The Meejah Channel - For anyone and everyone who would like to make videos and become a Youtube sensation. All the tips, tricks and wrinkles showing you how to make and publish your own videos with little-to-no budget or equipment (and even how to make money at it!).
The Ghost Effect is a staple of movie making and remains impressive despite being one of the easiest to create. In this tutorial you will see not only how to use Sony Vegas Pro to create the Ghost effect but also how to add some echo enhancement to the sound track for extra spookiness.
This really is an exceptionally simple effect to pull off and yet most satisfying to observe. Once you have understood how the effect works you will no doubt see endless possibilities for plenty of other similar effects that can be produced simply by tweaking the basic technique.
So, delay no further, Watch the video and try it for yourself - and you may find yourself creating Ghosts just for the fun of it :)
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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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.
Ever fancied zapping people (filmically speaking) with a laser? Perhaps this is just the effect you need to put the fininshing touches to your own no-budget Sci-fi short but the ability to produce such an effect is beyond you? After all, this stuff isn't easy. Hollywood spend gazillions of dollars on special effects like these. Producing such a feat requires high-end editors and an encyclopaedic knowledge of specialist programs like Adobe's After Effects doesn't it? Well usually, yes but there is a simple technique you can use to pull off a pretty respectable laser-zap effect with minimal tools and skills. You can emulate the classic Star Trek style Laser/Phaser zap with surprisingly little in the way of fancy editors. In fact, this Classic effect can be created on virually any video editor - even the most basic ones. If your editor can do simple cuts, fades and screen grabs (and they nearly all can) - Then you can do this. Check out the video to find out how.
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If you like this sort of stuff, then why not subscribe to Meejah's Youtube channel - It's free!
I get an awful lot of messages from people asking about where they can get hold of copyright free music and sound effects for use in their video productions. Which is understandable because appropriate sound effects and music can add a whole new dimension to a video. The reason they need licence-free music is because they know that the use of unauthorised music in their videos could lead to their video being pulled by Youtube for copyright infringement. What's more, they could be laying themselves open to a legal challenge from the music's owners. It seems that it is not generally known that Youtube have a library of copyright-free music and sound effects that are available for free download by anyone with a Youtube account. These downloads are all absolutely safe to use in all Youtube videos (and indeed, any other videos for that matter). So this video shows you exacly how to go about accessing these great freebies - Courtesy of Youtube. Check it out. You'll be glad you did.
Watermarking on video. - In case you don't know what "Watermarking" a video means, it is the addition of a name, or a channel identification logo to a video. It is usually quite small and unintrusive - frequently semi-transparent - and more often as not, lives in one of the corners of the screen, where it remains for the entire length of the video. What's it's point? - Well it's not just an excercise in vanity, a "Look what I made" statement. It's actually a security measure. The internet is replete with "bad'uns" who are happy to download videos they have taken a liking to from places like Youtube and then re-upload them elsewhere as their own work. This is of course ruined if the true owner of the video has their name or channel indelibly marked into the very fabric of the video. Unfortunately, the vast majority of nascent video-makers use Windows Movie Maker as their video editor of choice and being a somewhat basic program, has no facility for producing true video watermarks - So does this mean that WMM users will just have to do without Watermarking.
Actually, No. Because although standard watermarking as we know it cannot be produced by WMM, we can nevertheless produce something mightily similar by tweaking the "Titles" options. It's quick, It's easy and It WORKS, and you can find out how by checking out this video:
Everyone loves an echo, and it has to be one of the most useful sound effects that the video/film maker can use. It can give the impression that you are in a tunnel, hall or other cavernous place. Where would classic horror movies be without the creepy feel that comes from dialogue laced with a generous helping of echo? Unfortunately, not every video editor comes with a built-in facility to produce them. The high-end editors will have it as part of a more comprehensive audio management toolbox, but few if any of the free video editors will posess anything like this. But that's no problem, because in this video I am going to show you a quick and easy method that can be used to make your clips echo - whatever video editor you use, and to prove the point, the demonstration uses good old Windows Moviemaker. It's quick, easy and effective so you need never be without an echo again.
Halloween is nearly upon us, and now is the time when the world and his mother will want to get their hands on the Film-Maker's favourite prop - Fake Blood! Theatrical blood isn't cheap, costing many pounds/dollars for just a small 25ml bottle, so if your ambition is to produce a low budget zombie movie requiring gallons of the red stuff, you may find it quite expensive Ordinary red stuffs don't cut the mustard - Red fruit juice is too thin and runny and ketchup isn't going to fool anyone. You need something viscous, deep red and slightly opaque - and cheap! Luckily such a substance is not difficult to produce - In fact you may well already have in your larder all the ingredients you need to make very convincing fake blood. So if you are looking for a way to make cheap, convincing (and edible) fake blood - Look no further, just check out the video below.
Ever wanted to shoot someone in the head - I'm speaking Cinematically of course. Well if so, you're in luck because in In this episode we show you how you can easily produce the classic headshot. No fancy (or expensive) editors, or high end programs like Aftereffects are needed to produce this quick n' easy effect. You can do this with even the most basic of video editors. To prove the point we demonstrate the whole technique using nothing more than Windows Movie Maker. This is also a special episode as it marks our 1000th subscription (Hip Hip Hurrah!) and to celebrate this fact, EVIL TED the megalomaniac Teddy has returned to help us with our demonstration, but it's not for the squeamish because he's as evil as ever. Don't take my word for it. Check it out in the video below.
One of the most desired special effects among video makers is the gun or muzzle flash effect. This effect turns a mediocre clip of a gun accompanied by a bang sound effect into something that looks real and deadly and believable. Usually, to produce such effects you would have to utilise top-end video editors or specialist programs like Adobe's Aftereffects, which are not only complicated, but also very expensive to buy. So what if you want to produce gun-flash effects for your own video, but all you have to edit on is a very basic video editor like Windows movie maker - Is it even possible with such kit? Well, you will be happy to know that yes, it is possible, and it's not even all that complicated once you know how. The video below shows how simple the technique is. It may be simple, but the finished result is surprisingly effective. You will need the use of a photo editing program, but this is no problem because the photo editor I use in the tutorial is absolutely free. It's called Paint.net. It's a useful bit of kit to have anyway, and it won't cost you a bean. You can download a copy from: http://download.cnet.com/Paint-NET/3000-2192_4-10338146.html? Just be sure to untick any boxes offering free browser toolbars etc. (Uless you specificall want 'em that is) OK, 'nuff said - Here's the video.
We have all seen them - the slightly suspect UFO videos that abound on the internet. The ones where you think "Hmmm.... is that real"? No doubt there are real UFO clips available at any number of places all over the interweb, but there are also a helluva lot more fake ones.
Now in these days of sophisticated computer graphics and awesome computer power, it is not unusual to see perfect videos of alien craft wafting through the skies. The problem is their perfection - These special effects are too perfect. We immediately suspect them of being fake because of their perfection.
The clips we really believe are the ones that appear to have been snatched by chance, recorded on a flip camera or iphone when the opportunity presented itself - No fancy camera work, but simple visual documentation of something that actually happened. - Er... it did actually happen didn't it?
But surely such gritty and "of the moment" video documentary must be real mustn't it? Well, no. Not necessarily.
Fake footage like this is incredibly easy to create and it uses the simplest of equipment. If you own a video camera or iphone, then you too can fake your own UFO's. No special skills or fancy editing programs needed.
So if you have always yearned to create a "UFO flap" in your home town, just grab your video camera and take a look at this video - and may the force be with you.
