Fraps/Windows Movie Maker Tutorial
Things you will need :
Fraps Demo or Fraps 2.0. Get them from www.fraps.com .
Windows Movie Maker, updated version. Get from Windows Update, if you have not already installed all of your updates for your computer.
Alright, now to start...
SETUP
1. Open up Fraps 2.0 or Fraps Demo.
2. Go to the 2nd bar, labeled "FPS". See the thing called "Overlay Corner"? Click the circle button under it called "disabled".
3. Go to the third bar labeled "Movies". You'll notice that the video capture hotkey is F9. You can edit that to your will, but I recommend keeping it F9 to not clash with any of the controls.
4. If you have the full version of Fraps, you'll notice the half-screen/full-screen checkboxes. Make sure that it stays at half-screen to save memory.
5. You see a label at the top, which says "Folder to save movies in". Click on change and customize where your captured videos go.
6. OK, you're set up. Now it's time to shoot some movies.
Taking Movies
1. Enter Halo, then proceed to join or create a server.
2. Once you enter the server, think about what you would like in your movie. Tricks/stunts, a themed movie, what would you like? Decide and get ready to film.
3. Now, all you have to do is do whatever you want, as long as you press your "video capture hotkey" to capture it on video. You can capture someone else doing stunts, you doing stunts, etc.
4. If you have the demo version of Fraps, there will be a problem. You can only take 15 second long videos at a time with 15 second delay intervals in between clips.
5. Now, you'll notice that you have video clip files in the directory that you changed in "Folder to save movies in", in step 5. Double click the clips to view them. If you took them with the demo version of fraps, you'll notice the 2 demo tags and the www.fraps.com logo at the sides and top. This may make your video not as easy to view if your video depends on the side or top view.
6. Review the clips in your folder where your clips are saved to. Take the good clips and place them in a different folder in a subdirectory of where you save your clips.
7. Now it's time to edit the good clips in Windows Movie Maker.
Editing and assembling your movie
1. Open Windows Movie Maker. Click Start, Programs, and at the bottom it should say Windows Movie Maker. Double click it.
2. Open "Edit movie", and click on "make titles or credits". Select the first option, which is "Add a title to the beginning of your movie". Type in what you want the title to be. Note that it is auto-centered, unless you want it centered at the right or the left, which I doubt you do. Play around with the title animation and text font and color options at the bottom of the working screen, top of the timeline screen.
3. When you finnally have an animation that you like along with a good text font, size, color, and backround color, you are finished with the opening title. Simply click "Done, add title to the movie". Look down at your storyboard/timeline. You'll see a picture that looks like the beginning of your openning title. We'll come back to the title/credits screen later...
4. Open "Capture Video", and "Import Video". Browse around for your folder with your good movie clips. Click on the first clip that you want as the first clip seen in your video, besides the opening titles.
5. Now, take the video file that just appeared and place it in the storyboard/timeline. I recommend using storyboard until you want to import music.
Repeat the process of steps 4 and 5, except import new video clip files every time. You'll notice that every time you import a video clip, a new collection is made, so make sure that you import the video clip into the storyboard/timeline after every time you import a new video clip. When you are done importing the video clips and placing them in the storyboard/timeline, proceed to the next step.
6.Did you make that last clip ending wrong? Don't worry; we can get rid of the end. Select the clip on the storyboard that needs its end cut off. Go up to Play, and select "Play Clip". Right when you get to that part that needs to be cut off, press Ctrl + L. You'll see another video clip appear on the storyboard. Take the video clip that just spawned and keep it there. The video clip you selected to cut is still there, though, so delete that clip by right clicking on it and clicking on delete. Congrats, you just cut a video clip.
7. Now it's time to do video transitions. Go to storyboard mode if you are not in it already. You'll notice a rectangular bar between every video clip. Click on "Edit Movie", and select video transitions. Now you'll see alot of logos with names under them. Now, drag one logo that you like into one of the rectangular bars between the video clips. Select the clip before where you dragged in that logo, go up to play, and click on "Play Clip". When the clip is over, during the next clip a transition from the clip you just viewed to the next clip is made with an effect. If you don't import a transition, it'll just automatically go to the next clip without a transition, which looks bad. Then, go to the toolbar at the the top, select "Tools", then select "Options". Then go to the Advanced tab. You'll see something called transition duration. In other words, how long the transition from Video Clip A to Video Clip B. Edit this to your liking.
8. You want text to show up in the middle of one of your video clips? Just go to "Edit Movie", "Make titles or credits", select the clip down on the storyboard/timeline that you want text in, and select the middle option, or "add title on the selected clip" and type in what you want seen at the beggining of the selected video clip. Once again, mess around with the title animations, title text font, size, and color, until you found something that you like. You can also mess around with where it is centered; left, middle, right...? It's your choice. When finished, once again, click on "Done, add title to movie".
9. Now it's time for video effects. Personally, I don't like them; sometimes they make the movie look messed up. But to each his own, and I've seen some movies with good video effects that make the difference. Once again, go to storyboard mode if you are not in it already. Then click on "Edit Movie", and select video effects. You'll see logos just like with video transitions. But this time, you select the actual video clip that you want to have an effect. Select a logo/name that you think would make the certain clip look better. Drag it onto the star on the bottom left of the clip. Now play the clip, and it'll look different. If you want, play around with it until you find a nice effect for certain clips.
10. Like your movie? Think your finished? Not yet. Time to do the credits. Go to "Edit Movie", "make titles or credits", and select the last option, which is "add credits at the end of the movie". Put what you want as the main credit name, then, in the first spot, insert your main credit title name. Then, in the main section for the subsection,
put what you want to introduce the first person of your credits, which you will put their name in the opened space right next to the main section of the subsection.
That's basically it, you can do that for as long as needed.
11-Option 1. Want to import a song? Well, if you already have a song you want to import, select "cpature video", then select "import audio or music" , then simply import the song. Then go to timeline view. Drag the song onto the bottom of the timeline. Your song is now in the movie.
11-Option 2. Want to record a song? Well, go to timeline view, and click on the little microphone icon. Go to "Audio Input Source", and select microphone if you want to record through a microphone, CD Player if you are recording off a CD, and Wave Out Mix if you are recording the raw sound coming out of your speakers, be it from a web site, another video, etc. When you want to start recording, hit "Start Narration". When you are finished recording the song, hit "Stop Narration". Click Done when finished. Then, you'll get a window to save the song to wherever. Just say yes, and the song will be automatically imported into the movie. You just got a song into a video.
12. Alright, you finished your movie! But, now it's time to make it into an actual downloadable movie. Click on "Finish Movie", and select "Save to my computer". Now, enter your name for the movie. Depending on how big the video is, you should save it for it's highest memory usage amount if the max is 19 MB. But, if you want to upload the movie to the files section of www.halomods.com, you should save it to 21-22 MB. The movie creation should take 3-7 minutes to make. Then, compress it in .rar format or another compression format to compress it down to anything below 20 MB, if you wish to upload it to the files section of www.halomods.com. The maximum uplaod size is 20 MB, compressed.
Congrats, you made a movie and edited it in Windows Movie Maker! Now, share it with the world and upload it...
