If what you are promoting is critically contemplating diving into the waters of video manufacturing for advertising, promotional, social media, tutorial content material, in-house human sources or another cause, know that the journey may very well be difficult, however the rewards could be nice. That is particularly so in the event you not solely make use of the suitable instruments, however you employ them in such a manner in order to make your work stand out amongst an already saturated crowd.
That received’t be straightforward at first. It begins with having the suitable content material and the suitable deployment technique for that content material. However even you probably have the best content material to movie, in the event you don’t give it a lift in post-production, that content material will fall flat. This may be so even in the event you use the suitable software program for the job.
SEE: Easy methods to construct a budget-friendly residence video setup with expensive-looking outcomes (TechRepublic Premium)
Once I first began producing movies alone, I used to be utilizing substandard modifying instruments. They had been open supply, free, and helped me study the very fundamentals of slapping collectively a video. Once I look again on these early efforts, I’ve to chuckle at what little I really understood about placing collectively a top quality video.
That was then, that is now. As a substitute of utilizing these free editors, I now work with Apple’s Ultimate Lower Professional X. From my perspective, FCPX is likely one of the greatest pro-level editors that has a reasonably shallow studying curve so nearly anybody can rise up to hurry on create a primary video that appears good and could be performed on practically any platform.
However you don’t need your movies to only look good. You need these efforts to come back out wanting nice. How do you try this? You’re going to wish to make use of some plugins. Let’s dive in and see what you are able to do to enhance these movies.
Begin with shade
To raise your movies to a extra skilled stage, you could begin fascinated about shade. You’ve already invested in a digital camera and sufficient lighting to sufficiently illuminate your topic. However if you have a look at that uncooked footage, you’ll most likely discover it lacking one thing. It doesn’t look cinematic or perhaps the colours of various filming places are so disparate that it’s jarring to observe.
What do you do?
The simplest factor you are able to do is begin working with LUTs, which stands for lookup tables. One of the best ways to explain what a lookup desk is can be to think about them a shade preset that you should utilize to simply convert the look of your video clip. It’s far more advanced than that, however to start with, a very powerful factor so that you can perceive is {that a} LUT makes it attainable so that you can shortly shade the look of a video.
In movie and cinema, LUTs are typically developed particularly for a movie. For what you’re doing, you’ll wish to obtain (or buy) predefined LUTs. There are a number of firms that promote LUTs, however you’ll want to do a little analysis to search out the suitable LUT to suit the appear and feel you’re going for. Simply be sure you’re searching for LUTs that can be utilized in Ultimate Lower Professional X.
When you’ve downloaded your LUTs, it’s important to first add the Customized LUT by dragging Customized LUT (from the Coloration Results part proven in Determine A) onto the clip.
Determine A
When you’ve added the Customized LUT to the clip, click on the LUT drop-down and choose the one you need (Determine B).
Determine B
It’ll take you some time to study which of the LUTs you’ve put in work greatest for which varieties of video. Ultimately, you’ll choose a handful of LUTs you employ essentially the most.
Don’t overlook the transitions
If you happen to actually wish to add some panache and pop to your movies, it’s good to think about the transitions from clip to clip. Ultimate Lower Professional X comes with plenty of cool transitions, however none of them is almost the extent of what you should buy from third events. Whenever you begin looking round, you’ll discover some very artistic transitions so as to add to your movies.
There’s one factor it’s good to watch out of, nevertheless. Don’t go overboard with the transitions. It’s like if you’re creating shows — in the event you use too many transitions, issues begin wanting a bit chaotic or sloppy. Equally as vital, don’t use a special transition for each clip. Actually, I have a tendency to stay with one household of transitions for every video. For instance, if you buy a transition pack that makes use of very artistic zooms, you possibly can apply left zooms, proper zooms, diagonal zooms, up zooms, down zooms. However in the event you begin mixing these transitions with fades, dissolves, drop-ins, earthquakes, wipes and extra, the look of your video will begin heading south {of professional}.
Use transitions, however use them properly. And keep in mind, typically no transition is the perfect transition.
Results
There are additionally results to think about. One impact I’m very keen on utilizing in my footage comes from Pixel Movie Studios and provides a random digital camera shake to a clip. This makes it attainable to show a tripod-filmed clip into what seems like a handheld, to offer it a bit extra life.
You’ll discover results for nearly each type of want, together with movie grain and distortion, overlays, lights, gentle diffusers, distortions, tilt shifts and even results that make it straightforward to develop your personal coloration. Actually, with only a fast search, you’ll discover results to cowl nearly any want.
You may additionally begin with a number of the built-in results discovered with FCPX. Open the Results browser and check out the Blur, Distortion, Gentle, Seems to be, Nostalgia and Stylized sections. You’ll discover loads of results to make use of there.
Once more, identical to with transitions, don’t overdo it with the results. The aim is to create skilled movies, not overshadowing the unique intent of the content material.
The place to search out these plugins
Two of the businesses I’ve turned to essentially the most are MotionVFX and Pixel Movie Studios for excellent transitions, results and LUTs. Its merchandise work with each Intel and M1-based Apple {hardware} and make it straightforward to put in the add-ons for Ultimate Lower Professional X.
There are many different on-line shops that promote LUTs, transitions and results for Ultimate Lower Professional X. However earlier than making the acquisition, just be sure you aren’t shopping for from a rip-off. The 2 firms I discussed earlier could be trusted. If you happen to discover one thing you want, do a little bit of analysis earlier than making the acquisition. Today, it’s a lot better to be vigilant when shopping for something that’s put in in your computer systems.
With just a bit additional work and time, you possibly can carry your video work to a different stage of professionalism. That additional time might be effectively well worth the effort.