Help Video Experts! Need Quick Advice! Fastest Possible Way!

[johnnyboyct]

Hey guys i really need the help from someone who does video for a living, or should be doing that lol. I hate to make a post like this, but this would mean a lot to me, and I have no problem throwing you a bone or two.

Basically I got offered an insanly awesome job. Im a tech right now who does websites and a few other things, but this gig is nuts.

Basically I need to create slideshow type videos for a funeral home, but they have to have video integrated into the pics. It has to be BROADCAST or very close quality and I need to be able to do it in the most streamlined way possible.

Ive tried premere, it takes to long, and im pretty profisient at it. Is there actions or something like with photoshop? I need something that can kick these things out. What would you suggest I use?

Thanks for any links or suggestions that would help me get this gig.

Thanks,
John

[lordsmurf]

Is this to be web streaming video?
If so, major bandwidth and load times (for viewers) to obtain "broadcast" quality.

It can be done, but the words "easy" and "fast" are not two descriptors I'd use. Anything worth doing correctly and quality takes time, especially in video.

[johnnyboyct]

Well the idea is that the place uploads the pics to an ftp server, then I make the video, and then upload it again, and they play on there machines. I have so far come up with a system to make the overlay/intro portion in premiere, it seems to do the best with the overlays. Render that. Then use memories on tv to make the slideshow. Render that. Then use proshow to fade the few clips together, add music and render the final product.

The place is offering 3 videos a day, at 100$ each. My cut is half, so I figure 2 hours would be ideal.


Is there any faster ways to do this? I tried doing it all in memories on tv, but the software wont allow you to fade a pic into the video, and I cant overlay a pic of the person with it right. Proshow is better, but not perfect.

Thanks John

[vcdlover]

SONY ScreenBlast Studio can handle this job easily...and it's cheap too. You can do fade in/fade out and other transitions and it supports both still pictures and video. You can also add sound or music to your video/slide shows. ScreenBlast Studio is a light version of SONY Vegas.


cvdlover

[BJ_M]

ScreenBlast Studio as stated - would be all you need ...

[lordsmurf]

Or Premiere (maybe Premiere Elements too)
But "fast" depends on your skill and amount of work, regardless of the software.

[BJ_M]

Or Premiere (maybe Premiere Elements too)
But "fast" depends on your skill and amount of work, regardless of the software.

he tried premiere he said - plus it does take almost twice as long ...

[housepig]

But "fast" depends on your skill and amount of work, regardless of the software.

the corollary - some software is easier to work with for different individuals.

I used Premiere & AfterEffects for a while, and I got good results, but I always seemed to need the manual in one hand and a bullet to bite on in the other.

Since switching to Vegas for my editing, the things that took me 2-3 hours with Premiere now take me 20 minutes with Vegas (not the rendering, but the actual editing portion). Vegas just makes more sense to me, it fits me better.

[vcdlover]

When I first learnt how to edit video two years ago, I always used ScreenBlast and it was very easy to use compare to Pinnacle, Ulead or Premiere. Now I upgrade to Vegas 5.0 and can do everything I could with ScreenBlast. The good part is that I didn't need to learn much because the two apps are very similar, but Vegas 5 has more options. I wished there was a third party plug in software for more transitions, like HoliwoodFX did for Pinnacle. If you are a beginner and don't have much $$$, I would suggest you to give a ScreenBlast a try. If you know how to use any audio (.wav) editor, you'll find ScreenBlast as easy as ABC. You'll love the parts that it can do like, adding text, scrolling text, fade in/fade out, slow motion, fast motion and many many more. Basicly, what you see on live TVs, movies or concerts, you can do like those on Vegas or ScreenBlast.

That's my experience...

vcdlover

[BJ_M]

When I first learnt how to edit video two years ago, I always used ScreenBlast and it was very easy to use compare to Pinnacle, Ulead or Premiere. Now I upgrade to Vegas 5.0 and can do everything I could with ScreenBlast. The good part is that I didn't need to learn much because the two apps are very similar, but Vegas 5 has more options. I wished there was a third party plug in software for more transitions, like HoliwoodFX did for Pinnacle. If you are a beginner and don't have much $$$, I would suggest you to give a ScreenBlast a try. If you know how to use any audio (.wav) editor, you'll find ScreenBlast as easy as ABC. You'll love the parts that it can do like, adding text, scrolling text, fade in/fade out, slow motion, fast motion and many many more. Basicly, what you see on live TVs, movies or concerts, you can do like those on Vegas or ScreenBlast.

That's my experience...

vcdlover

there are third party plug ins for more transitions - though it comes with so many as it is .. wax is one, and there are several others , both free and non free ....

[vcdlover]

When I first learnt how to edit video two years ago, I always used ScreenBlast and it was very easy to use compare to Pinnacle, Ulead or Premiere. Now I upgrade to Vegas 5.0 and can do everything I could with ScreenBlast. The good part is that I didn't need to learn much because the two apps are very similar, but Vegas 5 has more options. I wished there was a third party plug in software for more transitions, like HoliwoodFX did for Pinnacle. If you are a beginner and don't have much $$$, I would suggest you to give a ScreenBlast a try. If you know how to use any audio (.wav) editor, you'll find ScreenBlast as easy as ABC. You'll love the parts that it can do like, adding text, scrolling text, fade in/fade out, slow motion, fast motion and many many more. Basicly, what you see on live TVs, movies or concerts, you can do like those on Vegas or ScreenBlast.

That's my experience...

vcdlover

there are third party plug ins for more transitions - though it comes with so many as it is .. wax is one, and there are several others , both free and non free ....

Hi BJ_M
I know only WAX and have tried it, but prefer not to try it again. What are those several others that you mentioned? I'll give those a try.

Thanks

[BJ_M]

Magic Bullet
Adorage
Ultimate S
All of Sonic Foundry's vast collection of audio plug-ins
Any DX plug in or a VST plug in with a wrapper
Boris Effects and Red
Spice


are the main ones that come to mind .. there are some others but i cant think of them right now

[daveoggy]

I think the fastest way possible would be to use AVISynth. Something along the lines of:

still = ImageSource(???).FadeIn(num_frames)
video = AVISource(???)
Overlay(still,video,x=???,y=???,opacity=1,mode="ad d")

I no expert with AVISynth but I'm sure you could specify that as 'part1' and continue with part2, part3 etc and then have your last line be:
part1 + part2 + part3

But maybe you don't like freeware

[madvideos]

Hello,
I think I can understand why you think Premiere takes too long but I figured this is a cool topic and I still want to show how this can be done in Premiere easy and fast, the entire proccess took less than an hour, that includes making the video turoial. I have put the video tutorial and the finished product in one zip file, if you need pars let me know.
How to use Adobe Premiere to make a slideshow over video.
Compression - zip , use winrar 3.0 or winzip
Video tutorial - Div-X
Finished Product - VCD
Total size of downloadable Package 18.1 MB
Link:
http://24.178.76.19/videoslideshow/videoslideshow.zip

If you need the par files, right click and select save target as or in Firefox select save link as... If you click on the link it will do nothing but give you a goofy page.

Quickpar 8.0 Par files to fix any errors in zip file.
http://24.178.76.19/videoslideshow/videoslideshow.zip.PAR2
http://24.178.76.19/videoslideshow/videoslideshow.zip.vol0+1.PAR2
http://24.178.76.19/videoslideshow/videoslideshow.zip.vol1+2.PAR2
http://24.178.76.19/videoslideshow/videoslideshow.zip.vol3+2.PAR2

How to use the par files.
You will need quickpar 8 http://www.quickpar.org.uk/
Download one at a time and run until your zip file is fixed, not all the par files may be needed. This will save you from having to download the file again.
Enjoy.

[madvideos]

Is this to be web streaming video?
If so, major bandwidth and load times (for viewers) to obtain "broadcast" quality.

It can be done, but the words "easy" and "fast" are not two descriptors I'd use. Anything worth doing correctly and quality takes time, especially in video.

Agree with that 100%
If I were to get paid for what I do as a hobby, oh boy would I knock their sox off. lol

[brookelh]

In case you can't find Sony ScreenBlast, it is now marketed as Sony Vegas MovieStudio + DVD. Basically the same as ScreenBlast but with better DVD authoring.