video editing help needed here!

[Soulja]

I am making a video of the best of the best of Soulja, basically taking the parts of the awesome poonage and sweet headshots that i get and putting them into one video. only one problem, i dont the first thing about video making/editing. I have about 7 files of WMA vids of me in scout kinves nailing CT's in the head with a scout. I need help on putting the few second parts into one big video i can put anywhere (myspace, tg forums, etc.) if you can PM me or post on this thread a program or ideas or even a step-by-step list on how to edit a video, then thanks. i need all the help i can get.

[loyalguard]

Check out the TG Video Production Sub-Forum or for a quick overview or the newly created Video Production Tactical Wiki

Alot of it is focuses towards Battlefield, but using Fraps and Windows Movie Maker you can make videos of almost any game fairly easily.

[Soulja]

alright thanks that got me going, i know how to do it now, if anyone has any tips on making movies, pease post them, im not very good and it looks kinda lame the way Im making it so far.

[loyalguard]

I'm new to video making myself but this is what I suggest for a quick down an dirty:

-If you have .wmv files already (you said .wma (audio) but I assumer you mean .wmv (video), then consolidate them and import them into Windows Movie Maker (WMM)

-Drag the imported clips onto the storyboard in the order you want them to appear at the bottom of the screen and display the timeline.

-Watch each clip and use the trim function to cut out any parts of the individual clips you do not want to use.

-Using the add titles/credits tools, add titles at the beginning, in between clips, on top of clips, or at the end to tell your story.

-Add effects (fade in/out are the most popular) to make transitioning between clips more dramatic, effective, etc.

-If you want to dub in music or narration over your vid then import the file and edit it in WMM as necessary.

-Make sure to save your project.

-When you are happy with it, then save the movie (different from saving the project). This will render a new .wmv file to upload, email, or whatever. They are various format, size and, quality settings to choose from. If you want to upload to youtube, they recommend a size of 320x240, 30 FPS, etc.

-Uploading to youtube or other services is fairly easy. Most require you to sign-up first. There is often a delay to process and index the file.

Check out the WMM tutorial in wiki for more...

[Soulja]

Ok, that helps out. Now i tried uploading to Youtube (which is still uploading) and it's taking forever. i checked prperties, says the vid is 180 something kb, and max is 100 mb, and its max is 10 min, mine is 40 sec. so i dont know why its taking forever to upload, unless thats normal.

[Soulja]

I think i know why its not uploading, i checked and the size is bigger than 320x240. how do i make my movie smaller without needing to redo it? if I HAVE to redo it, how do i resize it then?

[loyalguard]

The easiet way to resize is while saving the movie in WMM is to choose a setting that sasys 320x240 in the description.

When you save, in the movie setting step, click "show more choices", then "other settings", then choose "High Quality Video (small). This will produce a 320x240, variable bit-rate, 30 FPS movie that should work well on youtube (size limit and quality). There are other possible settings but that is probably the best you can do with WMM.