video

A Beginner’s Guide to Camera Shots and Angles

Close-up or medium shot? High angle or POV shot? What type of camera angle is best? We break down the basic camera shot types so you can storyboard your video or animation sequence with confidence! For video makers, film directors and animators using the correct, conventional camera terminology is key to giving the impression that you know what you’re doing! One of the basics is learning how to describe the framing of your subject matter to other people. This is where you’ll want to brush up on the language (or grammar) of camera shots. Of course, you can simply disregard all of the tried and tested findings from a hundred years of cinema, and develop your own unique style of communicating! But, it’s important to know the rules before you break them. Bear in mind everyone in the television and film industry will be using the same lingo, so don’t…    read more 

How to Crop Footage in After Effects

How to Crop Footage in After Effects

25th October 2023 |

Sometimes you only want to show part of your footage, revealing the underlying layer or transparency, or to mask off specific areas. Here’s a short After Effects basics video tutorial showing two ways to crop footage (or image) layers. Cropping Footage Using a Layer Mask Cropping Footage Using the Linear Wipe effect For a free trial of Adobe After Effects use the link below. For more handy After Effects tips and templates subscribe to our YouTube channel.

10 Free Snow Video Overlays and Backgrounds

10 Free Snow Video Overlays and Backgrounds

24th October 2023 |

A selection of free winter backgrounds and snow overlay videos from Adobe Stock, many available in 4K resolution. In the realm of digital content creation, the use of free snow videos can be a game-changer, adding a touch of wintry magic to your projects. Whether you’re a video editor, a website designer, or a social media influencer, these snow videos can serve a multitude of purposes, elevating the aesthetics of your work and capturing the enchanting beauty of winter. Click on the thumbnails to take you to the Adobe Stock website. Here are a few ways you can incorporate these free snow videos into your projects: These free snow videos offer an array of creative possibilities, enabling you to infuse your projects with the charm and tranquility of a snowy winter’s day. With their versatility, they’re a valuable resource for any content creator looking to capture the essence of the…    read more 

Flipping 3D Text in After Effects

Flipping 3D Text in After Effects

10th October 2023 |

In this Adobe After Effects tutorial, Avnish Parker guides us through the process of creating a captivating Flipped Text Animation. We’ve taken the time to list out the instructions in text format. So, let’s dive in and make your text come to life! Setting the Stage Creating the Background 3. Add a new solid layer and name it “background.” Adjust its size and choose your preferred background color. In this case, we’ve gone with a stylish dark grey. Working with Text 4. Select the text tool from the toolbox. The chosen font here is Bebas Neue. Animating the Text 10. Open the rotation by pressing ‘R’ on your keyboard. Adding Bounce Effect 15. Open the scale and unlink proportion scaling by clicking on the link icon. Fine-tuning and Motion Blur 22. Return to the main timeline and enable motion blur for the text layer. Duplication and Final Touches 24. Duplicate…    read more 

15 Essential After Effects Tutorials for Beginners

Learn After Effects Today, For Free! 15 Essential After Effects Tutorials for Beginners Want to pick up Adobe After Effects basics quickly? There’s no better way of learning a new piece of software than by sitting back and watching some video tutorials from pro users revealing their secrets! So, grab a coffee and a notepad and get ready to learn something new with our list of the best basic After Effects tutorials! Try After Effects for Free Use the link below to access a trial version of Adobe’s incredible motion graphics software. What is Adobe After Effects? Want to know what After Effects is? Brian Maffet from Total Training gives us a short intro, explaining why it’s an essential software tool for video creators. He touches on its flexibility to offer simple-to-use non-destructive color correction, video compositing and motion graphics whilst maintaining the high level of fine-tuning required by broadcast…    read more 

How to Use Video Blending Modes

Using Video Blending Modes to Remove Black Backgrounds

8th February 2022 |

Need to remove black background from your VFX footage? Often with overlay video effects such as snow, fog, glitch and flash fx the files will have black backgrounds. This is due to pre-keyed video formats (which include transparency) having incredibly large file sizes and issues with software compatibility. Sometimes you might have green screen backgrounds, where you would need to use keying effects to create transparency, but in cases where you want to remove a black background the simplest way to achieve this is to use blending modes. Blending modes change the way your effect layer displays over the footage beneath by, in short, only showing the bright or the dark areas depending on the setting. Add or Screen modes will only display the light areas, effectively keying out the blacks. This is useful for VFX overlays which are generally bright elements on dark backgrounds. Conversely, Multiply or Darken blending…    read more