VS 11.5 and matching audio/slide duration

[curtb]

Hi,

I feel a little bit dumb...but here goes. I made a slideshow of about 30 slides (its a test), and set up all the transitions and default durations (of about 3 seconds). I then added like 4songs and wanted to make the slides match the music....thus making the slides last about 10 seconds. I seen the control one time, but after I added more slides, I cannot get the slides to match the music.

I know I am missing the one little button to automatically match the 2, but for the life of me, cannot find it!!!

Thanks and great forum!!!

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi
Start again with a new project.
Change the default image duration to 10 seconds
The transition to 3 seconds.
Tick ¡¦Use default transition effect.¡¦ From File Preferences¡¦.

Insert all images to the timeline.
A 10 second image with a 3 second transition will display for 7 seconds.
(with the exception of first and last.)

30 images will display for approx 3.5 minutes

Add a color clip to the start as a backdrop for your titles.

You can change the duration of inserted images.

Select the images in the timeline using Shift-Click.
Go to Clip-Change image /color duration.

[curtb]

Hi
Start again with a new project.
Change the default image duration to 10 seconds
The transition to 3 seconds.
Tick ¡¦Use default transition effect.¡¦ From File Preferences¡¦.

Insert all images to the timeline.
A 10 second image with a 3 second transition will display for 7 seconds.
(with the exception of first and last.)

30 images will display for approx 3.5 minutes

Add a color clip to the start as a backdrop for your titles.

You can change the duration of inserted images.

Select the images in the timeline using Shift-Click.
Go to Clip-Change image /color duration.

Thanks for the quick reply. So I guess there is no way to edit through the video studio if I happen to change the amount of pictures or change the songs? There has to be a way to automatically lengthen the slides automaitcally to fit the length of the music?

[Ron P.]

here has to be a way to automatically lengthen the slides automaitcally to fit the length of the music?

This can done, however I've not been real impressed with it, using the Movie Wizard. It has a feature to fit the duration of the clips to the music. The saving grace with the Movie Wizard is that it allows you to further edit, by dumping the creation into the editor upon completion.

Some of use special programs for this, such as DVDMovieFactory (it is primarily a DVD authoring program), or special audio programs, like SmartSound's SonicFire Pro. SmartSound, which provides the QuickTracks included in VS, auto trims so that it appears the music was custom tailored for your composition.

Last night I just completed redoing a slideshow using VS11+ and SonicFire Pro. The intro slides on the first one did not fit the with the drum beat very well, so I opened up the old project file and redone it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwbknXBwFOI

[Ken Berry]

In fact, synchronising slideshows with the background music was perhaps the main reason I bought Movie Factory in the first place -- way back with version 2.5, if I recall correctly... Mind you, I haven't tried it with the current version MF6... but I can't imagine it has changed from earlier versions.

The only thing I recall is that, at least in earlier versions of MF, it would only synchronise with one piece of background music. So if you have lots of 'slides', that wouldn't work too well (too fast).

However, the solution I found was to join together a whole series of music clips using a third party audio editing program. That way, to MF it would appear as a single music clip. Thus the trick was only to work out how many slides there were and roughly how long you thought they should each appear on screen. You would also need to work in the timing of transitions (which of course reduces the total time of each image on screen), and then calculate how many seconds the whole show would take. Then join together music clips for roughly that length of time in the audio editing program.

[Clevo]

Just on a little tangent...I tend to feel people get caught up a little too much with trying to exact with the match of the beat and miss the match of the "feel"

Perhaps, match the beat only in certain parts of the song and use transitions and timing of the slides (and it's OK to use the same slide twice or three times to match a beat) to match the feeling of the song.

Sometimes to match the feel some section of the slide show will show the slides for a varying amount of time too.

There's a lot there to play with than just going with the beat.

[Ron P.]

I agree Clevo, try to make it blend together and flow. The OP was needing to match the duration of the music and clips. I was showing what could be done with VS, using a couple of different means or methods. One being to use another feature of VS (Movie Wizard), using another program (DVDMF), and then finally using another audio program.

In the first slideshow I done, the slides didn't fit, and seemed to fight the "beat", so I redone it. I just added more of the same clips in the intro...

[Clevo]

I actually like what you did with that vidoman.

the best test is; to do it...wait a couple of days and have a look at it again 9if you have the luxury of time). with different eyes you critique better and better judge if you have got it right with the feel. :0

I remember one slide show I did I went to great pains to select the right music and were the first things I layed down. I got hungup with watching the beat and totally missed the flow of the music but when I followed suit with the duration of the very simple transitions the flow allowed some pics to accidentally phase in and out with the beat anyway that it made it look intentional...I felt it worked better. I had great pics to work with (Mother in Law's 60th and I did a retro of her life) they were actually very good photos taken by her father. Which is important as it does aid in the old distraction...

[sjj1805]

Please view:
Pan & Zoom with VideoStudio (also applies 2 MediaStudio)
MediaStudio 8: Create a Ken Burns effect Slide show (I have added a bit in the thread regarding VideoStudio)
VS 9/10: Changing slideshow slides to beat of music
Creating a slide show