|
|
Adrian,
That must have been a tough job. It must have been hard taking all the original footage and then bending it into shape for another purpose altogether. No re-takes either.
Reminds me of some of the stories I have heard on YouTube from wedding photographers. A friend asked the photographer to take stills at the wedding, and then, at the last minute, requested video as well, all for the same price. It is not uncommon for people to ask for this as "a favour", rather than paying for it, and they can be quite shocked when they see the bill.
I am not a professional photographer. I just do it for fun. However my niece is about to embark on a photography course. She has done one small job, but only got £25.
BTW. I am heading the same way as you regarding the number of hard drives. I have three in my desktop computer, but only 2 USB drives. I just never find the time or the inclination to delete much.
|
|
|
Hi Adrian,
Thanks for your comments. Very useful.
I have to agree with you that the video is probably a bit too long.
I take the point that it doesn't necessarily have to be in chronological order. I probably do this because a) I want to create a record of what actually happened, so I can remember it in a few years time, and b) because it makes it much easier to arrange the clips on the timeline. They just fall in in chronological order. Next time I make a video I might attempt to do it thematically. i.e. Put all the hiking stuff together, and all the museums and town based stuff in another section. Not sure.
Audio is a problem. At one point I did go looking for Portuguese and/or Madeiran folk music. (BTW One of the things I discovered in the process of looking is that Madeira is not the same as Portugal. Madeira is an autonomous region of Portugal with its own government (since 1976).) I couldn't find much that was suitable, so went for something that would fit the mood, rather than something relevant. As you say, I may have got it a bit wrong with the farmer's market scenes.
Interesting that you liked the music for the slideshow at 24 mins. Initially I was looking for something light and airy to match the location above the clouds, and was a little concerned that the music was a little bit gloomy, but when the heavenly choir chimes in it really lifts it and I thin kit works really well. BTW. The source of the music (Incompetech - see credits at end of video) are a great source of instrumentals, but you need to be picky. Big improvement on the pounding dance music that seems to accompany so many videos these days.
Black background - laziness I suppose. But it is a neutral colour that really won't clash with anything. With any luck, if you're viewing it on a display with a dark border around it, or with a different aspect ratio, you won't see the join round the edges where the video ends and the border starts, but I'm not sure that is a good enough reason.
Constant volume (or lack of it) - my bad. I need to up my game on this. I'm actually doing the voiceovers using the microphone in a Logitech USB webcam, but at one point I switched over to a Rode Wireless Go, which seemed to do a better job on the brief ukulele interlude, but sounds quite different. I shall probably invest in a better USB microphone at some point. Possibly a Rode NT4 mini. I actually have a much better microphone with an XLR connector and a fancy mixer thing, but it's all a bit bulky, so it tends not to get used much. I also need to line my spare room with egg boxes since there seems to be quite a bit of reverb. Not sure I will go that far.
Panning and zooming. I go through phases in this. When I first starting learning Power Director 16 I used the PiP designer a lot, but found it a little confusing and fiddly, so over time I started using Magic Motion - Pan and Zoom, and the motion designer. Half way through this video I started going back to the PiP designer, largely because it allows you to ease in, and ease out, which looks a lot better. The video at 00:36 was using magic motion.
Not looking into lens. I know. I'm trying to train myself not to do this, but the temptation is always there. As you have no doubt guessed, that was shot on a camera with a flip out screen - a Canon EOS M50 - much maligned, particularly for its limited 4K video - but I find it ticks most of the boxes for what I want at a very reasonable price (particularly with Canon's recent cashback deals). Some commentators prefer a screen that flips up over the top, or even underneath, the camera, but that would drive me nuts, particularly when using an external microphone (almost always), or a tripod (often).
I think the cut at 01:48 is actually a fade, but it is way too quick.
Glad you liked the slow rotate. Think I was just playing around a bit at this point, but I think it works. I don't have a great voice and sometimes it is best to just shut up and let the pictures tell the story.
Yes. Not sure about the fades at 16:46. Maybe laying it on a bit thick. I was after an effect where the images just wash over you like waves, but I probably overdid it, and the viewer struggles to keep up.
Cable car ride is a bit too long.
Alignment of images @26:39 could be better. I just couldn't get both top and bottom of picture frames to be horizontal.
Too much of the lizards. Yes. Probably.
Farmer's market music could be better.
Chromakey is a bit off. Need to fix up something a bit better. I just have a massive green sheet at the moment, and improvise with bits of bamboo and clothes pegs. Don't really have any fancy lights to illuminate it properly. Might invest in a decent kit, or a cheap popup background, but I don't have a lot of space. I noticed a slight tinge of green surviving around the edges, which seems odd since the green screen was behind me, but I suppose the angles were just right to reflect off my skin.
Anyway, thanks again for the feedback.
|
|
|
Hi everyone,
Here's a link to my YouTube video covering my holiday on Madeira in December 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK7imj5yJ3I&t=14s
All done with Power Director 16, with some help from Affinity Photo, and Paintshop Pro.
Let me know what you think. The audio could be better at times. Voiceovers are mostly done using the mic in my USB webcam.
|
|
|
Just found the video collage plugin. Looks promising.
For the record - Video collage will do the job. It just isn't that flexible with what you display in each window. All you can do is re-position the video within the window. You cannot animate it in any way. You can't even adjust the opacity. So what you have to do is prepare your video in exactly the state you want it, as a new project, and then generate a video from that project, which you can then include in the project with the video collage.
|
|
|
|
Sorry. Having forum problems. Don't seem to be able to post the video attachment.
|
|
|
Hi everyone. I am using PowerDirector 16.
My problem is that I want two independent video windows. This is similar to a split screen, but I want the windows to be at any arbitrary location and any arbitrary size. Everything outside of the window needs to be transparent. Then I want to superimpose two or more such windows.
I had thought I could do this with masks, but the problem is that the mask resizes with the video (or picture) that it is associated with. I don't want this. I want the mask to stay at the same location and size all the time, whilst the video (or picture) changes location and size. The mask/window is acting like a sort of real time crop of the video.
My next thought is simply to use another layer with a transparent hole in it, through which you can see the layer underneath it. This works, but when you come to superimpose two of these on top of each other you run into problems. This is because there needs to be one holey layer for each windowed video (or picture). And the topmost holey layer will cover up everything beneath it, except where the hole is, so the bottommost holey layer won't work. You can get around this by cutting more holes in the topmosy holey layer. Note that the topmost layer (track 4) does have a mask applied to it so that you can see through it on the left hand half of the screen.
Not sure I'm explaining this very well, so I have attached a screenshot which might clarify. What is meant to happen is that the two rectangles act like independent monitors, and, on each monitor, the picture zooms in on the womens' faces. What actually happens is that as you zoom in, the picture on the right eventually spills over into the left side of the screen, covering up what is underneath. If I could somehow set the opacity for the left half of the top most two layers to zero, then it would work. I had a go using blend modes, and yet another layer, but no joy.
I have also attached the resultant video so you can see the problem.
I should say I did find a solution which involved generating two separate videos and then using the results in another video, using chroma key to combine them together, but it is a rather tedious process.
|
|
|
