How To Create and post video

[Tim]

From board member Speedbag:

Originally Posted by fastaslight

.....how do you guys post vids, WEBCAM?? I think I could post a pic from the cell I have now but of course it wouldnt be in action!

Troy

That is Actually a great question.

To post a clip, first you have to have a way to capture it, like A video camera or digital still camera with mpeg or video capture capability. Then you tape yourself hitting. This works best if the camera is on a tripod to hold it still. Try to get the camera up to an even level with your bag from the side. Set the video frame to be wide enough to see your the whole board, and your whole body from the side (back, that is. feet and legs will require the camera to be too far back. About mid waist of hips is great).
It also helps if you have a light source near and about as high as the camera. This light should shine directly at you hitting, and be underneath the level of the board. The reason for this is: the board usually blocks light that comes from the ceiling. A well lite room otherwise will appear dark under the board.

Then you need a way to get the video into the computer, usually through a firewire import.
then you need a video software program to edit your footage and make the file small for posting. Usually for quickie small files, Windows Movie Maker (free in XP) is fine. It also give the added advantage of being able to add slow motion easily, which helps a lot in seeing arm/fist movements. Make a 15- 30 - 45 sec clip, save to one of several formats such as: small HQ .wmv or and mpeg, mpg, etc.

Finally, To post public video's, set up a free account at an online website for this, like:

Putfile.com

YouTube

Metacafe.com

and then post a link to it using the URL feature on the forum in the "Video Forum"

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other helpful tips:

Do not have a bright light source, (window) looking directly into the camera. that is why you want the sun (or light) behind you when you take a picture. If the light is glaring into the camera lens, most auto focus cameras will shut down the iris and mess with the lighting, yielding a poor picture. It also helps to have a bland background wall behind the bag. Stuff like wall clutter and pictures can make it slighlty difficult to perceive the fist and bag through the family photos or stacked books.

It is difficult for the group to hear and judge your abilities, and offer advice, if you add a music track to your video for effect. Any added background sounds distracts from the bag sound. If you want to try and HIT to music (as I do..) then great. post it so we can enjoy your beat and check your ability.

If you want some help on certain punching or elbow striking combinations, than try and repeat that combination four to six times in a row. It is easier to see and hear a swing or rhythmic pattern if it is continually repeated several times.

as a guide for online video tutorial, check out some of TIM's videoclips He makes it easy to hear and see what is happening.

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Helpful links

Windows Movie Maker

Movie Maker tutorials

Videohelp.com

Digital video tutorials

Computervideo help

Good luck. We look forward to seeing your speed bag videos!

[Speedbag]

Originally Posted by MelloYello

Any recommendations on a video editing software?

Windows Movie Maker is great for editing but it only exports to either wmv or a huge AVI file. I'd like to be able to export to standard 640 x 480 mpeg.

Right now I'm just generating the chunky AVI file and then using VideoPad freeware to convert to mpeg but I'd like to save the step if I could.

Hey MelloYello,

There are a couple of things to consider in your question. You could use a video editing software like Sony Movie Studio series, which is currently up to Version 9b. I have version 6b and do a lot of my more complicated editing in that. It does great slow motion, transitions and allows a lot of text variations in styles and placement. Also allows you to save in all kinds of formats, include MPEG I-II, avi, mov, wmv etc. The only annoyance I have had is that it often drops the audio track on .avi files. I have tried loading a gazillion audio codecs and it still misses about half the sound tracks on .avi. Normally I will turn an .avi to .wmv in Windows movie maker to get the sound in the .wmv. Or, I can strip the sound in my sound editor, import the sound track as an mp3, than place it on the audio line, but then I have to re-sync the sound to the video. That can be problematic with a complicated punch drumming soundtrack, so I just edit in .wmv and keep the A-V synced. Sony allows you to split the audio and video tracks to edit and move them independently, where WMM does not. Sometimes a video import will get the video and audio out of sync.

I also used Ulead Videostudio software in the past, as well as a few others but Sony seems to run faster and better on my system. Most video editing requires a LOT of system resources, so when I edit, I run bare bones and turn off all the background programs.

Another option might be a format conversion software like AVS video converter. It is not an editing software, but does very good conversions between formats.

Hope it helps.