First off, this is not the end all be all of how to make a video. This is just how I went about it before I upgraded to more powerful programs.
Every single program I list here is opensource and freeware, so no worries about registrations. The smaller programs are generally the most intuitive and easy to use. This tutorial is based on a Microsoft Windows OS (preferably 2000 or XP b/c they have Movie Maker built in). I know this will seem like a lot of programs to be using, but coming from a computer programming background, it's easiest to break your work up instead of doing everything in one program. For one, there's potential for crashing and losing all your work.
Alright, let's get started. We’re going to do a ton of downloading here.
*For some of these, I gave direct links, but one site (
Doom9.net - The Definitive DVD Backup Resource) doesn’t allow hotlinking, so for those, I just explained the website navigation. Oh and doom9.org taught me a lot of A/V editing. Good site to check out.
Audacity - This is a music editing program. You will use this to cut and splice up your theme song. Generally, theme songs for television shows are between 50 - 60 seconds -
Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder
Lame - Audacity uses this to encode your MP3 when you are finished cutting. Unzip to a folder and remember exactly where it is. Go to the download section of Doom9 under Audio Tools and click the show all link. It’s called Lame 3.95.1
VirtualDub - We'll be using this to cut clips out of movies -
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/virtualdub/VirtualDub-1.6.7.zip?download
DVD Decrypter - Your buddy. Your pal. Your friend. Used to rip DVDs to your computer. Hope you have a lot of diskspace. – It’s under Descrambling/Ripping Tools Download (don’t forget to show all) at Doom9.
DBDecode -
unauthorized - If you're ripping from DVDs, you'll need this and the next one to be able to use VirtualDub to take clips – Located under Decoders at Doom9.
AviSynth - You won't even use this program itself, but it has to be installed b/c you'll need to run a script. Without this, you'll have to actually convert the entire DVD into a video file, which is massive diskspace if you're working with several DVDs – Under Support Utils at Doom9.
Finally, if you're running Windows XP or 2000, Windows Movie Maker is already set up for you. No need to download that.
Now that we've got all our programs, let's get some content going. First off, find yourself a font that you want for the credits. Choose carefully because you want to keep your font uniform for the most part, so your website and banners will probably use this too. I use
Download Free Fonts - 1001 Free Fonts for mine. After that, if you don't think you can get enough clips from DVDs, hit the net and download television shows and stuff that your cast has been in.
Alright, now we're ready to rock.
I personally always start out by cutting my song. Open up Audacity and open your mp3. You'll get a frequency breakdown of your song. Now play the song once all the way through. Decide where you want to cut. As a rule, if my song has lyrics, I get about half of a verse, then cut to the hook, then cut to the very end of the song. This comes out at about a minute, give or take. Once you figure out how, listen again and look very carefully at where you want to start and stop your cut. Zoom in if you have to, but this is a pretty exact science. Audible jumps in your credits are never a good thing. Anyhoo, once you've got it figured, just drag your cursor over the area you want to cut, go to Edit and hit Delete. Very simple. This program has the option to do unlimited Undos if you cut too much or too little and need to start over. When you're done, go to File and Export as MP3. If this is the first time you're doing this, it'll ask for a .dll file that came with the LAME download, just browse to the file, pick your save point for the mp3 and you're done.
Next, we'll do our DVDs. Before you start this, make sure you have a TON of diskspace. Typical DVDs are between 4 to 8 gigs. We're not going to rip the entire disc, but between the DVDs and all the clips you're about to have, you want some space. Open up DVD Decrypter and hit 'I' to go to IFO mode. Now, actually watch the DVD and write down a list of every chapter the person you need clips of is in. We're only going to pull those chapters. After you have your list, go back to the program. The bottom left portion of the right window will have a list of your chapters. Unclick the ones you don't need. This'll cut your filesize down tremendously. After that, go to the tab marked stream processing. Click Enable Stream Processing, then unclick every single audio and subtitle option. You don't need those. Make sure the Direct Stream Copy option is clicked too. After that, make sure you know the destination for your rip, and hit the play button at the bottom. Note that if you're ripping from a series DVD (like let's say you're ripping from the 3rd disc of the s2 Angel boxset), you can rip each one to the same folder, but you'll have to rename them.
If you open the folder, you'll see a .VOB file. This is actually playable in a DVD playing program (like Intervideo or PowerDVD), but you can't pull clips from it just yet. Now, most people convert this to a usable file, like an AVI. I don't. Wastes space. Open up DGDecode (the actual file is called DGIndex). Now, open the VOB file. If you ripped from one show/movie, that's all you need, so click Ok on your file list. If you have multiple VOBs, add them all first. After that, click save project and give it a name. Store it in the same folder as the VOB for easy usage. You'll get a .d2v file. This whole process (from the start of the DVD rip) shouldn't take more than 15 minutes.
Now we need a script to run. Open up Notepad and type the following:
LoadPlugin("...\dgdecode.dll")
mpeg2source("myvob.d2v")
Replace the ... with the folder location for the dgdecode.dll file. Replace myvob with the name of the .d2v file you created. Click Save As and make sure to change your Save As Type option to all files. Then give it a name and append '.avs' to the end. Save this in the VOB folder.
Whew. Now we've got all our clips. Let's cut. Open up VirtualDub. This program is so simple it's ridiculous. First, open your file. Go under the Audio menu and click no audio. Now use the scroll bar to get to the general place of the clip you want. Use the left and right arrows to scroll through the video, frame by frame until you get to a starting point. Hit the Home key to set your starting point. Then go to the end and hit the End key. Pay attention to how many seconds are in the clip. As a general rule, you want every clip between 1 and 3 seconds for cast and action clips. If you're going with a longer clip (like a shot of a city's skyline to open your credits), go with about 6 seconds. Also go about half a second longer on start and end points so you can crop later. Once you have your clip set up, hit F7. It'll ask for a name and place to save, do that and your clip is done.
If you're clipping from a VOB file (the files ripped from a DVD using DVD Decrypter), open that text file (the .avs one) from earlier. VirtualDub will open it just like a video. Proceed as above.
Got all your clips? Good. Open up Movie Maker.
At this point I must say that Movie Maker loves to crash repeatedly, so to avoid this, close any program that runs videos (Media Player, etc.) Movie Maker uses the same codecs and sometimes that'll crash it. Also, for the duration of your video making process, save your work every minute or so. I can't count how many times I lost work by not saving.
Movie Maker's an incredibly intuitive program. Basically drag and drop. Import Into Collections (File Menu) all your video clips and your audio. I personally lay down my audio first so I have a rough template of how long my video can be. Then drag and drop your videos onto the storyboard. Clip and resize your clips as you see fit. Try to match certain clips with beats in your theme. When you're done with that, time to add text. Go under Tools and hit Titles and Credits. You want to add a title on the selected clip. The top text window will go in the center of the screen (use this for the show's name) and the bottom one will go towards the bottom of the screen (cast names). Change your font, size, color, etc. and hit done. Your title overlay will show up on your timeline. Align it with the clip and stretch it it for length of time on screen.
Then go to File and Save Movie File. You want the My Computer option. Name it and we're done!
