Cinematic Gimbal Moves With Your Smartphone
This is a kind of review/promo for the Zhiyun Phone Gimbal which is OK I guess but the important part is not really the gimbal itself or the phone being used.
The Slanted Lens is a pretty good source of information on stuff like this but they tend to focus more on photography than video.
This is however a good tutorial with some interesting ideas on how you can get some unusual shots using a gimbal mounted phone for you next video project.
Audio Keyframes – Filmora9 Tutorial
For many years one of the weakest points in just about all video editing software was the audio tools.
In fact up until probably five years ago even the best on offer was rather dismal!
These days that area of video editing has been totally revamped and even the simplest of video editors offers much better control.
One of the areas that I get a lot of complaint about is when it comes to adjusting volume levels in individual tracks once they have been added to the timeline of a project.
What you are usually offered at that point is a tiny little track that shows a waveform representing the audio.
Also there will usually be a line through that track indicating the volume level.
Fiddly and annoying does not even begin to describe how hopeless it is trying to tweak the volume levels of different tracks by dragging that little line up and down to get it all right!
The problem most people have is that they haven’t realized that there is a totally different way to access that feature that takes all the pain away.
This goes for almost every video editor on the market today so even if you are not using Filmora9 check out the video below.
It shows how to access the audio mixer, adjust the volume easily and use keyframes to do that.
I can almost guarantee that you video editor if you are not using Filmora9 will have exactly the same or a similar system of accessing those controls.
21 FREE Brush Stroke Graphics – Painted Lines, Shapes, and More
First up the video below is a demo of the the free brush strokes, lines and other stuff that is being offered by Premiumbeat.
Check out the video to see if some or all of these elements are something you may be interested in.
If you are all you have to do is go to this page here and scroll down the page a bit to find the download button.
There is no signup necessary and the full instructions on how to use these assets and adjust them are on that same page.
Learn How Sound Affects Horror Films
To be honest I figured this tutorial from the guys at Filmora would be a few useful but potentially cheesy tips on audio for horror.
As I watched it I was quite surprised.
The video covers a few very important concepts in the way you can design sound to enhance what the viewer is experiencing and they do it quite comprehensively.
This one is well worth watching not just from a horror effects for audio point of view but for audio in general.
5 Ways to Instantly Make Better Videos
Sunny Lenarduzzi is one of the people I like to follow to keep up to date in the world of YouTube stuff.
Unlike a few of the other sources I use Sunny tends to concentrate a little more on the actual content itself rather than going into too much of the technical or SEO kind of stuff.
The video below is one of those great videos that can have a bit of a refreshing effect on you and maybe remind you as to what you are doing and why.
PowerDirector – Move a Title Behind an Irregular Object
Last week I posted a video by the Sharper Turtle which covered how to create a title being revealed from behind a moving object.
So for that one as the chosen object or subject within the video moved the title was revealed.
This week he has posted what is basically the reverse of that sequence in that we now have the title moving behind an object within the video.
How to Quickly Normalize & Adjust Audio – PowerDirector 18
One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to watching other people’s videos is when the audio levels bounce around all over the place.
This is usually the result of clips being recorded on different devices or indifferent environments.
As a viewer this means I pretty much have two choices.
Either I keep adjusting the volume of the video every time the audio gets louder or softer or, I just click away from the video or stop watching.
My reaction to volume raising and lowering in a video is not unusual.
This is how just about every human out there will react to it.
In most cases they will stop watching because it is annoying.
The reason it is my pet peeve is because fixing the audio to be consistent is so easy and in many cases is an automated process.
The process itself is called Normalization and just about every video editing program no matter how basic has something like this.
Normalization is just a tool that analyses the volume in a number of tracks on the editing timeline and then adjusts them all to the same volume with one click.
You can see a demo of it in the video below in PowerDirector but it is an almost identical process in other software.
Even if you do not have this feature in your video editor you can still deal with the problem.
All you have to do is complete all of you editing steps until you are ready to export or render to the final new video file.
At that point export the entire audio of the project as an audio file only.
Import that audio file into a free audio editor like Audacity (Get it Here) and use the inbuilt Normalization effect to balance all the audio then save a a new audio file.
Now go back to your video editor and import that normalized audio file and drag it on to the timeline.
Finally mute all the existing audio tracks or video tracks with audio leaving the Audacity file active then render. Simple!
Director Suite 365 Review Here
How to Optimize Videos for YouTube
The checklist for getting your videos up on to YouTube and actually seen by an audience seems to have grown and grown over the years.
It can sometimes seem that there is this kind of endless set of tasks you have to complete for every video.
Of course that’s not to mention what you have to do to optimize your YouTube Channel!
The reality is that yes, there are some things you really need to do to get seen and build an audience but it is by no means an endless list.
I think part of that perception has come as a result of YouTube evolving over the years and constantly updating what you should or should not do.
You can go through a thorough list of things to get done in the Getting Your Videos Online section of this website but to keep it in perspective check the video below for some simple basics.
Ghost Prank Video – Filmora9
On the face of it this is a pretty simple run through in Filmora9 on how to use masks, transparencies and blend modes to create a ghost.
That’s all very well in itself but the important part here is the technique.
Once you work out how to do this one you can use it in many, many different ways in your own projects.
As a side comment here just take note of the use of a tripod when the sequences for the original shot are being captured.
One of the hidden keys to getting better special effects is that the quality of the original shots will determine how far you can push the effects.
3 Easy Music Video Effects
This is another “how to” from the guys at Cinecom this week covering some of the effects used in Travis Scott’s Highest in the Room video.
There is quite a bit going on in the original video so the guys have just covered three of the effects used.
Just because they have chosen some of the easy ones to pull off doesn’t mean they are not good effects.
Any of these techniques could be used in a bunch of different ways in your own projects.
As a bonus the first effect they attempt is an effect of sparks shooting out of the subjects eyes.
They ended up doing this one by actually going out and buying those sparkler fireworks and shooting them in a dark room.
So if you just click this link you can go to the page where they have the download available and there is no need to sign up for anything to get it.
22 Ways to Light With One Pocket LED
I was a bit conflicted as to whether I would include the video below for this week’s Roundup but in the end I figured it had enough good stuff to let it go.
The reason for the conflict was that the first 1min. 44secs. of the video is devoted to promoting a particular brand of pocket LED light.
Can’t remember the brand right now so if you are interested take a look.
If you just want the good stuff go to the 1:44 mark and check out the tips there.
Some of these pocket LEDs are pretty amazing these days and given their size they are a great way to extend your shooting choices at time when available light is all you have.
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