SpiceFX 6 TitleFX Wizard Adds Amazing Text Flexibility to Movie Maker!

Movie Maker's built-in title tool only provides bare-bones title capabilities and limited, unchangeable text positions. Visually creating custom titles for Movie Maker that can be positioned anywhere in a scene has long been desired by users, but until now there's been no way to do it without messing with XML code. Enter TitleFX, one of our most popular Wizards in SpiceFX. It integrates tightly with Movie Maker's existing titler to give you unprecedented flexibility with titles, lower-thirds, and any other text-oriented needs in your Movie Maker project.

Keep in mind that TitleFX works hand-in-hand with our OverlayFX Wizard in SpiceFX. Why? Sometimes you may need more flexibility in your Movie Maker text such as mixed fonts or colors. The solution is to create the text/title in a graphics program such as Photoshop Elements (or any number of freeware image editing programs, such as GIMP), then use OverlayFX to layer the file easily on top of your Movie Maker clip, fine-tune the overlay's position, fade it in/out, etc. That step is easy and completely visual with the OverlayFX Wizard!

Tutorial: 6 Easy Steps to Using the TitleFX 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 TitleFX title animations from the top submenu to see the below.

1. Click the Reference Clip button to load a still-image of the background video (.wmv, .avi, or .mpg format) or photo (.bmp, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tga, or .pct format) you will use in your movie, for reference to better position the title's text within your scene.

TIP: Reference images are ONLY for reference in a Wizard. They are NOT part of your custom title effect. The Movie Maker’s Tools > Titles and Credits menu is where you will apply exported TitleFX. Such text can be placed on any clip in your Movie Maker timeline.

2. Choose a one-line or two-line title via the Two lines check box, then (if two-line) set their relative font size of the subtitle with the adjacent Relative Size button. In the Preview, drag the center 'handle' of the blue (and/or red) frame to position the title(s). Drag the edge of the blue or red frame to constrain where your Movie Maker text will flow within the image.

TIP: The above step only sets WHERE the Movie Maker titles will appear. You will not enter the actual text in the Wizard. That plus choosing a font, style, color, etc. will all be done later via Movie Maker’s Tools > Titles and Credits menu. In the Wizard, “Example Text” will be shown as a placeholder.

3. Click the V Alignment, Animation, and Timing buttons to change the title’s visual qualities interactively as desired. Many fresh, useful text animations are included that Movie Maker lacks. Note the Timing button alters the amount of fade-in/out time for the title. To change the type of fade, click the Animation button's triangle. You can adjust the Wizard preview's duration by clicking the blue duration indicator under the preview (to match your title's intended duration that you will set in the Movie Maker timeline).

4. Click the blue Play button under the preview to see the animation. Fine-tune as needed.

5. To create more than one custom Movie Maker title animation, click the Bin button to select another bin, then repeat steps 1-4 above. Forty bins are available.

6. When you are done, click the Click here to export button to send your custom title animation effects into Movie Maker. Re-start Movie Maker, then the effects will appear in Movie Maker’s built-in titler (in the Title Animation dialog accessed from Movie Maker’s Tools > Titles and Credits menu) as "TitleFX 01" "TitleFX 02" etc., ready to be used on any text you enter in Movie Maker. Important: When you complete a Movie Maker project that you may edit or re-publish in the future, you should save your TitleFX effects set for that project by clicking the Save Favorites button in the black bar area of the Wizards window, then choosing Save ALL. Then it can be reloaded later to ensure all text effects in the project are as you intended.

TitleFX Title Animations -- Tips and Tricks

Note: All of these tips are also in the built-in Help panel that appears with TitleFX.

• To access Movie Maker's Title Animation dialog (which is where exported TitleFX effects will appear), choose the Tools > Titles and Credits menu in Movie Maker. After you answer the "Where do you want to add a title?" question in Movie Maker, "Enter text for title" will appear. Below that, click Change the title animation. In the scrolling dialog that will appear, TitleFX items will appear at the bottom of the "Titles, One Line" or "Titles, Two Lines" section of the scrolling list.

• To revise a previously exported custom title animation in Movie Maker: 1. Revise the effect in this Wizard. 2. Click the Click here to export button. 3. Re-start Movie Maker. 4. In the Title Animation dialog of Movie Maker (accessed from Movie Maker’s Tools > Titles and Credits menu) un-select the title animation by clicking a different one, then re-select the revised title animation. Important Tip: When you complete the Movie Maker project, it is a good idea to save your TitleFX effects set by clicking the Save Favorites button in the black bar area of the Wizards window, then choosing Save ALL. That will ensure if you later need to re-edit the project, its TitleFX can be re-exported to match what you had previously. Unlike 'regular' effects and transitions in Movie Maker, exported title animations need to be refreshed per project... it is a quirk of Movie Maker's architecture. For all other Wizards, it is not an issue... each Movie Maker project file will retain the Wizards information that was active at the time of applying it, no matter what Wizards changes occur later.

• 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 item’s name to help you remember its intent when viewing Movie Maker’s list of title animations, 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 title animation (or a set of them), 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 title animations 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 Movie Maker 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 title animations for each new project. Note that existing projects will still retain their earlier title animations 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 text effect is then much easier!

SUPERB Creative Control -- Just a Few Easy Clicks!

Below is a glimpse of SOME of what is creatively possible with the TitleFX Wizard for Movie Maker. Keep in mind that all of these options/choices SYNERGIZE to give you hundreds of Movie Maker text effects and title animations -- all possible with just a few clicks! To see first-hand TitleFX 's creative power, download our demo, which is a very easy download and automatically installs into Movie Maker -- no technical know-how required!

• Adjustable Position and Size of One or Two Text Lines. In the preview, drag each text line wherever desired in the scene. Set the relative size of two lines to each other, a great way to form smaller subtext below a main title.

• Many Compelling Title Animation Choices! Tired of Movie Maker's usual collection of title animations? TitleFX adds many more, including some very popular and compelling looks such as slow drifts and slow zooms from professional productions. All are accessed via the Animation button, as shown at right.