SpiceFX 6 SceneFixer Wizard Solves Common Video Clip Problems!
The SceneFixer™ Wizard adds intuitive contrast and brightness controls AND advanced color correction -- a long-needed addition to Windows Movie Maker that will save you tremendous time. It greatly increases Movie Maker's versatility for all sorts of projects. You can set the RGB amounts independently per channel, and adjust saturation to correct a clip's color (or make cool color effects). Use brightness and contrast controls to fix lighting issues with a video or photo in Movie Maker, such as from wrong white-balance settings or poor lighting. SceneFixer is also great for quick fixes to still-images, saving you a detour to a separate graphics program.
Please see the movie at right for an example of how SceneFixer works. Movie Maker has traditionally had very few effects to make such adjustments, and of course none of those are adjustable. Now with SceneFixer you no longer have such limits!
The original shot at far left had poor color and skin tone, due to an improper white balance setting. For many video shoots, there is only one chance to get it right, unfortunately. SceneFixer corrected the clip later with simple adjustments to color, saturation, contrast, and brightness.
You can even vary the SceneFixer effect within the scene, which gives you all sorts of creative possibilities in Movie Maker beyond just fixing a source clip's overall look. Darken a bright sky, much like a neutral density filter. Vignette a nostalgic scene, wedding video clip, etc. Cool!
The original shot at far left is okay as a standard wedding shot. But SceneFixer gives the editor flexibility to emphasize the newlyweds further by subtle adjustment of the colors, brightness, and contrast of the peripheral areas. Dozens of such effects treatments are easily possible for Movie Maker.
The original concert shot at far left was okay, but the foreground crowd needed to appear less distracting to the main subject -- the performers. In SceneFixer, contrast and brightness was reduced just in the lower portion of the clip's image, solving the problem.
Tutorial: 6 Easy Steps to Using the SceneFixer Wizard
Double-click the Wizards for Movie Maker icon on your desktop (installed by our demo or purchased version). Or choose it in your Start > Program Files > Pixelan menu. Then the Wizards window will appear. If necessary, choose SceneFixer effects from the top submenu to see the below.
1. Click the Reference Clip button to load a representative still-image of the background video (.wmv, .avi, or .mpg format) or photo (.bmp, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tga, or .pct format) you will use with this effect, for reference to better decide on color, brightness, and contrast changes of your scene.
TIP: Reference images are ONLY for reference in a Wizard. They are NOT part of your custom effect. The Movie Maker TIMELINE is where you will apply your exported effect to any image. Therefore, if you have several clips all with a similar issue to correct, the same SceneFixer effect can be applied to all.
2. Click the Red, Green, or Blue button to add or subtract color per RGB channel of the image. Click the Saturation button to alter the intensity of the clip’s color.
3. Click the Contrast and Brightness buttons to change those qualities. Popup text will show numerical values.
4. To apply a correction only to part of an image, click the Area button. Several geometries are provided, such as to darken only a bright sky like a neutral density filter. Click the Area button's triangle to alter the edge softness of the correction area, such as to create very subtle correction areas, if desired.
5. To create more than one custom SceneFixer effect, click the Bin button to select another bin, then repeat steps 1-4 above. Forty bins are available.
6. When you are done creating SceneFixer effects, click the Click here to export button to send your custom SceneFixer effects into Movie Maker. Re-start Movie Maker, then the effects will appear at the TOP of Movie Maker’s Effects list as "SceneFixer 01" "SceneFixer 02" etc., ready to be dragged onto any video or still-image clip in the Movie Maker timeline.
SceneFixer Effects -- Tips and Tricks
Note: All of these tips are also in the built-in Help panel that appears with SceneFixer.• To revise a previously exported SceneFixer effect in Movie Maker: 1. Revise the effect in this Wizard. 2. Click the Click here to export button. 3. Re-start Movie Maker. 4. Drag the SAME effect onto your clip to replace the prior version. Important Tip: Revisions will NOT affect any other project. Each Movie Maker project file retains the Wizards information that was active at the time of applying it, no matter what Wizards changes occur later.
• To apply SceneFixer to only part of a clip’s duration, split the clip into a couple of pieces in the Movie Maker timeline (use Movie Maker’s Clip > Split command) where you want the effect to start/end, then apply the exported SceneFixer effect only to the desired piece.
• To apply multiple SceneFixer effects to the same clip... Movie Maker allows up to six effects per clip. A great way to combine different color or brightness treatments! Just create your SceneFixer effects, each saved in a Bin, then export and apply several to the same clip in the Movie Maker timeline. Play with the order of effects, as desired.
• To load a Reference Clip image that has a different format than the Wizard can show (thus a clip that is not in .wmv, .avi, .mpg, .bmp, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tga, or .pct. format), place the video clip or still-image in your Movie Maker timeline, display a desired frame in the Movie Maker preview window, then choose Tools > Take Picture from Preview. This will save a separate image file on your drive. Then load that image into a Wizard by clicking its Reference Clip button.
• To copy/paste a Bin's effect to another Bin in the same Wizard, right-click the Bin. This is handy to organize your effects and to create several variations of a complex effect.
• To undo/redo, click the small buttons at the window's top right corner (if active). Up to 100 undo/redo levels are possible -- great for experimenting with different looks.
• To optionally append up to 16 characters to an effect’s name to help you remember its intent when viewing Movie Maker’s list of effects, use the Add to Name text box.
• To change the Wizard’s preferences, such as preview duration, video format (NTSC or PAL), aspect ratio (4:3 or 16:9), and more, click the white Preferences button at the bottom of the window. For best preview accuracy in the Wizard, match the video format and aspect ratio to your Movie Maker project. These values will not alter your exported effect; they are only for the Wizard’s preview.
• To save a favorite SceneFixer effect (or a set of effects), click the Save Favorites (disk) button. To load it later, click the adjacent Load Favorites (folder) button. Note there is no need to save a favorite unless you intend to use the same effect in a future project, because each Movie Maker project file holds all Wizards info applied in that project. That remains true even if you later use the same bin to make a new custom item for a different project.
• To clear only the currently displayed effect, or all effects in this Wizard, or all exported items in Movie Maker from this Wizard, click the yellow Clear (-) button at the window’s bottom. Clearing all exported items is how you can create a fresh set of custom SceneFixer effects for each new project. Note that existing projects will still retain their earlier SceneFixer effects unchanged.
• To exit the Wizards, click the green Save and Exit (check mark) button in the lower corner of the window. Although you must re-start Movie Maker each time you export items from a Wizard, you can keep the Wizards window open for reference or further changes. Fine-tuning the effect is then much easier!
1. Click the 
• To undo/redo, click the small buttons at the window's top right corner (if active). Up to 100 undo/redo levels are possible -- great for experimenting with different looks.
• To optionally append up to 16 characters to an effect’s name to help you remember its intent when viewing Movie Maker’s list of effects, use the 
• To change the Wizard’s preferences, such as preview duration, video format (NTSC or PAL), aspect ratio (4:3 or 16:9), and more, click the white 
• To save a favorite SceneFixer effect (or a set of effects), click the 
• To clear only the currently displayed effect, or all effects in this Wizard, or all exported items in Movie Maker from this Wizard, click the yellow 
• To exit the Wizards, click the green 