Making AMVs tutorial ( windows movie maker)

This is a tutorial I wrote long time ago to help my friend Dannyrocksass, and later on I used it again to help another friend, Yabourtle and other people; these days I've been thinking about posting it here as a tutorial for all those who want to start amv editing with windows movie maker, so here comes!!!

ps: sorry if it's a bit confidential, but remember that when I wrote it I was referring to my friends!

pps: if something is not clear to you don't be shy and write me, I'll gladly try to help you!

Note: if you write PLEASE do it on youtube because I never check my emails except for that one, which I check daily.

First download .avi or .mpg clips; then open your windows movie maker. On the left there should be some blue movie tasks right? Click on "import video" and select your clips to open them on wmm; now if you have vista's movie maker you'll be done immediately, but if you have xp's mm you'll have to wait until it's done creating clips. ( if you have vista you can either create them manually by spitting them by yourself or automatically by selecting "create clips" but I don't suggest it).

Now that you have your clips ready, import the music in the same way and you can start working on your video!!! Add a title or a logo with your name so that if your amv is stolen the thief won't be able to say that he made it ( it worked out many times for me and other people). Set the audio levels ( tools> audio levels) and choose if you want to view a storyboard or a timeline ( I prefer the second one because you can see all the things you're putting in while with the first one you can only see the clips), then place the song into the " music " timeline.

Ok now start splitting those clips with that little icon under the video's preview and get a bit of that part and that part ( the useful oned though!), and then put them into the " video" timeline; you can add transitions and effects and titles by clicking on the movie tasks' options or by clicking the right mouse's botton or how is it called. Once you're done click on " save to my computer".

Now I'll give you some tips that you'll find useful when you'll be working on your video:

- listen to the hard beats and when they come add a clip featuring a hard blow ( ex. goku punching frieza's stomach);

- when you publish your video don't be shy and always choose the minimal compression: for example, if you can choose the video's final size between 23 MB and 95 MB choose 95 ( be careful not to go over 100 MB otherwise youtube will not acept it; oh also, if the maximum size is 107 select it because the final thing will be always a little bit smaller than what is said);

- save every 5 minutes and before doing big changes ( if the thing is radical you'd better save another project file);

- don't delete projects because maybe some day you'll have to re-work through it;

- start with small things ( like one episode) and do a first try, play around with effects, try transitions, etc and after 2-3 times you can start with bigger things... I mean, keep improving the difficulty of your videos each time;

- there are many types of amvs: tributes, lyrics-based, lip-synch based, trailers, etc...

Good luck =)