So I have all this fun video of my Haunt which is currently in the form of .mov files, and it seems that most video editing software, including my current (and ancient) Sony Vegas version 6, can't process them. So you have to run these files through a conversion program to make them editing software-friendly. Only problem is that when I do convert them it seems my editing program knows I've converted them and treats them like evil step-children and the video segments become corrupted and start to skip when I edit them in size or attempt to fade them into other segments. This is as technical as I can get.
So anyways, does anyone have a recommended process, or editing software that will be more .mov file-friendly?
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| Me during editing. |
31 comments:
I also have mov files and edit them with Adobe Premiere
I am ABSOLUTLY no help there my friend. I am computer illiterate in all aspects.
Usually I smack the computer, but I don't recommend that.
Would you say it's user friendly?
I love Sony Vegas ...really easy to use.
You can lay multiple audio tracks on a timeline and manipulate them and the video segments easily. Very visual.
And do you have to convert them first?
Just googled and it seems folks are complaining about .mov files need to first be converted.
Technical difficulties??? I feel your pain! I'm with Jay.....barely know how to send email and leave a comment on your blog.
Look at Adobe products. After Effects works natively in .mov, as does Premiere.
Thanks.
Which would you recommend if you had to choose one?
Thinking of doing Premiere first.
Premiere is supposed to be more newbie friendly. Honestly when it comes to just making straight cuts and moving layers around, they are very similar. After Effects is what I have experience in. Here is my Halloween stuff, almost all done in AE: https://www.youtube.com/user/Nocturnaloner/videos
wow..just watched October Fire.
Looked amazing.
Thank you! So if you've ever used Photoshop, After Effects is very similar, except that if you have a Glow filter, or are applying Levels, or Hue and Saturation, you can apply them to video over time, and animate all the parameters.
Use Photoshop all the time...the current version too.
Cool.
So, for example, the very last shot of October Fire has one .mov element, the stock footage of the burning tree. The pumpkins are all still images in different layers. I made a copy of each pumpkin layer on top of the other one. Then I did the Screen Overlay type, which made all the light areas glow brighter, just like Photoshop, right? Then, on all the overlay layers, I added a formula to them called 'Wiggle', which makes their opacity bounce up and down at random. Boom. Flickering pumpkins from still images.
wow.
Truthfully, I should really sign up for some courses in both of these programs.
I would LOVE to be able to put together short vids... trailers...horror montages...short films...
Premier and Final Cut are pretty much the home-user go-to options.
Both will handle a .mov. and work like a traditional sequence layout movie making program.
Adobe Creative Cloud packages include all sorts of amazing video/audio/fx apps and you can buy via subscription..
"Truthfully, I should really sign up for some courses in both of these programs.
I would LOVE to be able to put together short vids... trailers...horror montages...short films..."
These programs are very easy and intuitive. You can Youtube any lesson or shortcut on the fly.
I'd say just get the program you're comfortable with and jump in. A creative interest trumps lessons IMO..
really appreciate it.
I taught myself sony vegas...super intuitive, so hopefully I'll pick this up quickly.
Thanks!
What camera are you using?
I did my night footage mostly with a GoPro 5 this year and pretty much all the clips need some image correction for low light shots. Stuff I filmed on the Sony A7 captured lit pumpkins so much better.
Hoping to finish tonight..
We use a Fujifilm FinePix S8200 for the video, and I use a VERY old Sony digital...from 2007 I think...to shoot the night photos. It has a night setting that does all the work for me. We still can't get the Fuji to take good night photos...just good night video...
With Creative Cloud you should get access to both Premiere and AE. Both have visual layer interfaces, so they will make sense to you. Like any programs though, to really make them sing, you have to dig in. Just start with simple goals and Google away. "How to do a simple edit" "how to crossfade" "animate levels" "animate curves" plus the name of the program you're using.
Just to add to what other have said - there are kinda 2 things at work with your .movs: the format (.mov) and the codec. Not all .movs are created equal; in fact, it's the codec that often determines the usability of a file for editing later on. Quicktime .mov is a really common format, so if your software isn't having it, the problem might not be the format, but the codec. This is a little bit weird to wrap your brain around, but once you do, it helps tremendously with understanding working with video, I promise.
One good analogy I've found to explain this is that getting your video from your camera, and into a video editing software for you to chop it up, is like the process of delivering a secret spy letter. Say your actual video footage as it exists on your camera is a handwritten letter, encrypted in a secret code. QuickTime .mov is a format (which really means it's a container; think of it as an envelope for your letter to go in.) Then there's the codec - that's the secret code used to encode (and later decipher) your letter. So you can deliver the .mov envelope to your editing software, but if the software can't decrypt the codec that was used to write the letter, it can't work with it. Some cameras, Sonys in particular I think, create files in a weird proprietary format/codec that can be hard to work with until you convert it to something usable.
If you end up getting Adobe Creative Cloud as others have suggested, I recommend grabbing Adobe Media Encoder along with Premiere. AME will usually chew up just about anything you give it and spit out what you tell it to. When you convert your .movs, whatever format you use, make sure you're using a codec that you can work with later on - I recommend H264, which is good for web playback.
Shoot me an email if you run into problems converting your files - I do a lot of video stuff for work and I'd be happy to help if I can.
HUGE thanks, guys, for all this help.
I was reading about codecs last night so I really appreciate this dumbed-down version :)
Video Pad by NCH is pretty darn good for the price and supports multiple file types. The home version is $40.
I just looked up the info on your Fujifilm FinePix S8200 camera, and it shoots in the H.264 version of .mov files. H.264 is a current and common codec, widely used today by consumer cameras, editing software, etc. Your Sony Vegas 6 software may predate the H.264 codec, or just not include it. Either way that's likely that main problem, as Joel indicates above.
Assuming you're using a PC, it might have come with a program called "Windows Movie Maker" that may be even more user-friendly than Adobe Premiere, so you might want to look for that. However if your computer/software is significantly older than your camera, the problems may persist. I've been a video editor (among other things) for some time now, having jumped from miniDV systems and software to the HD world, so I know how daunting this can all seem. An added bonus is that most current consumer HD cameras shoot in the AVCHD codec, which doesn't run natively with my version of Final Cut Pro. Happy Halloween!
P.S. After Effects can technically edit video, and while it's fantastic for motion graphics, animation and effects, I've found it way too sluggish (especially when working with HD footage) for any sort of creative, straight-cut editing sessions.
It's been a while, but the one good (also: free) video conversion software I've used is called Handbrake.
Thanks, Black Jar....and everyone else.
My pc is only two and a half years old...so at least it's not THAT old.
I tried Handbrake and it actually worked so I could see the videos, but when I went to edit them in my old version of Sony Vegas it wouldn't let me shorten the clips or edit them. The final result was skipping and choppy.
I think I'm going to go with Premiere.
Sony Vegas has had lots of problems like this over the years. The later versions (11 and 12) do it a lot less. You still need to convert MOVs. But you really need a later version anyway if you want to do HD content. That was one of the main things that got me to upgrade to 12, was the fact that it would crash on a lot of HD video in earlier versions.
Oh also, even though I use Photoshop all the time, I was completely lost when I tried to use Premiere. It's a steep learning curve, IMHO. If you are willing to take the time to learn it, it's amazingly powerful. But for me, just wanting to do simple editing, in an intuitive manner, Sony Movie Studio (they dropped "vegas" from the name a few versions ago) is still wonderful. And version 12 fixed a lot of the bugs.
Yeah, man..I've suffered through many a crash.... and always at the end of a project.
Heh, yeah, "save early, save often" is my motto. lol. It's amazing how that happens. Work on something for hours, and in the final minutes--- **CRASH**. :)
I'm taking notes thru all of this. My goal is to learn how to edit a video for next year! I got 11 months, Right?
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