Jumping through closed door effect - In Sony Vegas Pro

It's a surprising and humerous effect. Jumping through a closed (in this case, car) door.  In this video I show how to make this nifty little effect using Sony Vegas Pro. The version I used for the tutorial was Sony Vegas Pro 13, but any of the Pro versions should be able to do the job just as well.

When I first tried to make the effect, I thought it would just be a basic jump-cut - cutting from the actor on one side of the door, jumping against it, to the actor on the other side of the door. When I tried that approach however, the results were somewhat less than convincing...

So I used the last few frames of the "Jump" side to "blend"  the actor into the door - a bit more with each frame, until they were completely on the other side and this produced a much more convincing effect. But don't take my word for it, check it out in the video below.

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Sony Vegas Easy Effects - The Matte Effect

Ah the magic of the photgraphic Matte.  This technique allows filmmakers to literally build castles in the air.  In the old days, nary a film went by without some spectacular matte-ing taking place. In the days before CGI it was THE magic technique which could turn a tiny studio into a canyon or huge spaceship

In the old days, mattes were created by painting the scene or effect onto a pane of glass. The film would then be shot through the glass, making whatever was painted on it look like part of the scene. The mattes were painted by skilled artists who could match the tones and colours of their imaginary scenery almost perfectly with the surrounding area making for an almost undetectable blend.

These days of course, mattes can be created digitally by anyone who has a computer, an editor and a couple of hours to spare. This video will show you how to do that very technique for yourself. I use Sony Vegas Pro 10 in the tutorial, but the method should be the same for any of the Sony Vegas Pro series. It's not difficult and the results can be very impressive - Why not try it 
yourself?

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If you like this sort of thing, why not subscribe to the Meejah Youtube Channel - It's free!
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Sony Vegas Easy Effects - The Matte Effect

Ah the magic of the photgraphic Matte.  This technique allows filmmakers to literally build castles in the air.  In the old days, nary a film went by without some spectacular matte-ing taking place. In the days before CGI it was THE magic technique which could turn a tiny studio into a canyon or huge spaceship

In the old days, mattes were created by painting the scene or effect onto a pane of glass. The film would then be shot through the glass, making whatever was painted on it look like part of the scene. The mattes were painted by skilled artists who could match the tones and colours of their imaginary scenery almost perfectly with the surrounding area making for an almost undetectable blend.

These days of course, mattes can be created digitally by anyone who has a computer, an editor and a couple of hours to spare. This video will show you how to do that very technique for yourself. I use Sony Vegas Pro 10 in the tutorial, but the method should be the same for any of the Sony Vegas Pro series. It's not difficult and the results can be very impressive - Why not try it 
yourself?

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If you like this sort of thing, why not subscribe to the Meejah Youtube Channel - It's free!
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How to make a Cool Intro with Windows LIVE Movie Maker

I'll be honest with you - Windows LIVE Movie Maker is not my favourite beast. The Old Movie Maker at least looked a bit like a real Video editor and had a timeline. The new one does have editing abilities but is nowhere near as flexible or intuitive as it's ancestor.

Having said that, Windows LIVE Movie Maker is the only editor that some people have. After all. if you want to try your hand at video editing, you are not going to shell out hundreds on a program that you may decide not to use after all - you are going to try it out on something that's available, and hopefully, free!For anyone who runs Windows, then the free and available option is going to take the form of Windows Live Movie Maker.

One of the most popular videos on the Meejah Channel is  How to make a Pro Intro with Windows Movie Maker which was a tutorial using the Original Windows Movie Maker but it has prompted a torrent of messages asking for a tutorial showing how to do this with the LIVE version.

I ignored the situation for a long time hoping it would go away, but it looks like it never will, so I have finally taken the bull by the horns and produced the video they were all asking for. It's a complete how-to, from sourcing your background clips, through editing them on Windows LIVE Movie Maker, and finally rendering into a Video. Hope you enjoy it.

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Zero budget Camera Stabilizer.

My original intention was to demonstrate a "ghetto filmmaking" technique known as a "bag cam", which is a very simply constructed camera stabilizer using basic easily-available materials which is particularly useful for producing a "Dog's eye" point of view. The basic idea consists of placing the camera into a platic bag (with a hole cut for the lens). This places the camera close to the ground and the pendulum effect of the bag produces a stabilizing effect.

Well I tried it - and it was rubbish! The camera flopped about in the bag, which was much too light and blew about in even mild breezes and the bag material itself rustled like crazy ruining any attempt to record audio through the on-camera mic.

There was obviously room for improvement, and the "Bag cam" as it stood was not fit for purpose, so I had a think, came up with an idea, grabbed some everyday household stuff and created a new improved "Doggie Cam"

It's easy to make, effective and solves most of the problems presented by the unsuccessful "Bag Cam". Check out how to make one yourself in the video below. It's great fun and won't cost you anything.

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How to Clone in Sony Vegas.

Ahh, the magic of cloning. The ability to have more that one of any particular actor, to create twins where none existed before - The sheer novelty of the situation is one beloved by video watchers and video creators alike, and is the staple situation for many video effect gags.

But is this effect a difficult one to produce? Modern technology has made it very easy to clone yourself on video with even standard home video equipment. Unfortunately it's not really possible to do this effect with the lowest of low end editors (i.e. the free editors like Windows Movie Maker et al.) but it is certainly well within the capability of most medium range video editors like Sony Vegas Pro, which was the Editor of choice for this demonstration.

Taken step by step, this is not such a difficult effect to produce and once the principle is understood, many variations of the basic concept can be created. It basically relies on locking down the camera and producing two identical video clips, one with the actor on one side and one with the actor on the other side. The two clips are then layered, one on top of the other in the editor. Now a virtual "hole" is cut in the actor-less side of the top layer to reveal the actor on the bottom layer next to the actor on the top layer. Because the background to both is identical, both actors appear to be in the same scene.

That's a basic overview of how the clone effect works, but for a more detailed description and examples check out the video below and soon you'll be multiplying faster than rabbits.

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Cheap/Easy DIY Video Lighting

Photography lighting kits, as a rule, tend to be on the expensive side, but if you are planning to do any sort of decent indor video shooting, good light is pretty much essential. I have seen a number of lighting tutorial videos hailing from the USA which suggest using, as a cheap lighting solution, a clamp light which is common and inexpensive over there. Over here in the UK however, those lamps are difficult to find and not that cheap either.

I had been using a simple bulb in a bulb-holder and attached to a bit of flex & a plug as a light source. It did indeed provide light, but was non-directable, difficult to mount and fragile. I decided that it was time to do something about it, and after a bit of thinking, I came up with a solution.

The solution was a lamp that was cheap, easy to make, directable, robust and easy to mount virtually anywhere. The basic Idea is easy to scale up and can be used for making much more powerful lights simply by using a bigger container and more lamps. Very little skill is needed to make them and I'm sure that these lamps would have their uses for straight photography lighting as well, so if you are looking for some cheap camera lighting, why not try them out for yourself.

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How to use Windows LIVE Movie Maker - Easy Tutorial

It's not like most other video editors, and maybe it's not well liked, but it's the only video editor that some people have. If you're not sure whether you are going to like video editing or not, and you just want to try it out to see, you're not going to be willing to shell out a small fortune for a top-end video editor.

If you already have a video editor provided free with your Windows, then that's the one you are going to use as a tryout. This is the situation many people find themselves in as they try to get to grips with Windows LIVE movie maker.

Unlike the original style Movie Maker, the LIVE version doesn't look much like a video editor as we know them and at first can seem somewhat incomprehenisible but a little perseverance reveals a program that is perfectly capable of all the basic editorial functions, and providing that your planned movie is not too ambitious, can provide some pleasing results

It's certainly an excellent way of easing your way into the art of video editing and giving you a glimps of what's possible even with basic editing. So if you have been thinking of trying out editing and Windows LIVE Movie Maker is what you have on your computer, then wait no longer. Watch this easy tutorial and make yourself a movie.

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