Post by Elvira on May 27, 2008 18:24:27 GMT -5
Vidding Newbie Cheat Sheet:
I guess that's what you'd call it. Here's one central place to consult for: links to tutorials, quick answers to questions, where to find answers, where to go first. We've got a lot of tutorials now (more to come—always more to come
) so perhaps this thread will make it a little easier for you to find your way around.
Getting Started:
The Vidding 101, Getting Started, Common Terms, FAQs thread is a must. It is crammed full of information, so if your eyes begin to glaze over, just start with reading the first few FAQs, pertaining to getting started, advice on software to use, and cautions against editing in XviD/DivX AVI. But you should read the whole thing eventually; it answers questions that you'll inevitably have as you get deeper into vidding.
The "Getting started, where to go first" thread covers a few of the same things that this thread does, but you should give it a look too—it explains how we work around here, encourages you to participate, and helps get you up to speed on a few things.
Ripping your DVD and preparing your DVD footage for editing:
First off, consult this tutorial for ripping your DVD[/url] (Mac and PC, free software).
Then we have a number of tutorials for converting the DVD to editing format (MOV or AVI). "Rip High Quality Clips from your DVD" is one recommended method. For Mac/PC, easy to learn, but requires a $20 plug-in. If you don't want to buy the plug-in, your learning curve may go up, but you can still make videos—even if you're a newbie. Mac users, consult this LJ tutorial. (And iMovie users should consider following this tutorial for converting the "rip" of the DVD you've made into smaller clips for importing into iMovie.) Windows and Mac users can also follow the "Rip High Quality Clips" tutorial for instructions on how to rip .vob (digital video files) from the DVD, and then consult this thread for other alternatives for converting to an editable format. If you're running short on disk space, this tutorial shows you some space-saving methods for preparing clips for editing.
Setting Up Your Project:
A lot of veteran vidders skip this step, or don't even think about it. But you will get into the good habit of setting up, won't you?
Follow this tutorial. (It's easy.) Setting up your project can prevent annoying problems like unwanted letterbox bars in your video, unwanted rendering of every clip you place in the timeline, and aspect ratio problems (squished or squashed picture—you'll hear about that around here!).
Style and Content Tips to Improve Your Vids:
When you're a newbie, you can't do it all at once, but sometimes, knowing some of the common errors and pitfalls of newbie vidding can cut short bad habits before they begin to form. This concise tutorial gives you some excellent basics.
Don't get so paralyzed with the fears of what you shouldn't do. If you obsess over it too much, you'll end up being too afraid to make a video! Just get in there and make something! A few flaws here and there are not the end of the world.
Exporting video for great quality:
So, you'll want to make a nice-looking video to share online and upload to YouTube. We show you how. This thread (comes in two parts) shows you a very good way to make an excellent quality web-ready version of your finished video. You'll be taught how to create both an XviD AVI file and an H.264 MP4 file (also used for iPod) in the tutorial.
We've got other video exporting "recipe" threads, too—these have step-by-step instructions for exporting WMV, Quicktime MOV, DivX AVI or MP4 files. They are: Web-ready Video "recipes" (Mac/PC), Export Gorgeous WMV files in Sony Vegas, Make "shiny" web-ready video in iMovie, Final Cut, and DivX: converting your finished video (Mac/PC). Take a look around the tutorial forums, more threads with instructions on how to export good-looking video may be there!
Windows Movie Maker users have their own special tutorial, which discusses preparing clips for editing, WMM's unique challenges with aspect ratio, and also exporting a finished video for great quality. WMM great quality tutorial. Check it out!
Note that we say "great quality" and not "best" quality. I don't know if anyone will agree on how to get the "best," but two good places to visit would be a-m-v.org (Windows) or ishtori.net (Mac). Our goal here is to introduce good habits, but with a lower learning curve, and sometimes it's not possible to have "lower learning curve" and "best quality" at the same time.
Aspect Ratio:
If you're not clear about what the big deal with aspect ratio is, just remember this: To many of us, it's like listening to someone sing off key. It doesn't matter how beautiful their voice is, if they can't carry a tune, it spoils the whole thing, doesn't it?
This thread has more about aspect ratio, so you should definitely read it, but basically I'm telling you—if you want to get it right, you will. The tutorials will help.
Keeping correct aspect ratio is not hard—it never was—it's just that many vidders don't even know what it is, and don't know what software settings to use to make sure it looks right.
The picture on the far left is widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio). The widescreen frame proportions are more rectangular. Notice the black letterbox bars at the top and bottom. (You'll see these same bars in widescreen vids shown on YouTube.) The middle picture shows how the 16:9 video was squished out (no more letterbox bars). Everyone looks kind of long and skinny. (It's worse when you see someone's face close-up.
) The picture on the right (4:3 or fullscreen) looks normal again, but you'll see that the frame dimensions are more "boxy" compared to the widescreen's more rectangular shape.
The kind of "squishing" seen in the middle picture is the most common aspect ratio error in vidding. Usually it's just a matter of the vidder not checking the right box when they were exporting their video, or not choosing the right settings. Super easy to fix, yet too many vidders are unaware that they can fix it. But our tutorials will make sure that you never have any such problems!
A quick list of tidbits and advice:
Quickie overview of terms used in vidding:
This is all covered in more detail on the individual tutorials, as well as the The Vidding 101, Getting Started, Common Terms, FAQs thread, but here goes. A few terms explained (not in alphabetical order, I'm sorry. ).
fps: Frames per second. Just what it says. PAL (Region 1 DVDs) have 25 fps, NTSC (Region 2 DVDs) have 29.97 fps. Some theatrical films (Harry Potter, Phantom of the Opera) might have 23.967 fps. Our tutorials show you how to identify the fps on any given DVD. You'll need to know your video's fps when setting up your video project, as well as when exporting a finished video.
bitrate, bit rate, data rate: Settings used in video and audio. The higher the bitrate, the better quality (sharper clearer picture). A typical dial-up video bitrate might be 300, while a typical high quality broadband video bitrate might be 3000.
Square pixels / non-square pixels: A main reason we have bad aspect ratio in videos is because vidders don't understand about the non-square/square pixel issue. For more information, read the non-square pixels tutorial. It can be a big issue!
Ripping a DVD: The process of extracting the digital video (.vob) files from a DVD and make a copy on your hard drive. You need special software for this. (Recommendations in appropriate tutorials.)
Converting, rendering, encoding, exporting: All words for when your software converts or makes a new copy or version of your video. Maybe it exports or converts your finished edited video to a WMV file, which you'll upload to YouTube. Or perhaps it'll convert the H.264 MOV files you imported into iMovie into DV (which iMovie uses as its editing codec). Or perhaps you'll use some software to convert your ripped DVD files to DV AVI or DV MOV files, which you'll use for editing your video.
Codec: Stands for COmpress/DECompress. There are all kinds of codecs. DV (stands for Digital Video, can be used in both MOV and AVI files), XviD (often used in AVI, but also in MOV), Sorenson 3 (often used in MOV) are just a few. Read more about them in the The Vidding 101, Getting Started, Common Terms, FAQs thread.
AVI, MOV, MP4: are video containers. They can contain all sorts of codecs. There are high quality codecs suitable for editing (like DV) which take up a lot of disk space, and there are lower quality, highly compressed codecs (like Sorenson 3 for MOV or XviD for AVI) which can be small files with a varying amount of picture sharpness. When you talk about using an "AVI" or "MOV" file, realize that it's sort of a generic term, and not specific enough to tell people what kind of file it really is. Again, the FAQs thread tells you more.
More to come. (There always is. )
I guess that's what you'd call it. Here's one central place to consult for: links to tutorials, quick answers to questions, where to find answers, where to go first. We've got a lot of tutorials now (more to come—always more to come
) so perhaps this thread will make it a little easier for you to find your way around.Getting Started:
The Vidding 101, Getting Started, Common Terms, FAQs thread is a must. It is crammed full of information, so if your eyes begin to glaze over, just start with reading the first few FAQs, pertaining to getting started, advice on software to use, and cautions against editing in XviD/DivX AVI. But you should read the whole thing eventually; it answers questions that you'll inevitably have as you get deeper into vidding.
The "Getting started, where to go first" thread covers a few of the same things that this thread does, but you should give it a look too—it explains how we work around here, encourages you to participate, and helps get you up to speed on a few things.
Ripping your DVD and preparing your DVD footage for editing:
First off, consult this tutorial for ripping your DVD[/url] (Mac and PC, free software).
Then we have a number of tutorials for converting the DVD to editing format (MOV or AVI). "Rip High Quality Clips from your DVD" is one recommended method. For Mac/PC, easy to learn, but requires a $20 plug-in. If you don't want to buy the plug-in, your learning curve may go up, but you can still make videos—even if you're a newbie. Mac users, consult this LJ tutorial. (And iMovie users should consider following this tutorial for converting the "rip" of the DVD you've made into smaller clips for importing into iMovie.) Windows and Mac users can also follow the "Rip High Quality Clips" tutorial for instructions on how to rip .vob (digital video files) from the DVD, and then consult this thread for other alternatives for converting to an editable format. If you're running short on disk space, this tutorial shows you some space-saving methods for preparing clips for editing.
Setting Up Your Project:
A lot of veteran vidders skip this step, or don't even think about it. But you will get into the good habit of setting up, won't you?
Follow this tutorial. (It's easy.) Setting up your project can prevent annoying problems like unwanted letterbox bars in your video, unwanted rendering of every clip you place in the timeline, and aspect ratio problems (squished or squashed picture—you'll hear about that around here!). Style and Content Tips to Improve Your Vids:
When you're a newbie, you can't do it all at once, but sometimes, knowing some of the common errors and pitfalls of newbie vidding can cut short bad habits before they begin to form. This concise tutorial gives you some excellent basics.
Don't get so paralyzed with the fears of what you shouldn't do. If you obsess over it too much, you'll end up being too afraid to make a video! Just get in there and make something! A few flaws here and there are not the end of the world.
Exporting video for great quality:
So, you'll want to make a nice-looking video to share online and upload to YouTube. We show you how. This thread (comes in two parts) shows you a very good way to make an excellent quality web-ready version of your finished video. You'll be taught how to create both an XviD AVI file and an H.264 MP4 file (also used for iPod) in the tutorial.
We've got other video exporting "recipe" threads, too—these have step-by-step instructions for exporting WMV, Quicktime MOV, DivX AVI or MP4 files. They are: Web-ready Video "recipes" (Mac/PC), Export Gorgeous WMV files in Sony Vegas, Make "shiny" web-ready video in iMovie, Final Cut, and DivX: converting your finished video (Mac/PC). Take a look around the tutorial forums, more threads with instructions on how to export good-looking video may be there!
Windows Movie Maker users have their own special tutorial, which discusses preparing clips for editing, WMM's unique challenges with aspect ratio, and also exporting a finished video for great quality. WMM great quality tutorial. Check it out!
Note that we say "great quality" and not "best" quality. I don't know if anyone will agree on how to get the "best," but two good places to visit would be a-m-v.org (Windows) or ishtori.net (Mac). Our goal here is to introduce good habits, but with a lower learning curve, and sometimes it's not possible to have "lower learning curve" and "best quality" at the same time.
Aspect Ratio:
If you're not clear about what the big deal with aspect ratio is, just remember this: To many of us, it's like listening to someone sing off key. It doesn't matter how beautiful their voice is, if they can't carry a tune, it spoils the whole thing, doesn't it?
This thread has more about aspect ratio, so you should definitely read it, but basically I'm telling you—if you want to get it right, you will. The tutorials will help.
Keeping correct aspect ratio is not hard—it never was—it's just that many vidders don't even know what it is, and don't know what software settings to use to make sure it looks right.The picture on the far left is widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio). The widescreen frame proportions are more rectangular. Notice the black letterbox bars at the top and bottom. (You'll see these same bars in widescreen vids shown on YouTube.) The middle picture shows how the 16:9 video was squished out (no more letterbox bars). Everyone looks kind of long and skinny. (It's worse when you see someone's face close-up.
) The picture on the right (4:3 or fullscreen) looks normal again, but you'll see that the frame dimensions are more "boxy" compared to the widescreen's more rectangular shape.The kind of "squishing" seen in the middle picture is the most common aspect ratio error in vidding. Usually it's just a matter of the vidder not checking the right box when they were exporting their video, or not choosing the right settings. Super easy to fix, yet too many vidders are unaware that they can fix it. But our tutorials will make sure that you never have any such problems!
A quick list of tidbits and advice:
- Don't edit XviD/DivX/3ivX AVI, don't edit MPEG2 if you can help it, don't edit anything compressed that you downloaded off the internet. Convert downloaded files to an "editable format" (see this tutorial) first.
- The music file you intend to use in your video should be AIFF (Mac) or WAV (PC). You will avoid possible audio quality problems by not using compressed audio files like MP3. Trust me on this. Instructions on how to convert to WAV/AIFF in the FAQs thread.
- Set up your project. Really. Do it.
- Start with a few quick and not-terribly-serious videos first, just to get your feet wet. (But have fun with the projects, of course!)
- Read the tutorials properly. Don't skim through them and then wonder why things didn't turn out right.
- Windows users: Don't load down your PC with a lot of codecs! DivX, XviD, and possibly the HuffYUV, Lagarith, and Panasonic DV codec (neither are needed if you use MPEG Streamclip to make DV AVI) should be enough. That's all I've got!
- Don't be afraid to ask questions. We won't bite! We all are here to get better, and we like to help others. We all remember what it's like to be a newbie!
Quickie overview of terms used in vidding:
This is all covered in more detail on the individual tutorials, as well as the The Vidding 101, Getting Started, Common Terms, FAQs thread, but here goes. A few terms explained (not in alphabetical order, I'm sorry.
).fps: Frames per second. Just what it says. PAL (Region 1 DVDs) have 25 fps, NTSC (Region 2 DVDs) have 29.97 fps. Some theatrical films (Harry Potter, Phantom of the Opera) might have 23.967 fps. Our tutorials show you how to identify the fps on any given DVD. You'll need to know your video's fps when setting up your video project, as well as when exporting a finished video.
bitrate, bit rate, data rate: Settings used in video and audio. The higher the bitrate, the better quality (sharper clearer picture). A typical dial-up video bitrate might be 300, while a typical high quality broadband video bitrate might be 3000.
Square pixels / non-square pixels: A main reason we have bad aspect ratio in videos is because vidders don't understand about the non-square/square pixel issue. For more information, read the non-square pixels tutorial. It can be a big issue!
Ripping a DVD: The process of extracting the digital video (.vob) files from a DVD and make a copy on your hard drive. You need special software for this. (Recommendations in appropriate tutorials.)
Converting, rendering, encoding, exporting: All words for when your software converts or makes a new copy or version of your video. Maybe it exports or converts your finished edited video to a WMV file, which you'll upload to YouTube. Or perhaps it'll convert the H.264 MOV files you imported into iMovie into DV (which iMovie uses as its editing codec). Or perhaps you'll use some software to convert your ripped DVD files to DV AVI or DV MOV files, which you'll use for editing your video.
Codec: Stands for COmpress/DECompress. There are all kinds of codecs. DV (stands for Digital Video, can be used in both MOV and AVI files), XviD (often used in AVI, but also in MOV), Sorenson 3 (often used in MOV) are just a few. Read more about them in the The Vidding 101, Getting Started, Common Terms, FAQs thread.
AVI, MOV, MP4: are video containers. They can contain all sorts of codecs. There are high quality codecs suitable for editing (like DV) which take up a lot of disk space, and there are lower quality, highly compressed codecs (like Sorenson 3 for MOV or XviD for AVI) which can be small files with a varying amount of picture sharpness. When you talk about using an "AVI" or "MOV" file, realize that it's sort of a generic term, and not specific enough to tell people what kind of file it really is. Again, the FAQs thread tells you more.
More to come. (There always is.
)