Book Review: Lonely Planet's Best Ever Video Tips

Lonely Planet's Best Ever Video Tips is a pocket book guide to video creation for beginners and intermediate video creators alike. It may also have a few ideas for video creators used to filming in one specific area or style looking to branch into other areas.

As you would expect from a Lonely Planet book it's specifically targeted at people on the move, shooting video on location, whether that be on assignment or just on holiday. As such the book is ideally sized to fit in a pocket or in a (camera) bag without taking up too much room or adding too much weight (at just under 130 pages).

Tips range from preparation prior to heading out including camera choice, accessories, making a plan and more to technical tips such as how to shoot various types of scenes, composition, lighting, talking to the camera and improving your audio among other things.

Creative tips are discussed; how to connect with audiences, vlogging in public spaces, finding stories etc. along with editing advice such as what software to use, finding your tone, how to cut and mix up shots, using music etc.

There are also tips on how to share and get your finished videos seen.

No subject is discussed in any great depth. Typically it's one page per topic alongside a one-page illustration.

The collection of tips come from a group of eight different video creators all with different interests in the types of video they like to shoot. None stand out to me as anyone who is particularly well known in their field but never the less they have produced a diverse range of tips covering almost everything you may need some useful advice for.

One particular tip that I found useful was creating a 'wild audio' file of the ambient sound at any location which you then use in editing to mask audio cuts by using it as an underlay audio track for the entire scene.

If you're an advanced or seasoned video creator you're probably not going to read much in this book that you weren't already aware of. However, if you're a beginner with the camera or you still feel like you have plenty to learn there's quite a bit here to keep you on track or serve as a refresher whilst on location.

A handy book to have around whilst you're still finding your style and voice in video creation.

Comments

Eight 2D Animation Apps For Your Phone or Tablet Mobile Device

M obile productivity apps have become so capable that they can be great alternatives to their PC/MAC equivalents or serve as great tools in their own right when you're away from your desk. While some apps simply mimic their desktop counterparts, others offer well thought out, touch-friendly interfaces that are easier and more fun to use. Every so often I check out what's available for 2D animation for Android devices, since that's what I use, that can complement my workflow with Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 5. Some may be available for Apple devices as well. Below I've listed six free (F) apps (with optional paid (P) upgrades) on the Google Play Store that you might want to explore. Some are just fun apps on their own while others may be useful as part of your workflow on bigger animation projects. Not all are exclusively animation apps and could be used on any production. JotterPad (F/P) The name JotterPad makes this sound like a notepad application but it's ...

Skate Monkey (Part 1) - My first Crazy Talk Animator Multi-Dimensional Character

Continuing on with my progress of learning Crazy Talk Animator 2 I've begun work on creating my first Multi-Dimensional character. As you may have guessed it's my Skate Monkey character that I briefly attempted to turn into a CTA1 character quite some time back (See this post for the video ). A CTA2 'Multi-Dimensional' character is simply a character that consists of 10 different view angles that form a 360 degree view. This character is attached to a bone skeleton that exists in three dimensional space. The software then calculates which images from your 10 different view angles are needed to execute whatever motion you add. In the image below you can see my skate monkey character drawn at angle zero in the Serif DrawPlus template provided by Reallusion. The other nine view angles are the CTA2 dummy character which I will progressively replace with my monkey as I draw more views. A CTA2 Multi-Dimensional character has 10 view angles. In the short video be...

Learning Moho Pro 12 (Anime Studio Pro) - Part 2, Debut Videos 1-15

Alvin Owl: Bones Rig. In part 2 of my journal blog documenting my progress with learning Moho Pro 12 I dive head first into the first batch of video tutorials covering the basics of Anime Studio Debut.... wait, what? In Part 1 I described how the video tutorials I purchased with Moho Pro 12 were in no particular order and made for a confusing mess. As well, most of the video tutorials are really for Anime Studio 11, which has all the same basic features minus whatever new features have been added.

Inochi2D - Free Open Source 2D VTuber Avatar Rigging and Puppeteering Software (Part 1)

Inochi2D Creator - Free Open Source VTuber Software. If you've been looking for a way to live perform as a 2D cartoon avatar on camera, whether it be for a live stream or for pre-recorded content like educational videos, then VTuber software is a low cost (or even no cost) option worth looking into. In my previous post, How to Become a VTuber - 2D and 3D Software for Creating and Controlling Your Avatar , I took a brief look at the relatively new but completely free and open source Inochi2D which I thought showed great potential for my own needs of creating a live performance character rig for my own TET Avatar that I use for all my promotional materials. While it is possible to live perform my character using Cartoon Animator itself, Reallusion's MotionLive2D capture system isn't great - with lip sync in particular. More importantly though, I can't exactly teach people how to use Cartoon Animator if I'm using Cartoon Animator to control my Avatar. What is Inochi2D...

Plastic Animation Paper - Free 2D Animation Software

I discovered Plastic Animation Paper (PAP) Pro 4.0 for Windows quite some time ago and even had it installed on my computer for well over a year - unused. The full pro version of the software has been given away for free, no strings attached but with no tech support, since July of 2010. Not to be sneezed at since prior to that date this version sold for 695 Euro (roughly US$900.00). When I discovered it I was still finding my way back into my love for animation and the bug to animate my characters more traditionally via classical, hand drawn 2D animation techniques had yet to take hold. I didn't really understand what PAP did or why you couldn't make complete, finished animations with it. After finding some really great, very affordable, digital storyboarding software , PAP is the next tool in your digital production workflow for those of you on a budget creating traditional 2D animation. Depending upon how finished your storyboard panels are you could even impor...

Featured GoAnimator: Enjoyinglifeinseoul (ELIS) - Witches of Misery!

EnjoyingLifeInSeoul GoAnimator enjoyinglifeinseoul is the December 2013 winner of my GoAnimate, Get Featured in TET's Blog contest . Enjoyinglifeinseoul has had his account with GoAnimate since March of 2011 and in that time has amassed 3346 followers and published 49 animations. This is his second win of the contest. Read his first winning post here . Enjoyinglifeinseoul chose to feature his animation , saying... Well, it took me some time to decide which of my animations to have featured. I considered some of my older ones like “Prince of Persia” or “Turtle Shell! Turtle Shell!” and the latest ones like “Demon Fire!” and “Witches of Misery!” In the end I went with “Witches of Misery” because most of the challenges and special techniques I had used in the others were covered the last time I was featured here. Some fresh problems popped up this time and I thought that the solutions I came up with might help some of your readers. The other reason I choose this one...

The Ultimate Independent Animator's App and Resource List - Animation and Video Life

Image created with Cartoon Animator 4. Being an independent animator is not like a studio animation job. There's so much more to do that is indirectly related to the actual task of animating. Over the years I've sought out many apps, tools, and services that can help me achieve that one single task, expressing myself through animation. Below is my Ultimate Independent Animator's Resource List for 2024 (last updated Oct 2024). It started out as a list of free or low cost apps that could help you in every stage of producing either 2D or 3D animation, and then just kind of grew from there. You may not have been looking for a Time Management App as much as you needed something to get you started in 3D animation but when those commissioned projects start coming in you'll have a head start on maximizing your time. All the apps and services on this list had to meet two main criteria: They had to be useful and relevant to an Indy Animator/artist. The base app/se...

Animation and Video Life

Search This Blog