Youtube Success

Render Settings Tutorial Update: Huge Fail! (Part 4) Day 7

2011-11-22T12:56:00.000-08:00

So earlier in this blog I decided to make a small tip/tutorial on editing a quality video in Sony Vegas Pro 9.0. What I didn't on the other hand was actually do a lot of testing on the subject. I knew that I had previously used all the settings which I went over in the tutorial and all of which can be used, but there are some slight changes that I would like to bring to everyone's attention. Some of these changes will be taking out some steps all together and some steps will be slight adjustments to some settings.

First off I tested adding everything that I talked about in the tutorial to a 10 second video, and the quality came out like crap to say the least. The picture was fuzzy and at times very blurry, and I have come to realize that is because all the FX in the video at once cause a sort of overload of things happening on screen at once. So what I continued to do after this was add each effect individually and compare the end render. So first let's just add the two Color Correctors (primary and secondary) and drag the "Studio RGB to Computer RGB" down to the video file for each separate Color Corrector by selecting "Color Corrector" first and dragging the "Studio RGB to Computer RGB" to the video file and then selecting "Color Corrector (Secondary)" .(Figure 1)

Figure 1

Along with that you can choose to add a Sharpen effect to the video file as well. Next I am going to go over how to adjust the Sharpen to give you the best quality that I have found during my recent testing. So go ahead and select Sharpen as you did for the Color Corrector just scroll down and find "Sharpen". Then your going to want to select "Reset to None" which is the same thing I mentioned in the earlier parts for this tutorial. And then drag that to your video file.(Figure 2) That will then bring up a window for you to adjust the settings for the "Reset to None" preset for the "Sharpen" effect. I have found that there is a window from .250 to .500 that gives the best quality possible to your video when using this with some type of color correction. (Figure 3) I have also found that the setting closer to .250 fits this type of color correction better than it fits the "Color Curve" which I am going over next.

Figure 3

Figure 2

This last part I am going to go over is the BEST setting that I have found when combined with the "Sharpen" amount = .250 to give the BEST quality. This is the "Color Curve" effect which there's a great guide to this setting HERE: http://success202.blogspot.com/2011/11/render-settings-part-2-color.html . Now find "Color Curve" in the effects window and then select "Reset to None" and drag that down to the video file as you have done many times now, and use this link above and figures 5 and 6 on that page in order to get the the curve setting perfect.

The next and MOST IMPORTANT part of this correction to my tutorial is this. Remember selecting render as after you have finished all of your color correction. Well I made a big boo boo there in telling you put the Bit Rate option there to 4,000,000. The absolute best setting here would be to put it at 10,000,000. So go up to file and select Render As. Then make sure you have a Save As Type of " Sony AVC(*.mp4; *.m2ts;*.avc), and select Custom.(Figure 4). Then you want to make that everything is set as I have it and make sure the Bit Rate(bps) setting at the bottom is 10,000,000 or higher.(Figure 5) Then last but not least make sure in the Project tab of the Custom window make sure the Quality is set to Best.(Figure 6)

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

I hope this guide has been helpful to anyone, and this will be the final and last part of my render settings tutorial for Sony Vegas 9.0. At the bottom of this page I will put the 11 second video which I rendered with my laptop. Laptop Stats:

Intel i7 Q720 1.6ghz Dual Quad Core Processor

6GB Ram

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260m video card

This clip rendered in under 50 seconds for me, and only takes up 13.2mb on the hard drive. So not bad at all of course you can sacrifice quality for memory and use a lower bit rate, but it really matters for quality in all videos.

Setting Goals (Day 6)

2011-11-15T14:24:00.000-08:00

So I have been over a couple small things and a couple big parts of developing yourself or making yourself a better commentator. Now here is another small tip, and I feel that without this tip/trick the drive to become a great commentator, or anything you want to be in life for that matter, would just disappear. And this small but very important thing thing would be to set goals for yourself.

Think about it, if you don't set goals for yourself to reach then sooner or later there will be nothing to keep driving you to keep doing whatever it is you are doing. Say if your want to be a football star or a computer programmer. Both would need to have goals you would have to reach in order for those things to ever happen. Now for football star a goal might be to make the team to start, then to start for the team, then to say win sectionals/regionals/state, and then be recruited by a college team. The goals there would have to be reached in order to get to the bigger better goal and then finally become the star you wanted to be.

Now being "YouTube famous" would be no different than that idea. You would need to set starter goals for yourself and then build on those goals to sooner or later gain the popularity to become huge. Small goals would include things like:

1. Make YouTube Channel

2. Upload First Video

3. Get First Unique View

4. Get First Subscriber

5. First Like/Comment/Favorite

Your mid YouTube career goals might be:

1. Get 1000 Views

2. Get 100 Subscribers

3. Upload 10 Videos

4. Gain 10 Likes On 1 Video

5. Gain 10 Comments On 1 Video

Then finally your channel starts to get bigger and bigger and the next thing you know is your setting major goals:

1. Get Partnered

2. Get Monetized

3. Get 1000+ Views Per Video The First Day They Are Uploaded

4. Manage 1000+ Subscribers

5. Reach 100 Video Uploads

You can probably tell where I'm going with all this, but the point is there is always going to be something to strive for. Only if you keep at it will you reach those goals, and not just give up. Whether those goals be get 100 views or make YouTube's front page you should see a difference in yourself as you reach each goal you set for yourself. Then you will find things get easier and easier and everything starts to go the way you thought it should. The key is just believing, and you can start believing if you don't prove to yourself you can believe.

Render Settings Part 3 The Render(Day 5)

2011-11-11T06:14:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the last step, if you will, in this Sony Vegas render settings and video effects tutorial. Today I am going to go over a couple small but very important things today. Let's get started by first going to the top left of your Vegas window and click file, then find Render As(fig. 1), and click that. You should see what looks like a Save As window, and you will notice that it till ask you for a save as type. For that you are going to select Sony AVC(*.mp4,*.m2ts,*.avc).(fig. 2) This will give you the best quality render with the least amount of memory taken up on your hard drive. So it's the best bang for your buck I would say.

Figure 1

Figure 2

After that is selected you are going to want to customize that type of setting so click Custom... And it will bring you to another window. First you will want to type something into the Template section at the top and click the disk as this will save this template. There are four key settings here; Frame Size, Frame Rate, Pixel Aspect Ratio, Bit rate(bps).(fig. 3) You can mess with the Field Order setting, and it should be set to the same setting that you set it to in part 1 of this tutorial. I think it was actually set to Upper Field First if I remember correctly. Keep in mind that messing with this hasn't made much of a change that I can tell so I just leave it alone as None(progressive scan), but make sure it is Upper Field first on the settings page that you did in the first part of the tutorial, because that makes a big difference for some reason.

Figure 3

Figure 4

Let's start with changing the settings I mentioned. First you will want to make sure you select High definition (1280x720), because this gives you the 720p option when you upload your video to youtube. If you want 1080p then you can select 1920x1080 or 1440x1080 not sure of the difference between the two beside one being a lot wider than the other. Next make sure the next two options are set to Baseline and CAVLC. Then move on to Frame rate and select 29.970(NTSC) if you are in the US. If you are in Europe your going to want to select PAL as this is the format that your XBOX and television are in. Then make sure your Pixel aspect ratio is set to 1.0000 as you don't want any of your pixel stretched and distort your video. Next is the key to quality, the Bit rate. On this setting the higher the setting the more quality your going to get out of it but the more memory each video will take up. Now to save render time and upload time I have found a happy medium between quality and time spent rendering and set this to 4,000,000 bps. If you have a really good computer your can go almost as high as you want given that you have the memory to do so. The last part of this section will be to click the Project tab inside the Custom Settings window(fig. 4), and select Best for the Quality. The very last part is go back to the Video tab of this window and save the template once more, and you will never have to make any changes as all these settings will be saved. Click ok at the bottom and it will bring your back to the Render As screen, click save and name the file whatever you want. Now each video will take awhile to render so just leave it alone to do its thing while you eat a sandwich or something. I hope this tutorial has come in handy and has provided some good tips for you beginners. My next post will continue with other things involving my success or unsuccess with youtube, so pretty much my thoughts. Thanks for reading everyone. Here's an example video of what my render settings can produce.

Render Settings Part 2 Color Correction(Day 4)

2011-11-08T09:42:00.000-08:00

This section is going to go over all of the color corrections that I put in my videos. To start off I have an overview picture of the entire Vegas window. fig 1

Figure 1

You see where I have Brightness and Contrast highlighted, in that same window there is a Video FX tab which you want to select first so you can actually be able to see the brightness and contrast. So after you have that selected your going to want to select brightness and contrast n drag Brighter (fig 2) on to your video part not the audio or it won't do anything. After that it should bring up another window to adjust some settings. Your going to want to adjust everything exactly like I have it. fig 3

Figure 2

Figure 3

Next your going to find the Color Corrector and Color Corrector(secondary) in the same window as the Brightness, and then drag Studio RGB to Computer RGB (fig 4) onto your video file once again not the audio part. For everything I am going over in this section you will using the video part and not the audio. After that is done for both parts of the color corrector primary and secondary its time to move on to the next part. Since no changes are needed when doing this kind of color correction.

Figure 4

This next part can get very difficult to understand because it deals with the Color Curves part that is right under the Color Corrector(secondary). Find it, click it, and then drag what says Reset to None onto your video. This should bring up another window. (fig 5) Now make sure your color curve looks remotely close to what I have. Its a little tricky because of the movement of the curve once you grab it and drag, But make sure it looks close to this. So select RGB in the box and there are two small blue buttons in the bottom left and top right corners. Your going to click and drag the grey boxes that are coming from those two squares and drag them to where about where I have them. (fig. 6)

Figure 5

Figure 6

The next part after all this is done is to find Sharpen in the same section that had all the other effects. (fig. 7) Once that is found then drag Reset to None yet again on to your video, and make the settings close to what I have. (fig. 8)

Figure 7

Figure 8

Keep in my mind that the Color Corrector and Color Corrector(Secondary) should only be used if you are not using the Color Curves. If your using the Color Curves and add the Color Corrector(both types) then the video has so much color it that it gets a tad distorted. So you can fiddle around with them seperately to see which one gets you the best quality. Now all of the Color Correction should be finished as well as setting up some settings, which were covered in the previous section. The next section will involve a few more editing things as well as all of my key settings for rendering. So be sure you do not miss the next section, because the settings I go over are very important to how your videos turn out after being rendered.

Render Settings Part 1 The Set- Up(Day 3)

2011-11-07T07:48:00.000-08:00

So throughout my not so lengthy not so short youtube career. I have been complimented a couple times on the quality of the videos that I put out. So I figure that I will share my render settings for Sony Vegas Pro 9.0. There are a lot of things you can do with this program so I am literally gonna walk through my entire editing process from start to finish with a few pictures along the way.

Figure 1

From the start you normally find a file using the explorer in Vegas, and if you haven't at least used the program once or twice this part won't make much sense. There is a preview section on Vegas which show you a sample of your video. Now there is a button there and this is a very important step so DO NOT leave this one out. You going to want to find the Project Video Properties Button. fig. 1 There you will need to make sure that all the settings are how I have them. There are quite a few so make sure you take you time to do so. You will need to do the width, length, frame rate, field order, blur, quality, and everything else that is there just like I have it in fig. 2.

Figure 2

So after you set all that up you find your file and drag it down to the editing area as I call it, and from the get go you right click on the video part of that file in the work area and go to properties. There you will see two options keep aspect ratio and disable resample. What i always do is make sure that keep aspect ratio is unchecked and that disable resample is always filled. fig.3

After that is set then you can click ok, and I normally right click yet again and go to Video Event Pan/Crop. I do this to make sure there are no black outlines around my video since a HD PVR and a few other recording devices are do this and leave a small black outline around their stock videos. Also something I forgot to say is make sure when you do the resample and aspect ratio stuff shown above. Click the Media tab and make sure everything is set to what I have shown. fig. 4

Figure 4

Figure 3

After you do all of what was in this section you can move onto color correction. In the next part I will be going over color correction tactics that will make you video pop instead of being the bland standard video. I use quite a bit of subtle color correcting tactics that you will want to know. So make sure you check it out.

Learning Process(Day 2)

2011-11-04T05:15:00.000-07:00

So I found myself at work today not working! I found myself at 7:30am doing a commentary over some Black Ops. Anyone else find something wrong with that? I actually don't find anything wrong with it mostly because I love posting videos. So tip number one for today is "Love what you do". If you don't "Love" whatever it is that you are currently doing that your not going to put forth the effort needed to succeed. Like I said I've attempted to gain popularity in the commentator scene a few times, and have yet to break through. I feel that this is the time for me. If effort isn't pushing your 40 hr a week job to the side for trying to please an audience I don't really know what is.

Don't think I have mentioned this before unless you have actually watched a commentary of mine, but I am software designer for a small lighting company. So its not like I don't like the job I have, but I really don't enjoy myself with the people I work with. They just aren't the same as me. Reason number one that I started doing commentary in the first place. To join a group with people that are my peers, as in gamer people like me.

What I thought was interesting was that I felt different doing this commentary. It wasn't my first, second, or even third so I may just be getting more comfortable with the whole deal. It just didn't feel like I was talking to a computer it felt like I was actually talking to an audience for once. My channel has been open for almost a year and currently have 61 subs who seem to be decently loyal at the moment, but I am pretty sure that some loyalty was lost in the time off that took posting videos.

TIPS O' THE DAY:
1. Be yourself during commentary
2. Love doing it
3. Stick with it if Love is involved.
4. Talk to the audience not the computer

The First Upload(Day 1)

2011-11-03T13:38:00.000-07:00

I am currently working on becoming a successful youtube commentator, but I seem to running into some road blocks. This is the start of my blog about my travels. I hope all the readers enjoy.

I also hope that my readers can contribute their findings along the way as well. My youtube channel(HippyHD) currently is very small, but it is a work in progress as I said. In the beginning I had some trouble with what I should talk about with my first commentary. So I thought hmmmm. what could it be, and bam! it hit me in the face. Since its my first one I should probably introduce myself and talk about my history with gaming, which was what I was going to be commentating about in the future anyway.

Later in the video I also thought about involving the viewer with some questions for them answer. Although I don't have many viewers at the moment I felt that asking the questions anyway would get my later viewers involved once I got more viewers.

TIPS FOR FIRST VIDEOS:
1. Rehearse topics before recording
2. Make sure if it is gameplay you are commentating over that it is great gameplay. (I picked one which i had a really good score)
3. Introduce yourself to the viewer.
4. Interact with the viewers Ex. Questions, Conversation Topic, etc.
5. HD quality video is best.
6. Mic quality is also highly wanted. No cracks or pops in the mic would appeal to the viewer.

I plan on going over my entire trials and tribulations while striving to be a youtube commentator. So this is just day 1. I will try to post daily from here on out about how my progress is coming along or not coming along. With tips for every post if I come across some.