I make software tutorials, that's one of my main jobs. It's not easy to make things exciting, concise, and engaging. But one of the things I pride myself on is being able to put a little polish to my videos so they look professional.
So when I come across a video such as the one below with a super awkward ending, it just makes me laugh. Just a little bit of editing and this would have been fine. And YouTube now allows you to edit your videos in the browser. I think this person should go back ad do some trimming.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Monday, December 31, 2012
The Balloon Video
For my birthday my husband Sean decided to surprise me. He just said that we had to be out of the house by 5:30am, dressed warm, and bring my camera. Little did I know that the surprise was a sunrise hot air balloon ride! It was a beautiful morning and I could instantly see why he wanted me to bring my camera. I started taking pictures, but immediately thought that video might be more interesting.
In my head I started quickly thinking about what type of video this might be. It is such a calm and relaxing experience that I thought it might be more of a melancholy video giving the feeling of relaxation, beauty, and joy. So I started trying to get shots of pieces of the experience, and not so much wide shots with us or people in them.
The hard part was once we took off, I was sincerely scared of dropping my camera. Since I didn't know what we were going to be doing, I didn't bring a camera strap. Plus the basket was a little small with 5 people in it(4 of them rather large - me included) so it was hard to maneuver around and get the shots that I thought would be good. But I love what I ended up getting. My favorite shot is the one of Sean smiling as he looks around. You can just see the joy in his face.
I did end up taking a mix of both stills and video throughout the ride. So when I incorporated the stills into the piece I tried to give them some movement so they weren't so static. I took it as a compliment when Sean kept on asking if they were stills of video shots in the final video.
I also tried practicing getting some good lens flares in the shots since the sun was just rising. The funny thing is that I have these artificial lens flare generators, but there is nothing like the real thing. I am really happy with how a lot of the shots turned out with the sun flaring in and out. And I only touched up a handful of shots for color or exposure correction. So they came out beautiful without any post help. I'm not the best cinematographer, so I'm proud of that.
Speaking of post help, I tried to minimize what I did to the shots. The most I did to some of the shots was add a stabilization filter. I ended up removing it from some of them because it warped the image too much. I think I need to learn more about stabilization and how to get better results.
The music was a suggestion from Sean, and I think he picked the perfect one. I told him I was trying to think of something thoughtful, reflective, and melancholy yet had some reference to floating or flying. He suggested Falling Slowly from the Once Soundtrack. Perfect! We both love that song and it fits the mood. The harder decision was whether or not to leave any of the original sound in. I decided not to because I felt like it distracted from the mood because it would pop in and out. All of a sudden you were concentrating on the sound and the shot instead of just going with the flow.
All in all, I am very happy with the result especially because it was impromptu and I wasn't prepared at all. I think it is a great glimpse into the experience we had. I hope you like it too.
My Birthday Balloon from Stephen Koncelik on Vimeo.
In my head I started quickly thinking about what type of video this might be. It is such a calm and relaxing experience that I thought it might be more of a melancholy video giving the feeling of relaxation, beauty, and joy. So I started trying to get shots of pieces of the experience, and not so much wide shots with us or people in them.
The hard part was once we took off, I was sincerely scared of dropping my camera. Since I didn't know what we were going to be doing, I didn't bring a camera strap. Plus the basket was a little small with 5 people in it(4 of them rather large - me included) so it was hard to maneuver around and get the shots that I thought would be good. But I love what I ended up getting. My favorite shot is the one of Sean smiling as he looks around. You can just see the joy in his face.
I did end up taking a mix of both stills and video throughout the ride. So when I incorporated the stills into the piece I tried to give them some movement so they weren't so static. I took it as a compliment when Sean kept on asking if they were stills of video shots in the final video.
I also tried practicing getting some good lens flares in the shots since the sun was just rising. The funny thing is that I have these artificial lens flare generators, but there is nothing like the real thing. I am really happy with how a lot of the shots turned out with the sun flaring in and out. And I only touched up a handful of shots for color or exposure correction. So they came out beautiful without any post help. I'm not the best cinematographer, so I'm proud of that.
Speaking of post help, I tried to minimize what I did to the shots. The most I did to some of the shots was add a stabilization filter. I ended up removing it from some of them because it warped the image too much. I think I need to learn more about stabilization and how to get better results.
The music was a suggestion from Sean, and I think he picked the perfect one. I told him I was trying to think of something thoughtful, reflective, and melancholy yet had some reference to floating or flying. He suggested Falling Slowly from the Once Soundtrack. Perfect! We both love that song and it fits the mood. The harder decision was whether or not to leave any of the original sound in. I decided not to because I felt like it distracted from the mood because it would pop in and out. All of a sudden you were concentrating on the sound and the shot instead of just going with the flow.
All in all, I am very happy with the result especially because it was impromptu and I wasn't prepared at all. I think it is a great glimpse into the experience we had. I hope you like it too.
My Birthday Balloon from Stephen Koncelik on Vimeo.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Farewell Totally Rad Show
I just saw the actual announcement that The Totally Rad Show is coming to an end. Jeff Cannata had texted me a couple days ago letting me know beforehand that it was coming so I wouldn't be totally shocked. I appreciated that because it wasn't necessary since I left the show over three years ago, and have had nothing to do with it since. The show has progressed and improved since my departure, and I feel bad for the fans that they will not get their weekly dose of rad. I know how intoxicating that can be.
The two years I worked on that show were probably the two most memorable years of my career so far. Mostly because of the emotions involved, both high and low. That wasn't just a job for me, it was my life. I was so passionate about that job, and had so much invested in it that I ended up having to leave it or it would ruin me. That sounds dramatic, but it's true. At the time I had never been involved in a passion project like that before, and I didn't know how to draw boundaries. My passion got the best of me and on numerous occasions I let that job cross the line into my personal life. I regret that because I took business decisions personally and reacted emotionally. I'm not saying it was all my fault, but I'm just taking responsibility for my part in causing havoc behind the scenes.
In the end, I think everything worked out for the best. The show got Mike who is super talented and really improved the look and feel of the show. And I got a job where I didn't have to work seven days a week to pay my bills. That eventually led me to taking a vacation, which led me to meeting the love of my life who has brought me nothing but joy and happiness since I've met him. (Love you Sean!) And I can't stress enough how finding a good separation between work and life has been for me. I needed that, and I made it happen.
There were some major highlights to working on that show. During my stint on the show we won a Webby award and a best produced podcast award. Our trip to London was fantastic and wonderful. I loved playing 4 person online co-op Halo 3 with the guys when it first came out. Getting swag from vendors every now and then was a plus. Editing the intro to the show every week was always a highlight, although shooting them was always a challenge.
And also doing the live shows and meeting the fans always renewed my passion for the job. Sitting in a room by myself and putting the show together for several days a week had this effect where I would feel like no one was watching what we were making. Jeff, Dan, and Alex had a different perspective because they received a lot of the attention. But when we would do a live show at Comic Con and I would see a room filled with over 500 people who had been waiting in a line to see the show, it was jaw dropping. I would always come back reinvigorated, and would have a desire to improve the show in some way. And I'm still friends with several of the fans to this day.
The lows while working on that show were some of the lowest in my life. They aren't worth rehashing, but it is worth mentioning because again this was more than just a job for me as I'm sure it is for the other guys. I look back and I learn from that experience. I try to grow as an editor, a content creator, a storyteller, and as a person.
Good luck to the guys on their future endeavors. And a very sincere thank you to all the fans who remember and appreciated my time on the show. My only goal when working is to entertain the audience, and I am continuing to strive towards that goal. I hope to work on another project in the future where I am just as passionate, but can use what I learned from that experience.
I made this video when I left the show. It was a visual poem to express my feelings about leaving the show yet walking around my house and having all these faded memories. I've since sold that house and even moved out of Los Angeles, but I think it is a fitting memory of a my time and effort on the show.
End of an Era from Stephen Koncelik on Vimeo.
The two years I worked on that show were probably the two most memorable years of my career so far. Mostly because of the emotions involved, both high and low. That wasn't just a job for me, it was my life. I was so passionate about that job, and had so much invested in it that I ended up having to leave it or it would ruin me. That sounds dramatic, but it's true. At the time I had never been involved in a passion project like that before, and I didn't know how to draw boundaries. My passion got the best of me and on numerous occasions I let that job cross the line into my personal life. I regret that because I took business decisions personally and reacted emotionally. I'm not saying it was all my fault, but I'm just taking responsibility for my part in causing havoc behind the scenes.
In the end, I think everything worked out for the best. The show got Mike who is super talented and really improved the look and feel of the show. And I got a job where I didn't have to work seven days a week to pay my bills. That eventually led me to taking a vacation, which led me to meeting the love of my life who has brought me nothing but joy and happiness since I've met him. (Love you Sean!) And I can't stress enough how finding a good separation between work and life has been for me. I needed that, and I made it happen.
There were some major highlights to working on that show. During my stint on the show we won a Webby award and a best produced podcast award. Our trip to London was fantastic and wonderful. I loved playing 4 person online co-op Halo 3 with the guys when it first came out. Getting swag from vendors every now and then was a plus. Editing the intro to the show every week was always a highlight, although shooting them was always a challenge.
And also doing the live shows and meeting the fans always renewed my passion for the job. Sitting in a room by myself and putting the show together for several days a week had this effect where I would feel like no one was watching what we were making. Jeff, Dan, and Alex had a different perspective because they received a lot of the attention. But when we would do a live show at Comic Con and I would see a room filled with over 500 people who had been waiting in a line to see the show, it was jaw dropping. I would always come back reinvigorated, and would have a desire to improve the show in some way. And I'm still friends with several of the fans to this day.
The lows while working on that show were some of the lowest in my life. They aren't worth rehashing, but it is worth mentioning because again this was more than just a job for me as I'm sure it is for the other guys. I look back and I learn from that experience. I try to grow as an editor, a content creator, a storyteller, and as a person.
Good luck to the guys on their future endeavors. And a very sincere thank you to all the fans who remember and appreciated my time on the show. My only goal when working is to entertain the audience, and I am continuing to strive towards that goal. I hope to work on another project in the future where I am just as passionate, but can use what I learned from that experience.
I made this video when I left the show. It was a visual poem to express my feelings about leaving the show yet walking around my house and having all these faded memories. I've since sold that house and even moved out of Los Angeles, but I think it is a fitting memory of a my time and effort on the show.
End of an Era from Stephen Koncelik on Vimeo.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Return of Multiple Motion 5 Projects
Since the release of Final Cut Pro 10.0.6, everyone has been talking about all the features that were added to the update. And rightfully so, it was an amazing update that had lots of features that editors had been asking for.
But that same day there was an update to Motion 5 as well (5.0.5). In this update, they added back one of the features I used a lot in previous versions. Opening more than one project at once. Many times I copy elements from one project to another. In previous versions, I would have the two projects open and copy and paste between them. When version 5 was released, Apple removed this function and when you opened a second project, it would automatically close the first project.
This wasn't such a big deal as the copied data was still in the clipboard so you could complete the task. But if you wanted more than one item, you had to go back and forth opening and closing files. It was much simpler when you could just have them both open and flip between the two.
I guess I was not the only one who missed this because it is now back in the latest release. It's a small feature, but it helps me work faster which is always appreciated.
Apple MacBook Pro 2.5GHz Intel Core i5 Notebook Computer - MD101LL/A (Google Affiliate Ad)
But that same day there was an update to Motion 5 as well (5.0.5). In this update, they added back one of the features I used a lot in previous versions. Opening more than one project at once. Many times I copy elements from one project to another. In previous versions, I would have the two projects open and copy and paste between them. When version 5 was released, Apple removed this function and when you opened a second project, it would automatically close the first project.
This wasn't such a big deal as the copied data was still in the clipboard so you could complete the task. But if you wanted more than one item, you had to go back and forth opening and closing files. It was much simpler when you could just have them both open and flip between the two.
I guess I was not the only one who missed this because it is now back in the latest release. It's a small feature, but it helps me work faster which is always appreciated.
Apple MacBook Pro 2.5GHz Intel Core i5 Notebook Computer - MD101LL/A (Google Affiliate Ad)
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Custom Transitions
So the next task was getting from one country to another. Lately I've been getting my inspiration from Motionvfx.com. They have fantastic Motion templates for sale. What they can do with Motion is amazing and very inspirational. I went there and bought a template that I thought maybe I could use. I didn't end up using it, but I did sort of recreate it for a custom transition I built.
The idea behind the custom transition was to go from one clip and fly to the country where the next clip was. The challenge was having different places built into options within the transition where the camera could go. In other words, I wanted to build one transition with options of different countries to have the camera go towards. This is where building a rig in Motion 5 comes in. It is a little time consuming, but a lot of fun.
I won't go into every detail of building the rig here, but basically I used multiple camera framing behaviors to go from clip A to various clip Bs around the map. I also had the name of the country positioned in 3D space so the camera would fly past it on the way to its destination.
Here is an example of the end result.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Local Hero is Released
Very Angry Neighbors has just released our latest short "Local Hero." It's part of a series called Fame Us. This is the third installment in the series. I did the color correction and graphics on these as well as shoot them. Andy Zilch did the wonderful editing.
One of the fun things with this short was shooting the planning scenes. We wanted the dramatic caper look of a dark room with a flood light in the center. We achieved this by just turning out all the lights and putting black foil around the ceiling fan light. For available light I thought it looked pretty damn good.
Then there was the circling camera movement. We wanted to make it look like it was shot on a Steadicam, but we didn't have access to one. So I just walked really slow. Again, it didn't look too bad for such low budget effects.
I was also happy with the end result of the TV screen replacement at the beginning and end of the short. It was a simple superimpose of the image onto the screen, but changing the blending mode allowed the glare that was existing on the TV to show through. It made it seem a lot more realistic than just a straight superimposed image.
So check it out as well as the others in the series:
One of the fun things with this short was shooting the planning scenes. We wanted the dramatic caper look of a dark room with a flood light in the center. We achieved this by just turning out all the lights and putting black foil around the ceiling fan light. For available light I thought it looked pretty damn good.
Then there was the circling camera movement. We wanted to make it look like it was shot on a Steadicam, but we didn't have access to one. So I just walked really slow. Again, it didn't look too bad for such low budget effects.
I was also happy with the end result of the TV screen replacement at the beginning and end of the short. It was a simple superimpose of the image onto the screen, but changing the blending mode allowed the glare that was existing on the TV to show through. It made it seem a lot more realistic than just a straight superimposed image.
So check it out as well as the others in the series:
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Flare It Up!
Optical flares have been all the rage in the past couple years. J.J. Abrams has been a big offender in overusing them in movies like Star Trek and and Super 8. One of the original tools for creating simple flares was Knoll Light Factory from Red Giant Software. It was a plug in for After Effects that could create optical flares. Then last year, Andrew Kramer from Videocopilot.net came out with a tool called simply "Optical Flares" that was also a plug in for After Effects. It's a very robust tool that allows you to create your own custom optical flares and do some pretty dynamic things with them.
But for people like me who want to use Motion from time to time, you were out of luck...until now. Recently I stumbled upon www.motionvfx.com. It is a site dedicated to providing high quality Motion templates for purchase. They are simply fantastic, and to think they are all done in Motion is a pretty amazing feat. While I was discovering the site, I noticed that the site creator Szymon Masiak had just released mFlares for Motion. It is very similar to Optical Flares for After Effects in that you can use the presets or create your own custom flares. There are tons of options you can apply to the flares to create some amazing results. Plus it's only $89! Unfortunately I don't have a project I need it for immediately but I know I'm going to be using it soon.
But for people like me who want to use Motion from time to time, you were out of luck...until now. Recently I stumbled upon www.motionvfx.com. It is a site dedicated to providing high quality Motion templates for purchase. They are simply fantastic, and to think they are all done in Motion is a pretty amazing feat. While I was discovering the site, I noticed that the site creator Szymon Masiak had just released mFlares for Motion. It is very similar to Optical Flares for After Effects in that you can use the presets or create your own custom flares. There are tons of options you can apply to the flares to create some amazing results. Plus it's only $89! Unfortunately I don't have a project I need it for immediately but I know I'm going to be using it soon.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Final Cut Pro X First Impressions
As an early adopter I felt it was my duty to rush and purchase Final Cut Pro X when it was released on Tuesday even though I hadn't heard anything about how it worked. Luckily it isn't technically an upgrade. It is a whole new program that can run instead of Final Cut Pro 7 (they cannot be run concurrently). Apple was not secretive in saying that this is a brand new app that was written from the ground up to be innovative and the future of it's Final Cut line. That being said, it is a baby app that cannot be taken seriously yet. It may be the future, but at present it cannot function as a serious editor.
Gripes
First off, you cannot open existing Final Cut Pro projects. There is some talk that they may introduce a conversion utility at some point but currently you cannot open an existing FCP file. So you have to build everything from scratch. Great for learning, but not great for making tweaks to an old project.
Second, none of my purchased filters or transitions work with the app. When you spend hundreds of dollars on 3rd party filters and transitions, you want them to work with your application. FXFactory Pro released an update that works with Final Cut Pro X and that is much appreciated. I am sure all those kinks will be worked out, but it is frustrating.
There are tons of other things that are missing that are supposed to come in updates. Things like multi-cam support (an essential tool when I was working on TRS), output to tape, marker export, and EDL import export make it pretty much unusable for professional editors. But even semi-pros like me will have a tough time with the first release.
Good Stuff
OK, gripes out of the way, it is a pretty damn cool app. The look and feel of it is great. The responsiveness is fantastic. The magnetic timeline idea is interesting, although I will have to put it through its paces to see if it will really be a game changer.
My first impression was it is a total mind bend. I have been using FCP since version 1 and this is completely different. It may be close to iMove, but I never use iMove so I am not sure about that. First, you have events and projects. Events are where you store all your media (which FCPX will now copy to s single location) and Projects are the timeline (what used to be sequences). Projects and events can be stored in different locations on your computer. And each one creates it's own database of information. I am still wrapping my head around this one. I think I like it though.
The background rendering is AWESOME. I love it. I love that when you are idle, it just starts rendering your sequence. But on top f that, there is not much rendering it needs to do. I haven't tried too many footage types, but so far everything just plays. And the timeline scrubbing takes a little getting used to, but I think I am going to like it.
The only thing that I am a little mixed about is their concept of the main storyline. Instead of having any numer of video and audio tracks, you have the main storyline and everything surrounds that. In theory, this makes sense. You can't see more than one thing at a time so why should there be more than one main track? Well just in terms of assembling your footage, sometimes you don't want everything on the main track right away. But with FCPX you have to put the first item on the main track then the next item can go after it or attach above or below it. For example, it you have some title footage that you want to superimpose and you just want to drag it into the timeline. If you do that before your actual footage, it will be the main storyline and the footage can only be dragged above it. So then you have to spend a few seconds rearranging the order to make it work properly.
So this forces you to rethink HOW you assemble your movie. You have to assemble the main story first, otherwise it will take time to re-organize it later. So far I find this annoying because it is forcing me to do it their way instead of my way. But over time I may get used to it, and it may be a non-issue.
Motion Integration
The way Motion integrates is a little weird. I was used to the round-tripping they used to do where you could embed a Motion project right in the timeline. Now you have to export out your Motion project as footage and import it into FCPX. You can save out your Motion projects as FCPX effects, titles, or generators and they can be used in FCP X. You could sort of do that before, but now it is much tighter with that part of the integration. I think in the long run this will be better but I have to play with it and get used to it.
Wrap Up
This whole transition reminds me of the transition from OS 9 to OS X. Even though there had been years of OS development up until then, since it was a complete rewrite the first version (OS 10.0.0) was severely lacking in features. USB didn't even work at first. But by version 10.1, a lot had been addressed. Then 10.2 was fantastic and it just kept getting better from there. So I am confident that the same will transpire with FCPX. It may take a couple versions for it to surpass the functionality that it had before, but the groundwork has been laid for a paradigm shift in editing. I am hopping on board so that when it is ready, I will be ready with it. Plus....I don't really know any other editing software so I don't have a choice.
Gripes
First off, you cannot open existing Final Cut Pro projects. There is some talk that they may introduce a conversion utility at some point but currently you cannot open an existing FCP file. So you have to build everything from scratch. Great for learning, but not great for making tweaks to an old project.
Second, none of my purchased filters or transitions work with the app. When you spend hundreds of dollars on 3rd party filters and transitions, you want them to work with your application. FXFactory Pro released an update that works with Final Cut Pro X and that is much appreciated. I am sure all those kinks will be worked out, but it is frustrating.
There are tons of other things that are missing that are supposed to come in updates. Things like multi-cam support (an essential tool when I was working on TRS), output to tape, marker export, and EDL import export make it pretty much unusable for professional editors. But even semi-pros like me will have a tough time with the first release.
Good Stuff
OK, gripes out of the way, it is a pretty damn cool app. The look and feel of it is great. The responsiveness is fantastic. The magnetic timeline idea is interesting, although I will have to put it through its paces to see if it will really be a game changer.
My first impression was it is a total mind bend. I have been using FCP since version 1 and this is completely different. It may be close to iMove, but I never use iMove so I am not sure about that. First, you have events and projects. Events are where you store all your media (which FCPX will now copy to s single location) and Projects are the timeline (what used to be sequences). Projects and events can be stored in different locations on your computer. And each one creates it's own database of information. I am still wrapping my head around this one. I think I like it though.
The background rendering is AWESOME. I love it. I love that when you are idle, it just starts rendering your sequence. But on top f that, there is not much rendering it needs to do. I haven't tried too many footage types, but so far everything just plays. And the timeline scrubbing takes a little getting used to, but I think I am going to like it.
The only thing that I am a little mixed about is their concept of the main storyline. Instead of having any numer of video and audio tracks, you have the main storyline and everything surrounds that. In theory, this makes sense. You can't see more than one thing at a time so why should there be more than one main track? Well just in terms of assembling your footage, sometimes you don't want everything on the main track right away. But with FCPX you have to put the first item on the main track then the next item can go after it or attach above or below it. For example, it you have some title footage that you want to superimpose and you just want to drag it into the timeline. If you do that before your actual footage, it will be the main storyline and the footage can only be dragged above it. So then you have to spend a few seconds rearranging the order to make it work properly.
So this forces you to rethink HOW you assemble your movie. You have to assemble the main story first, otherwise it will take time to re-organize it later. So far I find this annoying because it is forcing me to do it their way instead of my way. But over time I may get used to it, and it may be a non-issue.
Motion Integration
The way Motion integrates is a little weird. I was used to the round-tripping they used to do where you could embed a Motion project right in the timeline. Now you have to export out your Motion project as footage and import it into FCPX. You can save out your Motion projects as FCPX effects, titles, or generators and they can be used in FCP X. You could sort of do that before, but now it is much tighter with that part of the integration. I think in the long run this will be better but I have to play with it and get used to it.
Wrap Up
This whole transition reminds me of the transition from OS 9 to OS X. Even though there had been years of OS development up until then, since it was a complete rewrite the first version (OS 10.0.0) was severely lacking in features. USB didn't even work at first. But by version 10.1, a lot had been addressed. Then 10.2 was fantastic and it just kept getting better from there. So I am confident that the same will transpire with FCPX. It may take a couple versions for it to surpass the functionality that it had before, but the groundwork has been laid for a paradigm shift in editing. I am hopping on board so that when it is ready, I will be ready with it. Plus....I don't really know any other editing software so I don't have a choice.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Lights, Camera, iPad Screen Capture
At work, we have been developing an iPad app for several months. That in itself has been exciting for me. To have something that I helped develop be available in the iTunes store is sort of a fantasy come true. In addition, we have had to come up with some marketing material for the app. One of which is a feature walkthrough of the application.
The first thing I love about this video is the intro. I created a basic animation for all of our training videos when we first launched our YouTube channel two years ago. Over the past year, I have really wanted to update it. I saw a tutorial on Videocopilot.net and decided to see if that would work with our logo. It worked wonderfully and I am very happy with the result. Then, I transitioned into a 3D camera move onto the app icon and added some intro text. I had this idea that it would be awesome if the lights went out except for on the icon, and then when the lights came back on you would be on the iPad. Then we could pull back to see the whole thing. I tried doing that effect with actual lights in Motion, but it was becoming very cumbersome. I ended up just using gradients to add some texture to the background. Then I turned off everything but the icon and saved that as an image. The purpose of that was to fade into it to give the effect of the lights turning off.
Then I took the screen capture video that I had already completed and made a camera move to zoom into the icon on the iPad. I matched the position with the still that I was using without the background. I also had to keep the still on top of the screen capture video since I zoomed into the video and it looked blurry. I added the camera move to zoom back out to full screen and I was done.
Speaking of the screen capture, that was a challenge. I had purchased a Blackmagic Intensity card years ago to capture from HDMI. I haven't ever used it though. Finally I found a use for it. With the iPad 2's screen mirroring capability, I was able to capture using that card at the 720P 30FPS setting. It still didn't fill the frame which is weird. I was happy with the result though.
So here is the final result:
The first thing I love about this video is the intro. I created a basic animation for all of our training videos when we first launched our YouTube channel two years ago. Over the past year, I have really wanted to update it. I saw a tutorial on Videocopilot.net and decided to see if that would work with our logo. It worked wonderfully and I am very happy with the result. Then, I transitioned into a 3D camera move onto the app icon and added some intro text. I had this idea that it would be awesome if the lights went out except for on the icon, and then when the lights came back on you would be on the iPad. Then we could pull back to see the whole thing. I tried doing that effect with actual lights in Motion, but it was becoming very cumbersome. I ended up just using gradients to add some texture to the background. Then I turned off everything but the icon and saved that as an image. The purpose of that was to fade into it to give the effect of the lights turning off.
Then I took the screen capture video that I had already completed and made a camera move to zoom into the icon on the iPad. I matched the position with the still that I was using without the background. I also had to keep the still on top of the screen capture video since I zoomed into the video and it looked blurry. I added the camera move to zoom back out to full screen and I was done.
Speaking of the screen capture, that was a challenge. I had purchased a Blackmagic Intensity card years ago to capture from HDMI. I haven't ever used it though. Finally I found a use for it. With the iPad 2's screen mirroring capability, I was able to capture using that card at the 720P 30FPS setting. It still didn't fill the frame which is weird. I was happy with the result though.
So here is the final result:
Sunday, April 10, 2011
The Cat Whisper
I shot and edited a short recently for Very Angry Neighbors. This was an improved sketch with the concept by Amy Jo Steele. This was the first sketch I shot using my new Canon 60D. I have to say that although I love the quality and look, it was not easy to shoot with.
First off, we had to shoot the whole thing twice because the first time we shot it, I didn't record any sound. There is no way to monitor live sound, so you just have to trust that everything is ok. I shot a few test shots and played them back, but once we started recording the actual sketch there was no sound recorded. I have no idea what happened.
The second time we got together, I used a slightly different setup to mix the mics into the camera. This was more successful although still not optimal. I would love to hear what I am recording without having to play it back immediately after the shot.
Cutting it together was rather straight forward. The fun part was the cat paw transitions. The intro graphics were sort of a challenge. To separate out Amy Jo from the background I sent a still over to Photoshop. Photoshop used to have this great plug in called Extract. You could paint around an object and it would extract it from the background. What was nice about the filter is you could paint sections of hair and it would extract a lot of the hair detail. In Photoshop CS5 they have done away with the extract filter, saying that you can do the same thing with the magic wand and other tools. I don't feel like I get the same results which is disappointing. But I was still able to get the same effect, it is just a little rougher around the edges. Maybe there is a better way to do that effect that I am not aware of.
Here is the sketch, I hope you enjoy it:
First off, we had to shoot the whole thing twice because the first time we shot it, I didn't record any sound. There is no way to monitor live sound, so you just have to trust that everything is ok. I shot a few test shots and played them back, but once we started recording the actual sketch there was no sound recorded. I have no idea what happened.
The second time we got together, I used a slightly different setup to mix the mics into the camera. This was more successful although still not optimal. I would love to hear what I am recording without having to play it back immediately after the shot.
Cutting it together was rather straight forward. The fun part was the cat paw transitions. The intro graphics were sort of a challenge. To separate out Amy Jo from the background I sent a still over to Photoshop. Photoshop used to have this great plug in called Extract. You could paint around an object and it would extract it from the background. What was nice about the filter is you could paint sections of hair and it would extract a lot of the hair detail. In Photoshop CS5 they have done away with the extract filter, saying that you can do the same thing with the magic wand and other tools. I don't feel like I get the same results which is disappointing. But I was still able to get the same effect, it is just a little rougher around the edges. Maybe there is a better way to do that effect that I am not aware of.
Here is the sketch, I hope you enjoy it:
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