PhotoStory3 Ron Stein Jan. 05
Open PhotoStory3- go to start-all programs-PhotoStory3- or click on your Icon on your desktop.
On the welcome page, click on-Begin a new story. Then click Next.
On the Import and arrange your pictures page, click Import Pictures.
In the File Browser dialog box, browse to My Documents\My Pictures and locate your pictures you wish to use for the project. Add all the pictures you need. Add more than 1 picture at a time by holding the CTRL Key and choosing all the pictures. Then click O.K. All your pictures should now be in the Film Strip box at the bottom of the screen. Some scenes, you may want 3 or 4 of the same picture in a row… HOLD ON… I’ll show you later…. Just wait a bit!!!! If you see a button that says-Clear Black Bars or something like that- push it- it will get rid of the black bars showing in the pictures.
At this point, you can change positions, edit the pictures, adjust color etc.[Try some different things here to see how this all works.] When you are finished playing around and ready to get to work… Click Next.
On the Add a title to your picture page, click the first picture and then type a title in the Text Box to the right. You have a choice of Fonts, Colors, Location, Etc. Under the picture, is a dialog box, which allows you to change the
color composition, (or look) of your slide. You can try the different effects without harm. You may click on any picture to add text as you have on the first slide. Remember- the more text, the slower the slide show has to run or advance and the more bored the audience may get. On the first slide, leave the time set on, Set duration automatically. After the first slide, set the time on about 5 seconds. Click and highlight the next slide you wish to add text on. It is in this screen you will add all the text, to what ever other slides you wish to do so. You will add all the text to all the pictures before you go on to more and exciting things. This is the Text Screen. Let’s be nice to our audience… not tooooo much text! Don’t set the duration for much more than 5 seconds unless you have text in a picture. Guess what? Now click Next. OOPsss, Hold on…. Wait, I have a Hint: Do you remember when you first got to this screen? The text box contained a few words highlighted in blue and starting out <type text in….> If this is missing in the text box when you go to type - you cannot type anything so it shows on the picture. You will need to delete this picture, and re-import the picture and start your title or text over- this is a quirk of the program. O.K. Now click Next!!
To customize the first slide of your choice with motion, (usually the second slide in the show,) click on that slide in the film strip box to highlight it. Next click on the Customize Button under the picture. On the Motion and Duration Tab, complete the following tasks for the first picture:
*Select the Specify start and end position of motion check box.
*For the start position, move the position rectangle to select the area where you want the motion for the first picture to begin.
*To create a motion for the first copy of the picture, select the Set start position to be the same as end position of the previous picture.
*For the End position, move the position rectangle to select the area of the picture where you want the motion for the first picture to end.
*To save the motion for the first picture, click Save.
HINT: SAVE OFTEN…. YES OFTEN…. AND AGAIN…. JUST IN CASE…. AGAIN…..
If you make an error, you can go back to that part and you don’t have to do it all over again !!!!! You can give different names to your saves if you wish like, Mary’s 98th Party A, Mary’s 98th Party B etc.
Click on the next picture. Click on Customize Motion. Put a check mark in Specify start and end of motion.
At this stage of the game, you can play with the program and try different things to make them work for your own personal pictures.
HINT: make sure you click on the CLOSE BUTTON when you close a screen- not the “X” in the top right corner.
This is why I
told you to save, save, save!!!
Remember, when you save the second or third time, you can use the same
name as you gave the show originally or change it slightly. All you are interested in doing is saving so
you can go back in the event you need to. When you do click on close to go to
the next picture, it will ask you if you want to save that picture and it’s motion. Answer,
YES!
In the Customize Motion box, you can go to the top and click on the transition tab. This will let you choose a few different transitions if you so wish. DO NOT OVER DO IT…. Too many different transitions, or too much movement causes the audience to get bored with all the changes. This is a personal choice thingy…..The one Transition that is pretty nice, is the fade in or fadeout….. Looks very professional.
Three or Four of the same pictures in a row. See, I said I’d tell you about this! Instead of downloading one copy of a picture, you repeat the process and import 4 copies of the same picture. You can zoom in on one corner, move across the picture, move down the other side, and then zoom out. You actually do a separate move on each picture. The program sees only one picture, and it looks like you are moving around the same picture in all directions. A very very, neat effect. Try it… You will like it!!
You may have noticed on the right side of the screen is a narration area. You must have a working microphone attached to the computer and set up correctly. A wizard will help you set up your microphone to record narration. There is also a text input area to create cue cards, which can be a helpful memory aid when narrating your pictures.
On the Narrate your pictures and customize motion page, click the Microphone button, (the little mic picture). This will launch the Hardware Test Wizard. Complete the test- you should be ready now.
Click a picture on the filmstrip- add any desired text in the CUE area. Click the Record Button to start recording your narration. The red dot in the record button will flash, indicating recording is taking place. A timer is provided to help you keep track of your narration length. When you have finished narrating, click the Stop Recording Button. Repeat recording for each picture you want narrated. Narration for each picture cannot exceed 5 minutes. Once this is finished, click on the Preview button to see how it all looks and sounds. Close the preview window and click NEXT. Are you getting tired yet?? Take a Break! Just remember to save your work first!
You can add music to your story using Windows Media Audio, (WMA), MP3, or WAV files or by using the Create Music option in the program.
Add prerecorded music to your story.
On the Add background music page, click the first picture in the filmstrip and then click Select Music.
On the File Open dialog box, click My Documents from the left menu.
Browse to My Music\Sample Music, click Beethoven’s Symphony No9 (Scherzo.wma), and then click Open.
The music you just added is shown as a colored bar above the picture in the filmstrip. This helps you determine which pictures will be shown for each piece of music you add. This is particularly helpful when you add more than one song to your story.
Click the third picture in the filmstrip, and then click Create Music.
In the Create Music dialog box, in the Genre drop-down list, scroll down and select Soundtrack.
In the Style drop-down list, select Soundtrack: Mysterious Cave.
You can leave the default Bands and Moods, or choose different ones.
Click Play to hear what the music will sound like.
When the music has finished playing, click OK to close the Create Music dialog box.
There are now two different pieces of music shown as colored bars above the pictures in the filmstrip.
You can preview your story any time you want to… click on the preview button.
You may need to adjust the music volume levels to accommodate your narration. To do this, simply click the picture in the filmstrip and then adjust the music volume using the volume slider bar. You may need to adjust the volume and preview your story a few times to get it just right.
Yep! Click Next and we are almost done!!
But, I didn’t say the rest was Easy!!
When you save your Photo Story, all the pictures, narrations, and music are compiled into a video file that you can view in Windows Media Player. Since you will play this Photo Story on your computer, you can use the default options when saving your Photo Story.
To Save your Photo Story for playback on your computer
On the Save your story page, verify that Save your story for playback on your computer is selected in the activities list.
Click Browse to specify the location and file name of your story.
On the Save As dialog box, browse to My
Documents\My Videos.
In the Filename text box, type My First Story.wmv.
Click Save, and then click Next.
When your story is built and saved, the Completing Photo Story 3 for Windows page will appear. You can view your newly created story or begin a new story from here. To see what you have created, click View Your Story. Windows Media Player will open and your story will begin to play.
Now comes the real fun! On the Save your Story page, click the browse
button and pick a place to save your story as above. Now go to the Settings button and click
on it. LOTS OF CHOICES…. In the Profile window box, click on
the drop down menu and select how you want to save or view this
file in the future. A computer screen
shows great @ 640X480 = #2 in the list.
Do you want to make a VCD or a DVD … Do you need +DVD or -DVD media? Yes DVD is not in the list, however it is
possible. Or maybe you want to send it
to
A VCD is possible to make if you have the correct additional program such as Microsoft’s Digital Image Suite 10. There are a couple of other ways also.
A program is available from Sonic Solutions, which allows us to make a DVD from this file. Or if you know how, you can send this file to a program like Roxio or Nero and burn a DVD. The program is on the Club computers, or you can purchase it for $19.95. If you will notice, in the Activities window, at the bottom, the DVD program is available in our program. If you purchase this extra program, it will automatically install into PhotoStory3 for you.
*Anything you do to a picture will not alter the original.
*Only one song can play per picture however, you can have a different song for each picture.
*You can adjust the picture time to the song time - to finish a particular song. You cannot adjust the music play time.
*If you preview the story, and the narration cannot be heard clearly, click the Configure Microphone and Set recording Volume button on the Narrate your picture and customize motion page to adjust the volume setting for recording and playback.
*If the narration still can’t be heard over the background music, you may need to adjust the background music
volume levels to accommodate your narration. This is done on the Add background music page. To do this simply select the picture in the filmstrip and then adjust the music volume using the Volume slider bar. You may need to adjust the volume and preview your story a few times to get it just right.
*Photo story will only playback on a computer with Windows Media Player- unless you burn it differently.
*If you save your Photo story at a too high of a resolution, it may not play back correctly if played back on a computer with low system resources.
*If Photo story flickers when played back, you may need to reduce the hardware acceleration of your video card.
*Remember, VCD and DVD Authoring programs are not included in this program.