Windows Live Movie Maker makes it simple to turn your photos and home videos into polished, great-looking movies.
Everywhere you look there is more and more emphasis on all things visual, with FIXPlay for catch-up TV, YouTube on your mobile phone and video-calling on Messenger. If a picture tells a thousand words, then it's fair to say that a movie tells a million.
Movie Maker has got some new features as well as some handy upgrades to makes it easier for you to turn your photos and home videos into professional-looking movies.
Here are some of Movie Maker's finer points.
Movies from Photos
If you have photos stored on your hard drive or a collection of new shots you'd like to do something cool with, then import them into Movie Maker and create something special. Start with AutoMovie themes — they come pre-programmed with transitions, music and credit options so you don't get bogged down in the editing process.
Movies from you camcorder
Just dump your unedited footage into Movie Maker and have some fun. Once again, you can use the pre-designed AutoMovie themes or spend a little extra time creating something a little more unique. The ability to speed up and slow down your footage with the touch of a button is a great way to draw out that super-slow-mo action sequence.
Movies from anywhere
Long-distance relationship? It doesn't get easier to record your webcam video than using Movie Maker and the new direct input feature of Webcam Capture. Be sure to check it out.
With camera phones getting providing quality videos, video capturing from you mobile is becoming the norm. When you have some footage you've taken when out and about, drop it in Movie Maker and see what you can come up with. With the abundance of editing tools at your disposal, you'll be pleasantly surprised with how much you can do.
Save and share
Once you're done creating either a simple slideshow or something a slightly more polished, you can easily send it to your favourite social networking sites, such as Facebook or YouTube. If publishing your work to the masses isn't your thing, then you can e-mail it to your friends or family via SkyDrive, burn it to a DVD or even save it in 1080p to watch on your HD TV.
You can use Movie Maker for whatever you want to share. Movie Maker will get you on the right track in no time.
For a full tutorial on Movie Maker and how it works with Photo Gallery and your camera, watch our video.
Look for this update and many more over the coming weeks as we start delivering them to the Essentials suite.
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