I'm an old timer now:(

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ohiovr
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I'm an old timer now:(

Post by ohiovr »

I've been into video production since the early 90s (as a teenager), and looking at what we had to put up with to make even the simplest videos, explaining how to do this to a teenage youtuber would cause them to laugh and point fingers. Genlock? Betacam? Frame syncronizer? ab roll editing?

The good news is... I don't miss any of it!!!!

ohiovr
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Re: I'm an old timer now:(

Post by ohiovr »

And I wasn't lucky enough to use betacam till I was in college. Before that was Umatic. Boo!

Skipjack
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Re: I'm an old timer now:(

Post by Skipjack »

I feel your pain, buddy!

JoeP
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Re: I'm an old timer now:(

Post by JoeP »

I never got into video, either professional or as a hobby, but I did plenty of 35mm still photography in high school and college. I used to do all my own processing with film, paper, darkroom techniques. Now that, I DO miss! It is an unneeded an soon to be lost art. But I really enjoyed it.

Tom Ligon
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Re: I'm an old timer now:(

Post by Tom Ligon »

I recall, circa 1975, helping a friend tape a commercial as a video production class exercise. Reel to reel tape decks with rotating heads.

Later, we used a VHS deck and camera in the lab. Customers wished we could edit our tests down to slick videos for them but we lacked the ability to do clean edits. Cutting between scenes tended to induce video roll. We had primitive titles and could date/time stamp, but nothing slick. Incorporating stills meant holding up a print and running the camera.

At EMC2 I overlaid computer data on test videos using a Genlock adapter with a key-to-black feature.

These days I have a handful of HD video cameras, all storing to SD cards. My primary cameras are a Canon HF-G20 (optically image stabilized) and a Nikon D5100 (adapts to anything a DSLR can work with, including microscopes and telescopes). I edit with Pinnacle Studio, which gives me fancy titles and more transitions and special effects than you could dream of, does green screen chroma-key, allows cutting between videos flawlessly, lets me use still photographs with full "Ken Burns" pan and zoom effects, and allows me to use other computer graphics. The deluxe version of this software runs about $120, and you can get cameras with nearly semi-pro capability for $1100. News networks are unashamed of using the video from Go-Pro Hero cameras costing a few hundred bucks.

A good computer helps. The Mighty Teraquad was purpose-built for video editing, with a pair of 2 TB hard drives for storing video. This machine set me back less than $1700, about what I spent on a Radio Shack Model III and an Epson MX-80. Less than I spent on the Kaypro 286.

I can even create my own music beds from sheet music from long-dead composers, free of copyright problems. And I added a 4-channel CD-quality digital audio recorder. The video software can mix in any number of audio tracks I wish.

I don't wanna go back!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiLhImQVHBY

ohiovr
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Re: I'm an old timer now:(

Post by ohiovr »

Skipjack wrote:I feel your pain, buddy!
Thanks Skip. My video mentor never really could adapt to the new technology. He is my friend of more than 37 years. Retired about 10 years ago but not really by choice. I sometimes wonder if I may end up like him some day. Things are still fresh and new to me. New perspectives. Its been fun so far....

ohiovr
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Re: I'm an old timer now:(

Post by ohiovr »

Tom Ligon wrote:I recall, circa 1975, helping a friend tape a commercial as a video production class exercise. Reel to reel tape decks with rotating heads.

Later, we used a VHS deck and camera in the lab. Customers wished we could edit our tests down to slick videos for them but we lacked the ability to do clean edits. Cutting between scenes tended to induce video roll. We had primitive titles and could date/time stamp, but nothing slick. Incorporating stills meant holding up a print and running the camera.

At EMC2 I overlaid computer data on test videos using a Genlock adapter with a key-to-black feature.

These days I have a handful of HD video cameras, all storing to SD cards. My primary cameras are a Canon HF-G20 (optically image stabilized) and a Nikon D5100 (adapts to anything a DSLR can work with, including microscopes and telescopes). I edit with Pinnacle Studio, which gives me fancy titles and more transitions and special effects than you could dream of, does green screen chroma-key, allows cutting between videos flawlessly, lets me use still photographs with full "Ken Burns" pan and zoom effects, and allows me to use other computer graphics. The deluxe version of this software runs about $120, and you can get cameras with nearly semi-pro capability for $1100. News networks are unashamed of using the video from Go-Pro Hero cameras costing a few hundred bucks.

A good computer helps. The Mighty Teraquad was purpose-built for video editing, with a pair of 2 TB hard drives for storing video. This machine set me back less than $1700, about what I spent on a Radio Shack Model III and an Epson MX-80. Less than I spent on the Kaypro 286.

I can even create my own music beds from sheet music from long-dead composers, free of copyright problems. And I added a 4-channel CD-quality digital audio recorder. The video software can mix in any number of audio tracks I wish.

I don't wanna go back!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiLhImQVHBY
I don't either Tom! I liked your video. Video has come such a long way. If kids only knew what we had to do just to make the simplest videos, it would probably disgust them.

True story:

I went to a small community college named Hocking Technical College. I went there for electronics courses but they also had a broadcast technology course. I learned cameras, editing, and all the broadcasting stuff while doing electronics because my brother was an employee at their TV studio. They had some pretty nice gear for the time including a Betacam camcorder, and a computerized ab roll edit suit. We also had a Dec Alpha machine, which was very sweet for Lightwave. They had a lot of fairly fancy gear. I graduated in 1997

Fast forward to about 2009ish and they sacked Dr Light who was the head honcho of the school. The guy who filled his shoes couldn't walk in them and made a mess of everything. Enrollment plummeted by nearly 60%. Graduation rates sunk to 17%. They just announced they will be laying off my former colleague at the school (I also worked there from (2000-2003), along with 33 others, and they are eliminating our beloved TV studio.

But I still marvel.. they still have a broadcasting school? Why? They don't deal with transmitter theory, you won't get your transmitting license there. Its about lights, camera, action (and audio!) there. Well that has all been consumerized. They might as well have a school for youtube channels, but that is not the same thing we dealt with.
Last edited by ohiovr on Wed Nov 19, 2014 3:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

ohiovr
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Re: I'm an old timer now:(

Post by ohiovr »

JoeP wrote:I never got into video, either professional or as a hobby, but I did plenty of 35mm still photography in high school and college. I used to do all my own processing with film, paper, darkroom techniques. Now that, I DO miss! It is an unneeded an soon to be lost art. But I really enjoyed it.
Film is very beautiful. For motion pictures I was really admiring the day for night shots they did in terminator 2 (or is that night for day?). It is incredibly difficult to get motion pictures in low light that look good at all.

Someone with a good eye can produce fantastic results with a pin hole camera. Like giving someone a Les Paul Guitar won't nessisarily make him like Eric Clapton.. Eric Clapton could make good music on any guitar I would imagine :mrgreen:

Aero
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Re: I'm an old timer now:(

Post by Aero »

Hey guys. I just created about 300 MB sequence of PNG files output from an analysis program and I had planned to make a video of them. Problem is I don't know how. I made a .gif using Imagemagic, but that is way to large to upload and Imagemagic doesn't do movies on my system. Ubuntu Lunix.

Anybody know of a free software package I could install (in one step) that could convert sequenced PNG files into a movie?
Aero

ohiovr
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Re: I'm an old timer now:(

Post by ohiovr »

Maybe there is a free video editor that would do it. I know blender would but it is a pill to use

http://www.lwks.com/

Tom Ligon
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Re: I'm an old timer now:(

Post by Tom Ligon »

Pinnacle Studio can make movies from a sequence of stills ... I've played with some time-lapse sequences. Its not one step, though ... it would probably take a noob a few days to figure out how that package works. It is not free, but the basic package is affordable.

I own a few "trail cameras" that can be set to do time lapse sequences. The brochure for the Covert MP6 claims that their website has free software that can turn a time lapse sequence into a video, but the cameras use .jpgs, not .png, and the free software may not handle the fancier format.

I don't know if you can download this without buying a camera, but here's what the Covert entitles you to:

http://www.scoutingassistant.com/covert/

There should be some affordable comparable product out there that does what you need.

If this is Polywell-related, maybe you could send me the files on a CD, or use some cloud transfer site, and I could make the movie for you. Sounds like way too much data to e-mail.

ohiovr
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Re: I'm an old timer now:(

Post by ohiovr »

Sony Vegas is my favorite video editor. They make a cheaper version called home studio I think.

krenshala
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Re: I'm an old timer now:(

Post by krenshala »

Unfortunately it isn't available yet, but VLC is working on a video editor: http://www.videolan.org/vlmc/

Skipjack
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Re: I'm an old timer now:(

Post by Skipjack »

Not an editor, but a fantastic post processing software (I have been using it since version 2.something I cant remember its been so long ago) is Fusion (used to be "Digital Fusion") by Eyon. Now Blackmagic Design recently bought Eyon and they are giving a fully functioning (with some very small limitations) version away for free right now:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/
Fusion is a fantastic tool and was one of the first completely node based post production and special effects tools.

hanelyp
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Re: I'm an old timer now:(

Post by hanelyp »

Aero wrote:Hey guys. I just created about 300 MB sequence of PNG files output from an analysis program and I had planned to make a video of them.
ffmpeg is a video conversion utility that can take a sequence of stills as input. If you can make sense of image magick you should be able to figure it out.
The daylight is uncomfortably bright for eyes so long in the dark.

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