Create movies on your Honeycomb tablet with Android Movie Studio

Your Android tablet is a pretty incredible piece of hardware. You can do as much with it as you can with your laptop, and in some ways even more. Such is the case with Android Movie Studio. This handy video editing tool (available on any Honeycomb-based tablet) allows you to:

• Do image/video transitions
• Add audio
• Splice clips/images
• Use an A/V timeline
• Export videos in various formats
• Share your videos

With this tool, you can quickly create impressive videos on the go, which can be used for many and varied purposes, including:

• Marketing
• Training
• Research
• Fun

The best part is that you don't have to be a trained film director or have any level of creativity in order to make impressive videos. Thanks to the Android Movie Studio, it's a simple task to create a movie from video clips or even still pictures. Let me walk you through the process.

Installation

If you're using a pre-Honeycomb tablet, you won't be able to enjoy this experience. Luckily, Honeycomb-based tablets come with this app pre-installed. Simply open up the app drawer and tap on the icon for the Movie Studio app.

Creating your movie

I want to demonstrate how to create a movie from images already on my tablet. If you're more interested in creating movies from video clips, you can easily record the video clip from your tablet and use it as well. Either way, it's as simple as importing the desired media.

When the Android Movie Studio opens, you'll see the dashboard (Figure A) where you can begin a new project. Figure A

Android Movie Studio on this Verizon-branded Galaxy Tab runs smooth and fast.

Tap the New project button, give the project a name, and tap OK. From the main Android Movie Studio screen (Figure B), you'll see everything you need to create your movie. Figure B

A well laid out control studio makes creating movies simple.

Here's the layout of the "control room."

• Left circle: Controls the zoom of the timeline
• Right circle: Controls the playback of the clip
• Top left button: Takes you back to the dashboard
• Top right icons: Snap a picture, take a video, and import pictures/videos
• Top right menu: Import music, change project name, export movie, delete project
• Timeline: Select frames to add special effects and titles

Here are the basic steps for creating your movie:

Step 1: Create or locate the first clip or picture to add. If you want to film a clip directly from your tablet, tap the movie camera icon at the top right. This will open up the camera in video mode. Film the video and save it. If you want to take a picture, use the same process but tap the camera icon instead. If you already have the clips or pictures saved on your tablet, tap the "+" icon for either the film or the picture in the top right corner, and select the clip/picture from your tablet's Gallery. Once you've added the first clip or picture, continue adding clips/pics until you've added everything you need for your movie. Step 2: Create transitions. With the Android Movie Studio, you can create various transitions between clips/pics, such as:

• Fade in/out from/to black
• Crossfade
• Contour alpha
• Diagonal alpha
• Sliding right/left/top/bottom

To create transitions between clips/pics, select the clip (from within the timeline) that will begin the transition (Figure C), and then tap the transition icon (directly left of the trash can icon) that appears. Figure C

The transition you select will dictate the clip you choose.

Once you've added transitions, you can also add the following effects:

• Pan and zoom
• Gradient
• Sepia
• Negative

To add effects, select the clip you want to add the effect to, tap the effects icon (farthest icon to the left in the top right corner), and choose the effect from the new overlay (Figure D). Figure D

If you want to do pan and zoom, the image has to be fairly large.

You can also add titles to a clip. To do this, select the pic/clip you want to associate the title with, and tap the title icon (between the effects and transition icons). From the new overly, select the position and type of title you want to add, and then add the text for the title.

Step 3: Add music. If you want to add music to your movie, tap the menu in the top right corner and then select Import Music. Locate the music you want to add, select the track, and click OK. The music track will take some time to add, but once it's there, it'll appear below the timeline (Figure E). Figure E

If you add to your clip/pic timeline, the music track will extend until you run out of music.

Once you've completed your movie, you can easily export it. Just tap the menu, select Export Movie, choose the options (size and quality), and tap Export. When the process is complete, you'll have a final movie you can watch by tapping the menu and selecting Play exported movie. You can also share the movie by tapping the Menu and then choosing Share movie. From the Share Movie overlay, you can upload the movie to the following sites/services:

• Facebook
• Dropbox
• Youtube

You can also email the movie.

The Android Movie Studio can help you create some fairly solid movies while you're on the go. You won't win Academy Awards with these movies, but you could certainly promote your product, share memories with your friends/family, and even help train employees/coworkers.