video Archives - Robert's Productions | Post Production Tips

How to Make Portrait Video Look Appealing

Robert Carreno — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 07:00:00 +0000

In this video, I’ll demonstrate how you can make portrait or standard video (most commonly taken from cell phones), look more appealing in Sony Vegas. You will notice this effect commonly used in news and daytime talk shows. Not only will it work for cell phone video but it can also be used for any standard video that you need to incorporate into your widescreen project. Get rid of those big anaconda side bars!

DOWNLOAD PROJECT FILE

PortraitFix.veg (ZIP) 7.3 MB

As an alternative, you could also crop the video. But, it may not always be ideal. Especially, if the video is so small like the video clip used in this tutorial.

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Frame Jitter Effect in Sony Vegas

Robert Carreno — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 20:03:03 +0000

The other day, I came across the “No Love” music video by Eminem and noticed an effect in the video showing this choppy low frame rate effect. I became intrigued and wanted to try this in Sony Vegas. In this series of tutorials, I will take a look at various effects in commercials, music videos, movies, etc. and show you how you can produce some of the same effects in Sony Vegas Pro 12.

Video Tutorial

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Overlay Firework Footage (Video Tip)

Robert Carreno — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 16:47:59 +0000

Did you happen to capture all those fireworks this past Fourth of July? With the recent celebration of Independence Day here in America, we had a great chance to once again capture all those stunning fireworks in the sky. Unfortunately for me, as much as I wished to had captured them, I was the one lighting them! I definitely wish I had the chance to shoot them as they were pretty neat this year. I also would of had a great collection of firework footage to use in my projects all year round.

If you happened to capture the fireworks, here’s one way you could utilize them in any type of celebration video.

Assuming they were shot in the sky and the background’s entirely black, you’ll be able to make the black disappear leaving only the fireworks in a video. With that, you can overlay the clips on top of any birthday clip, wedding clip or to spruce up any type of celebration video.

Here’s how to do this in Sony Vegas Pro 12. Keep in mind that this technique will work in just about any video editor out there as long as you have control of the clips Blend(Compositing) Mode.

Video Tutorial

Source Firework Footage: http://j.mp/15uiVUt (newdepthmedia)

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Music Video Flicker Effect

Robert Carreno — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:21:54 +0000

We’ve all seen it at least once. You watch a music video and one of the effects you see is a strobe like frame by frame flash that goes to the beat. As requested, we’ll be taking a look at how to do just that in Vegas Pro 12. We’ll be using general features not bound to just Vegas Pro so feel free to apply these techniques to your favorite editing platform.

Preview

Tutorial

Inspiration

Eminem – No Love ft. Lil Wayne @ 1:25 http://j.mp/11lVScL

Harlem Shake Times Square NYC feat. NYPD @ 0:20 http://j.mp/11lVZ8f

If you used this effect in any of your videos, share them in the comments below or on our Facebook page!

Resources:
Royalty Free Music by http://audiomicro.com/royalty-free-music
Flickr Car Image by Axion23
Optical Flares: RodyPolis (http://j.mp/LXkT60)

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Sony Vegas: Ghost Effect

Robert Carreno — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 01:07:22 +0000

Halloween is here! To celebrate, let’s give some attention to our see through friends. I’ll take you through the steps it takes for making it appear as if a ghost is in your video. Who knows? You may even catch a real ghost in the process!

SETUP

You may want to to begin by planning everything out. You can use the free storyboard template found on RodyPolis.com to draw out what you want to happen. It’s helpful to plan everything ahead so you don’t forget anything.

Set your camera on a tripod and leave it there! Be sure everything’s set to manual as you don’t want any settings to change and mess up the shot. I recommend using a remote to trigger recording on the camera.

You also want to be sure the background is locked down. Everything should stay still for the best results. If outdoors, look out for any moving object in the background (ie. leaves, branches).

Be sure lighting stays the same throughout. I found it best to shoot at night and create my own light. That way I’m in control of how everything’s lit and it’ll stay that way until we’re done or dawn arrives.

PROCESS

Once everything’s locked in place, you’re ready to begin. I like to start off by recording the background. I knew the effect was going to be fairly short so I only shot about 15 seconds worth of footage. I then went ahead and told the ghostly actor what he had to do to do. You can have them walk through the scene, sit on a bench, or even just appear. It’s only limited to your imagination! All he had to do in this case was walk to a bench and sit. You can record some more background footage just to be sure.

VEGAS PRO

Import your footage into Sony Vegas. Add the clips to the timeline on separate tracks. Be sure the background footage is below the main footage on the timeline.

Trim your clips up and adjust the opacity of the main track on top. Set the opacity to what you think looks best. You can really dim it to make your friends look very closely then SMACK! The exorcist appears. Just an idea!

That’s it! Preview the video and a ghost should appear! Extra steps may be necessary depending on what you planned.

Leave a link to your Ghostly Halloween videos in the comments below!

Camera Photo: Wolfgang Lonien

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Sony Vegas: Velocity Envelope

Robert Carreno — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:09:31 +0000

Velocity Envelopes can be used to speed up, slow-down, and freeze video in Sony Vegas. To use a velocity envelope, right-click a video event and choose Insert/Remove Envelope > Velocity. Drag the envelope up to increase the clip speed or down to decrease the speed. Drag it to 0% and the clip will freeze. Setting it to a negative value will cause the clip to play in reverse. Double-click to add anchor points to speed or slow down the clip at different points. Remember, if you speed up or slow down a clip with velocity envelopes, the clip will vary in length and may need adjustments to avoid looping.

Tip: While dragging the velocity envelope hold the Ctrl key to move it in fine increments.

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Sony Vegas: Empty Events

Robert Carreno — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:31:41 +0000

In the case that you need to insert an empty event in the timeline, position the cursor where you’d like to insert the event and go to Insert > Empty Event. If an area is selected, the duration of the empty event will be as long as the area selected. The same can be done in audio tracks. Empty events can be placed in areas to separate video or audio and can be used with some event FX as an overlay.

In the screenshot above, the shortcut key “S” was used to slice the video and insert an empty event with Auto Ripple (Ctrl+L) turned on.

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Sony Vegas: Spacebar/F12 Play Settings

Robert Carreno — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:54:31 +0000

One of the most commonly used shortcut keys in Sony Vegas is the Spacebar. It is used to Play and Stop the video when previewing certain sections. By default, the Spacebar and F12 keys are set to Play and Stop the video, therefore returning the cursor back to the position it started at. You can change these settings to make the Spacebar and F12 buttons Play and Pause the video instead of Play and Stop. Under Options > Preferences, in the General Tab you can toggle the “Make Spacebar and F12 Play/Pause instead of Play/Stop” setting on or off to fit your needs.

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Sony Vegas: Walk-By Transition

Robert Carreno — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 17:00:54 +0000

In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at creating a walk-by transition in Sony Vegas Pro 11. Basically, we’ll have a person walk by the scene of our first shot and the video will transition to another scene as the person is walking by. This works great if you’re shooting a public scene and you want to have a smooth transition from one scene to another. You’d most likely want to plan this effect ahead of time. Now, this doesn’t necessarily have to be a person. It can be any object that moves past the scene, as long as it takes up the entire scene vertically as it passes.

FINAL OUTCOME

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Sony Vegas: Remove from Group

Robert Carreno — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 03:43:57 +0000

A quick way to un-link your tracks in Sony Vegas is to use the shortcut key “U“. This is especially useful when you need to un-group audio or video to move them around separately. Normally, you’d right-click the clip and choose, Group > Remove From.

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