Inspiration/ advice for my next project

[Ken Veal]

I have VSX7 Pro Ultimate. I am looking for some inspiration for my next project .The subject will be my new grandson. The content will be files from smart mobile phones (stills and video).jpegs from a DSLR camera and video from the card of a digital camcorder.
What I have in mind to do is to gather all the stills in date order in a windows folder .Then I will date each image in Paint Shop Pro. As the image numbers from both phones and camera will not be in sync date wise, I will then rename them via windows so that they present in date order starting with image number 00.
Then I will import the phone and camcorder video files into VS in date order. Would it be best to show the stills and video together in date order or keep the stills and video separate.
With the phone still images (and the video) there will be a large space either side on the screen. Is there anything , apart from titles, that I can do to fill these gaps.
Does this workflow make sense or has any one got advice?
Ken

[BrianCee]

That all sounds very sensible Ken

When I have done similar things in the past I always like to keep every thing in chronological order - so I mix videos and images along the timeline

I always put some sort of background image in the top track first - something loosely related to subject of the video -- if you make sure that image is 16:9 and set it's duration for the length of the project then it will hold every thing correctly in place while using different size and orientation photos when you come to render and create your DVD - you obviously will not know exactly how long to set that initially but it is very easy to adjust the duration as you go along.

here is a screen shot of one made previously related to my wifes parents

[Ken Veal]

That’s a good wheeze Brian.I suppose I could put more than one image on the top track and swop them about for a bit of variety. Does this mean that everything else will need to go on the top track as an overlay ?

[BrianCee]

Yes you could indeed swap them as you go along

Yes every thing else would go into the overlay tracks

just dug out one more sort of more appropriate for the children

[Ken Veal]

OK. Thanks for your advice

[gewb]

I have numerous photo video projects - take a look:

https://vimeo.com/channels/nothingspecialsnapshots

You can change timing, add transitions such as sloow pans and zooms. Don't forget that a black segment of one to three seconds with music can be effective!

As to music, for private use check out Eric Matyas at http://www.soundimage.org - free to use with a credit...lots of GREAT stuff...he's very talented.

Regards,
GEWB

[Ken Veal]

When you add images etc to olay track one with a still clip in the main track, did you use transitions and if so, did you add the same one to both tracks ?.I found only using one transition did not view properly.I did find by accident that adding the same transistion to 2 olay tracks and the top track did give a 3D effect as the transition rolled alaong

[BrianCee]

When you open the transitions library change the little drop down in the top left corner to "Overlay Transitions" (right at the bottom of the list)

transitions in that section should work correctly on just the overlay track


......

[Raikku]

This is a great idea! But if the background image goes into the first track and the old photos would go to the Overlay track, doesn’t it mean that all the photos “shrink”. Do I then have to manually resize every picture on the overlay track? It is pretty time consuming if I have tens of photos on the track.
If I set Use Fit-to screen as a default size in Overlay track then the proportions of the old photos go all wrong.

[BrianCee]

No you do not have to do each one individually

put all your photos in the overlay track - select the first one - right click on the image in the preview window and choose 'fit to height'

right click on the first image and choose 'copy attributes'

left click on the second photo - scroll along to the very last one and hold down 'shift' as you left click on it - all photos will be selected

Right click on the selected block and choose 'paste all attributes'

all photos will change to fit height

..

[Raikku]

Thank you. It was a bit tricky but it really works and saves a lot of work.