What program should I use to make an AMV?

[seaglass27]

The title pretty much says it all. I've been working on a Sonic X AMV in Windows Movie Maker, and believe you me, that has not been a fun experience. I tried to install Jahshaka but it won't work on my computer for some reason. So if any of you know of a free video-editing program that works well for making AMVs please let me know.

[Twister980]

If you're willing to spend money on an editing program, look for Vegas. I use Vegas 6.
But I don't know of any free editing programs.

[seaglass27]

I've heard of Vegas, but there is no way that my parents are going to let me use their credit card or PayPal to buy software for making an anime music video. Thanks anyway.

[MrKrillz0r]

Most people who makes good AMV's use either Sony Vegas or Adobe After Effects (Or both). I've never seen a good AMV which haven't been made in either Adobe After Effects or Sony Vegas, and I've seen hundreds of AMV's.
So I think your in a bad position here, but remember that WMM can still be used to train your skills with timing etc. ^_^

[Hiryu]

If you want a better-quality movie maker program, you're going to have to shell out some money. Microsoft's Movie maker reminds me of Windows 98, it's easily crashable and can be pretty buggy at times. Eh, you get what you pay for.

[seaglass27]

I suppose you're right. Oh well. I'll just have to finish it with the software I have.

The bright side is that when it turns out to suck I can always just blame it on WMM.

[TheMewster]

I wonder, isn't AMV-making a violation of copyright laws? If so then why are we even descussing it here?

[goldenspines]

I wonder, isn't AMV-making a violation of copyright laws? If so then why are we even descussing it here?

Click here, there's a Wikipedia article about it.
But we'll leave it at that. No debate about it will be started here.

[airichan623]

I used to use movie maker, personally i like it better than imovie.... (dont shoot me) After a little practice the precision editing is a lot easier on movie maker.

[3dpenguin]

Avi Demux
http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/

windows has a built in video editor called movie maker that is easy to use
if you use it in combination with avi demux you can make amv's fairly easy

you will need a few codecs check out http://www.free-codecs.com/

there are also a number of tools for making mkv files and convert them to any format you wish, check out http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/creating_mkv_files_with_mkvtoolnix.cfm for more info

basicly it will take a combination of free programs to make your amv, if you don't have the money to spend, that'd be the way to go.

another great tool is vdub and vdub mod check out http://www.virtualdub.org/

microsoft also offers free wmv/wma codecs and command line tools, although their site can be hard to navigate.

you can google wmv codecs/tools to find other places to download from.

a cheaper alternative to vegas would be camtasia, much cheaper and easy to use.

hope that helps some:)

[seaglass27]

Thank you for your helpful suggestions. I'll have to check those programs out.

Thanks again!