Amazing Effects in Classic Films – How Did They Pull It Off?
This is a semi regular feature over on the Film Riot YouTube channel that I always look forward to.
The concept is they take a bunch of special effects from back in the day which were at the time absolutely state of the art.
Then they deconstruct each one explaining exactly how the effects were pulled off.
Before the days of computer generated effects and A.I., everything was pretty much a practical or “in-camera” effect so you get to look into an incredible world of ingenious filmmakers.
How To Edit YouTube Videos With Descript (Start to Finish!)
If you have never heard of Descript then here’s a very short rundown of what it is.
Descript was one of the original text based video and audio editing software services that came online about three years ago.
It was developed as and still is either a desktop app or an online service which allows you to edit videos by directly editing the transcript of that video.
Obviously it only fully applies to videos or podcasts that are mainly dialogue driven.
It was one of the first to incorporate A.I. into the mix by being able to understand language and automatically create a transcript that could be then used for the editing process.
Since then there has been massive development of the program and these days it can do all sorts of things.
Rather than go on and on about what it can do it’s probably better to watch a “soup to nuts” walkthrough of the process in a real situation. So here it is!
You can see Descript for yourself HERE
How to Add Different Types of Snow to your Scene – PowerDirector
Well given the fact that it is Christmas and I live in Taiwan the likelihood of me needing to add snow to a scene would be pretty low!
Sure it’s cold but there’s no way any snow is going to be required!
So before you decide on this next video on the basis of your need for snow let’s clear something up.
Yes, the example given is snow but in fact this is a tutorial on using the Particle Generator in PowerDirector so in reality you can generate all sorts of textures in your projects.
And this is how!
Stop Using Capcut – 5 Reasons to Change
OK as I usually do I think it is important to set the scene for when it comes to videos like this.
So in light of that here’s the deal.
This is a video put out by the guys at Movavi so clearly they will at some point be pointing out the superiority of their video editor as opposed to CapCut, no surprises there!
Having laid that out for you I also think it is important to note that the gist of what they are saying is actually correct regardless of the obvious Movavi self-promotion!
In a nutshell CapCut was designed specifically for vertical videos and it was designed to let the user pump out TikTok style videos fast on their phones.
Yes, it has been developed further than that in the present but it still lacks many of the common features you may want if your projects are going to have even the slightest degree of complexity to them.
So take the shameless promotion of Movavi in your stride and focus on the points they make about CapCut.
Explore what‘s new in Filmora 14.2
I keep an eye on quite a few different video editing software solutions and have done for years now.
For the ten or so years I have been doing this the absolute undisputed champion for aggressive development is Filmora.
In all honesty barely a week goes by without them updating the software in some way.
They are easily the fastest around for squashing bugs when they are uncovered and the addition of features is relentless.
A few weeks ago they came out with Filmora 14 which at the time was 14.0.0.
Right now we are already at 14.2.5 which means since then there have been two substantial updates plus five or so minor ones… that’s pretty impressive.
In the video below you can see a few of the very latest additions to the already vast feature set.
Learn to Build Awesome Soundscapes in DaVinci Resolve
OK so let’s get some business out of the way before you dive into the video below from Daniel Batal using DaVinci Resolve.
Daniel is sponsored by Black Magic Design so obviously he uses Resolve!
For this one he is also sponsored by Story Blocks which is an asset site for images, audio, stock footage etc.
So all of the assets Daniel is using in the video come from Story Blocks and the software is obviously DaVinci Resolve!
Now that’s out of the way here’s the value in the video.
What Daniel is actually teaching here is a detail that most people ignore or don’t even think of and that is sound design.
Sound design is actually all of those tiny little details that you don’t even notice in the audio of a project that take it to a fully professional level.
Even if you just add a little to your own projects you will already have lifted yourself up above the average so it’s worth checking out.
Watch this for Better Screen Replacement VFX – DaVinci Resolve 19 Tips
Most consumer level video editing software these days can pull off some pretty advanced effects.
On top of that they are able to do it based largely on a drag’n’drop basis with most effects looking pretty good out of the box.
Given that is the case then it makes you wonder why programs like DaVinci Resolve are so complicated in comparison.
Why do they have so many knobs and dials and buttons and stuff to do what the others seem to do quite simply?
The answer to that is the difference between pulling off an effect so that it looks “OK” and pulling off that same effect so that it looks perfect and is undetectable as an effect.
In the video below Casey walks though the process of replacing an object in a scene where you or I would have probably just slapped on a green screen effect and be done with it.
For us it would have done the trick but it would have been noticeable there was an effect at play.
For Casey the end result is something next level.
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