Combine photos and videos into slideshows

One of the nice things about Stupeflix is that there is no software to download. Just launch a web browser, click once in the Address or Location line, replace what is there by typing in www.stupeflix.com and press the Return key. When the site loads have a look around and play the presentation video that gives you a tour of the site’s features. When ready, click the Create a Stupeflix Account button to get started. It’s free and only takes a moment.

At the next screen, fill in the fields that have an asterisk next to them (name, email address and password) and then finish by clicking the Create my account button at the bottom. After a moment Stupeflix will create your account. When the new page loads, click the Stupeflix Editor link to continue and this message will appear. Load the demo project or click the green Add images & videos button to use your own material. We’ll click the green button.

When the Stupeflix downloader window opens it displays three options: upload stuff from your PC, add pictures from the web using their URLs or import them from the Flickr photo-sharing service (this works with publicly available photosets or on searched tags and keywords). We want to grab pictures from our computer so we selected Flash Upload and clicked the Upload from your computer button. Now we can navigate to where our photos are stored and use Windows’ file commands to select them.

And here is the main Stupeflix window with our four images uploaded on the left. Slideshows are made up of three parts: images are displayed as a column on the left, groups are numbered (here all our photos are in Group 1) and movies are made by combining all the photos arranged into different groups. We will see how groups are useful a bit later on. Because we have just uploaded a set of photos, that group is highlighted and its associated toolbar is also displayed.

First, let’s add some captions to the photos. See the little ‘+’ sign at the top right-hand corner of each one? Click that and choose ‘Add text to the image’ from the pop-up menu (you can also delete images using this menu). In this screen we have added captions to the first three photos and we are typing a fourth. When you have added a caption click anywhere outside the little text box to attach it to the photo.

We can fiddle with various other slideshow settings in a bit but for now, that’s it. Stupeflix will handle the slides, background colour, duration and transitions and everything else that’s required automatically using the default settings. So, click in the ‘Name your video project’ box at the top of the screen to give the slideshow a title ­ ours is ‘The Pride Parade’ ­ and then click the ‘Generate the video’ button at the bottom right-hand corner to create the finished slideshow.

Stupeflix can produce finished video slideshows that are suitable for uploading to Youtube or for use anywhere else. Choose the desired format ­ we are selecting the smallest, ‘Medium Video (Flash)’ ­ and click the blue Launch generation button. If lots of photos and videos have been used, put a tick in the empty box and Stupeflix will send an email when the video is ready. Since ours contains just four photos, we’ll wait here until it’s done.

Stupeflix generates the video slideshow and shows a preview. This can be a bit jerky, but don’t be put off. The finished video runs as smooth as silk. When it’s done, the site displays a pop-up ‘Video ready’ notice at the bottom right. The show can be played back by clicking the play button in the middle. From here the video can be downloaded or shared with others using social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Just click the relevant button or link below the video preview.

Although we like our slideshow it would look even better if it included some video, so we will add that next. Click the Your videos link at the top left of the page. As new videos are created they are added here as thumbnails with links under each one so you can edit, download or delete them. There is also an icon to make a video public or ‘re-mix’ it, leaving the original as it is.

Click the Edit link under the thumbnail and then, when the editing screen opens, click the Add Content button at the bottom. Next, upload a video clip (see Step 3 for details on how to upload). Stupeflix places it in a new group in the editing window. Add a caption to the clip (see Step 5) and then look at the structure of the show. Ours now has four still photos and a video clip. We will rearrange this by dragging the video clip between photos two and three.

Next, drag the third photo below Group 1 and drop it there. This will create a new Group 2. Then, take the fourth photo and drop it underneath the third one. Finally, take the video clip and drag it between Groups 1 and 2 and drop it there. This creates a new Group 2 and shifts photos three and four down into a new Group 3. Dividing a slideshow into groups like this allows us to customise each one differently, as we will see in a moment. Start by clicking in Group 1.

The settings box for Group 1 tells us the transition effects are currently set to auto (this means random) so open the dropdown menu and pick another one, like ‘diving’ for example. Change the background from black to white by clicking on the other little square and increase the timing from 3 to 5 seconds so each slide stays on the screen for longer. Then repeat for each of the other Groups. We will keep the same settings for 1 and 3 and set up different ones for Group 2 and our video clip.

To complete the slideshow, let’s put some music on it. Click the Add Soundtrack button at the bottom and click the Upload from your computer button. We have found an MP3 of some instrumental music recorded by a friend, so we will select that and click Open to upload it to Stupeflix. Now, because we had been working on Group 3, Stupeflix still has that Group selected, but we would like the soundtrack to apply to the entire show. To do this, we have to drag it to the outside edge of the main movie window like so.

Our movie is finished so we can click the Generate the video button again and this time pick the first option: Large Video, which is a Youtube-friendly format (go to www.youtube.com for instructions how to upload it). Also, if you use Twitter, click the Twitter icon under the video. This opens a new browser window showing your Twitter account. Replace the text that Stupeflix puts there with your own and click the Update button to add a link to the video in your Twitter feed.