The equipment which I used for editing my footage is a 27" Mac. The processor is quite old so it is hard to view the playback in real time in the program Adobe After Effects.
Having a big screen is good for editing because you can see every little detail and makes it a lot easier for motion graphics, key framing and masking.
It is not essential that you have a big and beefier computer, it does make it a lot easier, but work with what you have.
Programs
The programs that I used you may not have, so don't fret just skip over that section. There are a lot of programs which can really give your film the 'next level look' but if you don't have the programs or can not afford them just go with the basics.
There is a lot of free editing software around these days, for example for Windows there is 'Windows Movie Maker' or for Mac there is 'IMovie'. I have tried to use 'IMoive' but to this day I still can not figure it out.
The programs which I used to edit our promo video was 'Adobe After Effects', 'Final Cut Pro' and 'Magic Bullet'.
I would recommend you use 'Adobe Premiere Pro' rather than 'Final Cut Pro' as it is a more advanced editing software, the latest version of 'Final Cut Pro' which I used is very basic and looks a lot like 'IMovie'. I would have used Premiere but my version became corrupted.
Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro is a basic video editor, it is great for putting together your rough edit and putting your video footage with music which you can then export into After Effects for colour correction and special effects.
Adobe After Effects
After Effects is magic, it truly is. After Effects does pretty much everything, in AE you can make motion graphics, animate 2D and 3D animation, key green screen, composite items into the frame, colour correct and so much more. I would advise you to take a class in AE, or self teach yourself from Youtube.
You can download a free 30day trial of any Adobe product from 'here'
Magic Bullet
Magic Bullet is the easiest to use colour correction software I have found. It has pre-made presets which work in After Effects and Premiere Pro. This program will save you hours of fiddling around with key frames, colour pallets and curves. I strongly recommend you try this product.
The Edit
First thing you want to do, is go through the footage and start re-naming the files. This will make it a lot easier for when you come to editing.
Watch all the clips, and move any unusable footage to another folder, do not delete these just in case you need them later on. Do not do what I do and save things to the desktop, as when you move that file later, it will say 'Missing Clip' and will take ages to put all the items back into the timeline.
Back up your files! I can not express this enough. Copy the files onto a hard drive and disconnect it from your computer once done, or if you don't have a hard drive, copy and paste it into a different location on your computer. I learnt the hard way, and lost a whole days footage as the files became corrupt when importing into Avid.
Now load up Final Cut Pro.
Import your clips File -> Import -> Media
This will automatically import into a new 'Event' which you can rename. Now clip on the clip you like and drag it into the timeline, from there you can start editing your footage.
Some useful tips on how to use Final Cut Pro:
- Press B on your keyboard and you can slice clips in half, click on the ones you don't like and click delete.
- Press V on your keyboard and use the 'Position' arrow rather than the 'Select' arrow. The reason is because if you move a clip with the Select arrow, it will move all the clips around it with it, this can really mess up your music track if editing to sound.
- Fade in can be found under the transition tool bar on the right of your screen, you will have to use fade from colour and stretch it over your video
- Zoom is at the bottom right of your screen
- Render is in Modify -> Render All
When you are ready to export from Final Cut (This took me ages to find as there is no export) you need to make sure you click in the timeline (where you dragged your clips too) or otherwise all the options will be greyed out
Click on File -> Share -> Master File
It will then look like it is doing nothing or you wonder if it has completed or even started at all.
Click on Window -> Background Tasks. This will bring up a window which tells you what is rendering or exporting at that time.
If you want to colour grade your film or add special effects keep reading, if not you can export your file and test screen it with your close friends, see what they say as it is always good to have fresh eyes view your project.
Be open to critique as the film may make sense to you, but if someone has no clue what your project is (your target audience) then you will have to either reshoot or reedit.
Once you have exported the file, Open up After Effects.
Click on File -> New -> New Project
It will look like nothing has happened but on the left panel right click with your mouse and select New Composition
(Make sure you always save constantly while using After Effects, The amount of times I have lost a whole days work makes me want to cry)
It will then open up a box which asks you to input the aspect ratio of what size you filmed in. If you filmed in 1080p then select the preset HDTV 1080 25, if you want to make your film anamorphic then select this under 'Pixel Aspect Ratio'. If you don't understand any thing of what I just said, just select Preset HDTV 1080 25.
The next thing to change is the Duration. You need to make this how long you want the film to be. I would advise making this 10min as it is easier to edit with more room either side and you can change the film length once you are ready to export.
One you have imported your file, you may find you need to cut the video up again to make edits/colour correction. If you have a fast 'top of the line' computer you could have edited your footage in After Effects and skipped the first step in Final Cut, as my computer struggles with After Effects, that was the only way.
Also After Effects does not work with sound files (or not very well) so if you are editing with music you will need to start in Final Cut Pro.
Once you have separated the files you can start adding special effects, I will show you what I did in After Effects for our Promo Video.
I used After Effects to composite 3 videos together making it seamless and look like the main character was in 3 places at once. This was hard as I had to key frame a mask for 2 files, as the male character walks in front of the video in clip 1, and the main characters shoes stretch across the frame. It is hard to explain by words so I will show you in pictures.
Here is the mask (The yellow lines) I had to trace around the male character for the 2 clips which were overlaid on different layers.
Orignal File 1:
File 2 and 3 to overlay File 1:
For creating masks with an object in File 1 walks in front of File 2 & 3, you must have the file you want to overlay the original clip be on top. Once done, then click on the down arrow of the clip you want to overlay (file 2 and 3),
click on Transforming -> Opacity change to about 20% so you can see the original file below. This makes it easier for creating Masks.
Select the pen tool and now trace around the subject from file 1which will be walking in front of file 2. Make sure you are tracing in File 2. Using the Command key, click and hold with your left mouse you will be able to create curves.
Start the mask trace at the beginning of the clip so you can later animate the mask.
I have made the original file 1 black, so it is easier to see what i'm trying to explain
Now you need to key frame the subject, so when he moves, the mask moves with him.
To do this zoom in on the timeline so you can see every frame. The picture below is the zoom button, this is located down the bottom left of your screen next to 'Toggle switches/Modes'
In the left hand panel make sure you click on all of these buttons highlighted in red in the picture below. This is creating keyframes at the start of the clip, if you do not select these, you will find when you have animated your mask, nothing will be saved and you will have to start all over again.
Now for every frame you will need to tweak each point, you might be able to skip a few frames if the subject is not moving much. Just remember there is 25 frames in 1 second. If your mask covers a period of 10 seconds thats 250 frames you need to edit.
If you have over 100 key points per frame as I did, thats 25,000 edits you need to make. This takes a long time and is very tedious. If you have 2 videos that need separate masks like I did, you will want to cry.
Once You have finished your masks, you might want to feather them. Feathering an item makes the mask not as hard and ridged, feathering makes the 2 clips look natural and fade into one another. You can see what a mask looks without being featured 2 pictures below. See how he has a white glow around his leg, this makes it look very fake if it is not feathered.
The outcome will look something like this:
You may wish to change the opacity of the other subjects which I did, as they will take away the focus from the main subject and action. For my film the reason for incorporating these Gas Mask figures was to symbolise death, and being given no choice.
Colour Correction
Before you start colour correcting, think about the feel of your video. Are you trying to make it cold and grungy or warm and fuzzy or are you taking the audience on a journey. Your colours must represent your story.
For our Promo Video, we wanted to take the audience on a journey, we started with cold colours, very blue and the blacks crushed. Once she finds food and warmth the colours become more natural, vivid, and warmer.
Once you have finished with your edit, while still in After Effects, open up the 'Effects Controls' you can find this by clicking on the clip you want to edit and next to 'Project' in the top left, click on 'Effects Controls'
With Magic Bullet installed, right click anywhere in the 'Effects Controls' and click on 'Magic Bullet Looks' -> 'Looks', it will then add Looks into the Effect Panel, click on Edit.
Once you click edit, it will open a new window.
You can either choose a preset filter on the left hand side like below:
Or create your own style with the functions on the right, You just simply drag the item into the subject, camera, lens or background tabs, you can then click on each one and edit them.
Once you press 'Okay' (bottom right), you will then be taken back into After Effects.
Another tool to play with is Magic Bullet Mojo.
This is my favourite tool of Magic Bullet suit as it really punches the blacks. To get Magic Bullet Mojo, right click on the effects panel and click on Magic Bullet Mojo -> Mojo
Play around with this tool yourself, but I will show you my before and after colour corrections using Magic Bullet.
Original
With Magic Bullet Looks (My favourite, but we needed it to be more grungy)
With Magic Bullet Mojo & Looks (Final)
You will now need to export from After Effects so you can then import the file back into Final Cut Pro to add music.
In After Effects click on Composition -> Pre Render
Click on 'Output Module: Quicktime' this will pop up in a separate window, make sure all your settings are correct, then click okay. Also change the 'Output to:' to where ever you would like to save the file
Once done click Render
Your file will be quite large, mine was around 25GB, I then imported the file into Final Cut Pro, added the music and exported with a compression so that the file was around 1GB.
Now all you have to do is upload the video to Youtube and you're done!
Watch our Promo Video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS5b7xKjbpY
Watch our Promo Video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS5b7xKjbpY
No comments:
Post a Comment