65 Add a Special Effect to a Clip

Before You Begin

35 About the Timeline and Storyboard

36 Place a Clip on the Timeline

See Also

66 Manage and Delete Special Effects

Movie Maker's special effects (called video effects in Movie Maker) might surprise you. You can turn a plain movie into one laden with effects with just a few mouse clicks and drags .

Select Tools, Video Effects to see all the effects available to you. Double-click any special effect to see, in your Monitor pane, what that effect produces.

Keep in mind that you can apply Movie Maker's special effects to all kinds of clips:

• Video clips

• Still picture clips

• Titles and credits

KEY TERM

Video effects ” Movie Maker's term for special effects you add to change the way a clip or movie plays back.

When you apply a special effect to a clip, the special effect appears on both clips if you split that clip into two clips. If you combine two clips, the combined clip takes on the special effects of the first clip. Movie Maker indicates that a special effect applies to a clip by putting a square icon in the clip's thumbnail with a blue star inside the box.

1. Select Clip
   
   Click to select the clip on which you want to apply a special effect.
   
   
2. Select Tools, Video Effects
   
   You can display all available special effects in the Contents pane by selecting Video Effects from the Tools menu.
   
   
3. Select Effect
   
   Click to select whatever special effect you want to apply to your selected clip.
   
   
4. Select Clip, Add to Storyboard
   
   To apply the effect, select Add to Storyboard from the Clip menu. A boxed icon with a blue star inside appears on the storyboard's clip indicating that a video effect is attached to that clip. If you rest your mouse pointer over the clip's effect icon, the name of the effect you applied to that clip will show.
   
   

   TIP

   

   You can drag the effect to the timeline or storyboard clip to apply the effect instead of using the Clip menu. If the timeline is compressed so that the clips are thin, you will need to zoom into the timeline more closely ( see 37 Zoom a Timeline Clip ) to ensure that you place the effect on the desired clip.

5. View Effect
   
   The effect appears on the storyboard's thumbnail image for the clip. If you add multiple effects for the clip, two blue stars appear in the square effects icon indicating that multiple effects are attached to the clip.