Windows Movie Maker is a useful tool that is a video editor and creator all in one.

If you think that creating a video with your photos is too complicated, think again and take a look at Windows Movie Maker.

Introduction

This easy-to-use movie maker software lets you create completely customizable multimedia presentations that include not only your best shots and favorite video clips, but also some nice video and transition effects that will add a professional touch.

How to use

Windows Movie Maker is really simple to use: import all the media you'd like to use (images, video files and even video captured in real time) and drag it onto the timeline. Add as many effects as you like, and check how everything looks in the preview window. There's even a special tool in Windows Movie Maker that lets you add titles and credits to your movie.

Additional features

Once your work is finished, Windows Movie Maker lets you export the video to several different formats, depending on where you want to use it: publishing it on a website, recording it to a CD or simply saving it to your hard drive are some of the options included.

That said, bear in mind that Windows Movie Maker is intended for people with little or no movie making experience, which means that more advanced users may find it a bit too limiting.

With Windows Movie Maker you can easily create video presentations with your favorite photos, video clips and some nice transition effects.

Download Windows Movie Maker XP 2.1 in Softonic

Windows Movie Maker is really simple to use: import all the media you'd like to use (images, video files and even video captured in real time) and drag it on the timeline. Then add as many effects as you like, and check how everything looks in the preview window. There's even a special tool that enables you to add titles and credits to your movie in a very easy way.

Once your work is finished, Windows Movie Maker lets you export the video with two main options, depending on where you want to use it: saving it to your hard drive or recording it to a tape on your DV camera. I'm surprised to find only these two options, especially when the XP version of Windows Movie Maker features a lot more.

Also, bear in mind that Windows Movie Maker is intended for people with little or no experience in video presentations at all, which means that more advanced users may find it a bit too limited.

With Windows Movie Maker you can easily create your own video presentations with your favorite photos, video clips and some nice transition effects.

Download Windows Movie Maker Vista 2.6 in Softonic

Photo! 3D Album is a simple free program that lets you upload your photo collection in very nice 3D settings that you can choose from a menu that pops up when you create a new project. If you don't like your original selection, don't worry as you can change the template later. It's like a first-person computer game, where you navigate through the gallery and you attach your photographs to the available canvases. Although there are many, frames are limited and this is a real problem for medium-size collections.

When you have finished navigating and uploading, you have several options in order to export your photo-collection. You can create a screen saver or a stand alone gallery which can be run with a double-click, or alternatively a web gallery in VRML or Shockwave format. For the latter format you will have to register, for free, on the developer's web site. When you launch the final video, press F1 if you want to navigate freely around the gallery.

Photo! 3D Album is great to create cool animations with the photos you want. Unfortunately the spaces available in the art gallery are limited, as they would be in a real one. It's also an interesting program to create your own personal screen savers.

Download Photo! 3D Album 1.1 in Softonic

You’ll quickly realize the potential of the program after browsing through its features. The new timeline view makes it easy to pick and drag the photos you want. ProShow Gold has all the editing tools you need like red eye remover or drop shadow and you can set an unlimited amount of layers to your slides. With around 200 transitions available, it's easy to give your slideshow an original feel. Adding a track or recording your voice over is also a cinch and Photodex now includes a wave form view to properly edit audio elements.

Advanced users will appreciate the motion effects, which let you configure your transitions with pinpoint precision. Your panning, zoom and rotation settings can easily be copied and transposed to other slides and the speed of each effect can be set individually.

The beauty of ProShow Gold is the number of output formats you can choose from to share your slide show with others. You can create your own animated screensaver to enjoy your photos on your PC. If you want to create copies of your slideshow you can burn it to DVD, video CD or autorun CD-ROM. If you feel like sharing your slideshow over the internet you can email it to a friend or share it with other ProShow Gold users on Photodex’s website. Another one of Photodex’s very own output options is to create a streaming web show. Not to worry here, you do not need to have any knowledge about web editing. ProShow Gold takes care of converting your slide to the proprietary Photodex presenter stream.

ProShow Gold obviously packs a large amount of features and tools and you could easily feel overwhelmed by them, but thankfully the quick tutorial at the start does well to explain how you can best make use of the program according to your needs.

Despite a lengthy installation process, Photodex’s ProShow Gold is certainly the reference point in photo slideshow creation. Professional photographers and wedding planners as well as home users will enjoy the amount of editing tools and output possibilities the program has to offer.

Download Photodex ProShow Gold 4.1.2737 in Softonic

Extra Photo to Video Converter makes a difference here by offering you a very easy-to-use app with which you can create attractive photo compositions in no time.

Advanced options enable you to add text captions (referred to as "subtitles" in the program), synchronize the soundtrack's length to that of the photos and also choose among a wide variety of transition options.

There's also the possibility of letting the program choose the transitions randomly.

Though the process of creation was very fast in itself, the program sometimes seems to freeze, especially when working with many photos. The final quality of your slideshow depends on the original images as well as the chosen format.