Unfortunately I am only talking about windows here, because I don't have a mac and know nothing
about that...Again, mine contains video but one can use still pictures too. You want high resolution
pictures/video to do this though because they will occupy your entire screen.
After looking around for a program to do this, I picked ultra-screensaver maker. I was looking for
something that could "convert" a video file into a screensaver. Unfortunately it is not free, but at less
than 20 dollars I decided to go for it anyway (they let you try it first of course). What I liked about it is
that it makes it easy to share your creations if you want to: it creates an executable file that you just
run, and it then appears just like the other screensavers on your computer. So you don't have to
wonder where you are supposed to go and save it, and if you want to share it you just share that file,
and others install it the same way.
With this program to create a screensaver you first create a video, then you "convert" it. For the one
I did I used Premiere because I happen to have it, but you can use any other program, like windows
media player for example, which is already there in windows. Windows media player creates files in
the "wmv" format, just click on the name of the file and replace that extension by "mpeg" before
using ultra screen saver, and all seems to work fine (in fact I had some trouble using ultra
screensaver directly on files in the avi format after doing something stupid, so I opened it in windows
media player and saved it from there, anyway).
As you can guess if you watch the screensaver I made, I used several "layers". You can do that in
Premiere, and I know you can do it in U-lead video Studio as well, but unfortunately not in windows
media player. Still you can do all sorts of effects and transitions in WMP, so, it's still pretty cool. And
again, if you don't have video files to work from, you can still do cool things with just screencaps (like
the largest at Moonlightlove ;-). You just open them in the video editor and you can apply effects and
transitions just as if they were video footage.
BTW, below are the "settings" I used in Ultra Screen Saver Maker:
about that...Again, mine contains video but one can use still pictures too. You want high resolution
pictures/video to do this though because they will occupy your entire screen.
After looking around for a program to do this, I picked ultra-screensaver maker. I was looking for
something that could "convert" a video file into a screensaver. Unfortunately it is not free, but at less
than 20 dollars I decided to go for it anyway (they let you try it first of course). What I liked about it is
that it makes it easy to share your creations if you want to: it creates an executable file that you just
run, and it then appears just like the other screensavers on your computer. So you don't have to
wonder where you are supposed to go and save it, and if you want to share it you just share that file,
and others install it the same way.
With this program to create a screensaver you first create a video, then you "convert" it. For the one
I did I used Premiere because I happen to have it, but you can use any other program, like windows
media player for example, which is already there in windows. Windows media player creates files in
the "wmv" format, just click on the name of the file and replace that extension by "mpeg" before
using ultra screen saver, and all seems to work fine (in fact I had some trouble using ultra
screensaver directly on files in the avi format after doing something stupid, so I opened it in windows
media player and saved it from there, anyway).
As you can guess if you watch the screensaver I made, I used several "layers". You can do that in
Premiere, and I know you can do it in U-lead video Studio as well, but unfortunately not in windows
media player. Still you can do all sorts of effects and transitions in WMP, so, it's still pretty cool. And
again, if you don't have video files to work from, you can still do cool things with just screencaps (like
the largest at Moonlightlove ;-). You just open them in the video editor and you can apply effects and
transitions just as if they were video footage.
BTW, below are the "settings" I used in Ultra Screen Saver Maker:
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