2 movies in 1 screnn

[olivier804]

I have home movies (DV) from "before" and "after" my dad renovated his house. Wondering if it is possible to make a 3rd movie from -before and -after in the same screen. that would mean having Before and After playing next to each other in sync in that new movie as one movie.
Thanks for your comments.
Olivier

[Cornucopia]

Sounds like you just want a simple "split-screen", which can be achieved either via the usual horizontal "WIPE" transition/composition filtering. See example:

Video picture A pixels:

A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8
.
.

Video picture B pixels:

B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8
.
.

Video Editor Timeline:

VideoTrack2 (B)
Transition/CompositionFilterTrack
VideoTrack1 (A)

When rendered/exported using static horizontal WIPE at 1/2 way point horizontally, will look like this:

A1 A2 A3 A4 B5 B6 B7 B8
.
.

You could alternately use a vertical or diagonal WIPE, depending on what you want to show in the room, etc.
Or,
You could try a Box Squeeze/PUSH or similar, which would give you both whole screens, just smaller:

A1A2A3A4A5A6A7A8B1BB3B4B5B6B7B8

It would have a letterboxed look.

Sorry, I can't tell you how to do it exactly, as the procedure is slightly different in every vid editing app.

Scott

[daamon]

Hi olivier804,

Welcome to the forums.

What video editing software do you have, or plan to get? What you want to do can be easily done in most video editing tools.

Let us know what you have / intend to get and we can go from there.

[olivier804]

from DAAMON
-------------

Hi olivier804,

Welcome to the forums.

What video editing software do you have, or plan to get? What you want to do can be easily done in most video editing tools.

Let us know what you have / intend to get and we can go from there.
_________________

1. I have no knowledge in that domain;
2. I have been using Windows Movie Maker to capture movies from my camera.

I have been fooling around with a few programs I got from the internet, without really understanding what I was doing.
Nevertheless, I am will and able (?) to learn and get it done.
any and all advices would be appreciated.

Cornucopia, thanks for your advice, but the fact remains that I have no idea what you are talking about.

Where should I start, to learn about this world?

Stupid Me

[Abond]

I think you should start here

[olivier804]

Hi everyone and thanks for tips.

Okay, I tried to update my knowledge a bit. Abond, I went to the link you
put in your reply. I had a good start there, then I went through my computer to see exactly what I had.
Not only had I been using Windows Movie Maker to capture my DV from my camera but I also had been "playing" with VirtualDub to tweak them.
I did get Avsynth and went through the -manual- and learn a lot there too.
cool stuff to play in reverse mode or to Reduceby2 and the like. I feel poud of myself and I just got Stackhorizontal command to work properly. Obliviously I still have a lot more to learn.

I am not giving up.

Thanks to all.

[daamon]

Hi olivier804,

Good to hear that you're making progress under your own steam - a shining example... Well done - particularly for not giving up. This can be a very rewarding hobby, though equally frustrating at times.

Use WinDV to transfer from your DV cam to PC (by firewire) instead of Windows Movie Maker - it's a better tool (and free).

Set up as follows, as required (where I give options):

1) Most apps prefer Type-2 AVI, if you have problems try Type-1.

2) Set "Discontinuity threshold" to 1 if you want to capture each individual clip on the tape to seperate AVI files. Set to 0 (sero) for one long AVI that ignores different clips on the tape.

3) Set Max AVI frame to 200,000 - this is enough frames in an AVI file to capture 90 minutes of NTSC at 29.97 frames. This means that you'll never chop a clip in half, especially if it's a long one.

Leave other settings as they are, and set the save location etc. as you need to.

As for video editing apps (to do the side-by-side you want), look into these:

Avid Free DV (free)
Zwei-stein (free)
AviTricks (free)
Ulead Videostudio
Adobe Premiere Elements

I've not tried any of the above, but they all sound as if they are up to the job.

I use Adobre Premiere Pro 1.5.1 and it's excellent, but not cheap and has a steep learning curve.

I hope that helps. Good luck...

[olivier804]

Daamon, I will give WINDV a try.

In the meantime, I ran myself in another corner.
I made my first try with short movies from a DimageA2 cam (544X408 resolution). worked great.

Them I went to my stock of videos from DV camcorder saved on computer as AVI files at 720X480.

I used the very same script as with Dimage files and when I try to load it in Virtualdub I get the message :

avisynth open failure:
avisource: couldn't locate a decompressor for fourcc dcsd


it looks like I am back to square one. I still don't know what I am doing .

Anyway I will keep on reading.
any advices/tips?

thanks.

[daamon]

Anyway I will keep on reading.
any advices/tips?

Not for AviSynth - I've never used it.

In general though, I'd say to set yourself a simple project, achieve that and progress with gradually more and more difficult stuff. That way you'll consolidate your understanding, and will have focus rather than being pulled in loads of directions coz you're not quite sure what you're trying to achieve...