... wtf is vista's movie maker?

After Effects, in my opinion, is the best. I've used AE, something from Sony that I can't remember the name of, and Final Cut in the past and AfterEffects seemed to be the perfect blend of ease-of-use and power. It's fairly easy to learn (especially if you have experience in Flash and Photoshop), but also has the power to do professional video editing if you wanted to.

I wish I had a Mac. It would be very nice haha.
Sadly though, I have to stick with Vista for now.





Can one "obtain" AE separately from PS etc.?
I do have experience with Photoshop, but haven't for a long time now, and not with the latest version(s). I have never had experience with Flash.
I just want to be able to do some "basic" stuff really, like the speeding up/down time, cutting clips and anything else that (if you've seen montages) is typical in one.

Flash is not what you want for this. I mentioned Flash because the interface is almost identical to AE. You can purchase AE separately, but it is definitely not cheap.

Windows Movie Maker is actually Windows Live Movie Maker. It's been part of the Live Essentials pack for a while now. As for usage, it's definitely not professional editing software, but it's great for splicing together different clips and minor alterations. The interface is also about as simple as you can get for video editing software.

If you need something more advanced, as Josh said, After Effects is probably your best bet. Also, the mystery Sony software you're referring to is likely Vegas. However, Sony is even worse at developing software than Adobe (which really says something), so it's probably not your best bet.

Vegas! Yes. That's the one. I kept thinking FruitLoops but I knew that was audio. Definitely Vegas, though.

Btw, remembering all the apps I have used in design, video editing, and audio editing makes me realize: I have used way too many programs.

If you can manage to find a program that isn't shit on the first try, you're a witch. That's all there is to it.

First 3D modeling program I ever used was Maya. 7 years later, I'm taking classes for it and it is so much better than what little I did in C4D and 3DSM.

Am I a witch? lol

Alright, I have After Effects CS3.
Josh, I hope you know that since you suggested it, you're going to be getting asked a lot of questions.
I don't want to be reading tutorials, or watching videos, since all I need is a few things.
Of course, I will be playing around first to see if I can do stuff myself, however, if not, I will ask. =D

Not sure if you'd prefer to just keep it in this topic or for me to PM you questions or.. ?

I'm not an expert, dude. I've created two kinetic motion lyric videos in it and did some minor editing while we were learning it in class. With what you are doing, though, it shouldn't be difficult. You'll just want to add a video to the timeline and shorten the amount of frames it is displayed in. I can't remember how to add audio, though. I mean, I had to for the kinetic motion videos but I don't remember how. lol