#15 Sometimes The Best Montage, Is No Montage

Montage – as in, editing your video footage by splitting, or rearranging your scenes, or adding effects.

I say this because it’s a general rule that spontaneous, uncut video can be as good as a well planned and painstakingly edited video, if not better. Sure the spontaneous videos are a rare occurrence, but they should never be forgotten because they always bring the viewer closer to the entire ordeal.

It’s easier for a viewer to get involved, or to connect with the video if it’s natural, or just simply uncut. Sure, it’s harder getting the same polished results you get with timing, planning a editing , but the effort taken can sometimes prove to be easier and more rewarding.

Not much more to tell you here. That’s the entire trick. Just remember to pull out the camera the moment you realize you have something worth filming.

I took this while on vacation, while driving. I was driving, and my lovely assistant held the camera:

(Update: YouTube muted my video cause of the music on the car radio, darn...)

Maybe I just like this video because it reminds of that vacation, but I do enjoy how it fits in with the song that was playing on the radio. I don’t usually make videos like this, but it was interesting to make, and it gave a lot of new ideas for videos. This video refreshes, and inspires me!

I urge you to find out for yourself what inspires you. If you manage to make something that only you like, but it inspires you, then it can become a source of many new great creations!

#14 Through Glass, A Different Perspective

Grab your camera, and look for any and all transparent objects. Preferably glass objects without smooth shapes. If the object is smaller, such as a glass(for my examples), set it between the camera and a subject(like you, for instance).

Rotate the glass, zoom in and out, improvise until you are satisfied with the result. You are not prohibited from having a little fun in PhotoShop of course. I first use the Dust & Scratches tool to remove the obvious on the picture, and later used the Glass tool just for fun. The results:

Zoom in for greater detail.

 

 

Experiment with Color Curves for various effects. Just go crazy!

 

Curve it the right way and you are on your way to create a B horror movie.

 

 

 

 

Enough fun for now. I just happen to have this square drinking glass, so it’s good for some fun, but any glass will do. Rotate, snap, add effects, edit the Curves. Enjoy the effects!

#13 Create Cool 3D Objects With a Single Tool In 30 Seconds, Matrix Extrude

This tool is indigenous to Cinema 4D, but I don’t really know if the other big 3D apps have it. You could be able to make the same effect with just the extrude and bevel tools, but would take too much time and effort, and that just defeats the purpose of this post.

What this tool does is perform a chain of extrude operations on the polygons you select. You can select the number of extrudes, or joints, and you can make it shrink toward the end. You can make it bend or twist as the extrude grows, making for some very interesting effects.

The two basic ways I use this tool are as follows:

Short Matrix Extrude for surface modeling:

Just create a basic sphere and make it editable. Now, with the polygon tool selected select the Matrix Extrude Tool, and use it on the sphere once. If your PC can handle it, use it again to get the same effect like me, add a gradient color to it and give it a HyperNurbs parent for a curvier surface.

Long Matrix Extrude for shape transformation:

 

This started out as a basic tube, and after a double extrusion(one longer first, and one shorter afterwards), and coloring, it becomes this, in basically less then 30s.

Once again, the bottom line is experimenting. Use different objects for starting out, even your own custom-objects. Don’t always use all of the polys, select polygons in circular formations and see what happens. Try various color combination(gradient makes wonders here). Anyway, it’s up to you. I am already late with posting this(I missed yesterday), so it’s up now(after midnight).

Good night everyone!

#12 Adding Frames Or Borders To Your Videos

It might look a bit corny or what-not, but I actually had to do this once(albeit a gypsy wedding). That might not be what you are going to use it for, but i am sure you have an idea of your own.

First of all, we need a video to work with. Again, you can use any video for practice. I am going to put up one of my old 3D videos(as soon as I decide which one).

Just so you know what the end result will be in advance, it is a good idea to get a screenshot out of your video, to use in PhotoShop. If you are using Premiere 6.5, just go to:

File –> Export Timeline –> Frame

Save it, and open that file in PhotoShop. Now, Create a new layer above it. This new layer will be our video’s border.

The stage is set, now make whatever you want for the border. It doesn’t even have to on the edges. For instance, you could add a crosshair to the video using this technique, and use Premiere’s movement controls to make it move around the screen. You could even use any of the interesting brushes in PS to add leaves or grass to the video.

After setting this up, delete the background layer(the video frame), and save the frame as a .psd file(a PhotoShop file), because Premiere knows how to work with .psd files. If you save it as a .jpg file, you might have trouble working with the transparency settings, and some ugly clipping will occur.

Now switch back to Premiere and add your video to the timeline and import the .psd file you just saved in PS. Add the frame in the above track and it should all be set without any more hassle from you. I added the music for which this video was built and my end result is:

I made this frame by coloring around with a blue brush, and later with a red brush, then smudging them, and after that I added the mosaic effect. As you can see, you can add any effect you want. Basically you can use anything you make in PhotoShop in your video. It’s pretty simple, all you need is a good idea(as if good ideas are easy to come by).

#11 Easy Do-It-Yourself Frames for Photoshop, Vignette

If you are tired of looking for various instant border, frame or vignette plug-ins, or you just prefer having a higher degree of control with your work, this might be just the ticket.

It’s actually quite easy to do. It’s a simple trick, which is this blogs main content.

For starters, you need a photo, or picture for yourself. For practice’s sake, even a pattern-filled page will do. Our first objective is the simple Vignette effect:

After you have opened the photo you want to work with, copy that layer, and delete the original background layer. Now, create a new layer, color it however you want(gradient is fine too) and set it bellow the photo.

Once you decide what shape you want(square, ellipse etc.) choose the selection tool(depending on which shape you want) and select the area of the image you want to keep. Add feather to your selection(the procedure for this varies depending on your PhotoShop version) 30 px will do, just to get things started. Now, right click the image and choose Select Inverse. Now, press delete. Ding! It’s done!

The possibilities:

You can use different shapes. Even irregular ones, if you use the freehand tool.

You can use different colors, gradients, or even other images.

You don’t have to use soft(feathered) edges, you can have simple, hard cuts.

You can have two or more focus points(example below).

Most importantly, be creative, and know what you want. Experimenting, that’s the key with any tip or trick on this site.

To have more focus points, select your entire image(with the square selection tool, or Select All command), and use the selection tools in combination with feathering and the ALT key to deselect the areas you want to keep. Delete, and pick a color through your background layer(like before).

NOTE: You don’t have to keep using Black, but I use it cause it goes well with my BBB(black blog background).

Once you get the hang of it, many possibilities will open up. I will be covering some other uses for the selection tool in the future, until then, experiment, and you may even find it out by yourself.

I’ll be watching you!(or she will, I guess)

#10 Glowing Shadow

Yeah!I made it to the tenth post without any real delays! The only problem is, I seemed to have lost track of the order of post topics. Yesterday was supposed to be photography, but I am going to make up for it right now!

One way to make unique(and possibly beautiful) photos is to have some interesting objects others don’t. In this case, glass objects.

One interesting aspect of a glass object is its shadow. Observe:

Especially if it has an interesting shape, such this glass heart keychain. This can be done with any glass or moderately see-through object such as a chandelier(if you can take off the ceiling, of course).

Granted, you might not have anything extraordinary in your possession, but there is always something. The simplest example would be a glass of water:

This has numerous possibilities, such as adding some floating colored objects to it, or some dense colored liquid, or even ink. I leave you to experiment. Feel free to share your results with us(or me, at the moment).

 

The basic thing allowing such shadows, is the fact that the glass objects(or water filled glass objects) let light pass through, more often then not changing its shape and direction. This can be used in another interesting way.

It has the ability to make the glass objects reflect in themselves. This makes for interesting photos, in my opinion.

My family’s Christmas decoration, “Guardian Angel” makes for some interesting photo shoots:

My tip for today: Experiment with various glass objects, with different lights(differently colored and positioned). I am sure that you can make some marvelous effects with even the simplest objects and decorations. And remember, try it with and without the camera’s flash, for more variation!

#9 Head Banging Animation Loop

One of things I love about Cinema 4D is that it has all this nifty little tools that help you make certain animations more easily. One of such tools is the Vibrate Tag.

I have mentioned the Vibrate Tag in another post. That time, we didn’t get the exact effect that we needed, but it will do just fine here.

Just for fun, the example that we are going to use this on will be a head banging animation, but with only the head. The full body animation is a bit beyond this example.

For starters either get a head that you modeled, or a plain box will do now. Now make it a child of a null object. Move your object away from the null object, upwards for about 450 if you are using the initial size of the box or sphere.

Right click on the Null Object, navigate to Cinema 4D Tags, and add a vibrate tag. activate what I did, and set the values like so:

Now, when you press Play, you will have the basic swinging animation. But, if you want to make it more dynamic, make the current Null Object a child of another Null Object that also has the Vibrate Tag, but without the Regular Pulse checked, and with some rotation added. Keep experimenting, there are a lot of possibilities there, and it’s up to you find what suits your needs.

With the right object, some music, and some settings for the Vibrate Tag, you can make an interesting project. Add to that Cinema’s possibility to add keyframes to any of the Values and checkboxes, and you have yourself a Video with endless possibilities, and a looping animation:

The best part is, when you make the settings once, it’s easy to transfer them to other objects, enabling you to make hordes of head bangers, if that’s what you are looking for. Just one of the many possibilities of the Vibrate Tag. Bang your head off!