Airbrushing video is exactly like airbrushing photos, except for the doing it 25 times a second on a face that keeps moving around…I usually use a cocktail of filters to airbrush skin – blurs, grain, liquify (sp?), dodging, burning – targeted filtering, I call it. Targeted because it’s only applied on certain parts of a face/body; usually large expanses of uninterrupted skin – and avoiding features like the lips, the eyes etc. More

Some of the footage for Mena’s video are effects-heavy, and render times can be extremely long. So, what to do when estimated time of render completion is 3 a.m. in the morning?
I discovered Free Download Manager which – in addition to being a great download manager, and being honest-to-God FREE – is great for unattended shutting down of the computer at ungodly hours, allowing you to go to sleep and find finished renders the next morning.

I know, I know – not exactly what the makers of FDM were thinking, but hey! Free software! That works!

It’s been 3 weeks of grappling with pixel aspect ratios, letterboxing, 9+ hour renders, codecs, 3:2 pulldown, Xvid, Lagarith – who said making videos is fun? Some lessons learnt, so far:

1. Sony Vegas – bad audio/video sync, no crashing;
2. Adobe Premiere Pro – good sync, crashes a lot;
3. Dirty greenscreens are harder to key out.

Sigh.

I mentioned earlier that we were using a cheapskate greenscreen consisting of bits of bright green paper stuck onto a cardboard box.

Will it work?

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I’m really impressed by how simple-looking gadgets can have such a massive impact on the look of footage. Take the sun-shade reflectors I keep talking about. Now I have the photos to prove that they work. Methinks the look below would have been impossible without the reflectors, or artificial light.

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