Windows Movie Maker Basic

This is not a full tutorial - just a quick set of instructions to generate a time-lapse.

1. Start Windows Movie Maker (you can use search from the toolbar and type Movie; it should find it)
2. Click Add Videos and Photos speedbutton (you can also drag & drop to the white space at right)

1. Navigate to your directory full of images;
2. For all images, left-click on one, the do Ctrl-A to select All
3. For specific set, left-click on the first one, scroll to the last one you want, simultaneously pressing left-click and Shift
4. Click Open
1. If you have a lot of big images, this might take tens of seconds
2. The default settings will NOT be good, as they are set for a slide show, not a time-lapse!
3. Before you do anything, all the images at right need to be selected - this will happen by default (everything surrounded by a pale blue frame), but in case only one image is "selected", hit Ctrl-A to select All.
4. If you hover the mouse over a frame at right, a pop-up will show you the properties, including duration (default 7s!) and transition

1. Click on the Edit Menu at top middle
2. Notice the Duration drop-down menu slightly lower left.

1. Click and type in 0.1 to get 10 frames per second, a reasonable value for most time-lapses (16 fps needs 0.0625, the reciprocal)
2. Go back to the FIle tab and hit Save/SaveAs, so it remembers all the settings and file links you have changed so far. The bigger the project, the better an idea it is to save. I tend to save my video projects in the same folder as the images themselves, to keep everything together. I also put in the ISO date yyyymmdd in UT as part of the filename.
3. Add a title page if you wish, From the home tab (just right of File), near the middle of the thick bar, you will see "Title", then click

1. Type in a title, and choose text duration 2.5s. Choose at right how you want the text to appear and move.

1. Under video tools tab, you will see the slide duration is 7s - make that 2.5s, the same length as you text. If you change your mind and want to edit the text, click on the tab at the top that says Text Tools, the the Edit Text button on the main bar.
2. Almost ready! Click on Home tab; then way over to the right: Save Movie

1. You will probably want to choose Recommended, or 1080p for high definition. You can choose direct publish to Youtube or facebook instead.
1. Choose where it saves,, click OK, then wait - a lot of images might take 20 minutes!
2. Click File save to save one last time all your image inks and settings.

Here is the video I made with the above choices: https://vimeo.com/166461361