SportsCenter-Style Text Effects - Part 2

In Part 1 we learned how to make a gradient, scrolling background (not just scrolling text), along with scrolling text to create a SportsCenter-style backdrop.  This is just one area that PhotoStory shines.  You aren't limited to such a linear motion, but I wanted to keep this simple.  I'm going to show you how to take the Photo Story output and use Windows Movie Maker to create a little more dramatic effect.  Since we're not concentrating on Windows Movie Maker tutorials, I'm going to go fast.  Please see Papa John's website or WindowsMovieMakers.Net for more help.

Minimize the Losses

Since we'll be using our output from Photo Story as input for Windows Movie Maker, we want to minimize a loss of quality.  One of the ways that we can do this is by being very careful about output settings and compression methods.  Without going into much detail about codecs and lossy compression (more on this in another mini-guide), we'll reduce our loss in quality by creating a movie that is "more-than-enough" for Windows Movie Maker.

Editing Our Photo Story

Start by opening Photo Story and selecting Edit Project and pick the appropriate saved project.  Navigate to the final screen by pressing the Next button at the bottom until the "Save your Story" dialog appears.  This is where we'll ensure a high-quality output to use as our source later.

Make sure that your Activity is set to "Save your story for playback on your computer" and press the "Settings" button.  It should display all of the available setting options.  Select one that will be larger (or as large) as your final Windows Movie Maker project.  In this example, I will select 1024x768.

Now you can generate a high-quality movie file.  We'll use this in Windows Movie Maker to add text in the foreground that is not tied to the background slide.

Using Photo Story With Windows Movie Maker

I'm going to go through this part of the guide a little more quickly.  It assumes you have some knowledge with Windows Movie Maker.  I've listed to sites above that you can visit if you need help, or simply drop a note in our Photo Story Forums.

Step 1.

Import the Photo Story movie file by clicking on the Import Video link under the Capture Video Task.  Windows Movie Maker will understand the new Image Codec.  It will appear in your collection.

Step 2. 

Drag the video to your timeline.

Step 3. 

Select the clip on your timeline and go to the menu item Tools-Titles and Credits.  Choose the "Add title on the selected clip" link.  Before typing the text, choose the Change the title and animation link.  Choose any animation you wish, but the one I found very interesting was under the Titles, Two Lines section, "Moving Titles, Layered" -- it's very SportsCenter-like.  Click Edit Text.

Step 4. 

Add the text that you want in your movie.  I've just thought of some ACC teams off the top of my head.  If you need to change the font size or color, do so now.  When you click done, you will notice that your title has been added to your movie and it appears on the Title Overlay track of the Timeline.  You have the ability to set the start and end positions of the overlay.  I didn't want mine to start immediately, so I modified this accordingly.

The Bottom Line

Wow!  Now we've got a dramatic effect.  Press spacebar to start playing the clip.  If you are happy with what you see, you can save your movie file.  On my computer the preview was a bit choppy but the final output was silky-smooth.  Here's what it looks like.  I hope you enjoyed using these two programs together.