In this animated bike map video, I use GEOLayers 3, MotionVFX and Holomatrix sourced from Strava data.
How to Replace Screens Using Red Giant's VFX King Pin Tracker in After Effects
In this video, I show you how to do screen replacement and motion tracking in After Effects using Red Giant’s King Pin Tracker:
4 Must-Have Motion Graphics to Enhance and Energize Your Promotional Video
Motion graphics are an essential way to emphasize and animate what the speaker is saying in your promotional video. It allows your professional video to stand apart and get noticed by your audience, much more than a video without graphics.
Here are my top four motion graphic strategies/ plugins I use to get the best results for my promotional videos:
4 Must-Have Graphics for Your Promotional Video:
1. Trendy Motion Pack
The Trendy Motion pack works with Adobe’s Premiere NLE and After Effects, respectively. The motion pack uses Atom in After Effects, which allows you to customize your graphics in a more refined manner. The pack is on version 3 and comes with a host of trendy and stylish graphics. You can pick up the package here.
Another motion graphic pack I use is by Ezra Cohen ‘Tour Visuals’. His graphics are more retro, which compliments the other graphics I have in my motion graphic arsenal. Cohen has a training I purchased, which explains how he applies his tour visuals to video. I value this pack, as it allows me to work with the building blocks of graphic design in a way that I can build complex sequences with just a few of his graphics assets.
3. Red Giant Universe
Red Giant has been a leader in the motion graphic game for some time. Their visuals are a cornerstone of my graphics workflow. As they write this, they just came out with their latest point release, Universe 3.2!
HUD Component is a powerful graphics plugin as part of the Red Giant Universe suit. It can unlock futuristic graphics for your video, saving you time and energy building these assets yourself.
Many people will know of the popular YouTuber Peter McKinnon. He has a popular title graphics pack that you can use to enhance your videos. What I like about these titles is they add energy and excitements to videos. Plus, they are easy to use. Drop them on the timeline, customize to your liking, and you’re ready to go!
Motion graphics are essential for engaging and professional promotional videos. Consider these plugins and strategies for your next promotional video.
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Make Your Video Less Noisy | 7 Keys to Shooting Better Low Light Video With Your Sony Alpha Camera
Does your footage look extremely grainy and horrible when you shoot at night or in low light? The first probably most significant reason for this is you’re using your cell phone. I can’t help you with this.
Cell phone cameras have small sensors typically. Because of this, your footage is going to suffer in low light. Sure Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro has some impressive low light video using their ‘Night Mode’ features, but still, you’re going to need a camera with a larger sensor to get decent low light video performance. But even if you are an amateur with a professional camera, there are certain tips you should follow to get the best overall low light video quality. Here are my top 7 tips to get much better video in low light:
1. Shoot in A Picture Profile
As I mentioned, I'm a Sony Alpa shooter. Various cameras have different ‘picture profiles’ or ‘modes,’ you can shoot in. With the Sony A7RII, if I'm shooting at night or in low light conditions, I use the picture profile 2 (PP2). I once shot in S-log 2 at night (not to be confused with PP2), before I knew any better. I learned this process adds significantly more noise to an image degrading the quality.
PP2 compliments night time shooting as it helps get the best footage in the shadows and blacks. There’s an excellent video by the YouTube channel ‘Make. Art. Now.’ by independent filmmaker, Josh Yeo. He tests all the picture profiles in detail, ultimately setting on PP2 for the best low light performance. Josh recommends adjusting PP2 to get the best night-time results. The particular settings he uses to improve PP2 low-light performance is the following:
- Menu - Picture profiles
- PP2 - Right on dial
- Black Level -2
- Gamma Still
- Black Gamma -2
- Color Mode - Pro
- Saturation -4
- Detail -7 (Make sure to sharpen in post)
2. Use a Prime Lens With a Lower Aperture
If you shoot with a lens with a lower aperture, like a 1.8 or lower, you're able to allow more light into the lens, making for a better overall image in the dark, with less noise and grain. By keeping your aperture lower during a darker shoot, you're able to rely less on upping your ISO, making for a cleaner image. Consider buying a prime with a low aperture. I use the 55mm f/1.8 ZEISS Prime lens on my Sony A7 RII, which is my 'go-to' lens for shooting in darker conditions.
3. Prioritize Available Light
As mentioned, light is key, especially when shooting at night. By using available light, your lens will allow for a better overall image. Even with a powerful mirrorless camera such as the Sony Alpha series, which is great in low light, your image will degrade without available light. Introducing noise will make your image will look grainy with many ugly artifacts. ISO, higher than like 3200 ISO, will produce a weaker and grainer image. So use light which is around you. It could be a street light, a light from a business sign or bring your own mobile light. Either way think light, especially when shooting in low light. It’s the greatest variable to getting a cinematic image.
4. Shoot in 23 Frames Per Second (FPS) & Don’t Shoot Slow Motion
I also once shot slow motion at night. Bad idea. The reason that it's generally a bad idea to shoot slow motion with a camera such as the Sony A7RII in low light is that when you’re shooting in something like 60fps you have to adjust your shutter speed as well (to 1/120). This cause less light to hit the sensor thus making for an overall grainer image. Your best bet is to shoot in 23fps, as you then are shooting with a shutter of 1/50. This will allow your sensor to get the most light and you will have to rely less on your ISO to make up the difference.
5. Use a Denoiser in Post To Ensure Noise is Prevented
I use excellent software by Red Giant, Denoiser III. It allows you to, as the name implies, denoise your video in post. When you’re shooting at night or in low light, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll gather much more noise than if you were shooting in lighter conditions. I will usually denoise my footage in post if I’m shooting in low light. This isn’t always needed as much of our footage is being consumed on cellphones with a small screen. In other words, with smaller screens noise is harder to pick up. Nevertheless, in order to get the overall best image, I guggest using a denoise plugin.
After applying Denoiser III, I often turn to another Red Giant software, a plugin called ‘Renoiser,’ which, as you guessed it, allows you to create a layer of noise to the image. Denoising your footage often softens the image. You’re also getting a much more digital look, which isn’t always ideal. By adding some grain back to the video, you’re also adding some texture, a much-needed look for emulating a film or a cinematic look. I use the grain called ‘Compression Proofing’ in Renoiser, as it allows me to counter some of the compression which occurs on social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. According to Stu Maschwitz, using ‘Compression Proofing’ as part of the Renoiser plugin by Red Giant, allows for a much more favourable upload to sites like Instagram.
6. Shoot in 4K
Shooting video in 4K in darker conditions allows for more resolution and detail in the image. It is also going to allow you to punch into the picture (i.e. zoom into the image). When I shoot for Instagram, I’m often scaling my vertical footage 180%. By shooting 4K, the footage will have less overall noise, especially if I need to scale the footage in post. Take a look at the comparisons between 1080p footage and 4K footage in this YouTube video by Story & Heart.
7. Use 35mm APS-C mode
With the Sony Full Frame Alpha Series Cameras, you can shoot in APS-C/ Super 35mm crop mode. This allows you to get even better low light performance for your video, as demonstrated in this video by
My Low Light Settings:
Ideal Shooting Settings in Low Light:
- 1.8 aperture or lower
- 23 frames per second
- 4K
- APS-C/ Super 35mm crop mode
- 1/50 shutter speed
- ISO 1600 or lower
- Using available light or your own personal light
Tell a friend. Like or comment. Reach out to me for your next promotional or instructional video!
The 3 Applications I Use to Edit My Corporate and YouTube Videos
I use three primary video editing software when producing my corporate and YouTube videos. These apps allow me to unleash my visual creativity. There's a deep learning curve with them, but if you're patient, and take the time to learn, you'll be a master in no time. I'd suggest, if you want to learn about these video editing applications, to check out Lynda.com and sign up for a free 1 month trial. YouTube can also be a great resource as well if you want to go the free route.
I'm still learning about these applications; there's a lot of features and different workflows depending on what you're trying to accomplish. My next goal is that I want to learn more about the various keyboard shortcuts, to be more efficient with video editing.
Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro is a non-linear program made by Apple on macOS. It's a powerful, intuitive video editing program. It has a drag and drop type interface, much like iMovie, but more advanced.
Final Cut Pro is my main driver in terms of video editing because I find it most intuitive. Whereas Adobe Premier, I find more technical. Final Cut Pro allows me to be more creative because I think the drag and drop interface, enables me to think less technically, but more intuitively. In other words, it helps me visualize the final video easier due to the nature of the editing system. It's almost as if Final Cut uses the right side of my brain, the more creative side, whereas Premier seems to be using the left side of my brain, the more logical side.
For some features I cannot do in Final Cut Pro, I turn to Adobe Premier.
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro is a full-featured application and one of the leading video editing software out there. It comes with Adobe's Creative Cloud Suite, as a monthly or yearly subscription. What I like most about it, is it allows me to use Red Giant Software, a software specializing in motion design, visual effects and colour correction, much more efficiently on Premiere. I have found that Red Giant software will occasionally crash on Final Cut. The visual editor for Red Giant software works better in Premiere.
Premiere I find overall more technical. It gives the vibe that it's more professional and in many respects, is seen in the industry as such. Many creators on YouTube, advocate for Premier as the best video editor. Therefore, I'd say, consider it as staple software you should learn.
Adobe After Effects
After Effects is a sophisticated and fully functioned effect editor. I use it for keyframing and motion tracking. I need to learn a bunch more to take advantage of this application, but if you can stick with it, this application can open up several different creative outlets for you. I'd suggest checking out the many videos on Lyndia.com, to learn more about this program.
How to Create Cinematic Video Using Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Software
In this video, I walk you through my 5 steps when creating cinematic videos using Magic Bullet Software by Red Giant. For more information on tutorials of Red Giant software visit their website: