Our year in review

[KyDan]

Greetings!
Right this minute it's snowing and it's going to be cold
and yucky outside for the next few days at least.
Hope you aren't shoveling too much where you live!

I've put together a slide show of all our vacations and
adventures from 2009.
It has music and captions and some pretty good views
of places we visited.
The show was created for family so it has lots of pictures
of us and of our family but there are plenty of views
of WARM places.
Last year we visited

Gulf Shores AL in January
We had a terrible ice storm
We visited Pine Mtn GA and Callaway gardens
for spring break while the azelias were in
full bloom
We took a hot air balloon ride
We spent a week in Shenandoah Nat. Park in the
Blue Ridge Mtns.
We visited Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and
Yorktown.
We had some local trips and a garden party
and I've included some pictures of our back yard
gardens in full bloom.

The show is an EXE file. You must download it
completely and then just click the file and it
will open and run.
It's about 50 meg so this is probably not something
for folks on dial up internet but if you have cable
or DSL it should only take a few minutes to download.

Just click the link and choose "save file"
to your desktop.
When it's downloaded to your desktop
double click it and enjoy.
Hit Esc at any time to stop/exit.
Turn on your speakers.

http://tinyurl.com/ykh8bxg
(file name 2009_Dan_Rita_med_resolution.exe)

Feel free to delete it when done watching!
You can pretend it's summer for a few minutes.
The show runs a little over 16 minutes not
counting music credits at the end.

Comments/criticisms are welcome.

[NWJeeper]

Thanks Dan, when I get off work and home I will have to check it out.

What software did you use for producing the movie?

I have done these in the past (I have about 4 movies that range from 30 to 45min each) however they are our Jeepn' trips here in the northwest and Moab Utah, are mostly all video rather than still photos, and all set to music. I have been told by many they are better than the production movies that they buy at the 4x4 shops and that I should sell them but because there is copywrited music in them I can't. I just give the DVDs away as souveniers to those that want them or who have wheeled with us in the past.

I have been using Ulead Media Studio Pro for several years and really love it.

[KyDan]

Originally Posted by NWJeeper

What software did you use for producing the movie?

I have been using Ulead Media Studio Pro for several years and really love it.

The file I created is an Exe file and not a video.
Since it's exe it will run without any other software needed.
No video viewer or DVD player software needed.
Also it does not contain any video, it's all still shots but
some have zoom or pan special effects.
The music is MP3 so those files are smaller also.

I use a program called
Pictures to Exe.
It started out years ago as a little photo program that would
create an exe file so you could show your photos on any
computer with no extra software necessary.
It's grown into a really big powerful program but there is
a bit of a learning curve.
Here is a web link to their user support forum as well
as the software site where
you can download a demo of the program itself or buy the full blown version.

User support group
http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/

program page is here
http://www.wnsoft.com/

The forums above have many links to user created slide shows.
I have only scratched the surface of what the software is capable of
but it's a fairly big learning curve.
There are probably other programs out there that are just for
making photo shows on DVD that would be easier to use.

Nowdays the program can burn a DVD of your photos
or create a video for i phone or i pod but it
can also publish it to U-tube or make an AVI video
or create an MP4 file.

MP4 is the way to go for a new TV.
MP4 is a high definition movie file that you can put on a thumb drive (USB drive.)
Then just plug that into a TV (some new TVs have a usb port)
or blueray player or Play station 3 game or Western Digital
media player that has a USB port that's connected
to a high def TV.

I've made DVDs and they look ok but the same show in MP4 looks like true high def on my big screen.
The old reliable Exe file is still very good on a PC screen.

If you are looking for smaller file that can be e-mailed
you can dowsize your photos and get a 10 minute show
that's only a few meg in size.

Also there are discussions in the user support forums that
have links to royalty free music.
If you use royalty free music you could sell your DVDs.

If you are interested be sure and visit the forum with
member created slide shows.
Some of those guys are true professionals and they
demonstrate the capability of this software.

New version is under development now that will include
music editing and video as well as still slides.

No I don't work for them!!
I'm just an amateur user that's happy with my results.

http://tinyurl.com/ykh8bxg
(file name 2009_Dan_Rita_med_resolution.exe)

PS. my slide show referenced here was made with
reduced quality jpg slides so the resulting Exe file
is smaller.
The MP4 I made for myself with full size jpg photos
has absolutely no mottling or shimmer.
It looks like true high def which is pretty cool even
by today's standards.

[rockwood06]

KyDan, that's a real nice Idea. You are very creative great job.