Free software that I use; download links are given where applicable.
- Microsoft Powerpoint to create slides and visuals
- Audacity for narration and music - you can use any other audio software you are comfortable with of course.
- Windows Movie Maker for compiling the final product. I am using the basic XP version. If you are making a short video under 15 minutes in length you can also use YouTube Movie Maker which is also very simple to use and lets you upload straight to YouTube as well.
Step 1.
Set up your slideshow in PowerPoint. To create the optimal sizing for video display you need to set the page display to 16:9 which is very simple, the default display is 4:3.
In the Design Tab, select Page Setup:
Choose 16:9 ratio and select OK.
You will see the slides now look proportionate to a standard YouTube video. Remember to do this first before you start adding images or text so you get the sizing right from the beginning. The great thing about using Powerpoint for this is that you can view your show in fullscreen to get an idea of exactly how they will come out in the final video!
Set up your slides just as if you were making a standard Powerpoint presentation. Here is how I will be setting up the final video:
Useful tip:
Use the duplicate slide function to keep the slides looking similar.
Once you have your slides ready, we can export them as image files for the video.
Go to Save As menu, and scroll down to Jpeg option:
You will be prompted to save the current slide only, or all slides.
And now we're ready to record the audio and add music! I like Audacity as its simple to use for basic narration and music, but also has great effects such as echoes, speed and pitch changes if you do want to use them. If you're only recording narration good old sound recorder is fine, or if you have a piece of music ready then skip this step.
Step 2. Recording and preparing audio
Plug in your mike and get recording! For this video I'll use my blog text as narration.
Finding music for your video:
If you intend to monetize your video on YouTube you need to make sure you don't stand on any copyright toes as your video may be blocked for copyright violation. Luckily there is plenty of royalty-free music which you can use if you give the artist credit. The YouTube Audio Library is a great place to source a range of music, and the awesome composer Kevin MacLeod has a fantastic selection of royalty free music at incompetech.com which you can sort by genre, tempo and... 'feels', sample on the site and download as MP3 files.
Make sure to include attribution details in the credits or video description. I will be using his groovy piece 'Gonna Start' for this video, so the following credit will appear in the description of the YouTube video:
"Gonna Start" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Once you have your music, add it as a track to your Audacity project. Go to File, Import, Audio and select your track.
Your music appears as a new track below your narration track. Depending on your microphone the music is often too loud for your narration, so use the volume slider while playing back the audio to adjust it until it sounds right and the speech can be heard clearly. Trim the audio if it's longer than your narration, or you can repeat the section if it isn't long enough. Simply highlight the area of the track you wish to edit or remove with your mouse cursor and play around until you're happy. There are Audacity tutorials online as well if you get stuck - or maybe I'll do one some day ;-)
Once your piece is complete you can export it as an MP3 file ready to be included in your video: Go to File -> Export Audio.
Step 3.
Now we have our visuals and audio it's easy to put them together in Windows Movie Maker:
Import your slide images and audio into collections and drag your narration and music file and slide images to the music and video bars:
You can change the duration of each slide to make it fit the narration with the slider bar between each slide:
Windows Movie Maker also has a great set of video transitions which work particularly well for a slideshow-style video. Drag them between slides to add.
Important: For YouTube it is best to save the file at high quality:
Click next, and Windows will start creating the movie file. The movie project is saved as a WMV file and is ready to upload to YouTube!
And here's the result!
Feel free to ask questions in the comments if you have any :-)
