MovieWorks Deluxe 5.2

While the editing applications are indeed "lite," with only basic, yet still quite functional, tools available, it takes a bit of experience to get a handle on them. Fortunately, a tutorial manual ships with MovieWorks Deluxe that walks you through the process of creating movies, animation, slide shows, and even a VR movie. After some hands-on use, it becomes extremely easy to import video clips and images into a MovieWorks presentation right where you want them. For the most part, you simply drag and drop the media files you wish to insert, and they'll be appropriately incorporated into a scene.

Depending on the size of your presentation and the bells and whistles you opt to include, you can create an entire presentation in 15 minutes. After you create an individual scene (comprised of video clips, images, text, etc.), you can link it to other scenes in the overall presentation via the auto sequencing function. You can easily move back and forth between the scenes to edit them or add additional media objects.

Other useful features include the ability to add buttons for playing, stopping, or rewinding a presentation, as well as a dozen types of scene transitions and path-based animation. MovieWorks even includes a video-capture tool to record movie files to your system if you've got the necessary hardware.

After you've created your project, you can export it to a Web page or save it as a QuickTime or AVI video file. Because MovieWorks uses QuickTime compression technology, the project sizes end up being quite manageable--small enough to e-mail, in most cases. A free player for both Mac and Windows is available, allowing you to share your project with recipients who don't have MovieWorks. You can also burn your project to a Video CD (which can play in many home DVD players) or an auto load CD-ROM, although you'll need a separate application to handle the burn process.

With both Mac and Windows versions available, and an affordable retail price, MovieWorks Deluxe offers mainstream users a great deal on powerful presentation and basic editing tools. --J. Curtis