iKITMovie Help Guide iKITMovie User guide 2015

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Table of Contents iKITMovie Help Guide ................................................................................................................................ 4 iKITMovie Welcome ............................................................................................................................... 5 Interface Guide ..................................................................................................................................... 6 iKITMovie 4.x Interface ...................................................................................................................... 7 Preview Window ............................................................................................................................... 12 The Preview Window ................................................................................................................... 13 The Timeline ..................................................................................................................................... 16 Zooming The Timeline ................................................................................................................. 18 Editing Frames .............................................................................................................................. 19 Working with Sounds & Music .................................................................................................... 22 Main Menu ......................................................................................................................................... 23 Full Screen Mode ......................................................................................................................... 24 Lets Animate ......................................................................................................................................... 26 Getting Started .................................................................................................................................. 27 Webcam Settings ............................................................................................................................. 31 Video Property Properties window ............................................................................................ 32 Check Your Webcam ....................................................................................................................... 34 Choosing your Image size .............................................................................................................. 36 Capturing images ............................................................................................................................. 38 Viewing your animation in iKIT ....................................................................................................... 40 The Timeline ................................................................................................................................. 41 Adding Sounds ................................................................................................................................. 43 Removing Sounds ............................................................................................................................ 45 Moving Sounds ................................................................................................................................. 46 Adding your Voice ............................................................................................................................ 47

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Adding Music..................................................................................................................................... 49 Chroma key backgrounds ............................................................................................................... 51 Overlay ............................................................................................................................................... 56 Publishing/Exporting Your Animation ............................................................................................ 58 Uploading to Youtube ...................................................................................................................... 63

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iKITMovie Help Guide

This help file was written for iKITMovie Version 4.X. Some of the screen shots may not reflect other versions of iKITMovie

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Welcome to iKITMovie Stop Motion Animation - A world of unlimited imagination ! This help file was written for iKITMovie Version 4.x. Some of the screen shots may not reflect other versions of iKITMovie iKITMovie was designed to be both easy to use for all ages but also powerful enough to be capable of creating high quality stop motion animated movies. iKITMovie has a very unique custom built sound engine with over 2,200 sound effects and background music tracks included to make high quality movies. You can also add your own sounds , voice and music to compliment the movie. iKITMovie with the release of Version 4 includes Chromakey, Rig Removal and Overlay functionality. So let's get started.

The Interface What do all the buttons do ?

Getting Started Learn how to animate with iKIT now!

Sound Effects Add sound to your images!

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Interface Guide

All areas and buttons are explained in some detail in the next section..

What do all these buttons do ?

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The iKITMovie Screen iKITMovie 4.x Interface Click on the blue buttons to learn about each item of the iKITMovie Screen

New Project

Click on this button to create a new project. If you have a project open already, you will be prompted to save it first.

Open Project

Open one of your existing projects. iKITMovie files will have a file extension of ".ikit" Do not try to open non ikit files.

Save project

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Click this button to save your project. You should get into the habit of saving your project regularly while you work on it.

Settings

Choose to set various project settings by clicking on this button.

Import Images

You can import images into your project at any point. iKITMovie supports JPEG files.

Open Export Folder

Open the folder where your exported movie has been created.

Export Movie

Use this option once you have completed your project to create a movie that can be viewed outside of iKIT.

Exit

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Click on this button to Exit

Playback Mode

Go from capturing images to viewing them in iKIT

Zoom timeline Use the zoom control to fit more of your captured images onto your screen to make it easier to edit and plan your movie.

Images This row contains all the images you have in your project shown in a timeline fashion.

Sound FX This row contains all the sound fx you have added to your project.

Voiceovers This row contains all the voice over tracks you have added to your project.

Music Tracks This row contains all the music tracks you have added to your project.

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Full Screen

Click on the full screen button to fill your screen with the live preview and playback image.

Sound FX, Music and Voiceovers This section of the screen shows the sound fx, music tracks and voiceovers available to you for your project.

Add your own music You can add your own music tracks to your database of sounds. You can add WAV or MP3 files. They will be imported in to "My Sounds" in the listing.

Search for a sound/ Music Type in a keyword to find the sound you are looking for in your listings.

Take a Snapshot

This button you will use most when using a webcamera. Click on it to take a photograph / snapshot of the image in front of your connected webcamera.

Timelapse Function

This button allows you to take snapshots at regular intervals. It's a timelapse function.

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Change Speed of Playback Here you can alter the speed at which your movie plays back onscreen. It can be set to anything from 1 to 30 Frames per second ( FPS )

Adjust Onionskinning This is a very useful tool for stop motion animation. It shows you the difference between the last snapshot you took and the current live position of your character onscreen.

Chromakey Tab Choose this tab to browse the chromakey backgrounds

Overlay Tab Choose this tab to browse the overlay images/video you can add over your captured images

Rig Removal RIG Removal: Rig removal tab

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The Preview Window

This area shows you the current frame of your animation and the live video that is coming from your camera. By default the preview window shows you the view from your camera, overlaid upon the last frame of your animation, or the current frame of your animation (as selected on the timeline).

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The Preview Window

Client area

Go to Full Screen Control

Live / Playback images

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Time Lapse Type Auto snap button

Take a SnapShot Button

Reduce Playback Frame Rate

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Increase playback FPS

Playback control

OnionSkinning Level

Project Name Your currently opened project name will be shown here

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The Timeline

Once you have taken a photo of your character or scene by clicking on the snap button, the captured images will be displayed on the timeline as shown below. One frame represents each snapshot taken. When you play your movie back each of these images is played back in sequence to give the impression of animation. Small changes between the position of the character in the example below from frame to frame will appear as animation when viewed on the live screen view. The number of frames played back for every second in time is called the FPS (frames per second) rate. If you wish to vary the speed of playback you may do so by moving the FPS scroll bar left from its default of 15 FPS down to whatever rate you prefer.

First image captured - Frame 1

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Using the Zoom controls on the Timeline The slider on the left hand side of the timeline can be used to zoom in and out.

This allows you to see more frames at once and can be particularly useful when you are rearranging the sound effects in your animation. Simply pull the slider down to zoom out and push it up to zoom in. Before zooming... Small number of images can be seen on the timeline.

After zooming ... more images on the timeline can now be seen.

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Editing - Copying , Deleting , Moving frames etc.

Deleting Frames

If you have for example left your hand onscreen for one of the snapshots you can easily delete it as follows: 1- Select the frame you want to delete by left mouse clicking once on it. It will highlight in red once chosen. 2- Once highlighted "right mouse click" to bring up the floating

menu.

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Copying Frames

If you want to copy a frame (image) to another location you can do it as follows: 1- Select the frame you want to copy by left mouse clicking once on it. It will highlight in red once chosen. 2- Once highlighted "right mouse click" to bring up the floating menu

3 - Choose Copy. Now you can paste the copied image where you wish by clicking on the location you wish to copy it. Then bring up the floating menu and choose paste after or paste before the currently selected frame. Copying Multiple Frames

If you want to copy a number of frames (images) to another location you can do it as follows:

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1- Select the first frame in the sequence of frames you want to copy by left mouse clicking once on it. It will highlight in red once chosen.

2 - Now press and hold down the "shift key" side of the keyboard.

on the left hand

3 - With the shift key pressed use your left mouse click to select the last frame in the sequence of images you want to copy.

The series of images should now be shown as all hightlighted in red. ( Now release the shift key ) 4 - Next right mouse click to bring up the floating menu

5 - Now choose "Copy" from the menu. 6 - Now you can paste the copied images where you wish by clicking on the location you wish to copy it. Then bring up the floating menu and choose paste after or paste before the currently selected frame.

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Working with your sounds

Adding a sound to your timeline

1 - Listen to the sounds in the Sound bank by double clicking on the sound of interest. 2 - Add the preferred sound to your timeline by dragging it onto the correct track in the position that matches where you want the sound to play. 3 - When you release the sound icon to place it on the timeline you will be asked how many frames the sound should cover.

The location of the sound will be highlighted by a music symbol on the frame where it begins.

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Main Menu

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Full Screen Mode

You can switch from the main screen of iKITMove to full screen mode in order to more closely view your movie. To fill the screen with the image on your preview screen simply click on the monitor symbol on the top right hand corner.

The timeline, Soundbank and main buttons will remain in the background while you view the image now fullscreen. To revert back to the main desktop in iKIT simply click the above shown image again.

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Getting Started - The Welcome Screen When you first open the program you are greeted by the Welcome Screen.

Here you have the following options:

Start a new animation project. This is the option you should choose anytime you start a new project. This will open the "New Project" dialog box; where you can enter a name for your project, and choose where you would like the project files to be created and saved. Tip - Be careful to avoid using unusual characters in your project name, for example do not use / or ? or > etc. Keep the names simple and descriptive .eg. My First Movie Avoid names like My/Movie??+

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This is the default option for capturing your images if you are using a webcamera. Make sure you have your webcam attached and your webcam software drivers installed.

By default projects are saved in a folder called "ikitmovie" in the "My Documents" folder of your PC. You can change this folder to a different one if you prefer by clicking the change button. ( 4 )

Click on this option if you want to import images into your project. You can also import images when you enter the main screen.

The change directory button.

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If you already have created a project and you wish to open it again to edit or amend it then choose this option. The file you open will have a file extension of ".ikit". Do not try to open files that do not have this file extension.

This option can be used to select from a listed project on teh startup dialog. It is here for your convenience to use to open the last project rather than having to navigate to the correct folder and search for your project. If you have not worked on a project recently, this button will be blank.

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Webcam Settings If you have a webcam attached and once you have named your animation project you will need to set your Webcam settings After you have chosen "Use Webcam" the dialog below will be displayed.

You should follow steps 1 , 2 and step 3 is optional. 1- You must select your webcam using the drop down menu. Note that if your webcam drivers for your webcam have been installed correctly then the webcam make and model will show here. Once you have selected your webcam from the drop down menu you MUST press

the

Select Button. 2- Click on Set Capture Size dialog.

This will bring up the Video Property

Once you have completed steps 1 and 2 then click on "Apply and Close"

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Video Property Properties window

Color - Capture compression Leave this on its default setting for your webcam. You may read about Color compression here but it does not need to be changed from the default setting suggested by your webcam.

Capture Image Size This setting is important. You should choose either one of these options. 640x460 800x600 960x720 You webcam may not be able to capture images greater than 640x480 so you should choose 640x480. If you webcam has alot of choices then you can choose 800x600 or 960x720 but note that if your PC does not at least match the minimum hardware specifications it may find it may run slowly if you have 1000's of 960x720 images in your timeline. Read more here on choosing your capture image size for your animations.

Video Refresh Rate

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This setting is often confused with the frame rate used in your animation. Again you should leave this setting at the default ( usually 15 FPS ) It refers to the video refresh rate of your webcam. It does NOT refer to the frame rate at which your animation will play.

OK button

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Check your Webcam If you have just created a new project or maybe you have opened an existing or last project and you have the "Capture from Webcam" option choosen but you do not have a webcam plugged in to your PC then you will get the following message

Click on the ok button and check to see if your webcam is plugged in and your webcam drivers installed correctly. If you find you do not have the webcam plugged in you may have to restart iKITMovie before you will be able to start taking snapshots.

Web Cameras are the easiest way to get in to stop motion animation. As long as you pay that little bit more for a good quality webcam you can achieve some very good results. The important features are : * 640x480 Resolution at 15 Frames per Second Capable at least * Preferably a Glass Lens * Focus control - Manual or through software on your compter * Stable base or a Clip to attach to a base or stand There are a number of brands available on the market. We have tested many of them. We like Philips®, Microsoft® and Logitech® Web cameras for stop motion animation at the moment.

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Choosing your Image Size - From your Webcam When you have opened or created a new project, and your camera is connected you will be asked to choose the size of the images for your project. This is an important step. You should make the choice of output size ( Image Size as it is sometimes described ) taking in to consideration the following things: •

The quality of your webcam ( can it capture images at greater that 640x480 ?)

• The amount of memory installed on your PC. 2 Gb of RAM minimum is recommended • The size of your project. If you intend on having 7,000 frames of more, higher resolution images may slow down your PC. We recommend when starting out you choose 640x480 ( Option 2 indicated below )

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Capturing Images - With your Webcam If your webcam is up and running then when you enter iKITMovie's main screen you should see a live view of the image in front of you webcam.

Live View from your Webcam The quality of the image you see in live view screen will depend on two factors. Firstly the quality of your webcam and secondly the amount of light surrounding your scene. Check Webcam recommendations and lighting section for advice on this topic.

Play back captured images

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You choose this button to move from capturing images over to "playback" mode to view what you have captured with your camera.

Take a snapshot ( Photo )

You click on this button to take a photo or snapshot as we prefer to say of the image in front of your camera.

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Viewing your animation in iKITMovie

To view the images in playback mode choose the playback option. You will then have a number of options as shown below.

Click the play button to start playback- Press it also to pause playback - Press it again to continue playback.

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The Timeline

Once you have taken a photo of your character or scene by clicking on the snap button, the captured images will be displayed on the timeline as shown below. One frame represents each snapshot taken. When you play your movie back each of these images is played back in sequence to give the impression of animation. Small changes between the position of the character in the example below from frame to frame will appear as animation when viewed on the live screen view. The number of frames played back for every second in time is called the FPS (frames per second) rate. If you wish to vary the speed of playback you may do so by moving the FPS scroll bar left from its default of 15 FPS down to whatever rate you prefer.

First image captured - Frame 1

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Frame Numbers ..1 , 2,3,4 etc

Time at which each frame will play back. Frame 1 , the first frame is at time "0" ( zero ). Subsequent frames will be shown on the time line in fractions of a second.

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Adding Sounds to your Movie

When you have taken all you snapshots or imported images you will now want to bring the movie to life by adding sounds. The screenshot below shows the timeline of the images you have taken with now sounds ,music of voice added. You can choose the sound you want to add by auditioning the sounds in the Sound & Music databank. Double click on the sound to hear it. If you can't find the sound you are looking for try typing in a keyword to the search box under the Sound & Music databank listing.

For example lets say we want to add footstep walking sounds. So we type in "walk" in to the search box and click on the magnifying glass symbol.

The search facility will highlight the sounds matching the keyword "walk" in the listing. So now scroll up and down to see the sounds relating to that keyword. They will be highlighted in red likes the screenshot shown below.

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Once you are happy with the sound you have found you simply drag and drop it onto the timeline where you wish the sound to start.

Where the sound starts playing in time with the images is indicated with a musical symbol on that frame as shown above.

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Deleting Sounds from your Movie

If you are not are happy with the sound you have added to your timeline you can remove it by first clicking on the music symbol on the frame. This will highlight the sound for you .

Now right mouse click on the sound you wish to remove to bring up the floating menu.

On that floating menu you choose delete and it will remove the sound.

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Moving Sounds on the timeline in your Movie

You can move any sound in the timeline left or right by first clicking on the music symbol on the frame to highlight the sound and then dragging the sound left or right. You can also shorten the sound by grabbing the end of the sound and dragging it left.

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Adding a voiceover to your Movie

Step 1Click on the Voice Over tab in the sound section of the main iKITMovie interface. This will bring up the section of the interface shown below so that you can name and make a recording of your voice.

Step 2Check to see if you have a microphone attached to your PC by clicking on the "Primary Sound Capture Driver" box.

A selection of microphones will be shown in the list assuming you have some form of microphone attached. Step 3Name your recording at this point in order to allow you begin recording in the "Name Recordign Box"

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In my case I decided to call this voice recording "My Name is Darth". It can be helpful to name the voice recording with a hint to what is being said in the voiceover!

Step 4Now you have named your voiceover you can click on the red Record button to begin recording.

Click on the red button once again to stop recording. You can click on the play button to hear what you have recorded.

Step 5If you are happy with what you have recorded you can click on the Save button to add the voiceover to your databank of Voiceovers. Step 6Now drag and drop the voiceover from that list on to your voiceover timeline in the location you prefer.

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Adding a Music track to your Movie There are a selection of Music tracks ready to use in iKITMovie full version. You can listen to the tracks by doubleclicking on them. Once you have selected a track you simply drag and drop the music track on to your music timeline. The track will being to play at the frame you place the music on.

The below screenshot shows how I have dropped a music track on to the first frame of my movie.

The frame will be indicate a music track has been added by the music note in the top right hand corner of the frame.

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You may add your own music tracks to the Music soundbank by clicking on the + Add to Libray button indicated in blue and white below. When adding your own music tracks use MP3 or WAV stereo files for best results. Note that the mp3 sound files that you add to the library must be stereo 128 kbps

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Chroma key backgrounds Chromakey or greenscreen Adding Still Images See Steps Below With iKITMovie 3.x full version you can change your backgrounds and replace them with images or videos from our library of images and video. Simply animate your characters in front of a green or blue screen and later replace that color with our image / video or with one of your own.

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HOW TO REPLACE YOUR BLUE/GREEN BACKGROUND WITH A STILL IMAGE

( Remember - you must first take snapshots of your character or spaceship or whatever in front of a green / blue sheet of card/paper ..make sure you do not cast a shadow on the screen also ) STEP 1 & 2 - Select the image in the timeline that has the green/blue background where you wish to replace with an image / video background.

STEP 3 -

Select the Background tab to display the library of image and video backgrounds

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STEP 4 - Choose a background you would like to use.

STEP 5 - Click on Apply Background STEP 6 - Click on Configure Chroma

STEP 7 - Click on the background color you wish to replace ( you should see a checkered background start to appear )

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STEP 8 - Move the "Color Tol" slider to the right slowly and carefully until most if not all of the blue/green has changed to a Checkered background.

STEP 9 - If all the blue or green is not easily removed then click on Color 2 and choose the remaining color to replace.

STEP 10 - Click on OK to apply the backgrounds to as many of the images in that sequence as you wish.

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ALL DONE !

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Overlay This feature allows you to overlay images or video on top of your animation. For example you can superimpose a fire or an explosion on your animated sequence. This is done frame by frame in order to synchronise with yoru animation. There are a selection of still images and video images from which you can choose. You may also add still images in PNG format to the library. Note - the PNG files must have a transparent background. Once you click on the overlay tab you will be presented with a dialog ( screen ) similar to the one shown below.

Step 1 - Choose an image from the timeline on to which you wish to put an overlay image / video. Step 2 - Drag and drop the chosen image in the timeline up to the empty white box indicated above the the red "1" Step 3 - Browse through the list of images or videos indicated by the red "2" above until you find one that matches your needs. Step 4 - Click on config Overlay.

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The Config Overlay Screen Step 5 - Now drag and drop the chosen overlay image on the still image that you chose from the timeline...as indicated by the red arrows above. Step 6 - Position the overlay image and resize it to your needs for this first image. Step 7 - Choose the number of frames on to which you wish the overlay to appear from the dropdown menu - "Process overlay for next .... Frames"

Step 8 - Click on Next button and note the size , location and appearance of the next image. You may want to adjust the black background using the Overlay Transparent color slider. Continue to scroll through the frames until you are complete and then click on ok.

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Publishing (Exporting) your new animation in iKITMovie

In order to view your animation outside of the iKITMovie application you must "export" the animation to a format that Microsoft windows can play back. You must export the animation to either of two formats. The two choices are: • •

WMV - Windows Media Video MP4 - MPEG 4 Format

Read the notes about these formats below - important. To export the movie you simply choose the "export movie" button on the left hand side of the iKITMovie screen.

After clicking the Export movie button the screen shown below will appear. Start by clicking on the Step 1 Button.

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Step 1 When you choose step 1 you will be given the choice to export either all frames ( the entire movie ) or a selected number of frames. In most cases you would select "All frames (Entire movie)" unless you have a specific reason for only selecting a frame range.

Step 2

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Step - 2 - Movie Properties

Youtube / AOL - Normal size - By default iKIT will export your movie as 640x480 ( thats 640 pixels wide by 480 pixels tall - rectangular shape )

Youtube / AOL - Small size - You can select this size if you prefer.

Custom Size - If you wish you can make the movie larger in appearance. For example 800x600 or 960x720. In this case you will be prompted to enter the Width and Height of your movie.

Tip - If you took your snapshots at 320x240 for example and you decide to export the movie as 960x720 then the resulting export will appear grainy, as the images will be stretched up from 320x240 to 960x720.

Double click on the width box first to enter your choice . eg. 320 or 800 or 960 etc. The corresponding height can then be entered e.g 240 or 600 or 720 etc. You enter any reasonable value here but the recommend values will give best results.

Keep aspect ratio - 4:3 is the default selection. That means 4 units of measure wide by 3 units of measure tall. If you untick this option you can enter any reasonable Width and Height combination you wish. You may choose widescreen for example which is 16:9

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Step 3

Step-3 Movie Type

Name your movie here. You can have a name that is not the same as the project name if you so wish.

WMV - Windows Media format - This format will play in windows media player. This format can be used to upload to video sharing sites such as Youtube.

TIP - Use the WMV format if you wish to import the movie in to Windows movie maker.

MP4 Format - Export you rmovie to MP4 if you want to upload to Youtube or to your MP4 portable player (IPad / IPod etc)

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TIP - If you wish to play this format on your windows PC you will need the QuickTime player from apple. If you do not have it you can download it free from HERE

Finally click on finish to export your movie to your choosen format.

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Uploading your movie to Youtube When you have successfully exported your movie you will be given the option to upload it to YouTube.

If you choose to upload your video to YouTube the screen shown below will be presented to you.