Friday 4 January 2013

Easy Gun-muzzle flash effects with Windows Movie Maker (WMM).

One of the most desired special effects among  video makers is the gun or muzzle flash effect. This effect turns a mediocre clip of a gun accompanied by a bang sound effect into something that looks real and deadly and believable.

Usually, to produce such effects you would have to utilise top-end video editors or specialist programs like Adobe's Aftereffects, which are not only complicated, but also very expensive to buy.

So what if you want to produce gun-flash effects for your own video, but all you have to edit on is a very basic video editor like Windows movie maker - Is it even possible with such kit?

Well, you will be happy to know that yes, it is possible, and it's not even all that complicated once you know how. The video below shows how simple the technique is. It may be simple, but the finished result is surprisingly effective.

You will need the use of a photo editing program, but this is no problem because the photo editor I use in the tutorial is absolutely free. It's called Paint.net. It's a useful bit of kit to have anyway, and it won't cost you a bean. You can download a copy from:
http://download.cnet.com/Paint-NET/3000-2192_4-10338146.html?
Just be sure to untick any boxes offering free browser toolbars etc. (Uless you specificall want 'em that is)

OK, 'nuff said - Here's the video.


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