I need to make a "video" with motion pictures, still images, sounds...

[tibag]

Hello. I'm a rookie of rookies who's lacking help. I didn't know which forum subject this should go under, I apologize if there's a better place for this post.
All right, so here I go- ready for questions! You guys are very good at answering, no? Right, I'll get to the point

I need to make a video with movie clips, photos, music & narrative, and possibly add some special effects (for example, what swish is capable of doing). I was thinking about doing it on a computer with all those great softwares (yet I don't even know what they are), but the end product has to be on a video tape (VHS).
1. How do I transfer it onto a videotape? What about the other way around? (transfer movie clips on to a computer) What will I need in order to do that? video cards? digital camera?
2. What softwares should I use? I'm a student, so I can't afford a very expensive one.. (that probably just placed a huge limit on what I can do?)
3. Is this gonna work at all?

My god, even though there's no "stupid questions" (for newbies) there's certainly stupid askers.. I feel very much like one right now. I hope someone will be able to give me some advice...? Thanks all very much in advance.

[jpmartindale]

hey there,

i was once like you looking for just a way to get started. so I know where you are coming from.

you could accomplish all you want to do with adobe's livemotion although you wouldn't be able to output to video. this is the easiest to learn.

you could assemble it flash or livemotion and output it as a .swf file (flash) and import it into macromedia director and then output it as a quicktime movie. this could them be brought into adobe premiere and output to video. sounds intensive but once it was assembled in flash or livemotion, you are really only looking to import into the other programs and then output them in different formats to eventually get to video. flash and livemotion don't make video.

all these programs would be expensive, but it would be easier if you assembled it in adobe premiere but your learning curve would be quite steep.

also if you are looking to get sound into your project you'll need audio software such as sound forge or cool edit. (cool edit is a breeze to learn and they'll sell it to you for $50 as you're a student.)

as for just learning this stuff, start with an easy program like livemotion, move to flash then director. from there I'd learn premiere which will allow you to output to video.

hardware, you'll need a capture card see http://www.pinnaclesys.com if you're on PC. easier on a mac as you could plug a digital camera straight into to capture video/stills.

hope this helps. while i'm no guru, i went the long road so I do know a few short cuts.

remember, jack of all trades - master of none. there's much to learn and it's better to focus and become really good at that. then the rest of the programs won't seem so daunting.

best of luck and I hope this helps.

jp

[JNack]

Hey, guys. It's true that LM 1 doesn't export directly to video, but there's a fairly inexpensive work-around: open your SWF file in Apple's QuicktTime Pro Player (which you get when you upgrade QT to the Pro version for $30), then export as your video format of choice. You could even export a DV stream to use in iMovie for inexpensive video editing, though I haven't found a way around the DV format's tendency to wreck the crispness of text animation.

Good luck,
JNack

[JNack]

PS--Sorry, I forgot to mention that getting SWF sound to come through QuickTime Pro is troublesome. QuickTime 4 supports Flash 3 and won't play back the MP3 audio that LM puts in a SWF; QuickTime 5 supports Flash 4 and MP3 sound, but in my initial tests it still wouldn't put the SWF audio into a movie file. Luckily, the fix is again pretty easy. Just use QuickTime to open the same sound files you used in LM, then copy and paste them into the QT video track you exported.