For seated interview subjects I usually put the mic on a standard mic stand, the kind that has a horizontal arm, like this:

usually I have to extend the main pole as far as it will go to get the top pole horizontal so it doesn't cut the corner of the frame.

Having the mic in front of and above the speakers mouth means that you don't get pops and sybilance from them breathing into it, and also lets you get the mic closer—the top of the frame is usually closer to the subject's head than the bottom of frame.

Another option is to get a boom pole holder - like this one:

That will be a more pricey option as you'll need to buy a C-stand to put it on


How is a shot like this done? (Smooth angle shift in extreme slow-motion)

I would have to agree with @Michael on this one, Bullet Time (as the name suggests when opening up the image "Surfing Bullet Time" would probably be the best result. To be fair it was probably filmed on a small boat (cameras in waterproof housings) as take just as the boat goes over the wave (just before it turns over)

Here is the actual video

It was shot with 12 GoPro cameras


Check for video file integrity for - bulk

There are several widely adopted file-based QC systems on the market. They include:

Interra Baton
Telestream (formerly Tektronix) Aurora
Telestream Vidchecker
Venera Pulsar

Note that as of NAB NY 2019, Telestream had not announced plans for what will happen with Vidchecker and Aurora after the Tektronix acquisition.


VLC 3.0 (Vetinari): Unable to play 360 videos

The problem comes from the video which should have the metadata projection=equirectangular. To fix it:

Install Python 3
Download Spatial Media
Unzip Spatial Media
Go into the folder (where there is a subfolder spatialmedia)
Copy the path of the folder
Launch cmd on Windows (by searching cmd on your system)
Go on the folder by typing cd and the path of the folder
Inject the spherical metadata by typing py spatialmedia -i<yourVideoOnTheDisk><aVideoName>

Open the created file with VLC. It should be launched as a 360° video. You can remove spatialmedia and uninstall Python.


I haven't ever done exactly what you're trying to do, but I think I know how I could do it.  Hopefully this answer is useful, or at least starts some discussion from people that do have more concrete experience.
One of the important factors in your choice is going to be buying something that someone knows how to admin.  I think you'd be fine with a commodity fileserver appliance, where you admin it through a web interface or something, and just plug in hard drives + ethernet + power, and set it up to mail you when a drive dies.
If you use a normal PC, running Linux (with Linux's very excellent software RAID), and samba and/or NFS to share the files, you can easily stuff 6 hard drives in.  With any cheap PCIe SATA card, you can add another however many.  Your server will have lots of CPU time to spare, too, so you can have it do video encoding or something if you want.  Or just go really cheap on the CPU.  (Don't get slow RAM, though.  Copying around and checksumming data will potentially bottleneck on memory bandwidth.)
RAID6 is more CPU intensive, since the parity info has to use fancy modulo arithmetic, instead of just XOR, but again, with gigE as your bottleneck, and where you don't need the machine to have a lot of CPU time left over for anything else, it's fine.  You don't need an expensive RAID card, since cost per TB is more important for you than maybe 10% speed.  RAID cards often come with software to monitor them and send email when a drive needs replacing.  smartd from smartmontools, and/or mdadm can send email, too, if you set them up to do so.
gigabit ethernet is going to be by far the biggest bottleneck (100MB/s).  If you get a server with multiple gige ports, you could bond them (multiple cables all connected to the same switch), so multiple clients at once could read and write 100MB/s.
Since you're mostly going to be using this over gigE, and for video (big files read and written sequentially), something like WD Green hard drives would be most appropriate.  Lower idle and max power means you can more easily pack a lot of HDs into a case without overheating.  You'll have to shop for cases that can hold a lot of HDs, preferably with them accessible from the front for hotswapping.  Maybe a rackmount server case, esp. if you already have a rack.  I haven't ever looked into cases for boatloads of HDs, so there's probably stuff I'm missing here.
I think there are external chassis (with their own PS) for holding extra HDs, and they may even have SATA port multipliers.  If so, then you might be able to hook it all up to your mobo onboard SATA ports, since you'd have 4 or more hard drives on each of the 6 SATA connectors on your mobo.  I'm not sure this is how things work, so better read up.  (even sequential reads on current drives don't use the full bandwidth of 6Gb/s SATA, so the interface would be a bottleneck with 3 or more drives on a single SATA port.  But gigE is a bigger bottleneck.  And anyway, 6 mobo sata ports all running flat out would be helluva fast.)
edit: apparently not all SATA controllers support port multipliers.  e.g. a http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182280 I was looking at for my own use has a manufacturer reply that mobo SATA ports often don't support port multipliers.
edit: The FreeNAS HW recommendations advise caution with SATA port multipliers.  Apparently they can eat your data.  That FreeNAS guide is exactly what you should look at for getting specific about hardware.  (But if you don't use ZFS, then tons of RAM is not very important.  Linux instead of FreeBSD will also probably have somewhat better hardware compatibility.  Remote management IPMI will be very valuable if anything goes wrong, other than disk HW failure.  Or even then, for determining which disk is failed.)
As for details of the RAID setup, yes, I'd suggest RAID5 is probably a good bet.  If you can afford to have at least a 2nd copy of your data somewhere, as a backup, then you don't need to be too paranoid about the reliability of either the main archive or the backup.  If not, well then you should probably go RAID6.
Even RAID6 still doesn't help you if someone accidentally deletes or overwrites the wrong directory on the shared server, or if a CPU or RAM failure leads to filesystem corruption.  RAID only helps you read back the data that was written.  If other errors lead to the wrong data being written, you are in trouble.
ZFS might be a good choice, for extra checksumming to detect corruption.  You can set it up to give RAID5 levels of redundancy (RAID-Z), or RAID6 (z2).  Linux BTRFS does basically the same stuff as ZFS, but its built-in RAID5/6 isn't mature yet.
If you end up using more than maybe 16 drives, you might want to think about breaking them into 2 smaller RAID5 or RAID6 arrays.
Off-site backups, updated at least weekly from your main storage server, are a really good idea.  For this special case of backing up video, maybe use the CPU time on your NAS to transcode your videos to lower bitrates for off-site backup, so you don't need so much space off-site.  Then if you lose everything, you have whatever you can pull off people's workstations that they had copied there, plus the lower-quality videos from your offsite backup.  Hopefully you never have to use it.
Oh, another idea.  The costs of having that much storage available online all the time is a bit of a factor (having to buy a server).  Possibly useful to use external hard drives as a 2nd copy.  Or even "internal" hard drives that you stick into a docking station.  (looks like a toaster, but takes SATA HDs instead of bread.)  Insert HD, sync some data to the drive, take it home for safe keeping.  Then if your studio burns down, someone has the data at home.  This might be easier than finding somewhere off-site to put a backup server for your archive.
Or just pay for cloud backups of your archive.  That might actually make the most sense, if your Internet connection can handle it.  (you could use the lower-bitrate off-site backup idea with cloud backups, too.)
This is all pretty theoretical, since my job as a sysadmin for some small Linux beowulf clusters was several years ago.
Anyway, remember that someone will have to admin this thing.  Being the admin probably won't mean any hours a week babysitting it, but you need someone that understands the setup and knows what to do if there's a problem.  Swapping a drive usually requires poking at the admin UI, not just physically changing hardware.
Have a spare HD ready to pop in to replace a failed one, so your data isn't going unprotected for long.  Probably you'd want a failed-drive email to go to multiple people, so whoever's around can replace a failed drive with the spare.  (If you have the drive in the NAS PC or appliance, then it's a hot spare and can get used automatically.)


Take a look at http://www.premierepro.net where I'm sharing some project templates. If more people share their own templates there, it will become a great resource for free Premiere Pro templates. Everything you see on http://www.premierepro.net is free for both commercial and private use, and you can even download free sample chapters from the book "The Cool Stuff in Premiere Pro".

/jarle


Motion from Apple has a setting for Motion Blur on all projects. This section of the documentation explains how to set it (in the project settings). (It's under "Motion Blur and Reflection Settings".)

Once the project setting is set, you may also need to turn it on in the canvas to see it while editing. See here for information on turning it on in the Canvas. (It's under the section named "Render pop-up menu.")

Motion renders a lot of stuff in real time, though turning on Motion Blur will slow it down. You can always set the number of samples to something low-ish (like 4 or 8) while working and turn it up for renders.

I believe that if you're using a Motion template in FCP that it will render the Motion Blur if you set the canvas to "Better Quality" playback.


Video editor for cutting a video into multiple short clips and store them quickly

shotcut
I would suggest shotcut. It's really fast and allows you to select where to cut at the right place (to the frame). It's also visual making it really easy.
Basic Setup

Start shotcut
Give your project a name
Drag & Drop an MP4 in the screen video area
Click on the video now playing, move it to the timeline

Cut + Export

Click on the timeline time (top of the timeline) to select a location.
Click on the ][ icon to do a cut.
Right click on the left side and do "Remove".
Click on the right side and do a "Remove" as well.
Then Export (File → Export Video ... | Ctrl-E).

Next Cut
Once the export is done:

Hit Ctrl-Z to restore the clip on the right side.
Then cut/remove again...
Repeat until done.

Under Ubuntu, I can install shotcut with:
snap install shotcut

ffmpeg
If you know the start point and duration, then you can use ffmpeg like so:
ffmpeg -ss 0:0 -t 5:0 -i in.mp4 out.mp4

The -ss defines the start point and -t defines the duration. You can use those two and create the cuts in the command line. You can always use shotcut or some other tool to determine the start/duration parameters.


How to set up live audio feed (with lavalier mic)?

First thing is to check whether your audio interface XLR input can supply 48 V phantom power. If the answer is yes, look for a microphone that can be powered by phantom power. If this is not the case, look for an adapter that can power your mic and output to your XLR input.

For your use case, I think that a headset mic would be better than a lavalier one as it maintains the same sound when the speaker moves his head relatively to it's torso. You also are more safe against clothes noise. Most serious microphone makers offer this kind of product. Entry level products can be found from around 100 €.


Imitate letters in text falling down as if under gravity AE

If the text is random characters, you could possibly do this using a particle engine.  Assign one character per frame to a comp, then apply those frames to the particles texture... Something like Particular from Trapcode would work with this.

Alternatively if it's a full page of actual text:
I reckon Newton 2 could do this..
http://www.motionboutique.com/newton/
Or Cinema 4D, but I don't think the free version that comes with AE now has the physics plugins included.


If you have a 8 core CPU I'd bet it is a fast one too, so that shouldn't be a problem. 16 GB is more than enough for HD, and DDR3 should ensure the speed.
The GPU shouldn't have much to say as long as it's not crap.

If you have 6 slow harddrives, it would be a bottleneck. You should have at least 7200 rpm disks!


Video not playing properly after ffmpeg vintage effect applied

The curves filter converts the input to RGB coding but most video players require a specific YUV scheme.
So use,
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf curves=vintage,format=yuv420p -c:a copy ouput.mp4


Why can't I change the aspect ratio of my project in Final Cut Pro X?

When you import clips the default spatial conform is fit. Change it to fill and clips will be cropped. You can reframe as you like.

This article has more details Square video with FCPX


Is 360 video editing the same as traditional video editing?

Usually 360° videos became 360° only in realtime during playback. You can see it:

Go to to this video (youtube now supports 360° videos)
Now, using Chrome install this extension (it will disable HTML5 player)
Try to see video from the point one again.

You will see something like that:

That happens because Flash player don't know how to interpret 360° video and showing original state of it.

So, during editing your 360° video can be displayed as normal video with huge distortion. If you can handle that, than you can edit it in any program of your chose.

Good luck!


How do I make a trimmed video show the missing frames from a Zoom recording using ffmpeg?

Every time I concat, I quickly run it thru this awesome little freeware from Mean beforehand, avidemux, (MP4 Muxer->Move index to the beginning of the file->Save) and it fixes the majority of any concat issues I've run into. Not sure if it will fix your issue, but it can't hurt and somewhere down the line avidemux will come in handy and fix a concat issue if you're having one. Shoutout to Mean for such a helpful piece of freeware!


Premiere: None of the sequence presets match my clip settings. What to do?

Those are just presets. Just select one. When you drag a clip into the timeline, Adobe will recognize the clip has different settings that don't match. Just select the option to automatically change the settings for you.

Edit: And you can't magically change smaller resolutions to higher resolutions without suffering some pixelation. Is there a reason you have to upscale to 1080? Devices nowadays automatically adjust to different resolutions. No need to mess with upscaling. Just follow my steps above.


Camera directing for lenghty single character scene talking

There are two main things you want to do here.  First, use a lower camera angle for your main camera.  You are shooting from substantially above your speaker which makes them seem diminished and small, but you want them to be the focus of attention.  Shoot from eye level or slightly below eye level to give them a feeling of more importance in the scene.

Second, use multiple camera angles.  You can easily break up a long scene with one speaker by cutting between multiple angles of the same individual.  Be aware of the axis of action however.  You don't want to have your left and right sides get suddenly reversed, but cutting between a close up of them talking vs a wide shot or a mid shot from a different angle can help the video feel less static.

As far as an example of this in action, look at any kind of news or public speaking footage (such as political debates or church sermons).  You will see a variety of different camera angles to try and methods and timing of cuts to help make the footage feel less static from these kinds of sources.


How to do picture in picture with Premier Pro Multicamera

You can't select, say, two video tracks from your Multi-cam sequence and show them at the same time. You're going to have to go at it separately. A Multi-Cam sequence is really for going back and forth between angles, not to show two or more angles at the same time.

A solution:
- On Video track 1, put your base image or shot.
- One Video track 2, put the image or film you'd like to have appear over the base image. Sync the two video tracks together, by hand. That is, don't create a Multi-Cam sequence: merely put them one on top of the other so that they start at the same time of the take.
- Then, use the "Crop" effect and the "Scale" tool to reduce the size of your Track2 image and move it in the appropriate corner of your base image.

Voila! You have two angles of the same event playing at the same time in the same overall image.


Is 8k UHD or even 4k UHD actually necessary?

It all depends, of course, on what you are watching and where you are watching it. For instance, if you are showing something on a huge screen in a movie theater, you could definitely perceive a difference between 1080p and 4K. If you are looking at your phone, perhaps not as much. For standard computer monitor sizes, it's still fairly easy for many to see a difference at 4K, purely because we sit so damn close to our monitors.

Also keep in mind that there are scenarios in which you need to shoot in 4K in order to distribute in 2K or 1080p. You may need to zoom into one part of your shot and crop most of it out, which you can get away with if the footage you shot was a higher resolution than what you need to output at. This also applies to any footage that you may need to stabilize (i.e. windy drone footage) since stabilization requires cropping your frame. So in these situations, we not only need cameras to shoot in 4K+, but also monitors and devices that can play them back in their full resolutions.

While there are certainly diminishing returns on ever-increasing resolution on small consumer devices, there are people who absolutely perceive the differences between 4K and lower resolutions. Up to 8K and beyond, I'm not so sure, but for the moment, we have not actually crossed that threshold.


Create a white solid, mask out what you want with that...then use it as an alpha matte to mask out what you do not want.


Object moving to a position I didn't specify

It's because of Spatial Interpolation.
You need the spatial interpolation to be set to linear, and by default it is set to Auto Bezier.

Right click on the keyframe at 3'00, and select Keyframe Interpolation.  Change the Spatial Interpolation to linear, and it should solve the problem.

What's happening:

Instead of drawing straight lines (linear lines) between your positions on the screen, after effects is drawing curves (bezier curves).  When you tell your object to "double back" on itself, AE tries to draw a curve to this effect, causing a little knot or bounce forward at the 3'00 mark.

You can choose how AE interprets changes in space, as described, but you can also choose how it interpolates time too (Temporal interpolation).  Setting temporal interpolation to bezier often produces nicer results than linear, as it allows objects to slowly come to a stop, rather than suddenly stopping at a keyframe, which is how objects in the real world respond (due to weight, friction, gravity etc).


Using FFMPEG the command would look something like this:

ffmpeg -i <sourceVideoFile> -i <sourceAudioFile1> -i <sourceAudioFile2> -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -map 1:0 -map 2:0 -c:v copy -c:a copy <outputVideoFile>

Basically you're taking the source video file and multiple audio inputs, then mapping multiple audio files to the output's audio stream 0. Using -c:v copy and -c:a copy, you arent doing any encoding, so your file will keep its original quality.

That command was taken from the link below, which has more instructions:

http://zoid.cc/ffmpeg-audio-video/

Edit: Forgot to mention the point about wanting to do it in batch. Use the link below to create a bat file in Windows that would target all the specific types like *.avi (or all types using .). You'd want to replace the ffmpeg portion of their bat file with the above. Since you have one audio file, try something like:

for %%a in ("*.avi") do ffmpeg -i "%%a" -i  -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -map 1:0 -c:v copy -c:a copy "%%a"

You might want to back up your files and make a copy elsewhere before you process them, because the above will overwrite them I believe.

Link to that below:
http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/356314-How-to-batch-convert-multiplex-any-files-with-ffmpeg


How can I see each frame of a mpeg transport stream under windows?

Take a look at MPEG Streamclip for Windows. It's a very usefull converter. It's free. You can step frame-by-frame thought your TS-Streams, and you can export frames.


Scripting - Where is the documentation for the Layer#Effects attribute?

I actually found the answer in the CS3 scripting guide. CompItem#selectedLayers actually returns an array of AVLayer objects. AVLayer is a subclass of Layer and has quite a few  attributes. Here are a few of them:

Masks
Effects
Anchor points
Position
Scale
X Rotation
Y Rotation
Opacity

Oddly enough, when calling these attributes you need to pay attention to if the attribute is one word or two. If it's one word, the first letter will be capitalized, but if it's two words the first letter will be lower case and the rest in camel case fasion.

For example, if you have an AVLayer instance called myLayer and you want to get its list of effects you call myLayer.Effects, but if you want to get its X rotation you call myLayer.xRotation.

As for my end goal of creating circles on a selected layer, this is what I came up with (works in CS5.5 although it also needs error checking to see if a layer is actually selected!):

function createCircle(layer, coords, radius) {
    var x = coords[0];
    var y = coords[1];

    var circle = layer.Effects.addProperty("Circle");
    circle.Center.setValue([x, y]);
    circle.Radius.setValue(radius);
    return circle
}

var myComp = app.project.activeItem;
var myLayer = myComp.selectedLayers[0];
var circles = [];

//coordsList could come from an external file or another function
for (var i = 0; i < coordsList.length; i++) {
    circles.push(createCircle(myLayer, coordsList[i], 75));
}


There are a few important things to consider:

Lighting is perhaps the most important aspect to creating a filmic image. A lot of filmmakers like to use natural light such as Innaritu on The Revenant. I remember from the BTS that they had maybe 2 hours a day for a week or so to film the 3 minute scene because he only wanted to use natural light. In the studio, however, there are a whole slew of LED lights, fresnels, bounces, softboxes, diffusion, .etc. all set up to make the scene, and the actor look perfect. Almost every angle is thought of, from the lighting of a plant in the background to the color temperature of each light. This is a massive undertaking, and I wouldn’t be surprised in any given scene of a blockbuster movie you will have upwards of 100-200k worth of lighting working on set.
Dynamic range/camera. More and more, directors and cinematographers are opting for using digitial cameras because of their epic post production workflow and there easy integration into vfx. Cameras like the Arri Alexa and the Red Epic can record up to 18 stops of dynamic range. Take the Sony A7Sii for example, a rather pro-sumer grade camera used in a lot of indie productions, with only ~11 stops of dynamic range it is miles behind the Red in terms of the latitude one can get in post-production. This latitude, or the ability to adjust the exposure of minute details to larger troublesome areas such as a blown out window is why dynamic range is so important. Naturally, in order to get the most out of a cameras dynamic range, blockbuster films typically record in logarithmic formats. Arri and Red cameras can record in a RAW format (sensor data, rather than processed sensor data is recorded) which is just like DSLR raw where exposure and color temp (among other things) can be altered after the fact without loss in quality.
Color grading/color correction. Dynamic range would be almost useless if it weren’t for a skilled hand behind the knobs adjusting each and every aspect of the scene to perfect exposure, color temp, .etc. Using power windows with track masks the colorists can add definition to one side of an actors face, or darken it more to fit an ominous scene. They can color a certain act to be warmer when the actors get married, and then can color the next act to be bluer when they get divorced.
Lenses. Lenses have the power to imbue a certain je ne sais quoi to a scene. Cinema lenses such as those produced by Cooke or Panavision are made to a technical standard that most consumer or pro-sumer manufactures couldn’t economically match. In addition, these lenses all have different characteristics that distort the way the camera, and by extension, the audience, experience a space. Some directors prefer to use anamorphic lenses because it instills a classic cinema-type vibe, and gives the movie a certain look.
Audio. No-brainer. Good audio can make or break a scene. From ADR to using multiple mics on an actor; picking the right mic for the job .etc. a good image is nothing without good audio. Naturally, this audio is mixed to perfection in post.
So in general, if you are a small-producer of wedding films or corporate docs; whatever the case may be. You can take some tips from Hollywood. Focus on lighting. I cannot stress this enough. A 70d can look cinematic if you have the right lighting. Learn about large diffuse light sources, negative fill, bounces, .etc. You may not have a big boy toy such as the Alexa or the Epic, but you can get the most out of your A7S or whatever the camera you may have by spending time doing color grading and learning about how to properly expose for and use LOG. Experiment with different lenses. And of course, don’t let your audio fall by the way side.
Overally, what makes a blockbuster a blockbuster is the combination of many many different skilled professionals acting in unison. It is unlikely you can economically match the level of a blockbuster film, but you can get close.

** I’ve only focused on technical aspects. If your actors suck, or your setting sucks… well you won’t have a very good video.


In Premiere Pro, how can I delete clip portions that are between these labels?

Here's a dirty yet maybe effective method:

Create an adjustment-layer above your two video tracks, that goes from start to end.
Select all your pink labels and drag them up, effectively replacing those parts in the adjustment-layer.
Delete your still selected labels
Pull down the bits of the adjustment-layer into your main clip and delete them.

If I were to show this method to my testers in the final exam they'd probably chop my head off, but it's the easiest way I came up with so far.


Expression for inverse parenting on Y axis in after effects

By having the layer parented you make it a bit harder. If you want the second layer to follow the x coord of the first layer, but mirror the y coord this will do it (without the second layer being parented)

var centerY = thisComp.height/2;
var p = thisComp.layer("the name of the controlling layer").transform.position;
[p[0], centerY - p[1]]

If do you need the second layer to be parented the following should work. Because the distance from the parent to the centre point is the same as the distance from the center point to the child, we can just multiply it by two to get the y distance in the layer space of the parent:

var centreY = thisComp.height/2;
[value[0], 2*(centreY - parent.position[1])];

Both of these expressions will mirror around the centre of the comp vertically. You could mirror around an arbitrary y point by specifying it on the first line instead of thisComp.height/2, e.g.: var centerY = 1234.

You could also use another layer as the control of the mirror point by using this instead of that expression: var centerY = thisComp.layer("name of center control layer").transform.position[1]


Sync picture in picture clips in Davinci Resolve

I've seen how Davinci Resolve makes it very easy to create a Multicam
  clip and sync the angles. However that seems to work to show just one
  angle at a time, and I want to show both at the same time. How do I
  accomplish this?

It does only show one angle at a time.  The way you accomplish it is to create two tracks on the timeline, drop an instance of the multicam on V1, duplicate that instance by alt/option dragging upwards to V2 (add shift after you start dragging to constrain the movement vertically, and to keep the clips synced temporally).  Then switch the angle of either one of them, so that V1 is showing angle A and V2 is showing angle B, for instance. Then adjust the transform and crop parameters on the topmost clip (V2) to expose the one underneath.

As for the bonus question, you can either be careful how you blade by making sure you have either both or neither clips selected when you hit command/control-B, or you can lasso-select the two clips, right-click, and select "Link Clips", then make sure clip linking is on by toggling the chain link icon (cmd/ctrl+shift+L).  Clip linking lets you move clips as groups, blade them as groups, and displays a red frame offset badge if the clips accidentally loose sync.  I'm not sure how lightworks works, but it's very similar to Premiere and FCP7.


How to find clip of video belongs to full video?

If the clips both have the same audio track, you can use audio fingerprinting techniques to identify them. Apart from that, OpenCV can do similarity checks on video: http://docs.opencv.org/2.4/doc/tutorials/highgui/video-input-psnr-ssim/video-input-psnr-ssim.html

And BTW. if using the audio fingerprinting method, as you can see with Shazam or musicbrainz.org seems to be managable from the amount of data.


How do I communicate with post-production team? Need a list of effects and examples

About the newspaper headlines. I would not call it an effect at first. First it is a storytelling element, with the headlines actually telling something and often carrying the storyline forward - easily anything between three days to several months, plus that you could use it as a prelude for a jump in time of several years. What I'm trying to say is; this effect, as you call it, is a timeline jump in your story.

So in practice it is not an effect first. The way you actually do it is an effect, meaning that you can do it entirely in digital, CG, or real newspapers thrown on a table and filmed as so, a combination of methods, etc. Whatever, you need the headlines in these papers, because your audience is going to read them, or at least have time to grasp the message if not given time to properly read them. Telling a story through newspaper headlines is not a job for effects engineer. You provide the headlines, the story. (A job for your writer(s), not necessarily yourself.)  Then you let your team create a newspaper headlines storytelling section.

Furthermore, say you want to skip filming a court of law section in your story. In between those newspaper headlines you could do very short inserts of video, like the main characters walking up the steps to a courthouse, accompanied with more newspaper headlines, then a clip of grieving after a lost case, and when the media buzz is over, you can continue your film at any distance in time, like 20 years forward if you so wish and the story tells you so. But this was not in your question.

To answer your question - write those headlines and take them to your team, and tell them what you want with the same words that you used to describe your question here. It should be enough for them.


After Effects is not changing the preview quality!

Quarter of 4K is still 1080. Depending on your rig it still might chug thru playback. I would look into proxies as they are pretty quick to set up and would drastically improve workability.


Best quality conversion from VHS to digital domain (USA)

Please tell me you didn't spend thousands of dollars. You can get the hardware you need in under 50.

I rip my VHS tapes with a PVR card as well, the Hauppauge (WinTV) are good ones.

I just use an RCA cable from my VHS player into the TV card, and record the input using V4L tools on Linux.

You'll need to use v4l utils to set the proper input on your card, and then use ffmpeg to copy the stream directly.

Here, I know what the length of the video is, and do a straight codec copy:

ffmpeg -i /dev/video0 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -t <hours:minutes> vhs.mpg


Sending real time audio from the field unit to the radio studio over 3G

Look at Pocket Lite or Pocket codecs, for example. They use N/ACIP protocol.


Best way to edit mashup video of downloaded movies?

Not on FCPX, but on Avid.  However, this is what I do and it may help:

Download at the maximum possible resolution you can download at.
Use AVIDemux as my rough-cut tool to mark 'A' and 'B' and save as clips with meaningful names.  Leave a few seconds on either side.
Import clips into Avid

Sometimes, I have to convert the container to 'MP4' or resample frame rates and AVIDemux handles these well.


ffmpeg - resize and crop from input file with unknown resolution

Use

[0:v]scale='if(gt(a,4/3),-1,320)':'if(gt(a,4/3),240,-1)',setsar=1,crop=320:240[v0c]

The scale filter expressions for x and y check the aspect ratio of the input and if greater than 4:3, set the value to the 2nd argument, and if not, to the third argument. The -1 means that the original aspect ratio should be preserved e.g. scale=-1:400 applied to a 600x800 canvas will result in 300x400.


ffmpeg drawtext filter - create transparent background with text

Use drawbox for the box, and drawtext for the text.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf \
"format=yuv444p, \
 drawbox=y=ih/PHI:color=black@0.4:width=iw:height=48:t=fill, \
 drawtext=fontfile=OpenSans-Regular.ttf:text='Title of this Video':fontcolor=white:fontsize=24:x=(w-tw)/2:y=(h/PHI)+th, \
 format=yuv420p" \
-c:v libx264 -c:a copy -movflags +faststart output.mp4

drawtext has a box option, but as far as I can tell it can't be an arbitrary width and is relative to the text size, so that is why drawbox is used instead.
The format filter is used to improve the color of the drawbox area; otherwise, depending on your input and output formats, the area could look de-saturated or monochrome. The format filter is then used again to ensure that the pixel format of the output file is compatible with all players.
The audio is being stream copied in this example because you may not want to needlessly re-encode it.
Old ffmpeg users will have to use t=max instead of t=fill.


One of the biggest ironies of working with visual effects is that if you've done your work well, the audience won't notice the work you've done.  Good effects appear effortless; the better the effect, the more effort concealment required.  So when you ask, "Is there a better way?" the bad news is: Not if you're looking for an easier way.
The good news is:  You're on the right track.  You've done everything right so far, and all you need to do is add a little more polish to get the results you're after.
I think that one thing that will help a lot in your case is feathering the mask edge, which is definitely possible in Resolve/Fusion.
With a polygon or bspline node in fusion, you can either use the "Soft Edge" slider (easier) to feather the whole edge uniformly, or activate the "Make Double Poly" icon (more control), which is the capital letter "D" icon with double lines in the row of icons at the top of viewer whenever the polygon/bspline node is selected.
Press and hold the letter "O" on your keyboard while dragging one of the shape knots to drag out the feathering (it's fully sharp and hidden at first). Then, if your masks are animated, you can "Right-click-here" in inspector to animate both the inner and outer polygon edges.

Speaking of animated edges, you say that you "did exhaustive masking over the tilting laptop."  When you say "exhaustive," I assume that you mean you've animated the mask as the laptop moves.  It's hard to know the right approach to this particular shot without seeing the moving footage, but it seems like you're on the right track.  You should know that animating masks by hand can be counterproductive in some cases, and draw attention to your subterfuge, however.  If the camera is completely stationary, and depending on the circumstances, there are certain times when it's easier and more effective to use a static shape.
The rest of the time, keyframing a mask by hand usually isn't sufficient by itself, and is often combined with other techniques to achieve the desired results.
One of those other techniques, would be to use a greenscreen.  When a keyframed matte is combined with a greenscreen, the matte is called a "garbage matte" because it roughs out the unused portions of the screen, allowing the keyer to perform more accurately.
But since you're not using a greenscreen, the the other technique you might want to add into the mix is tracking.
If your footage is hand-held, and the laptop is moving organically (i.e., it's held by a person, not in freefall, following a parabolic arc, sitting still, etc), then a keyframed matte alone will never match the object's motion.  In these cases, it helps to first track the movement of the object, using either DaVinci's Point tracker, or a planar tracker (which would be good in this case because the laptop is a flat plane) to do the lion's share of the work, and THEN keyframe misaligned edges, and finally  selectively feather the result wherever necessary.  It's probably not necessary to feather it much along the face of the laptop, for example, because that's a straight line.  But the edge that overlaps the woven basket in the background would be difficult to conceal any other way.
And finally, since your question is about color correction, yes, getting the color of your foreground plate to better match the background plate as closely as possible will help sell your composite.  There are some auto-match features on Resolve's Color page, but Fusion happens before Color in the order of operations, so you'll want to match the plates in Fusion as best you can.  Since everyone's color vision is slightly different, it's best to not trust your own eyes when color matching.  Use the waveform monitors and vector scope in Fusion if you're comfortable with that, but what I like to do is match each color channel individually.  Use the r, g, and b keys on the keyboard to single out the individual color channels in fusion, then match the contrast levels of each.  Cycle through them all a couple of times until your satisfied, hit the "C" key to switch back to full color, and you'll be surprised at how misleading your color vision is on its own.


Film vs digital - telling the difference

The final presentation has been digitally altered and compressed.  Even if it was full quality, you'd likely be unable to tell as film grain can artificially be added (or removed) and color grading can adjust for much of the differences in the way color is captured.  If no editing had been done to the source, it would be pretty clear even on your home set if you knew what to look for, but after post production is done, you can make one look like the other so that it's pretty hard to tell the difference.

As far as how you are more likely to see it the way the director intended, a high quality digital theater is the best bet.  While films may be shot on film some of the time and digital other times, they never go through the entire process of editing in analog (at least not for any hollywood film and not for most artsy films either.)

The first step after shooting a film reel is going to be to scan it to a digital format so that it can be used in the NLE (non-linear editing) software and whatever compositing software is being used for effects work.  Since all films go through a digital process, the process of converting back to film is more a matter of convenience for theaters that lack high quality digital projection that can match the quality of the actual digital files.

It's also worth noting that theaters that do use film projection have to worry about degradation of the film which happens rapidly and results in imperfections in the playback.  Digital cinema projectors have no such drawback.

The debate in the film world about digital vs cinema cameras is rather about how the light is captured.  The primary difference between film and digital sensors is not how the final product looks so much as how it captures light.  A digital camera is exceedingly high quality and very precise, but similar to a keyboard that can play an exact frequency of a note, it lacks the "warmth" of film.  This is similar to the CD vs Vinyl debate.  The film camera captures the light differently and as an analog medium has a softer and "warmer" feel that some people prefer to the "cold" and exacting nature of digital sensors.

This is only a factor for the initial capture of the image however and after that, it doesn't matter and all parties agree that having the most accurate and exact capture in the conversion to the digital world is important, just the film buffs want it to be in a high quality scan while the digital camera guys see no reason not to shoot directly to a hard drive.


How to use DJI Ronin MX in adverse weather

There are numerous simple solutions including shoulder mounted umbrellas and rain shields, or even ones mounted on the Ronin itself.

Obviously, in a complete downpour you may need to consider a waterproof camera bag. These are pretty cheap anyway.


ffmpeg combine three videos side by side

Use

ffmpeg -i s1.mp4 -i s2.mp4 -i s3.mp4 -filter_complex "[1:v][0:v]scale2ref=oh*mdar:ih[1v][0v];[2:v][0v]scale2ref=oh*mdar:ih[2v][0v];[0v][1v][2v]hstack=3,scale='2*trunc(iw/2)':'2*trunc(ih/2)'" final.mp4


Recommendation for a flying camera device

The on board cameras you ask about I have found to be sub-par in resolution, so I would focus on models you can attach a camera to.

One of mine - the Parrot AR Drone 2 - I simply gaffer tape a gopro to - the obvious problem is any movement of the drone to cope with flight results in a camera shift - the onboard cameras have this issue too of course.  This can be stabilized out with good post-processing tools, but it's worth, budget allowing, to have a Gimbal for the camera.

Having used a Phantom 2 Vision system with a remote control for the Gimbal with video feedback, this was absolutely a winner for a film production, as the director I could watch each run, in high winds which occupied the pilot.  This requires quite a bit of gear - the camera signal broadcast to a monitor (for us over wifi), the control of the gimbal, and the control of the drone.  The positive of this system was the Gimbal and Drone control was centralised, so each didn't need their own battery, broadcast, and control systems.

So if you want smooth shots that don't "give away" it's taken by a flying machine and have a smooth flight quality, it really is worth having the camera separate on a Gimbal of some sort.  The advantage of the prebuilt systems for this (We take XYZ camera) is they've 1. worked in the weight of the camera for that drone, and 2. figured out it's best positioning in terms of a balanced flight and drag, and tested it for that.  Eg. If I gaffer tape my gopro in the wrong place, the drone stabilisation software fights it and the footage ends up shakey.

Good luck, it's all very very fun!


Is there any plugin for After Effects to create a 'kinetic typography' video?

As of 2011, there aren't plugins that assemble a typography video for you, because this kind of work is really a sub-topic of motion graphics.  There are tools that can help you with camera animation and rigging in AE though.

My favorite is Video Copilot's Sure Target 2, which lets you think about the animation in terms of what you're looking at, instead of thinking about it in terms of camera perspective.  This makes the work feel similar to using something like Cinema4D's target camera.

Another noteworthy tutorial: http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/motion-graphics/design-rhythmic-motion-typography-in-after-effects/

  If not, then is there any other easy way to do this?

Not really.  Watch lots of videos, take notes on ideas you like, steal the best, and trust in what is difficult.


synchronizing video and audio in a remuxed MKV

Use mkvmerge with
  -y or --sync

                       Synchronize, adjust the track's timecodes with

                       the id TID by 'd' ms.

                       'o/p': Adjust the timecodes by multiplying with

                       'o/p' to fix linear drifts. 'p' defaults to

                       1 if omitted. Both 'o' and 'p' can be

                       floating point numbers.


Record a live lecture from one room and stream it live to two other televisions

Get a camera with HDMI output and plug it in to a Blackmagic Intensity PCIe card or USB/Thunderbolt unit. Then use Adobe Flash Media Encoder to take that input and encode it into an RTMP/RTSP stream that a computer can easily play on the other via the network, plugged in to a projector or TV.


In relatively static scenes it's not too tough (just tedious) to either paint out the offender or 'clone brush' using nearby frames. When you have fast motion it gets more difficult. In any case it's usually a frame-by-frame process a la rotoscoping.

If you have a budget, investigate the plugins variously called wire-removal, rig-removal, 'no-strings' etc. which can help automate this.


ffmpeg vertical pan over an image (top to bottom scrolling effect)

Create a canvas of output size and use an animated overlay to simulate a scroll.
ffmpeg -f lavfi -i color=s=3840x2160 -i UHDimage -filter_complex "[0][1]overlay=x=0:y=H-48*n" -vframes 242 out.mp4
Output duration is clamped to 242 frames = (11568/48)+1.


If you are trying to do editing, you are using the wrong program.  Adobe After Effects is an effects and compositing program.  It is designed to make alterations to clips of video that can then be used together.  It is not designed for editing clips together.

If you wish to do video editing, you want a piece of software known as a Non Linear Editor (or NLE).  Adobe Premiere is the NLE in Adobe's software line.  Adobe Bridge allows for you to move back and forth between them, so you can include an After Effects composition as a clip in Premiere or open a clip from Premiere in After Effects to do effects or composition work on the clip.

As a bonus, note that this same kind of interaction can be used with Adobe Encore to add a Premiere Sequence directly to an Encore project if you wish to make a DVD or Bluray disk from your videos.

Update: Since you asked about it, here is a list of the major Adobe CC applications and their purpose.

Photoshop: In depth Image Manipulation
Lightroom: Photo cataloging, Non-destructive RAW processing and basic touch up, workflow management, printing, publishing.
Premiere: Non-linear Video Editing
After Effects: Video effects and compositing
Encore: DVD/Bluray disk production
Prelude: Video/Asset intake
SpeedGrade: Color grading
Illustrator: Vector graphic creation and editing
Flash: Vector and sprite based animation, script-able and interactive capable as well as supporting video playback
Audition: Audio Editing DAW
InDesign: Print layout
Acrobat: Public document finishing, creates PDFs
DreamWeaver: Web design
Muse: simpler web design
Fireworks: Alternate image manipulation application, primarily targeting the web.
Bridge: Minor Adobe product that interconnects the applications to allow them to exchange nested data
Media Encoder: Minor Adobe product that allows for a shared render queue and encoding of final assets


It sounds like the video frame rate probably got messed up.  You need to make sure you compress the video to the same framerate in webm as the source is.  Also, m4v and mp4 are synonyms, you don't need to alter the file, you can just change the extension.


queuing multiple encodings with different edits

The way I would do it is just duplicating my timeline, make one for each type of encoding I want (clip_001_youtube, clip_001_instagram,...), then use Media Encoder, just publish them all and then let ME do it's thing of batching them.
I find it helpful to make a bunch of timelines that are almost the same. Sometimes, I use nesting to make it easier also.


How do I create this effect of instantaneous typing in a video?

Sony Vegas Pro comes bundled with NewBlue Titler plugin which has a 'Type On' transition preset which does this automatically. After Effects can do this as well: see this tutorial.

Basically, this can be done manually in any program in which one can animate masks. In short, in one frame the mask shape extends till the edge of the currently revealed letters. It is keyframed to hold that shape till one frame before you are ready to reveal the next letter. On that next frame, you expand the mask to uncover the new character.


Why a color grading suite needs high CRI lamps?

The truth is that you do not need them... unless you do of course.

You only need good CRI for the ambient lamps if you need to compare colors with real-life things, probably the skin tone of someone, or want to prepare the color for a tomato that looks healthy but not oversaturated.

Another reason is that you can not work totally isolated from ambient light, your eyes will stress a lot. So the ambient light will hit your hands, your keyboard, and things on your desk. Having a low-quality light illuminating this could alter your perception of colors and force you to make wrong adjustments.

If you need lights with good CRI get some on an online store.


Ok, after a research I found the solution.
Watch this tutorial.

At a glance:

Create Adobe After Effects project.
Add "Channel set" effect.
Duplicate layer 3 times.
Adjust each layer to show only one channel (Red/Green/Blue).
Set Blending Mode as Screen.
Add transformation for each layer. Play with rotation/scale.

Voila! Check my example.

Original frame (sorry for low bitrate)

RGB shifted

I think it's cool as hell!


How do I recreate this Annotation effect In After Effects?

That's fairly simple. Just create the text, arrows, and other stuff. Animate them to create the effect you want (I can't give you details here, you'll have to ask someone else). Then track the points where you want the annotations to be so they'll follow them.


Resolve - Blur the edges of an inserted clip

I found the answer:

Go to Color at the bottom.
Select the clip you want to modify (the small video on top).
Add your usual nodes as needed.
Right click and Add Alpha Output. This will create a new blue terminator.
Right click and add a new Corrector node and use the rectangle, ellipse, or whatever shape you need to define the transparent/opaque regions.
Connect the previous nodes to the recently created node. Now link the green and blue points. This will make an alpha channel, making the region you marked as transparent/opaque.
If you need to use the same ALPHA node in other clips, you can create a Shared node that can be reused in other clips. Instead of adding a Corrector node this time, use your shared node.

See the image below for a clarification:

Source:


Color grading ; Anybody familiar working with Da-Vinci Resolve?

Got it.. ... I am sharing what i found here for everyone.May be someone needy finds it useful someday ;-)

Q1 was : Can  DaVinci Resolve be used without a panel?

Ans: Yes.

DaVinci Resolve has been designed to be used with the DaVinci Resolve control panel but can also be used with a mouse or a pen and tablet. There are third party control panels that can also be used with Resolve.

However, there is a significant advantage in terms of speed and ease of grading by using the DaVinci Resolve control panel as it has been specifically designed for Resolve and has the fullest implementation of the feature set. Grading with the DaVinci Resolve control panels will allow you more time to finesse your grades and make and compare different grades for each shot.

Q2: Any training or tutorials available ?

Ans : Plenty, but as said earlier without the console , things will gt tricky.

Here is the link for the official manual.

Additional Notes:

This , from what i understand is a truly dedicated color grading system, not for editors but colorists and the color specialists of the industry.

What i still don't know is how is the product available for purchase.. Checked out the Official site, but only 2 dealers found in my country. :-(

Well that's it, i am downloading.
Will update after using...
Cheerio..


How to create a shredded photo in Adobe Premiere Pro or After Effects?

I would do this physically.  Print the images out, tear them up, scan the teared sections. Then introduce the teared sections using key-framed masks with the original sections. I can't think of a way of doing this that wouldn't be time-consuming...


Sequential series

1.png

%d.png

01.png

%02d.png

001.png

%03d.png

0001.png

%04d.png

image0001.png

image%04d.png

Non sequential series

If they image inputs are not sequential then use the glob wildcard:

ffmpeg -framerate 5 -pattern_type glob -i "*.png" output.mp4

The glob pattern may not be supported by Windows. In that case rename your images or use cat:

cat *.png | ffmpeg -framerate 5 -i - output.mp4

See the image demuxer documentation for more info.


What are the audio production capabilities in Sony Vegas Pro because I see mostly plug-ins only?

If you are judging Vegas Pro audio editing on native effects than I don't think it has any edge over others.

I have been using the Pro version for about 18 months now and I find it pretty darn good overall. I am also learning Adobe Premiere and After Effects CS5.5, so far I think Vegas has the edge on the audio for sure.

However, are you aware that Vegas Pro audio editing has the ability to add as many audio tracks as your system can handle (stereo or mono), treat each track with a pan position feature, set individual volume (amplitude) envelopes for each clip, boost or buck the audio overall output of each track, name each track, size the vertical and horizontal view of the audio track as you see fit, record directly to any track, cut any audio clip any way you want, reverse an audio clip with two mouse clicks, and edit Dolby 5.1? And this is only a partial list of some of the built in controls available.

UPDATE: I omitted one feature that I really love, both audio and video tracks can have their order rearranged very easily. With a simple mouse click and drag, you can put that bass line near the drum track or move the voice-over above the music track. I like to move audio tracks as I am building them to keep it tiddy.
:>

This list is not complete and does not include the native sound effects which as mentioned earlier are rather standard with any NLE: reverb, EQ, pitch shift, delay, etc. And yes, AFAIK, it can accept plugins but I have never needed any at this point so I am not aware what plugins are compatible.

I have both Vegas Pro 10 and the home version of Sony Sound Forge. I can export an audio clip to Sound Forge for further effects, it's sort of like Audacity on steroids. As far as I know you can render your audio portion to several formats and export to anything that has the same format. I haven't tried this, but I would think you could easily export your audio as a .wav to Audacity but I have never needed to export the audio for further processing except to test it with Sound Forge, and in that exercise, I just had to copy paste the clip--easy.

I have made video content with Vegas Pro that has had as many as 18 stereo tracks with no issues.

Remember Vegas was originally a multi track audio editor.

I think the best answer is for you to try the trail version of Vegas Pro 11 for free for 30 days and kick the tires and then take a spin:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials/vegaspro?keycode=64506

Disclaimer:
I should mention that I sort of have one hand tied behind my back on this answer as it would be so much more useful to launch Vegas when answering this to review the features. My version of Vegas lives on a machine that is not accessible from the network for security reasons and that location is about 8 miles from where I am typing this.


If you have money CarbonCoder does this. It is very easy, drag and drop the video, check the "stitch" box and select the output format.

Else you can use ffmpeg + avisynth.
Create an avisynth script which will just read and add the different videos:

Avisynth script:

vid1 = FFmpegSource2("path_to_first_video.avi")
vid2 = FFmpegSource2("path_to_second_video.avi")
vidn = FFmpegSource2("path_to_nth_video.avi")
concat = vid1 + vid2 + .. + vidn
return concat

ffmpeg command

ffmpeg.exe -i avisynth_script.avs [ encoding options ] concatened_video.avi

In the example I used avi container, but avisynth supports also quicktime and other.
Find here the Avisynth documentation . This will work on windows, as far as I know avisynth does not work on linux ( or in alpha stage ? ).


How to get this transition using ffmpeg?

Some variant of:

ffmpeg -i FIRST -i SECOND -lavfi "blend=all_expr='if(lte((W/2-sqrt((X-W/2)*(X-W/2)))+N*SW,W/2),A,B)'" OUTPUT


How do I make a new clip from in & out points on my sequence in Premiere Pro CC?

create new sequence and treat the "old sequence"  as a normal cips & how you import it from projects bin.

\\ Just like you set In/out points for a normal clip.

or watch


Why is MP4 black background gray in Internet Explorer 11?

The solution was to turn off IE-11's "hardware acceleration" feature which (says here) "lets Internet Explorer move all graphics and text rendering from the CPU to the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)".

I disabled that under Tools -> Internet Options-> Advanced by selecting "Use software rendering instead of GPU rendering".  It's pictured here

Then, after obligatory re-start (of IE), all the grays were black and colors bright in IE-11.
Now, how I communicate this knowledge to IE users viewing my washed-out videos is a tough new question.


Black fontcolor being transparent in drawtext in ffmpeg

The method in my old answer was a workaround due to a limitation in drawtext filter at the time of writing. It's easier now.
You're getting transparent text because the textcolor is used to set both the color as well as its opacity intensity, and since black represents 0, the text disappears.
Anyway, it's simpler after ffmpeg 3.1
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex "color=black@0:100x100,format=yuva420p[c];[c][0]scale2ref[ct][mv];[ct]setsar=1,drawtext=fontfile='font.ttf':text='Test Text':fontsize=36:line_spacing=3:box=1:boxcolor=red@1:fontcolor=black,rotate=45:ow=rotw(45):oh=roth(45):c=black@0[txta];[mv][txta]overlay=x='min(0,-H*sin(45))+100':y='min(0,W*sin(45))+50':shortest=1" output_video.mp4


Troubleshooting XDCAM import into Premirere Pro CC 2014

Since Adobe CS5 XDCAM files are supported natively, make sure the folder structure is the same like on your SXS Card, open up the Sony Clip Browser and try to load up the files - this should work immediately. If you can't see the files, there must be an encoding error or the files are corrupt.


This was bug in atrim filter, not supporting unknown channel layouts, it should be fixed in latest ffmpeg.


Combining two video fields into one (to create an interlaced video)

Use

ffmpeg -i top.avi -i bottom.avi -filter_complex vstack,il=l=i:c=i -c:v ffv1 il.avi

See docs for http://www.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#vstack and http://www.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#il


In Russian we have term for them — плашка.

English name I personally don't like — Lower third

I was making them in After Effects. With animations, dynamic text, etc. There is a lot of tutorial (example), how you can make one.
But I believe that without animations you can make them in a lot of other video editing apps. It is basically a type of Title (Premiere Pro). Or art with alpha channel in any software, which allow to compose picture on top of the video.

You can achieve similar result directly on YouTube with annotations. Similar to this answer. It will not look so good, but can contain text information.


how to get vdpau hardware acceleration using ffmpeg?

I am able to get the hw-acceleration working through ffmpeg using Nvidia graphics card. I just thoroughly followed the steps described here.

Hw Acceleratoin guide


Video software to add video effects similar to Apple's Photo Booth

If you want to create the same effect after you shot the video, you could use Adobe After Effects.
Chose one of the filters under Effect>Distort. For example, let's choose Bulge.
Now you need to create keyframes so that the central point moves along with the face. You can either do this manually or use a tracker.
There are a lot of tutorials on tracking.


All elements not on the main storyline must be attached to something on the main storyline. That is an essential design from FCPX.
You can move elements not on the main storyline to any position and it will link to the underneath main storyline element.

However the link point can be shifted to an extend.
Select the attached element you want the link to sift. Hold down Command-Option and click somewhere in the attached element. The link to the main storyline will change to the position you just selected.


To me it is just the matter of the edge color
The colorkey has a similarity parameter; should you try not using 1
Since i don't have any asset to try on this parameter, good luck.


Correct order of layer effects in Premiere CC 2017?

I'm fairly certain that Premiere Pro renders all layers from bottom to top. I have found several sources that confirm this behaviour for After Effects, but nowhere is it stated explicitly for Premiere Pro.

From the Adobe documentation for After Effects:

  A composition consists of layers stacked on top of one another in the Timeline panel. When the composition is rendered—either for previewing or for final output—the bottom layer is rendered first. Within each raster (non-vector) layer, elements are applied in the following order: masks, effects, transformations, and layer styles. For continuously rasterized vector layers, the default rendering order is masks, followed by transformations, and then effects.

Source

Rendering layers from bottom to top is also the logical order. If it was the other way around, blending modes and certain other effects couldn't function properly. Let's say I have two video layers, the upper one being set to multiply as it's blending mode. This blending mode takes into account the pixels of the video layer below it. This wouldn't work if that layer hadn't been rendered yet.

So I would suggest this layer order for your timeline:

Adjustment Layer with color grading effects
--------------
Adjustment Layer with color correction effects
--------------
Layer with video clips

Alternatively, you could just put all your LUT effects on the same adjustment layer. Keep in mind that effects on a clip are rendered top to bottom. So if you have just one adjustment layer that holds one LUT effect for color correction and another one for color grading, make sure the color correction effect is on top in the Effect Settings panel.


Free software for annotations (circles, arrows, etc.) in screen capture videos

There's CamStudio (GNU General Public License): http://camstudio.org/
It has screen and video annotations tools.


Chromakey (Green Screen) Best Practices in Adobe After Effects

Assuming the lighting is solid, you should be in good shape. I haven't used the keying features of iMovie, but I can give you a few tips for After Effects. I'll defer to any power users of AE's keying functionality to chime in with more specific advice.

First, you'll probably want to start with the Keylight plugin (from The Foundry). It should come bundled with After Effects Creative Cloud. There are tons of tutorials, guides, etc. for Keylight on the web.

Second, know that you can create masks with After Effects. Not sure if you're already familiar with them, but masks are custom shapes that allow for specific areas of footage to be visible or modified. Masks allow you to create a "junk matte" around your subject, which can be helpful if lighting gets a little uneven or equipment is visible on the edge of the shot. Masks could also allow you to preserve the actor's eyes so that they are not being keyed (especially if the shot is relatively static). For example, you might want to duplicate the main video layer, mask around the actor's eyes, then pull the key on the duplicated background layer.

Third, if you're still having problems with the hair after firing up Keylight, you'll want to look into the "Despill Bias" option. With despill bias, you'll basically select a skin color to reduce the blue / green bleeding. It might take a little trial and error.


Transcoding AVCHD To Something That Isn't Choppy In Adobe Premiere Pro CS6

What you can do is create an "offline" version of your footage, and then once the edit is complete do an "online".

Pick a codec that is good to edit in, e.g all I-frame mpeg, or proRes / DNxHD or even HDV. The quality isn't actually too important, because before you make your master you delete the transcoded copies, and re-link to your camera footage. Then you can master off the original footage with zero quality loss.

If that doesn't work for you, then the first three codecs I mentioned will be an acceptable compromise. ProRes and DNxHD have the advantage of greater colour depth, at the cost of greater storage size, though since AVCHD is only 8-bit to start off with the advantage might be negligible. Whatever you choose, you want something that is all I-frame for editing.


Final Cut Pro 10 Change clip appearance of some clips in timeline

I am pretty sure you cannot change the clip hight for a certain timeline independent. What might help a bit is when you give your stacked clips different Roles and then click the 'show subroles'. What will move the audio to the bottom under the main timeline and will leave you with the clips only. Now click the 'Focus' button for your main timeline. Then all other audio tracks will get minimized to a narrow line. However, this does not help with the clip high.


FFmpeg clarification "position of frame"

I can't say with authority, but it's likely that 'pos' is the byte offset into the file where the frame begins. IOW these aren't frame numbers. In the listing you show the sequence is monotonic, it just doesn't increase by single units. If it is byte offset, it wouldn't start at 0 because there are headers in the file before actual frame data.


25 frames per seconds and 30 frames per seconds footage in one seq

The surest way to make this work is to convert one set of material so the two have matching frame rates. No frame rate conversion is perfect, but moving from 25 to 30 is more likely to look better because no frames need to be dropped. Instead you'll get interpolated or repeated frames. Be sure that your "30 fps" is really 30.00 and not 29.97 before you start. Premiere should tell you, but you can also use MediaInfo or other standalone tool

If Premiere can do rate conversion use it; otherwise try ffmpeg or similar.


What part of this video is good and how to improve it?

Since you asked for general feedback, here's a few things I noticed:

0:00 The logo animation is too long in my opinion, especially since the video itself isn't that long.
0:12 Make the text much smaller, use the same font and font weight as in the inspire of the logo, it will look more coherent and sophisticated. Text doesn't need to fill most of the screen. It also doesn't need to be centered. If you have enough good B-roll footage, you can also use that as a background for the text, makes for a nicer introduction.
0:19 In general, for this kind of impression videos, it's not a good style to use a shot that starts with camera movement (e.g. a pan) and then stops. It looks like the cameraman started out with a pan and then didn't know what to do with the camera. If a shot starts with movement, end the shot before that movement stops. Inversely, if you have a still shot, cut it off before it starts moving, it's much less distracting that way. In this case this effect is increased by the shaking of the camera, could probably use a bit of stabilizing.
0:28 Why is the font green now? Lose the color and the stroke. If the text is hard to read against the bright background, use subtle shadows, not thick strokes. It's optimal if you can read the text without a problem, but don't notice a stroke or shadow on it without a closer look. Also it sounds like you cut the Mayor off after 'to be honest', could probably end the shot after 'what a great idea'.
0:30 This looks like you just put the poster for the event into the video, it doesn't look good. Better use text annotations to communicate what the event is about, or just use the Logo with background footage. Nobody is gonna read the text in the green field or the smaller text below, so you don't need it. The poster is not very good in itself, but that's a different topic. And if you absolutely want a poster in the video, make a dedicated 16/9 graphic that only contains text and images that can be read/perceived within the 3~5 seconds for which it is visible.
0:36 In general I like the text in front of the blurred video, but there's a few problems with it:

It's clearly visible that the blur was applied in post editing. It's much cooler to use a video where the cameras focus was intentionally off by a large factor. This way you get nicer bokeh (if you use a good camera/lens combination) and graduated sharpness.
The blurred video stays in the background for too long and there's too much movement. This draws attention away from the text and onto the video. In this sense it's quite frustrating that you can't make out anything because of the blur, especially at 0:38 where the camera is centered on the little girl. For text with blurry background video, you wanna use static shots, for example a static camera that records people coming in or out of the hall at the start/end of the event. If you only have footage like the one seen in the movie available, don't use blurry video at all, just make the text smaller and put it in one of the corners.
At 0:48, if everything is blurry it makes no sense to divide the video in four parts. Again it draws the attention away from the text and onto the video. I like the composition of that scene in general, but make the text smaller and lose the blur for that part. You overuse the blurry background/text combination anyway, so that would be a good place to start.

0:52 The transition of blurry to sharp is cool in general, but again it's cooler if it happens during filming than as an effect. You can do this by setting the camera to manual focus, focus as close to the camera as possible, start recording and then slowly and steadily move the focus onto the subject. There's a name for this technique, but I can't recall it at the moment.
1:03 You can't hear what they say very well. You want to lower the volume of the music whenever someone talks. Use keyframes for gradual volume transitions (about 0.5 ~ 1 seconds), never hard volume cuts.
1:10 Not sure about the text here. I get that you want to underline his statement, but in this version it's not visible long enough to actually read this and it's too distracting from the video itself. Maybe try putting the quote in front of a black screen or again blurry footage after the man has finished talking to put more emphasis on the statement (not sure if this will look good, you will have to try it out). Or make it smaller and put it on the bottom as a caption. And again, in general be more consistent with your usage of font/color/strokes.
1:27 - 1:57 Get rid of that part entirely. It doesn't help your video in any way. Also it's way too long, it takes up 1/4 of the entire video. If you insist on having this kind of outro, make it 10 seconds at best.

General stuff: The video could use a little tone/color grading. You don't have to shoot for a high-profile Hollywood look, but adjust the brightness a bit to correct for the overexposed shots (e.g. the food scenes). Be a bit more subtle with the text, slow it down a bit, it will look more relaxed and professional. Try to be consistent with font, font size/weight, colors/strokes and placement/alignment of the text. And most important, use one shot/scene for every point you want to get across. The blurry scenes with the text do to much (communicate text and show video) and ends up being distracting.


ffmpeg : Copy all the streams (including cover art) except the first video stream from one MP4 file to another

-map 0 will map all streams from the first input. A negative mapping can then be applied to disable an already mapped stream.

So,

ffmpeg -i toto1.mp4 -map 0 -map -0:v:0 -c copy toto2.mp4


Tools to combine a video with an animated logo

If I were you, here is my solution. I separate your video with animated with 3 parts: intro video with walking and roaring tiger, fading logo and logo with slogan. As per your mentioned that you may be a green hand for video editing software, therefore Premiere or After Effects may be too complicate for you. You can try some simple video editing software like I answered here.

Step one, find a walking and roaring tiger YouTube video like this
One:

            , then download it
via YouTube downloader, Google it, you will find some free
Downloader (because it's not friendly to YouTube, you may need to
take caution)
Step two,  cut/edit this video with the simple video editing tools
You picked above, only keep the useful scene, i.e. walking and
Roaring part, save it to your pc first.
Step three, Google tiger head cartoon, you will find multiple
suitable tiger head logo, but you may need to touch up before use it
as your logo. If you already have one, perfect, you can just import
to that video editor, drag and drop to the timeline, applying fading
transaction, save it to your pc again.
Step four, at this point you need PIP function (make sure the
software you picked up has this function). Import the two video clip
and drag and drop the first one(made on step two) to video track and
drop the second one to PIP track, adjust the size and position of
your second video, which can be positioned above the tiger head,
fading at the same time, that's the PIP value.
Step five, import logo to that video editor and them drag to
image/media track (this logo should be put at the end of the
previous video), add text with the slogan you need.
Last step, export and save them to your pc, your video with animated
logo completed. All those steps can be achieved by my software (you
can check my profile), which is very simple to use and will be
suitable for green hands like you. Good luck for you!


How can I scale more than 300% in Premiere?

If you're using an older Version of Premiere:

As mentioned above, you can apply the maximum scale on the original clip,
then nest the clip (right click > Nest), and here apply another scale transformation.
With every iteration of this step you will gain 300%.

Hope this helps.


Concate two video file with fade effect with ffmpeg in linux

Your present command specifies stream copy. Since you wish to alter the video frames during the transition, that won't work.
It can be done if you know the duration of the two videos and the duration of fade. Also, for the command below, the resolutions of the two videos should be the same.
ffmpeg -i first.ogg -i second.ogg \
-filter_complex \
"color=black:WxH:d=Video1Length+Video2Length-FadeDuration[base]; \
 [0:v]setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[v0]; \
 [1:v]format=yuva420p,fade=in:st=0:d=FadeDuration:alpha=1, \
      setpts=PTS-STARTPTS+((Video1Length-FadeDuration)/TB)[v1]; \
 [base][v0]overlay[tmp]; \
 [tmp][v1]overlay,format=yuv420p[fv]; \
 [0:a][1:a]acrossfade=d=FadeDuration[fa]" \
-map [fv] -map [fa] \
output.ogg

Replace:
WxH with the resolution of the videos i.e. 640x360
And:
Video1Length, Video2Length, and FadeDuration with their value in seconds.


How to release the work anonymously under the free licence?

The route that most people take, is to release it 'pseudonymously' rather than anonymously. So you just make up a pseudonym and use that in the copyright/licence statement.

A better approach may be to use the little-known CC-SA 1.0 licence, which was unfortunately retired by Creative Commons due to it not being used a lot. This licence requires a reuser to publish their altered versions with the same freedoms, but does not place the requirement to find out who was the original author.


Use

-filter_complex [0:v]trim=0:12,setpts=(PTS-STARTPTS)[sv];[0:a]atrim=0:12,asetpts=(PTS-STARTPTS)[sa];[0:v]trim=12:50,setpts=0.50*(PTS-STARTPTS)[v0];[0:a]atrim=12:50,asetpts=(PTS-STARTPTS),atempo=2.00[a0];[0:v]trim=50:57,setpts=(PTS-STARTPTS)[ev];[0:a]atrim=50:57,asetpts=(PTS-STARTPTS)[ea];[sv][sa][v0][a0][ev][ea]concat=n=3:v=1:a=1

concat filter expects all inputs to start from 0, so each instance of PTS should be replaced with PTS-STARTPTS.


While that command may well be the right one to convert video to panorama in ffmpeg, you don't get ffmpeg by default on Android.

You can get a version from the SourceForge FFmpeg for Android project, but I'll warn you that compilation may have its challenges. We have an old question on StackOverflow on this. Top answer there gives some detail on these headings:

Build static libraries of ffmpeg for Android.
Create a dynamic library wrapping ffmpeg functionality using the Android NDK.
Use the ffmpeg-wrapping dynamic library from your java sources.

Any questions on the technical implementation / compilation aspects should be raised over on Stack Overflow (or possibly Android Stack Exchange)


Wow... ffmpeg never ceases to amaze.. it's built in!

ffmpeg -re -loop 1 -i smpte-color-bars-1080p.png -vf drawtext="fontfile=monofonto.ttf: fontsize=96: box=1: boxcolor=black@0.75: boxborderw=5: fontcolor=white: x=(w-text_w)/2: y=((h-text_h)/2)+((h-text_h)/4): text='%{gmtime\:%H\\\\\:%M\\\\\:%S}'" -r 25 -vcodec libx264 -f mpegts udp://127.0.0.1:1234

The important bit for the timecode being: text='%{gmtime\:%H\\\\\:%M\\\\\:%S}'

There is some crazy escaping in there to get the colons to display(in bash), but that is UTC/GMT time of day timecode burnt in... just need to figure out the syntax for multiple drawtext functions now and I'm all set...


How is looking process of making HDR movie?

After some searching I have get this link: https://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/what-is-hdr-video-3-ways-to-create-high-dynamic-range-video--cms-25884

According to this link and RED company's cameras:

No there are now multiple cameras which are recording the same scene
These special cameras records one shoot as 2 separate frames. First overexposed, second underexposed


How do you export higher resolution 360° VR footage from Adobe Premiere?

I did find this YouTube tutorial if anyone else is interested. It provides the best settings for exporting 8k video from Premiere.


How to switch to camera view in After effects?

There's a camera drop-down at the bottom of the comp window. You can select the active camera there.

Pro Tip: Hitting the escape key will toggle between the two last used cameras.


No, Blender does animation as well. Here's an example of a spider animated with it:

However rigging and animating a realistic octopod is not exactly the kind of project you'd start with as a newbie. There's a lot to learn.

But if you want to have a go, you could start with this tutorial on rigging a spider's leg in Blender:
https://www.blendernation.com/2011/03/16/how-to-rig-a-spider-leg-in-blender-2-5-tutorial/


can we use "GoPro Hero 4" camera to shoot video tutorials or elearning courses or moocs?

A GoPro may not be your best tool for this - it has a very wide angle lens, and is targeted at action and sports, mostly.

That said, you can still use them effectively if your scenes can cope with the distortion a wide angle camera brings. They are cheap and convenient. They cope well with various light levels, but the sound quality is possibly not as good as you'd like for interviews, for example.


How to convert variable frame rate videos?

Have you tried using Quicktime Pro version 7?  It's what I usually use for file conversions.  It costs about £20 / $30.

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/D3380Z/A/quicktime-7-pro-for-mac-os-x

Open your file.

Go to the file menu, and select Export
Choose your format, e.g. Quicktime Movie with ProRes 422 codec at 30 fps.


Old 8mm video recording tapes and standards

The logo on the manual I could find indicates that it was standard 8mm, not Hi8 or Digital8.  If you are in a PAL region, then most likely it is the PAL version of 8mm.  You should be able to use any PAL based 8mm playback deck or camcorder to play the tape back.  You then be able to use a standard video capture device to digitize the video that you playback.


What is the benefit to using multiple RED rocket cards?

The RedRocket card provides encoder and decoder support via specialized hardware that can do particular calculations well.  Having multiple cards doubles the amount of calculations that can be done.  Since at least some of the calculations can be done in parallel, having multiple cards increases the amount of processing power available.  It probably wouldn't be much of an additional advantage after hitting real time, but could probably allow for better scrubbing.


What is the best way to clean the outside of audio/video cables

For delicate cables use dish washing soap and warm water with a clean rag. Do not tug or squeeze on the cable too hard and be extra gentle with anything that has twisted pair.

For not so delicate cables rubbing alcohol on a clean rag then applied should do the trick.


How to convert an MP3 file to MIDI on Windows?

That is not possible because MIDI is not an audio file format. It's a description on how to create music. Think of a midi file as a sheet music for a piece of music, whereas an mp3 would be a recording of someone playing the piece. So in order to create a midi file from audio recordings, you'd need some kind of score recognition program, which - to my knowledge - doesn't exist. A quick google search brought up a website and some software claiming to do that, but I wouldn't trust any of them. You can try it if you really want to, but even if they work at all the results will most likely be terrible.

If you need a midi file for a given piece of music, try to find the original score / sheet music! It's quite easy to create a midi version if you have the sheets.


There is a "new" "Morph Cut" as Premiere Video Transition. You could just place all images in a new Sequence and then copy paste the Video Transition. Remember to adjust the length of the transition itself before copy´n paste and also the length of the images.


Adobe Premiere - export project with original resolution


You can't improve the quality of a bad recording. Especially if it is because the tape stock is flaking off oxide or is stretched, both of which are common problems with older tape stock. No matter what tape format you transfer it to, it will likely just get worse.

You might get about the same quality by digitizing with your capture card. However, you will likely need to use a fairly high bit rate, because analog artifacts have a tendency to cause low bit rate compression to induce even worse digital artifacts. If you use a low bit rate, expect the quality to worsen when you digitize it.


How do I match the audio and video streams in my video file with the audio I recorded separately?

You could try processing the audio first to get it to the same speed as the video playback. Using (for example) Audacity you can apply a speed change of -0.1% (1000/1001) which is very likely the amount you're drifting by. You can change the rate without changing pitch, but if you can tolerate the very slight pitch shift you'll get slightly better results by just changing speed.

If that isn't the correct rate, then you need to determine the change needed by measuring the exact length of the audio tracks between two points near the beginning and end. Once you know them you can compute the ratio and apply that.


Keep fixed symbol on a source text linked expression

To add text items together in Javascript is super easy, you just use the + operator, which is 'overloaded' so that when the either term in an expression x + y is a string, the output is the first and second terms concatenated, as a string.

So you can just use + "%" to add a "%" symbol to the end of a number. Works for any character, e.g. 123 + "-foo" would result in 123-foo.

TL;DR:

effect("Slider Control")("Slider") + "%"

Note that the result of the slider will be a float (i.e. a number with lots of decimal places). That might not be what you're looking for. You can round it to an integer by using the Math functions, specifically Math.round (rounds to nearest integer) or Math.floor (always rounds down).

Math.round(effect("Slider Control")("Slider")) + "%"

For extra credit: If you did want some decimal places, say 2 decimal places, then multiply the number by 100, round it and then divide by 100:

Math.round(100 * effect("Slider Control")("Slider"))/100 + "%"


Best rendering output for 720px X 480px Sony Vegas Pro 12

Not sure if you are asking about rendering to edit, or rendering for output to Youtube...

Whilst Editing pretty much whatever your system is setup up for will be fine, most likely Mpeg-2 or DVCPROHD will get you by...

But if you are referring to uploading to youtube, your best bet will be H264 since that is what Youtube will convert it to anyway.

Here is a little bit more reading you can do on Youtube Video formats...
http://www.ifunia.com/youtube-column/best-youtube-video-format.html


DSLRs tend to have much larger image sensors than camcorders, which tends to mean much less depth of field (DOF) for a given field of view.  Shallow DOF is great for isolating subjects from their background, but it's a nightmare when you actually want the subject and its context to be in focus together.

Most DLSR lenses have a limited zoom ratio and/or limited maximum aperture compared with camcorder zooms.  A typical DSLR kit (EOS 80D with 18-135mm f3.5-f5.6 zoom), can be equated to a 35mm equivalent of 29-216mm f3.5-f5.6 zoom lens.  A Canon Vixia G40 camcorder has a 35mm equivalent of a 26.8 - 576 f1.8-f2.8 zoom lens.  That's more than 2x longer at the long end with 2 f-stops more light-gathering ability.

Combine longer range, wider aperture, and more depth of field, and you can see why news organizations tend to send camcorders into the field.

On the other hand, depending on your subject and your aesthetic, you may prefer the shallow DOF look, such as this short video demonstrates: https://vimeo.com/100437145


What causes a loud tone/noise in Blackmagic ATEM talkback?

tl;dr
Make sure none of the SDI outputs of the ATEM are routed back to its inputs.
Talkback feedback loop
The ATEM uses SDI channel 15 and 16 for talkback. If you route one of your SDI outputs to the SDI inputs (either directly via a simple SDI cable or trough a system of devices like record/playback devices) you will get a feedback loop that causes this high tone.
Possible solutions
The simplest solution is to break the loop by removing the cable/devices causing it. Obviously this way you will loose the functionality you tried to add trough it, like having M/E 1 PGM as one of your inputs so you can use it as an input on M/E 2, 3 or 4, so if you would like to keep the loop without the noise you have to deembed or redirect the audio from channel 15 and 16. You can use something like the Decimator MD-HX Cross Converter that can reroute SDI audio channels.


Convert variable framerate ~60 FPS to constant 60 FPS losslessly

To start with: your version of Handbrake is old. Version 1.0.3 came out very recently, it's got some improvements over that older version.

Second, CQ0 is not actually "lossless." It's aiming for "lossless" quality, but it's going to bump up against the data rate limitations of the H.264 Level, so while it might need, say, 100MbPS at a given point to achieve "lossless" compression, Level 4.0 might be capping it at 20MbPS or something like that. Note in the Encoding Settings readout on your export file it lists "vbv_maxrate=20000," that's where your bitrate is capped. So to get as close to lossless as possible you'd need something like Level 5.2.

So ratcheting up your H.264 level will improve quality, but Premiere may end up chugging very hard on it. H.264 is really bad for editing. It's very computationally complex, largely because it doesn't store each frame separately (called Intraframe compression) but it takes batches of frames (called a Group of Pictures, or GOP) and compresses them together, in such a way that any one frame within a GOP will depend on the surrounding frames in order to reproduce a complete image. This is called Interframe compression, and the number of frames in a GOP depends on the parameters set at encode time, and may even be variable (not typical), but you can see what those parameters in MediaInfo by noting the line that says "Format settings, GOP" ("N=30" means 30 frames per GOP), or looking at the encoding settings where it notes "keyint" (Keyframe Interval). So needing to decode all 30 frames to show you any one frame is very CPU and RAM intensive.

If you've got the storage I'd recommend considering using DNxHD, which is a "mezzanine" (editing friendly) codec that preserves quality, considered "virtually lossless," but has low CPU/RAM impact. The catch is very high bitrates. So we're talking ~130-200GB/hr at 1080p59.94. The other catch is that DNxHD has very limited supported resolutions and frame rates. There's also CineForm which is just as high a quality, but far more flexible, and both CineForm and DNxHD are natively supported by Premiere (CineForm in 2015 and later) but last I checked CineForm support in other tools, like ffmpeg, is lacking.

So are more editing-friendly solution would be to use ffmpeg to make DNxHD with a command line the following:

ffmpeg -i (input file).mp4 -c:v dnxhd -b:v 290M -c:a pcm_s16le -r 60 (output).mxf

That would make DNxHD with uncompressed audio in an MXF Op1a file. You could also whack .mov on the end there and make a Quicktime file instead just as easily. Note that -r sets the output frame rate. You could try using H.264 in ffmpeg by changing the video codec (-c:v), but you'll run into the same limitations as you would working with Handbrake, so I don't know if it's really worth it to go into that here.


How can I generate voice as someone elses voice?

I have used Real-time Voice Cloning for this purpose. The quality isn't great, but it works for US accented voices better than UK in my experience (Gandalf = Ian McKellen = English).  Maybe this would be better in Sound Design?


Do talent show programmes film lots of footage or is it set up?

I've shot live events for the past 5 years, and had a few friends get on (and actually pretty far in) both American Idol and The Voice. There is a series of auditions way before contestants ever get in front of a studio camera, let alone a TV audience. Most auditions are not filmed, unless it is recorded by the casting directors/producers purely for their reference, usually with a simple handycam.

Yes, some auditions are staged a certain way, but not usually scripted. The nervous shots and emotional cut-aways you mentioned are almost always staged, shot after the fact, and then edited in a way that lets the audience project meaning onto the shot. The exception of course being when producers know a big event is about to take place (e.g. put a cameraman in the green room right before the contestant goes on stage.)

At this point it becomes a matter of efficiently handling your media so producers can quickly call up a shot that, even if they haven't seen it yet, they know it exists. That's why digital intermediates on set are worth their weight in gold for "reality" TV shows.

If it's a live show, there are many cameramen all wearing earpieces, ready to take direction from producers on who/what to cover and when. Then you have a big team of people behind the scenes watching what every camera sees and punching up the appropriate shots to the audience. So in this sense only, yes they just shoot a bunch of footage. But a live streaming video is a bit different than recording to hard disc.


Encoding Problems in 2019 Premiere, AfterEffects and Media Encoder

I have had lots of weirdness with Dynamic Link recently with the latest versions of creative cloud 2019.
Sometimes it goes really slowly when you have projects that include linked AE comps in Premiere.
I would try exporting any comps from AE as proRes files, into premiere. Then exporting your videos directly in Premiere without using Media Encoder, and see if that makes it any quicker.


Davinci Resolve - Store Clips Edited in Cut Window in a Media Folder

As of resolve 16.2, it’s not possible to organize media from the cut page that way. Switch to the edit page. All of the edits you’ve made will persist, and you’ll be able to drag timeline clips to bins from there (this creates subclips).  You can then switch back to the cut page and continue to work if that's what you prefer.


How can I use my JVC as a webcam on my HP pavilion laptop?

On page 31 of the JVC Everio GZ-MG360BU manual it describes how you can hook it up to your TV using the A/V or S-Video outputs of your camera.

http://resources.jvc.com/Resources/00/01/13/57.PDF

Unfortunately the S-Video port on the HP Pavilion DV2000 is output only.

How do you hook up the A/V cable to your HP when this HP laptop does not have separate stereo line in audio or an RCA type video input as is the layout of the A/V cable?

You may want to look at an A/V to USB adapter:
http://compare.ebay.com/like/120691660283?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

I am assuming that you want to use the JVC camera over the built in webcam that comes with your HP laptop because the JVC should have better resolution and a zoom lens?

Caution: The image sent to the computer from your JVC will likely have the status information text/graphics over laid on it such as REC on/off unless the JVC has a way of clearing the display.


Getting good, bright lights that can evenly illuminate a green screen is half the battle.  The other half is using a camera that will give you a clean key by not blending together too many pixels in its macroblocks.  Many low-end camcorders use 4:2:0 chroma sampling, which means the border between your key and your subject is going to be at least two pixels wide, and difficult to properly clean up.  Higher-end camcorders user 4:2:2 chroma sampling, and the best use either 4:4:4 or RAW encoding.

You can see for yourself how these different chroma sampling systems affect the edges you are trying to key.  If you are doing your own post-production for fun, and you have the time to futz with fuzzy edges, you can certainly spend time in place of money and get results that make you happy.  But if you are trying to do a live broadcast and you need keys that "just work", then 4:2:2 is probably the minimum color spec that you will want to work with.


How can I create an effect of pictures like an album

Vegas Pro 10 has two features that could help you out. Either using the Track Motion feature for the entire video track engaged with key frames, or the pan/crop feature for the shot itself engaged with key frames would allow for changes of size, shape, rotation, zooming, orientation (reverse, upside down) and such.

Here is a tutorial on Vegas (not sure of version but this will work in Pro 10) on
how to use the Track Motion feature:

Here is a tutorial on Vegas Pro 10 on how to use the Pan/Crop feature:

If you are using more than one clip or several still images, you should use the Track Motion with key frames as the Pan/Crop feature works only with the shot itself.

Hope this helps.


First, check to make sure that neither you nor the app have created handles on your clips. Handles are a few frames at the beginning and end of a clip that are used to overlap with another clip when doing a crossfade or other transition.

If you're sure that the in and out points of the clips really are the first and last frames of each clip, then you're probably out of luck. (See below for 1 possible solution.) Why does this happen? Without knowing the camera you used, I can only guess. There are 2 reasons that cameras will break clips into smaller pieces:

U.S.E.U. Tax Code - When importing a camera from another country, if the camera can record 30 minutes or more (I think - don't quote me on the exact time), then it is considered a video recorder and is taxed at a higher rate than a still camera. To skirt this issue and keep prices low, many low-end cameras will limit their record time to 1 frame less than the minimum required to be considered a video camera. Many will even automatically create multiple clips that are no longer than the limit. Here's a link that explains it
File System Limits - Older file systems (particularly DOS's FAT file system which is used by lots of cameras) may have a maximum file size limit of either 2GB or 4GB, depending on the implementation. If your clips are long enough to be bigger than 2 or 4GB, some cameras will split the clip into multiple files automatically.

So it could be the camera auto-split for one of the above reasons. The thing is that some cameras will drop frames during the splitting of files, and when they do, there's nothing you can do to get them back. You might be able to create in-between frames using a tool like Re:Vision FX Twixtor, or a similar product.


ffplay - Is there a way to display a video and spectrogram in the same output?

Use

ffplay -f lavfi 'amovie=/Users/hdl/Desktop/HDLS3K.mp4:s=dv+da[v][a];[a]asplit[asp][out1];
   [asp]showspectrum=size=1280x512:mode=separate:slide=scroll[spect];
   [v]scale=640:-1[v];[v][spect]vstack[out0]'

amovie usually selects only one (audio) stream. dv+da gets it to extract the best video and the best audio stream. The video output is scaled so that the vstack works.