Video clips are widely used nowadays as ways of expressing different situations, personal, business related, or plain news. These are all post-processed with specialized applications, and modern motion pictures are suitable examples.

Windows also helps in this regard, but with an easier tool with which to assemble different pictures and clips into a single movie.

Windows Movie Maker has a long history, but it’s no longer a part of the basic Windows setup. It’s one of the components of Live Essentials, so you need to download and install it if you haven’t already done that.

Resources you can use mean pictures, clips, as well as sound of an abundance of different formats. However, the following steps are just basic guidelines using several images, but the process is the same, regardless of the file type used.

Creating a video in a few seconds

Step 1: Download and install Windows Movie Maker.

Step 2: Load items by dragging them over the main window, or using the open dialog.

Step 3: Hit the Save movie button and select the desired output format.

Sure, this only gets you a simple clip with default settings. Here are a few more things you can tweak before reaching Step 3:

Animations: Several preset transitions are up for display, with preview offered in real time. Videos and pictures benefit from different types.

Visual Effects: These refer to an extra layer added over the selected item. You can pick one and have it applied to all the others. In addition, you can manually adjust brightness through a slider.

General Tweaks: The home panel provides a decent amount of preset themes to choose from. Additional options let you place caption, title, credits, or record with a webcam or microphone.

Quick Share: Besides the various specialized formats, you can share your creation on Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube and Flickr via your Microsoft Account.