Prepare for Hyperlapse Mr. Sulu!
So you may or may not remember that last week I referred to an article published by Magix on how to achieve a reasonably good timelapse video.
If you missed it or need reminding just click somewhere around here to find the blog posts page and go to last week’s post.
This week Magix have delivered on their promise of upping the ante and going Hyperlapse!
Before we get into it too much let’s first clarify our timelapses and our hyperlapses.
A timelapse video is a sequence of shots taken from a fixed point over a period of time at regular intervals.
It gives the sense of time passing at an unnaturally fast rate.
The key to timelapse is that the camera or recording device remains fixed.
Whilst the effect of timelapse can be achieved somewhat by simply speeding up existing footage the real way to do it involves a number of shot taken over a period of time.
The stopping and starting of either the image or frame capture adds enormously to the overall effect giving it an other-worldly feel.
A hyperlapse differs in that although the process of capturing images over time remains the same the camera is also moved as well.
The tricky part is that if the camera movement is irregular in any way then the hyperlapse becomes jumpy and rather unpleasant to look at.
So for the hyperlapse not only do you have to get the camera taking single shots at perfectly regular intervals you also have to move the camera between those shots and move it in exactly the same way every time.
Sound hard?
Well to be honest it is! BUT!
Done well it can look amazing. So head on over to Magix through the link below to take a look at their basic instructions to see if think you might want to give it a go but bear in mind there is math involved.
You can also take a look at this video to get a better idea.
Movie Magic!
One of the biggest secrets to shooting and editing video at the level of the pro’s is that just about everything you end up seeing is not what it seems.
As amateur video makers we tend to fall into the habit of thinking in terms of only shooting what we can see with regards to any project we are undertaking at the time it is happening.
Often times we tend to just fire way at everything we can see happening that we “think” might be useful plus a whole bunch more footage of just about anything we can lay our hands on!
The rationale behind this is that if we get enough raw footage of something, by the time we load it all into our video editor we will be able to cobble something reasonable together.
Sometimes this works OK and other times not so much.
I have previously written a number of times about the idea of shooting with editing in mind.
Essentially what this boils down to is “having a plan.”
If you already have a vision of what the video of your child’s birthday party will look like on screen then you are one step ahead of the pack.
If you then have a list of shots you really want in order to realize that vision then congratulations, you are now two steps ahead of the pack!
The idea is that if you have these certain crucial shots that you can then intersperse with other general shots of the event then you are well on the way to making a video that people will enjoy.
However you can always take this a step further and use shots that are not actually taken at the event itself.
In a normal big budget movie the shots are worked out first then they set about creating those shots.
In our lives this is not really going to happen.
But what we can do is copy their technique and use created shots to give the illusion of something happening that did not necessarily happen at all, or at least not at that exact time.
Imagine two lovers standing on a castle balcony overlooking a magnificent scene of rolling mountain ranges.
We see them look in the direction of the mountains separately and individually.
We see them look at each other together as well as him looking at her and her looking at him.
We also occasionally see the wonderful mountains which is more than the two actors ever saw because most likely they were never there.
They were in a studio somewhere in a city and a bunch of technical guys travelled to the location and shot the mountains.
It was the editor that put it all together to make it look like they were there.
In this sense think about what if any scenes you could actually stage with or without people that you could use in your videos to create a sense of what happened without you actually being there to video it on that day.
Preparations for an event are perfect for this.
Scenes at home while whoever is getting ready can be done days or even weeks ahead then cut carefully into the existing footage to appear as if it happened on the day.
The only limit is your imagination… which in my case is quite limiting but don’t let my shortcomings stop you!
Take a look at the video below done by Tom Antos.
By shooting his scenes in two locations on two separate occasions he can then edit them together to create a lakeside campsite that doesn’t actually exist.
Can you think of a way to use this simple technique to create a video of your own that would work for what you want to do?
The Old Vacuum Cleaner Trick!
Kind of a cool video from Gripps this week on using Corel VideoStudio to create an effect where the image onscreen appear to get sucked into a vacuum cleaner!
Possibly not an effect you will be using every week but cool nonetheless!
As with all of Gripps tutorials they are done within the VideoStudio environment however just about any reasonably armed video editor can replicate the steps.
The only thing you may have to do is understand that the modules and tools he is using may have different names in the editing software you are using.
The End of an Era… hopefully!
This was an interesting piece of news I spotted this week that I think should be of interest to all of us who are editing on Windows machines.
At a conference recently one of Microsoft’s developers mentioned that Windows 10 would most likely be the last “version” of Windows as we know it.
Now he wasn’t saying that Microsoft were ceasing development of Windows as an operating system but more that the idea of creating constantly changing versions has had its day.
It seems that the model they are proceeding on is that Windows 10 will be continuing to be developed according to software, hardware and user needs as they change but the idea of creating new versions constantly is dead.
Personally I think this is great news for a number of reasons especially as a user of software that relies on the Windows operating system.
The people that develop the software I use have to not only keep up with the Joneses but they also have to keep up with changes in hardware and in the case of video editing, changes in media file formats and similar things.
The last thing they need is the whole basis of their software, the operating system environment in which it survives to also drastically change at regular intervals.
If you look at the current versions of all the video editing software I generally feature on this site they all have to be able to run on Windows 8, 7 and really, even back as far as XP!
This means that they have to compensate for sometimes up to 3 different ways of handling some tasks and the result is inevitable instability and bloated code.
Another reason I am particularly pleased with this announcement (or slip of the tongue) is that the idea of releasing new versions of software at regular intervals is a commercial one, it is not a technical one.
It is the creation of an apparently “new” product with all the marketing excitement that follows and at the same time creates in existing owners the “poor country cousin” effect whereby you feel you no longer have the latest and best.
All of this is marketing and is a business model.
Of course the video editing software makers do this themselves but on the other hand, that update model has been somewhat forced upon them by the Windows system constantly changing to new and very different versions.
Once Windows 10 hits mainstream usage it may be that they can no longer justify their never ending “version wars” and may have to find another model for their businesses.
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