Chris Pirillo » imovie

How to Edit with Chroma Key / Green Screen Videos

Chris — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:40:12 +0000

How to Edit with Chroma Key / Green Screen Videos is a post from Chris Pirillo

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

I’m still surprised at how many of you accepted the first community challenge I threw out regarding green screens! Since I thought the response was so great, I bought a green screen of my own so we can do these once a week! Do you know how to edit these videos?

In order to edit one of these, you’re going to need a video editor that supports a Chroma Key (or at least the editing of these types of videos). If you use Mac OS X, iMovie 09 works amazingly well. Using the Chromakey plugin of iMovie allows you to intelligently blend two movies. This is more than applying a simple transparency mask, because it allows you to target any color in one of your movies and make that color transparent.

I opened iMovie and opened up the movie of Pixie. I clicked to show Advanced Tools in iMovie, in order to be able to play with the Chromakey features. I dragged and dropped the Pixie clip into the work area, and selected “Green Screen”. I had a picture I took in Alaska already loaded, so dragging Pixie around made her appear to be sitting in front of a mountain in Alaska! It’s that simple and that easy to do.

Now you know how to do this easily in OS X. I’ll keep doing these as long as all of you want to keep remixing them! If you use Windows, I’m not leaving you out! You can use the free CineGobs. It’s low budeget movie making with a Chromakey feature… and it works.

To me, it’s easy to drag the video into a static image and create something new. Let’s see how creative you can get with it. Show us how good you really are! I plan to upload a new one of these every Friday, so get going and create!

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

Apple HQ / iMovie ‘09 Video Stabilization Test

Chris — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 05:56:29 +0000

Apple HQ / iMovie ‘09 Video Stabilization Test is a post from Chris Pirillo

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

I recently visited Apple’s Headquarters in Cupertino, CA. I took my Creative Vado HD with me and shot this clip.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any kind of stabilization mechanism, so it came out quite shaky. It made for a perfect sample to test against iMovie ’09’s new stabilization feature. I was quite impressed with the results.

If you don’t believe there’s much of a difference, keep an eye on the tip of the green 1 throughout the duration of each version. The panning is much more smooth after the effect is applied.

I uploaded this video directly through iMovie ‘09 and am not too pleased with how it looks here on YouTube. I decided to export the video with default Apple TV settings and upload the same test – since iMovie ‘09 does not support YouTube HD export options.

What’s New in iLife ‘09 (iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb, GarageBand)?

Chris — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:44:46 +0000

What’s New in iLife ‘09 (iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb, GarageBand)? is a post from Chris Pirillo

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

I am taking a look at the new iLife ‘09 for Mac OS X. As of the day I installed this, January 26th, it wasn’t available to the public yet. Due to a misprint in a BestBuy ad, Danny was able to purchase his copy early. Taking a look at it, I’m already liking what I see. The four components of iLife are:

iPhoto – Organize photos two new ways: Faces, based on who’s in your photos, and Places, based on where your photos were taken. Then share on Facebook or Flickr with a click.
iMovie – Make a great movie in the time you have. Choose a dynamic theme to enhance your movie in seconds. Or refine every shot with the Precision Editor.
GarageBand – Learn to play piano and guitar. Learn songs from the artists who made them famous. Rock like a legend with new guitar amps and stompbox effects.
iWeb – Design a website to share your photos, movies, and music just by dragging and dropping. Add new dynamic widgets and publish and share with a click.

Danny says that he’s noticed no speed improvements, but has definitely gotten excellent functionality improvements. He says that it is definitely well worth the amount of money it cost to buy the software.

I’m big into shooting live-to-tape, via Ustream. However, after watching Danny play around in iMovie, I’m willing to give it another try. He loves iPhoto just as much, especially the capability to publish immediately to Facebook or Twitter. iPhoto also lets you organize your photos in ways you may not have even thought of before.

The new version of GarageBand allows you to “take lessons” from beginning to expert level. There are new guitar features, and full-screen capability!! Assign instruments and styles to your guitarist, bassist, drummer, and keyboard player. Shuffle instruments randomly to instantly hear a new sound from your backing band. Create a custom mix using volume sliders or by muting and soloing any instrument.

And then we come to iWeb. iWeb makes it simple to design your own website… a task that is difficult for many people. Start by picking an Apple-designed theme. Each theme comes with coordinated fonts, backgrounds, and colors to give your site a consistent look throughout. Next, choose your template, and customize it using the tools integrated in iWeb.

I’m definitely getting my copy this week and getting it installed… are you?

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

Speed Up MP4 Video Encoding

Chris — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 22:06:05 +0000

Speed Up MP4 Video Encoding is a post from Chris Pirillo

Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes

http://live.pirillo.com/ – If you do any video encoding, you know how long of a process it can be at times. Before I went to Germany, I used Visual Hub to encode several videos, and it literally took days!

I wish I had known about the Elgato Turbo.264 back then. This little USB-like device takes much of the work out of encoding, and significantly speeds up the process. While in Germany, I used iMovie to encode some videos I threw up on YouTube, including the one where Ponzi speeding around the GM test track.

Videos can take a surprisingly long time to encode – sometimes longer than the actual playing time. What’s more, video encoding can demand a sizeable chunk of system resources. How long and how much depends on the processor speed of your Mac, the length and complexity of the source video, the size of the video file, and the amount of video compression required for the desired end result

Turbo.264 accelerates video encoding up to four times faster on Macs with Intel Core processors.

You have a collection of videos on your Mac. They’re movies you downloaded from your camcorder or digital camera, or perhaps projects you created yourself with iMovie. They could be short video clips that friends and family sent you by email, or TV shows, music videos, and movies that you recorded with EyeTV.

How do you make them iTunes-ready for your iPod or Apple TV? How do you put them on a Sony PSP?

The solution is Turbo.264, a blazingly fast and easy-to-use video encoder with a high-perfomance engine. Use the included software to convert your Mac videos one at a time or in a batch; The application drops the converted file(s) into iTunes for you, ready to synch automatically with your iPod, Apple TV or iPhone. Alternatively, plug in Turbo.264 while you use the MP4 export command of popular Macintosh video applications. Not only does Turbo.264 get the job done faster, it frees up your processor for other tasks. Think of it as a “co-processor” for your Mac.

The software application that comes with Elgato Turbo.264 offers an easy-to-use choice of five presets: iPod High, iPod Standard, Sony PSP, Apple TV, and iPhone. For Apple TV content, the quality of videos encoded with Turbo.264 software is unrivaled: Turbo.264 converts standard definition television recordings without scaling so that recordings appear on Apple TV in the same resolution they were recorded.

Want to embed this video in your blog? Use this code:

Formats Available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4) Flash Video (.flv) MP3 Audio (.mp3)

How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

Starting at just $3.99/month, web hosting from GoDaddy includes 99.9% uptime, 24/7 support and free access to GoDaddy Hosting Connection, THE place to install over 30 FREE applications sure to help you get the most from your hosting plan and Web site. Enter code CP2 at checkout, and save an additional 10% on any order.

Plus, as a friend of Chris Pirillo, enter code CHRIS7, that's C-H-R-I-S and the number 7, when you check out, and save an additional 10% on any order. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com.

VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

Before you shop next time, see if we have a coupon first.