Friday Freebie - Video Loop

Yesterday I posted a video tutorial on what equipment you'll need to produce a professional green screen (chroma key) effect. Both ends of the video featured a short video loop of my own design.

The fact that's it's of my own design is an important point. It's not an ego thing, but a copyright thing.

Whenever you upload a video to the internet, to Youtube or just share it with friends you should always observe copyright. Unless you made it yourself, music, graphics and of course video loops are going to be someone elses copyright. Basically you shouldn't use them without permission (and possibly payment). A hunt around the internet will provide links to royalty free content and that's what I've always used in my videos.

For those of you who want to try your hand at green screen videos, I'm giving away my background video loop. It's 1280x720 resolution, runs for about 40 seconds and it's loopable, which means the begining and the end match perfectly to allow multiple copies to be joined seamlessly.

Here's the link: http://www.gavtrain.com/samples/circle-loop.zip (17mb)

Usual rules apply. The video is copyright Gavin Hoey 2009. You may use it for personal, non-commercial purposes. Do not redistribute without permission. Most importanly have fun using it.

.

Green screen / Chroma Key

Although I'm known for my Photography / Photoshop tutorials, I'm also a very keen video guy. I'm not talking family videos or mini movies, I'm talking about training videos. So when I was asked by www.smick.co.uk to make a promo video using their excellent continuous lighting and pop up green screen background, I jumped right in.

Using a green screen is fairly easy, but there are some do's and don't. I had to learn these the hard way, but for smick I've managed to sneak in some top green screen tips amongst the product shots.

With the worlds of photography an video set to converge over then next year or two this could very well be something you'll find yourself doing in the not to distant future.

.

.

Mirror Box Effect in Photoshop - Week 75

Here's one of my all time favourite 3D effects. I call it the "mirror box". It's a really quick technique to master because it repeats a single techniue to great effect.

There's no need to have the lastest version of Photoshop to try this because the whole thing works using the transform funtions found in all versions of photoshop. Best of all, it works brilliantly with any photo with great results.

Make your own world map - tutorial

Ok enough is enough. Because so many of you wanted a copy of the map image I used in last weeks tutorial, I thought I'd upload a copy to the blog. Click the little image to open a bigger one.

Of course having a copy of the image is one thing, but if you really want to learn Photoshop you can't beat making your own map from scratch.


STEP 1:

To make the map you're going to need a non standard photoshop custom shape. A search on Google will throw up a fist full of results but here's a direct link to a free and decent example by lukeroberts over at DeviantART.

STEP 2:

Click on the texture image and open it in Photoshop.








STEP 3:
Make a new empty layer and call it MAP. Set your foreground to black. Use the custom shape tool to drag out a map of the world. Hold shift as you drag to keep the map the right shape. Once done change the blend mode to Soft Light.




STEP 4:
Last step. Duplicate the map layer and click Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur. Use a low setting like 4 pixels jsu to blend the map into the texture.

And that's it.

Bonus Video Friday - Two light studio technique.

Long time followers of my videos might recall that sometime back I made a few studio based portrait tutorials. Of late my weekly videos have mostly been about Photoshop and as well as my 15 minute photochallenges (which I really enjoy making). For the record that's not going to change.

But for those of you who are looking for more studio lighting and portrait training videos I have some good news.

http://www.smick.co.uk/ are throwing open the doors of their warehouse and inviting me to make a load of video tutorials using their gear.

Below is one of the first videos which makes use of the Micansu M180 twin flash kit. It's a basic kit aimed sqaurely at home studio works, but it's also pretty capable of producing some quality results. For the price (around £230) you get a decent amount of kit and the build quality is surprisingly impressive too.

The videos will all be on the smick website but I'll post a few of my favourites here over the coming months.

For more details of the kit and more videos go here. http://www.smick.co.uk/sonline/180ws-flash-lighting-kit/prod_391.html

Folded paper effect in Photoshop - Week 74

Here a really quick and fun technique. Using only the most basic tools like selections and gradients, it's possible to make almost any image look like it's been folded and then unfolded.

If you like this technique and wish to go further, have a look at the work of Corey Barker over at www.planetphotoshop.com I adapted and simplified some of his ideas to make this tutorial.

Totally RAW DVD - It's finally here!

It's been way to long since my last DVD was launched, so I'm thrilled to announced that Totally RAW is finally here.

Here's a link to the info page http://www.gavtrain.com/totally-raw.html

Regualar readers of this blog will know that I'm a passionate advocate of Adobe Camera RAW. Totally RAW is my way of sharing that passion. Below is a two minute clip to give you a tiny flavour of what's on the DVD.


There are 24 videos on the DVD, all recorded in glorious high definition (1280 x 720) and running for the best part of two hours.


If you're new to Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) or current user looking to gain a more in depth understanding of ACR, then you'll love this DVD. I take you through each and every tab and all the major tools, showing exactly what they do and explaining why I use them or avoid them.

Of course photoshop CS4 has several new features compared to Photoshop CS3, the best of which are discusssed in the videos. But CS3 users aren't going to be short changed by the DVD as the vast majority of the features are available in both Photoshop CS3 and CS4.

.