December 20, 2018
Always thinking and looking at how to take my videos to the next level (even though I am not posting that many vids in the first place), one day I was doing the “YouTube-University” thing (lol), and put a couple of things together on how to animate my videos without needing to add all the equipment needed to do smooth motions and not needing the 2nd or 3rd person needed to pull off such effects in the videos.
I started experimenting and the results of the first video I call “Christmas Bananas”, simply because it was 4 days before Christmas (as evidenced by the tree in the background) and the fact that the main characters in this short vid were… bananas.
I present to you… Christmas Bananas:
This video inspired me to not only play with zooming and panning effects, but also try to learn about slow-motion and in this second video of Christmas Bananas (where there were no bananas, because as we all know, the sequels are never as good as the original, right?), I combined both panning zooming and slow-motion effects. This one video helped me define not only what could be done, but how far I could push things, as in this video, I pushed things so hard that the quality started to drop, and hence I knew not only what to do and how to dot it… but also, what NOT to do.
I present to you… Christmas Bananas II – The sequel:
So how did this help me in the making of my videos? Easy. Go back and look at my earlier videos, where you saw me playing and the image remains static (2nd camera punch-ins aside). Though I like my videos, they lacked motion to add that extra bit of interest and professional look. Now, go and take a look at my video “Guantanamera”, and see how the story is told in a different way. We have cut-ins, cut-outs, zooms, pans and motion, we have a much more animated video! Though not the best musical performance I will ever be capable off, it was created as a test of using the techniques that I just learned and tested, so we see that it is much more interesting to watch. In my humble opinion, this video has gone from being a video of me playing, to a short story of me playing!
I really am aiming for a more cinematic effect, a video with more of a story to make them as interesting as possible. Yes, of course it adds a ton of complexity and difficulty, but I just want to be a little different from all the other people that put videos on YouTube of static, low quality video of an accordionist standing or sitting there and playing… I want more motion.
And I am not finished yet. I still have green screen techniques that I want to improve on and implement in future videos that not only add a more interesting and varied background, and I am also looking at adding multiple tracks, both in audio and video, all with the aim of taking my videos to the next level.
Well, I can see already that I may have bitten off more than I can chew and that this ultimately is going to be something that I never am going to be completely a master of… but as I state on the opening page on this very site… its all about the journey, not the destination.
Enjoy!