Help me create a video with lots of eye candy for my anniversary.

June 15, 2006 11:12 AM

Need recommendations for free/low-cost options for putting together a DVD video from still photos with lots of snazzy effects.

I want to put together a DVD for my wife for our 10th anniversary (using Windows XP). I want to do the typical cool transitions between photos (wipes, cube effects, etc.) I would like to sync the transition of images to music, so that the transition happens on the beat and/or with the change of songs. Other ideas I've had are to use morphing software to show how our kids have grown up over time and to somehow capture the 'flyover' video from Google Earth to show all the places we've lived. The end result should be a DVD that can be played in any consumer DVD player (I can burn to either DVD-R or +R if necessary).

Any recommendations for software that will do any of this? What about consolidating it all into the final seamless DVD? Extra bonus points for freeware and/or open source software. I do not have a video capture card.

posted by mattholomew to computers & internet (4 comments total)

I am pretty sure the Movie Maker software that comes with XP can do most of this. Well, the part with the effects between photos and the syncing to music. As for the Google Earth flyover captures, and morphing, I am afraid I can't help you there.

I am sure there are better pieces of software than Windows MovieMaker, but for free, it does the trick sometimes.
posted by Richat at 11:17 AM on June 15, 2006

I use DVD PixPlay to do a family retrospective every year. It's not free, but it works well and I think it's well worth the $30.
posted by COD at 11:34 AM on June 15, 2006

Use the fantastic Photo to Movie. It will do everything you want. No need to use morphing software to show your kids growing up, just find headshots and line up the eyes and mouths, then dissolve between them. Works amazingly well.

re Google Earth, use a screen capture utility to make the movie, then use Movie Maker to edit this footage with the footage you produce using Photo to Movie.

To put it on a DVD you need some DVD authoring software. On a mac you'd use iDVD but I don't know about PC.

(NB this is EXACTLY the kind of thing which is about ten times easier on a mac, not least because most of the software to do it is free with the computer... you can use iMovie to do the stills, but Photo to Movie gives you more control).
posted by unSane at 11:35 AM on June 15, 2006

Microsoft's PhotoStory is very easy to use but produces surprisingly good results. Plus it's free. You'll still need authoring software to get the video onto DVD, but I would think that creating the video would be the more difficult part...
posted by arco at 12:08 PM on June 15, 2006