Custom Color Fade Effects for Windows Movie Maker 6.0

Windows Movie Maker comes with standard effects to apply a grayscale or sepia tone effect to your pictures or video, but one thing it lacks is an easy way to have video gradually fade to or from grayscale or sepia to full color. I've created a package of custom effects that let you add this ability to Windows Movie Maker 6.0.

There are two installers depending on whether you are running WMM 6.0 on a 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows. The installer will put the necessary files into, C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\Shared.

Windows Movie Maker 6.0:
Blaine's Color Fade Effects (64-bit)
Blaine's Color Fade Effects (32-bit)

After installing, you'll have the following new color fade effects:

Grayscale (Color In)

Grayscale (Color Out)

Sepia (Color In)

Sepia (Color Out)

Note: These effects take advantage of the effects architecture of Windows Movie Maker 6.0 and therefore will not work in WMM 2.x.

Custom Dreamy Look Title Overlay for Windows Movie Maker

I've just reworked my prior "Dreamy Look" overlay so it works with either WMM 2.1 (XP) or WMM 6.0. Here's a sample Dreamy Look Video

There are two installers depending on whether you are running on a 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows. The installer will put the necessary files into, C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\Shared.

Blaine's Dreamy Look Title (64-bit)
Blaine's Dreamy Look Title (32-bit)

To use the new title

Go to 'Tools' > 'Titles and Credits' > 'Title on the selected clip'.

Type the text you want to appear below the photo as a caption or, if you don't want any text, type a single space.

Click on 'change the title animation'.

Under your list of one line titles should be a new one called Dreamy Look

Pick 'Dreamy Look', then click 'Done'.

Stretch the title so that it extends for the length of your video.

You might want to apply the "Fade In From White" and "Fade Out To White" effects to your clip, so that it starts and ends on a full white frame.

Custom Photo Album Title for Windows Movie Maker

Have you ever wanted to make your photos or videos look like they are part of a photo album? (See my sample album) If so, I've just created a custom title overlay that can be used in Windows Movie Maker. It makes it look like your photos or video are mounted in a photo album, with a white edge and notched photo corners.

Note: This title has been designed to work with either WMM 2.1 (XP) or WMM 6.0 (Vista) version of Movie Maker.

There are two installers depending on whether you are running on a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows. The installer will put the necessary files into, C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\Shared.

Blaine's Photo Album Title (64-bit)
Blaine's Photo Album Title (32-bit)

To use the new title

Go to 'Tools' > 'Titles and Credits' > 'Title on the selected clip'.

Type the text you want to appear below the photo as a caption.

Click on 'change the title animation'.

Under your list of one line titles should be a new one called Photo Album

Pick 'Photo Album', then click 'Done'.

Stretch the title so that it extends for the length of your photo.

Repeat as needed for each photo or clip.

Custom Torn Page Titles in the style of Veronica Mars, Updated for Vista

The UPN show Veronica Mars opens with video of the various cast members and torn notebook pages showing their names. I was inspired by a post on the Windows Movie Maker forums, to create a similar look.

Note: These titles will work in WMM 2.1 (XP) and WMM 6.0 (Vista). I've provided XML for both versions in the installers.

Choose the correct 64-bit or 32-bit installer link below. Run the installer and it will install the custom XML code and the image files you'll need.

Blaine's Torn Pages (64-bit)
Blaine's Torn Pages (32-bit)

To use the new title:

Go to 'Tools' > 'Titles and Credits' > 'Title on the selected clip'.

Type the text you want to appear on the torn page.

Click on 'change the title animation'.

Under your list of one line titles should be new ones called Torn Page (Bottom) and Torn Page (Right). Pick the one you want to use.

For my example, I switched fonts to a serifed Playbill font, but you can choose any font or leave it as the default.

Click 'Done'.

Stretch the title so that it extends for the length of your clip.

Repeat as needed for each title.

Custom Speed Effects for Movie Maker (XP & Vista)

Movie Maker comes with a couple standard effects to speed up or slow down your video. If you find that you need more control over the speed, you can download these custom Speed Effects with different incremental speeds.

Note: These effects have been designed to work with either WMM 2.1 (XP) or WMM 6.0 (Vista) version of Movie Maker.

There are two installers depending on whether you are running on a 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows. The installer will put the necessary files into, C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\Shared.

Blaine's Custom Speed Effects (64-bit)
Blaine's Custom Speed Effects (32-bit)

After installing, you'll have new custom speed effects for

Slow Down in increments of 25%, 50%, 66%, x3, x4, x6, x8

Speed Up in increments of 25%, 50%, 66%, x3, x4, x6, x8