the parts was okay and then render the entire movie made up of the three parts. However, I really don't recommend this technique and it will result in some quality loss, however if you render the 3 parts in a high quality, it shouldnt have that much of an effect. If you can't find a solution, I'd try this.

I will try this, but I really can't afford to lose any quality.

[BURNY26]

No ,dont seem to have such a program but you are right Master ,i was just mixing up FRAPS in audio with the render before i read your post. They do not match perfectly but you cant notice the difference of time delays . this i save than as avi file ,the proper audio and video in one . But im quite appaled with the poor graphic quality that is the avi file . The audio is good ,but the video ... not so sharp as the render .Kinda dissappointed to see all the hard work learning to use cined result in such a poor quality .

[MasterBigAb]

No ,dont seem to have such a program but you are right Master ,i was just mixing up FRAPS in audio with the render before i read your post. They do not match perfectly but you cant notice the difference of time delays . this i save than as avi file ,the proper audio and video in one . But im quite appaled with the poor graphic quality that is the avi file . The audio is good ,but the video ... not so sharp as the render .Kinda dissappointed to see all the hard work learning to use cined result in such a poor quality .

Select best quality possible for your computer, that's what Lewis told me (my empire renderings with MM also got bad quality)

@ Mitch: Sry i have no idea what causes that as i don'T work/use MM - but try googling the exact error message, often you find hints or solutions or reasons for such problems

[John Doe]

No ,dont seem to have such a program but you are right Master ,i was just mixing up FRAPS in audio with the render before i read your post. They do not match perfectly but you cant notice the difference of time delays . this i save than as avi file ,the proper audio and video in one . But im quite appaled with the poor graphic quality that is the avi file . The audio is good ,but the video ... not so sharp as the render .Kinda dissappointed to see all the hard work learning to use cined result in such a poor quality .

With Windows media player, I have the same poor quality with the AVI too (laggy for me), but once rendered by MM the footage is good. Try to render just one AVI file without effect/transition, I hope you'll see the same improvement as me.

[.Mitch.]

Well the Fraps message has stopped (after shutting down my PC and then running that Gamebooster).

I also made sure I had no overlapping clips, I sliced all of mine anyway, and I didnt have any programmes running other than WMM.

Now I get this one...



(I have more than enough space on my PC to save it to, further more, I tried setting the render options to how big I wanted it to render (size) to 10mb and it rendered fine, but obviously low quality. This as apposed to the 24mb it normaly is.)

Im really at a loss here. And hoping to god I can fix this!

[Nanny de Bodemloze]

Well the Fraps message has stopped (after shutting down my PC and then running that Gamebooster).

I also made sure I had no overlapping clips, I sliced all of mine anyway, and I didnt have any programmes running other than WMM.

Now I get this one...



(I have more than enough space on my PC to save it to, further more, I tried setting the render options to how big I wanted it to render (size) to 10mb and it rendered fine, but obviously low quality. This as apposed to the 24mb it normaly is.)

Im really at a loss here. And hoping to god I can fix this!

Lewis and I came to the same dirty solution method he proposes above...it is a good solution, but as he says does have a bit of a quality hit.


OK, This is the generic "your render didn't work" message...don't pay too close attention to the details of that message...they are rarely relevant.

A few things to check - did you load the k-lite codec pack from the link provided in this lesson?
Have you moved the source clips on your HDD to a different location (the source .avi files are actually only referenced in your project page in MM...if you move the original .avis or audio clips to a new location on the HDD, it causes problems, although I doubt this is your problem (since there would be a big red X on your clips in the timeline).

Next, we'll try to isolate the problem. Save your original MM file...the good one. Now, we are going to do a bunch of SAVE AS files, because we need to start deleting to isolate the problem clip/section.

Create a SAVE AS test1...then delete your music. Now try a render at top quality.
Create a SAVE AS test2...then delete the 2nd half of your vid. Now try a render at top quality.

If either of these is successful, we can start to narrow down the problem. Funnily, how far into the render process this error message appears is a very good clue as to where the problem is located.

Catch me on MSN with this when you have run these tests, and we'll go from there mate no worries...this isn't abnormal...not to discourage you, but one of my early vids took 3 days to get a successful render!

[BURNY26]

just found out that when i watch my renders in vlc ,there is practically a perfect render while wmp renders laggy ones . how come ?

edit: zyxos ,ive rendered one with MM ,but it is poor quality . whereas vlc recorded with FRAPS gives a very good result ....*sigh* ill redo all of em like so , this is going to be an all nighter im afraid

comparison wmp : 5-15 fps
vlc 50-60

[Nanny de Bodemloze]

just found out that when i watch my renders in vlc ,there is practically a perfect render while wmp renders laggy ones . how come ?

good observation...earlier in this lesson, I mentioned that MediaPlayerClassic is a better vid player for video makers...that is because as you said WMP doesn't always look right, and sometimes shows "tearing" that isn't actually happening in your .wmv file.

[BURNY26]

Well ive tried MPC now ,since vlc doesnt give the natural colours i find and this particular file cant be edited in the vlc video effects screen for some reason . But when i record it with FRAPS, it records like the actual resolution with 3/4 around the render being black . While with vlc he gave a complete screen . What needs to be changed to have a full screen with wpc?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

can i cut the file so it only shows the not black part ?

[.Mitch.]

What you said worked Lewis! Thanks for the tip, still confused as to why it does crash.. but I dont really mind.

Not really a noticable drop in quality either.

[BURNY26]

Ive tried getting an overlay on my clips but i cant seem to get them implemented.
What i did following this :
put the png file(which is called "knight") in here :C:\Program Files (x86)\Movie Maker 2.6\Shared\AddOnTFX\DPL Overlay
made this xml document :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

<TransitionsAndEffects Version="2.8">
<Titles>
<TitleDLL guid="TFX">
<Title name="knight" iconid="13" guid="knight">
<Param name="Animation" value="TitleStandard"/>
<Param name="LogoBitmapFilename" value="AddOnTFX/knight.png"/>
<Param name="LogoRect" value="0.0 0.0 1.0 1.0"/>
<Paragraph>
<Param name="IsOneLine" value="true"/>
<Param name="BoundingRect" value="0.05 0.85 0.9 0.1"/>
<Param name="MaxCharacterCount" value="32"/>
<Param name="Text" value=" "/>
</Paragraph>
</Title>
</TitleDLL>
</Titles>
</TransitionsAndEffects>

and left this xml document in here : C:\Program Files (x86)\Movie Maker 2.6\Shared\AddOnTFX

But still no knight option in effect .

My system is a 64 bit Win 7

[Nanny de Bodemloze]

In the instructional video, I already mentioned that I could not get the overlay method to work in a Windows7 environment, even using 2.6.

[BURNY26]

Thought i heard/read it somewhere . Itll take me than an extra day . Ill see if i can pass it on to a friend who has vista to paste the overlay on top of it .Ok?
Ive almost finished the entire movie ,so if you want proof i can show it by uploading it unfinished.

[Nanny de Bodemloze]

no mate just stay on track with what you are doing...however, since we haven't seen a draft yet, if your plan at your friend's house works for the overlay then be prepared to have to go back if we have any suggestions.

cheers !

[BURNY26]

np ,ill ask a twc buddy when he is online

[BURNY26]

So ive got the overlay and almost everything is ok . But ive decided to drop the first phase of Bannockburn because 2 min is just not enough and the models still need to be coded in ,ill finish it after this course .

I do have one question left before i upload to youtube . I was making a certain camera viewpoint , checked the preview which was correct . It followed the path and did what i wanted ,but when i rendered i saw something completly different . The same location was more or less focused but the positions were completly wrong , resulting in lots of clipping .

I find this weird since the preview in edit was perfect .

[Nanny de Bodemloze]

In some cases, the preview screen and the render don't line up...it has happened to me a few times, and I've never been able to figure out why this happens. I've learned to do the occasional "test" render in a lower quality to double check the important screens. Let's see what Lewis or MasterBigAb have to say about this...they may have more insight.

cheers

[Nanny de Bodemloze]

ThePrayer

Well here is my homework chaps, best I could manage, I did however render in HD, 1.57 altogether, thanks a lot, I have learned so much from you professionals.I used Insert, Delete, N key, slow motion.I also used the directors camera, and set my preference to 2, Tried to tell a story whilst keeping it simple. I also used a separate editor for the transitions as the transitions dont seem to work for me in MM with Windows 7, but one good thing about Windows 7, is the Movie Maker live program, which allows you to publish directly to Youtube in HD.

The Prayer
(draft - no in game sounds yet)
by
Brigadier Graham

Very well done mate and very original! This vid really tells a story...battle as a prayer...this could be the subject of a university course

You already commented on the in game sounds...the only technical suggestion I have is at 1:39 there is some video clipping.

Excellent!

[BURNY26]

It is a prob for one scene that im trying to get . Ive tried to redo it three times with a different cameraviewpoint but each time i got a completly other rendering . The weirdest thing of all was that i rendered something that i even didnt focus on .

eg : I was looking at a landscape far way from a battle but i ended up more or less with the same fault rendering of the battle that i tried to focus earlier on .Than i tried rendering something at a very early stage of the replay and everything ended up fine . But whenever i tried to renderwhen they started battling i had the ed up battle scene. I know this is weird to hear but it is the truth . And it is pissing me off

[MasterBigAb]

It is a prob for one scene that im trying to get . Ive tried to redo it three times with a different cameraviewpoint but each time i got a completly other rendering . The weirdest thing of all was that i rendered something that i even didnt focus on .

eg : I was looking at a landscape far way from a battle but i ended up more or less with the same fault rendering of the battle that i tried to focus earlier on .Than i tried rendering something at a very early stage of the replay and everything ended up fine . But whenever i tried to renderwhen they started battling i had the ed up battle scene. I know this is weird to hear but it is the truth . And it is pissing me off

Ok, this actually sounds not too strange too me...
One day i also had a replay, i wanted to egt some nice fighting scenes, and when i switched back to a few minutes before, the replay actually became totally different and my scenes showed something different etc...
This was trhe only time i had such confusing false replay but as i see it it sometimes happens....
You should load the replay new, make your scenes without "jumping" back in the time lime and render and it should work...
if not your replay might even be unuseable (that sometimes happens and is really frustrating i know, i feel sorry for you)

Try my tip and tell me whether it worked or not