It remains a shame that Microsoft has ended the Movie Maker project. Fortunately, there are free alternatives. Think of Lightworks, Hitfilm Express or Shotcut. But they often have a steep learning curve. MiniTool MovieMaker lets you edit video very easily. In this article we explain the possibilities.
First we are going to download and install MiniTool MovieMaker. We recommend that you click here first Custom Installation click and uncheck Agree to participate in Customer Experience Improvement Program. This prevents questionable outgoing traffic.
For the time being, there is not much that can be done about the language: English, it will be. After you have indicated the installation path, click the install button. The required data will be downloaded and the program will then be ready for you.
When you start MiniTool MovieMaker, a window with Movie Templates. Unfortunately, neither the number nor the quality of these templates is much. In addition, our tests show that imports via this route are not very stable.
You now end up in the video editor itself. At the top left you will find the media window that indicates how many videos, music files and images are already ready for your project. In the middle you will see a preview of the media files. Hold the mouse over such a preview to see it slightly larger or to play it in thumbnail (audio and video). On the far right you will find the playback window of the media that you have placed on the timeline at the bottom.
Without media files there is little to experience. Therefore click on Import Media Files, with which you can import all desired files. By the way, you don't have to worry too much about the media types. MiniTool MovieMaker can handle eleven video and six photo formats.
The imported media is immediately placed in the correct section of the media window. You will immediately receive nine music files as a gift. Importing your own music is of course also possible.
Do you not only want to edit videos, but also photos? Then take a look at our Photo Editing Course.
Working with the timeline
In order to use imported media, you need to get them on the timeline. You do this by simply dragging a file to the timeline. You can also click the plus button that appears when you mouse over the preview.
MiniTool MovieMaker automatically places images and videos on the middle track. Music files end up on the bottom track. You can always change the order between them by dragging an audio, video or photo clip to another location.
You can view the result in the meantime via the play button at the bottom left of the video display. Drag the blue button below the view to quickly move to another point in your video. You will notice that at the same time the blue vertical line on the timeline moves with it. You can also adjust the playback point itself by dragging this line.
Did you make a mistake? Don't panic: at the top left of the timeline you will find Undo, next redo. You can simply delete a clip via the Delete button or via the trash can icon.
Do you want to insert a transition or remove a video clip in a video clip? To do this, move the vertical line to just above the starting point at which you want to split a video or possibly a photo. Then click on the scissors icon: the video will be split immediately.
Repeat for the clip's ending point, if desired. Then you can easily delete or move the fragment. Keep in mind that the added audio file will be split automatically. That in itself is not a problem, because the split music continues to play.
Edit video and add effects
MiniTool MovieMaker also includes a few useful tools. Right-click on a photo or video clip and choose edit. To the right of the video display, only scroll bars appear that allow you to quickly select the Contrast, Saturation or Brightness of the clip.
Nice is also the option 3D LUT. This stands for 3D lookup table. With this option you can choose from about 23 color effects. A large part of this is inspired by a popular film or series, such as Batman and Game of Thrones. At the top you will find buttons to rotate the film by 90 degrees or to flip it vertically or horizontally.
Don't be afraid to experiment: with Reset quickly return to the original values. Confirm with OK to apply the changes. You will also find the Edit function with audio clips. Here the effects are limited to Fade in, fade out and adjusting it Volume.
You can find even more image effects in the menu Effect. The media window then gives way to 24 effects, divided into three sections: Artistic, Common and MotionBlur. The thumbnail previews give you a good idea of the effect.
Just like with a photo or video clip, all you have to do is click the plus button or drag the effect to the desired clip on the timeline. You can undo an effect in different ways: you choose the effect none, use Undo or right click on the effects icon on the clip and choose delete.
Add transitions and texts
A sporadic transition between two photo or video clips can be fun. MiniTool MovieMaker has a nice arsenal for this. As soon as you Transition chooses no fewer than 98 dives, with subcategories such as Advance, Diagonals and wipe. You just need to hold the mouse over such a thumbnail to see the transition. What does it look like? Then just drag it to the timeline between the two desired clips.
You can remove such a transition from the context menu or carefully adjust it with edit. On the far right you can see the Duration (from 0.25 to 2 seconds). Bee Transition Mode indicate whether the transition should appear at the end of the first clip, at the beginning of the second, or on both clips.
You may like to add text to a video, for example for captions to photos (Captions), titles (Titles) or closing credits (credits). click on text and drag a suitable text type to the top track. Select the added item so that you can edit the text directly in the video view. To the right of it, you'll now find all sorts of typical formatting options, such as alignment, spacing, size, and color.
MiniTool MovieMaker doesn't skimp on the number of fonts. You can choose from all the fonts already installed on your system. You simply rotate and move text on the video display itself. Of Reset resets all the initial values of the text. You can drag the text block in the timeline with the mouse and adjust the duration by dragging either side of the block.
Just export!
Before you proceed with the export, it is a good idea to save your project locally. That's a good idea to do regularly. Click on the hamburger menu in the top right and choose File, Save Project (as). You can also reopen a saved project from here.
Does everything look good? Then click Export and choose the output device: PC or Device (mobile). Set a suitable format in. Bee PC you can choose from twelve media formats and Device there are nine available. click on Settings to Quality, Encoder, Resolution and Bit Rate configure. Select the output path. Confirm with Export and wait quietly. The export takes about the same time as the video itself. Then enjoy your video to the fullest!
