Video Tutorials
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Using Loops to Create Original Music Tutorial
Whether you want to build themes and variations for large-scale productions or as signature music for your promotional videos, make catchy music beds for 30-second spots or produce ambient music with subtle mood-fitting changes for wedding videos, the following looping music production tutorial gives you the basic tools to get you started.
Read the article Using Loops to Create Original Music.
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Perfecting the Pan and Scan Effect Tutorial
Known as "The Ken Burns Effect", the Pan and Scan technique has become the norm when combining still photos with your moving images. This tutorial takes you through the steps of the average pan and scan effect, to guide you through the technique that will showcase both video and stills into a fluid moving video.
Pan-and-scan is an effective technique used in photo montages and presentations in order to make the viewing experience more interesting. Techniques such as panning and zooming allow for movement of still images across the video frame. These techniques, when done correctly, are pleasing to the eye and make the video less... well... boring. This tutorial looks at some of these techniques using Adobe After Effects.
Read the article Perfecting the Pan and Scan Effect.
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Rotoscoping Tutorial - fix goofs, change virtual sets, or make your hero fly
How to fix on-set goofs, change virtual sets, or make your action heroes fly through the air amidst gunfire, snowflakes, or magic dust.
Rotoscoping is one of my favorite things in Visual FX. I know that sounds crazy, but the results of rotoscoping can be so rewarding. Doing the actual work can be tedious, but, when it's all said and done, you can sit back and be proud of your accomplishments.
Read the article Rotoscoping - fix goofs, change virtual sets, or make your hero fly.
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Night Light Tutorial - How to turn the light of day into the dark of night
The technique of shooting outdoor night scenes in broad daylight has been around since the early days of film. It is commonly called Day for Night (DFN), and you can spot it in films like It's a Wonderful Life, Planet of the Apes and Jaws; documentaries like The Creation of the Universe; and, of course, the French film, Day for Night. At times, the effect is obvious; at others, it is not.
But today's camcorders are able to shoot in very low light. Those with infrared capabilities can even make some subjects visible in pitch black. So why would you want to fake it by shooting in the day to simulate the look of night?
Read the article Night Light: How to turn the light of day into the dark of night.
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Do It Yourself Crane Tutorial
Cranes are usually bigger than jibs, and they can carry not just the camera, but often the crewmembers operating it. Brian Peterson's crane was designed to be robust and hearty, with a potential to upgrade and accessorize at a later date. Brian planned it with the length of his cargo needs and the extreme heights he expects his camera to achieve in mind.
Read the full article DYI Crane.
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Do It Yourself Jib Tutorial
Tom Benford's jib is a quick and easy-to-build device that anyone who knows how to turn a wrench and place a drill can build. Tom's JVC DF550U camcorder is small and lightweight, and he used a ready-made painter's extension pole to achieve his jib design.
Read the full article DYI Jib.
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The Sword and the Light Tutorial
With the immense popularity of the Star Wars franchise, the light sword seems to have become the most recognizable special effect in cinema history. Immense isn't even a strong enough word - light swords have to be the most popular special effect ever created. Men, women and children ages 5 to 105 will be able to tell you what the light sword is and where it's from.
Read the full article The Sword and the Light.
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The ABCs of Chromakeys Tutorial
Without a doubt, you see chromakeys used countless times - probably every time you watch the news on TV - and perhaps you aren't even aware of it. Chromakeying is a process widely used throughout the television industry to merge (composite) one image (often a live one) with previously-shot footage or graphics and make it look perfectly natural.
Read the full article The ABCs of Chromakeys.
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Making Realistic Muzzle Flashes Tutorial
Stop, or I'll Shoot! Have you ever wanted to have a gun in your film? What about a cool action scene with guns blazing, people running, dishes exploding and your lead female jumping into a garbage chute to avoid being blown to bits? Yes? Me too! But while I can't help you with convincing your lead actress to jump down a garbage chute, I can help you with the blazing guns part.
Read the full article Making Realistic Muzzle Flashes.
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Getting That Film Look Tutorial
How often do we still hear the term, filming, when everyone really means videotaping? [See Viewfinder, May 2008] While we easily forgive friends or even clients as they repeat this misnomer, there is a certain underlying expectation that is hard to quantify. Projects shot with film simply look better. In most cases, the look that only film offers is synonymous with quality, large-budget productions.
Read the full article Getting That Film Look.
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Audio Compression Tutorial
When you listen to any professional broadcast, you hear audio that sounds clear and natural and has, mostly, the same loudness. This type of audio has narration that cuts through music, sound effects and noise. It just sounds impressive. But while tweaking the audio levels on your latest video project, you just don't seem to be able to get that same great sound. What's the secret?
Read the full article The Compression Connection.
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DVD Motion Menus Tutorial
The goal of this tutorial is to demonstrate some basic tools in developing a DVD motion menu from scratch. In our example, the motion menu will play back for 30 seconds, and the specifications will be NTSC format, using a 4:3 aspect ratio. For this tutorial, we will be creating a typical "main menu" from a feature-length movie project. The menu itself will display a 30-second clip from our movie, as well as three buttons for navigation. The three buttons will be Play Program, Scene Selection and Bonus Features.
Read the full article DVD Motion Menus.
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Burning Down The House Tutorial
I like to use Visual FX to enhance the story I am trying to tell. If they have a purpose, make the shot look better and help tell a story, why not use them, right? The problem is that many people don't know where to start. A few years ago, I was one of those people. However, by learning some Visual FX, I am now gearing up for my next film - a story I've been wanting to tell, but previously could not because I did not have the budget or knowledge of Visual FX. By learning a few Visual FX, I can now tell this story while keeping my budget extremely low. Therein lies the beauty of Visual FX: helping you tell your exciting story while keeping your budget low.
Read the full article Burning Down The House.
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Natural Transitions Tutorial
In the annals of cinema history, Thomas Edison is considered the father of the first motion picture cameras and his assistant Edwin S. Porter made the first narrative movies with one shot cutting to the next. The idea of match cutting on motion has been around since D.W. Griffith started to advance the editorial arts that began with Porter. Transitions, especially in the form of cross dissolves entered the moviemaking tool kit within a few years.
Read the full article Natural Transitions.
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2.5d Animation Tutorial
The Polar Classic, by Mark Wickman, was the 1st Place winner in Videomaker's 2005 Short Video contest, in which Mark made an animated video, using still photos. We've received many letters asking "how did he DO that?" So we asked him to create a tutorial on just how the process is done. We discovered that the end results actually depend on the beginning... in the planning stage.
Read the full article 2.5d Animation.
These are the media files for the February 2008 Tutorial: 2.5d Animation. The .zip archive contains 12 files and is 172MB in size.
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Dynamic Chase Scenes Tutorial
These are the media files for the January 2008 Tutorial: Car Chase. The .zip archive contains 60 files and is 312MB in size.
Read the full article Dynamic Chase Scenes.
These clips are used with permission from Sonnyboo Productions, and are for instructional purposes only. All other distribution of this material is prohibited.
Car audio sound effects can be found here: autospeak.com/library.htm
Music Tracks can be found here: www.sonnyboo.com/music/music.htm
Tech Specs:
Video Format: NTSC, DV Anamorphic (16:9)
Audio Format : No Audio
