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!
SUBSCRIBE

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 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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TOP 5 TIPS - How to make a Youtube Video for Newbies.

Are you a potential movie maker? Always wanted to do SOMETHING, but don't quite know how to start? Are you one of those people who are always planning to make their first video for Youtube, but somehow never quite get started because of the fear that you might make a pig's ear of it?

Well fear no more. Meejah's latest video is all about addressing this very problem, with five Top Tips that will steer the ususpecting newcomer away from the most common mistakes that newbies tend to make.

There's nothing difficult here, just some common-sense advice that will give you a jump-start in the art of making videos. You could of course find out about these tricks yourself eventually by simply making the mistakes, seeing the results, and saying "Well I won't do that again", but now you can save yourself all that time, hassle and pain, and hit the ground running.

So, check out these Top Five tips, grab your Video camera, and go and make some great videos - Now!

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If you like this sort of stuff, then why not subscribe to Meejah's Youtube channel - It's free!

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