Make Your Own Video Free
Make a Video
For those who have pictures from a long time ago, before video cameras were widely available, it would be nice to add still photographs into a movie program and create your own movie of still, together with music or commentary.
Make it Free
It doesn't have to cost the earth. How does FREE sound?
Materials Needed - Just 3 items
1. Music or commentary in MP3 format (it isn't a video without sound. 
) For the purposes of this tutorial I used Royalty free music I purchased from http://royaltyfreemusicqueen.com/ (NOT an affiliate link) and I am able to use this freely in any manner I want. If you have your own music or commentary, then you will use that. It is NOT OK to use someone else's music without permission or paying for it.
2. Pictures . These can be silent videos if you have them or still photographs. Note: for the avoidance of doubt, these programs do NOT turn still photographs of Aunt Flo and Uncle Bert into gyrating disco dancers (though there are programs you can get to do that!) The pictures will remain still, they will just be on a video that shows the pictures in the order you want. For this tutorial, I used pictures from https://pixabay.com/en/ (NOT an affiliate link) these are free to use for any purpose, including commercial. You will of course want to use your own pictures for this. They can be in JPG or PNG format.
3. A video creation program . For this tutorial, I downloaded the free starter program from Serif, found at http://www.serif.com/free-video-editing-software/ (NOT an affiliate link). This creates videos in PAL and NSTC format. PAL is for Europe and NTSC is for North America as far as I know.
Getting Started
I will assume you have your photographs and music saved in a file you can access somewhere on your computer. So now, download and install the free starter edition of Movieplus from http://www.serif.com/free-video-editing-software/
On the download page, you will find a serial number called a "PRODUCT KEY". Take a note of this number, you will need it for installing the software. The number will also be sent to you via email. Download and install the software as normal. I have taken screenshots of the process but it works the same as for any other piece of software. You will need to type in the product key you saved from the download process. There is a point where you have to choose the type of video you will normally make. I chose PAL because I am in Europe. I understand people in North America should choose NTSC.
Once installed, open it and choose "Start new project" (over on the left hand side). Once you have done that, you will see on the right hand side the option to import media. Click on that and import your music or commentary (MP3) and then your pictures.
At the bottom of the screen, you will see tracks for audio and video. Drag and drop your audio file (MP3) onto the audio track. Butt it up against the start of the track (so you don't have a blank start). Now drag and drop each picture onto the video track. If you don't have enough pictures to fill the space, you can drag out the right hand side of a picture to get it to take up more space.
You can see from this picture that I have added a sound track (BellLike) to the audio track and it is 2 minutes and 27 seconds long. I have also started adding some pictures to the video track. They were just random ones. Make sure they butt up against each other. I also dragged out the dollar picture to take up maore space, you can see there is more than one thumbnail of it. Continue adding pictures or dragging them out until you have filled the space equal to the audio track.
Now you need to EXPORT the file. I chose Youtube but it wouldn't export direct there for me. (NOTE: Google blocked the upload to youtube direct from the movieplus program because it said the app for doing this was out of date. It wrote an email to me about it.) It saved it into a file of my choosing and then I went into Youtube and uploaded it there. You can see it at https://youtu.be/BG98dekb9is Hope this is enough info for you to make your own video.
Have fun!!!!
FOPP video freemoviecreation youtube serif
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Image Credit » (c) MegL my own creation
Comments
VanMan wrote on November 22, 2015, 3:31 PM
That is some good information. I had seen that you can do this with your facebook stuff, but had wondered how to do it without Fbook help.. Also, on your 15k coin goal, how long did it take?
markgraham wrote on November 22, 2015, 3:34 PM
Even with all your notes on this article I still would not be able to do this and have it turn out right.
MegL wrote on November 22, 2015, 3:51 PM
I have been on here over a year now but have not always posted a lot.
1MegL wrote on November 22, 2015, 3:52 PM
It's surprisingly simple. Maybe I should make a video of it!
Kasman wrote on November 22, 2015, 4:31 PM
Excellent tutorial and a very impressive video. I suspect that the quality of any video we make using this free program would depend on the quality of the photographs used. You have sparked my interest in this and I might just have a go myself.
MegL wrote on November 22, 2015, 4:44 PM
It was pretty quick, though I already had some music and Pixabay photos available (I just chose them at random). The reason it wouldn't upload directly to Youtube is because the app in the program was out of date and google blocked the upload - it wrote and told me so!
VinceSummers wrote on November 23, 2015, 7:22 AM
OK. Saved this page to my desktop. Will give it a shot.
MegL wrote on November 23, 2015, 1:43 PM
Let us know how you get on with it. Hope it works ok for you.
VinceSummers wrote on November 23, 2015, 1:44 PM
As it stands, the only thing in my way is to scan the photos. I'm not sure I have a scanner that works with Windows 7. I'd have to hook up another computer with Windows XP again. You know how that is: hardware manufacturers don't want to design new drivers for old hardware.
MegL wrote on November 23, 2015, 1:47 PM
Shame. I have the same problem with a great scanner that won't work on Windows 7. Does your local library have a scanner you could use free?
VinceSummers wrote on November 23, 2015, 2:19 PM
It might! Although it is a small library in a small county, it has good backing and may have a suitable scanner. I'll check it out.
BarbRad wrote on November 24, 2015, 1:08 AM
Sounds kind of complicated to me. I don't really have any MP3 files and haven't figured out how to use my MP3 player yet. I usually just used a voice over when I make videos.
RuthCox wrote on November 29, 2015, 1:58 PM
Great tutorial. I'll have to give making a video a go! Hopefully I can do so without messing it up, ha!