Blog Archive

How to Split a movie clip by using Vegas Pro


There are many time where we do editing, we would need to split the video in certain part in order for us to insert maybe another image, a sound clip, another movie clip, or an video effect into it.

So today I’m gonna show you on how to split a video clip by using Vegas Pro, it will be an easy tutorial today.


01-select_clip


First click here for the basic introduction on how to use Vegas Pro in my previous tutorial

Select a video to be edit, by selecting the folder that you store your video.


02-drag_clip


Then, click and drag the video into the Timeline Window.


03-zoom_in


You can zoom in to the video to have a better view, the zoom button is at the bottom right corner.


04-press_S


Then, you have to hit on the Play button, and when the time line reach the place you want to split the video, click on the S button on your keyboard.


05-drag_split_clip


After that, you can insert a photo, another video, or mp3 into the gap between the split video.


06-insert_image


Here I’ll put an example; let’s say I want to put my photo between the split clip. So I will click and drag my photo to the place where I want it to be.


I had made a tiny clip on how to use this useful function from the beginning to end, hope this help. If you have any question, do email me (wilsonchin1981@gmail.com). See ya.

How to Insert text into Your Photo by using Picasa?

Few years back, there are not much user friendly programs that allows us to edit our photo. The common one will be Photoshop, CorelDraw, and etc. I’m not good at photoshop or any other software, so is kind of hard for me to edit my image.

And one of the problem that I face last time is to inset some text into my photo.

Previously I had share on how Picasa can help to combine many images into one image, and today I’ll share one of Picasa’s image editing features to insert text into your photo.

Is extremely easy to use, and with just a few mouse clicks….your done. So lets get started…

Download Picasa here

01-interface


First run your Picasa program.

When you’re at the main screen, click on the folder that contain the image you wanted to edit.

Then, double click on the image you want to edit.

02-edit_image


You will be bring to a new windows, and this is the editing window.

As you can see at the left corner there are tabs for Basic Fix, Tuning, and Effects. What we need to use is just the Basic Fix tab.

03-text_select


Then, click on the Text image as shown above

04-inset-text


After that, just type in anything you like. For me I visited the First World Hotel, so I will put in the name of the hotel

05-resize


Opss, the text are too small.

No problem, you can resize the text. Point your mouse at the center of the text editing section, and you will see a brown invincible looking circle.

Click and hold the red-point small circle. Then drag on either left or right to adjust the desire size that you want.

You can also rotate the text, by drag the red-point small circle up or down.

06-change_color


You don’t like white color, no problem. You can also change the text color, by click on the capital T on the left, this will bring out a color palate for you to select your favorite color.

07-done_editing


When you satisfy with your masterpiece, click on the Apply button to save this text into this image.

08-save-as


The last steps is to save your work, go to File > Save As..
And save your work into your computer.

first world hotel day view


And you had just successfully inset text into your image baby, congratulation!

How to Combine Many Pictures into One Picture?

I had post a lot of combine picture before in my blog, I’ll show you my work.

01

I had build a collage photo for a local NGO’s society, and I’m one of the photographer there.

02

Food that I eat.

03

Too many photos to show on at Mount Matang

If you have too many photos, and want to show all in one single image, this is how you can do.

Wait! why do people want such picture?
  • When you have too many photos to post in your site.
  • When you want the website to load faster, avoid post the photos individually.
  • When you are too lazy to write the description for each photos.
  • When you want something special for your reader.
  • When you want to view all the good stuff in one go.

Ok, so in today’s tutorial, I will teach you on how to make a collage photo. And the good thing is you can learn to make creative photo collage, instead of the boring clockwise photo stacking. I will show you how to make photo collage like this…

04

You can make the photos pile on each other.

So here is what you will need:
  • A free software called Picasa, a product from Google (download the software here). Picasa can be use to organize, edit, and upload our photo to the web. I like this software, cause when you view your photo with it, it will have a very cool transparent background like this…

05-transparent
  • A bunch of photos to be collage.
06-launch
Double click on the Picasa Icon to launch the program, there are some configure settings need to be made, just keep on pressing next, then finish.

07-interface

For this tutorial, I will use my favorite Japanese AV dream girl Saki Seto as an example to show you how to make collage photos. Leah Dizon should not be in there, I had misplaced those 4 photos, so just ignore it.

When you’re at this screen, make sure you click on the highlighted icon above, to have a Flat Folder View.

08-select-photo

Then, click on the image that you like, you have to select more than 2 image to collage it. And as usual you can do so by holding the “ctrl” key on your keyboard, and use your mouse pointer to click on the image you like. Here I have selected 4 pretty image of Saki.

09-collage-button

After that, click on the “Create Photo Collage” button as shown above.

10-select-collage-options

Here is the Collage Edit mode window, and when you click on the dropdown, you will have a total of 6 options to collage your photo, we want to be different from that old boring standard photo combine technique.

So for this example we will use the first option the “Picture Pile”, click on it.

11-resize
After that is up test how creative are you, you can resize, rearrange on where you want to put the photos.
  • Click on an image, and a circle will display at the center of the image.
  • By using your mouse pointer, click and hole the adjust bar (highlight in red icon), and start to move left/right/up/down. And the image size will decrease, increase, or rotate.
  • Continue to the next image, and place them on the place you like.
12-border

Now look at the photo above, there are no border apply on it. What you can do is click on the photo above, and on the left panel Picture Borders window…

13-with-border

This is how the photo looks like when you apply border on it, try it.
p/s: I’ll do anything to become that guitar that she’s holding XD~

14-bring-to-top

Now here you also can move the photo to top, bottom, set as background, or remove it. Just click on the desire photo, and right click to get the menu out.

15-create-collage

Ok, we are almost finish. So after you are satisfy with the image arrangement. Click on the Create Collage button.

16-creating-collage

Then wait…

17-done

And your done….but wait, if you want to make your photo look even better, make sure to click on the Tuning and Effect Tab on the left panel.

18-tunning

In the Tuning Tab, you can adjust the light, shadows, color temp, and highlight your photo. And in the Effect Tab (my favorite) you can have various kind of adjustment. Try it one by one.

19-save

To Save it, go to File > Save As… and save to a location on your computer.

So there you have it, you have now successfully created your very own combine picture (a creative combine picture).

Go and update to your facebook or blog to show this to your friend.

If you have any question, I can be reach at wilsonchin1981@gmail.com, enjoy. I need to get more photos of Saki Seto now, bye.

Teach yourself on How to Use Vegas Pro – The Basic Function

Hi guys, I’ve got a lot of emails on what is the software that I use for my video and photo editing. So instead of replying one-by-one, I decided to put a write up on the software that I use for my photo and video, and will also do a “How to” tutorial to teach you guys how to use the basic function of the software. So if you’re ready, let’s go…

Ok For video editing, I use Vegas Pro 9.0. Before this I’m using the Windows Movie Maker, but it has some limitation, and I notice that if I apply Effects on it, the quality of my photos drops. But this will not happen in Vegas Pro 9.0, it give me full flexibility in creating my video in the same time it also maintain my image and video quality.

Introduction to Vegas Pro

01-main screen

This is the main screen, where you create your magic here. For the 3 most important place that I use each time when create my video are:
* The Explorer Window
* The Timeline (Track View)
* The Video Preview Windows


02-select-media

Next, at the Explorer Windows, click on the Explorer Tab. Browse to the location to where you save your photos.

As for me, I will always compose the photos, video, and mp3 that I’m going to use for my video. And put this all into one folder.

03-click-drag-preview

Drag your photo/video to the Trimmer Window to make sure that you are selecting the correct image/video for the video.

04-drop-into-timeline

Then you can just click and drag your image/video into the Timeline Window, and you can keep on adding your image/video until is fully loaded.

05-after-adding

This is how my Timeline Window looks like after I’ve finish inserting all m video and image to make my Mount Singai video.

You may preview your video while you inserting by just press on the Play button at the lower part of the Timeline Window. And this allows you to make adjustment while previewing your video.

06-saving-project

For me, I will always save my project file for future editing. Or I will be able to retrieve back my work if the system crash halfway. So please always save your project file :)

07-render-video

Ok, we’re almost done. After you save your project, is time to make this video live! Go to File > Render As…

08-save-type

Select the type of video format that you like. As for me, because now YouTube support upload size up to 1GB, so I always ops for Windows Media Video V11 (.wmv), and go for the 5Mbps HD 720-25 Video.

Other than that is either the size too huge, or the quality is not that good. The one that I choose are just perfect for me, and I’m happy with it.

09-type-template

But if you want to send your video through email, or just share it among friends. And quality is not the main concern, so maybe you can opt for a smaller video size like the 256 Kbps, or 56 Kbps. It depends on how you want to use your video.

Ok, that is basically how you use the Vegas Pro video editing software; I hope that you will find this useful. And along the way I will show you more tips and tricks like how to make fade effect, how to zoom it/out, how to rotate and more.

So I’ll see you guys later, do email me (wilsonchin1981@gmail.com) if you have any question on how to use Vegas Pro, and I will try my best to help you.

Cheers.

Wilson Chin

Mount Singai, the longest climb

singai-mount
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It took me 4 ½ hours to get to the peak of mount Singai and down. Singai is a sacred and holy mountain because there is a church on the mount which was build since the 1890s. I stated my journey together with my friends at 10 mornings, as I remember the last time I came here was 4 years ago.

I’m back after 4 years, and just before I start to go up the mount. There are many plastic bags with sand in it. The church up there are still renovating after this years, my friends and I carried 2 big bags of sand up to the church. At this stage, we are climbing staircase. A lot of staircases, as some the wood had rotten. So have to be extra careful when going up.

Most of my friends are first time here so they already complaining the steepness of the staircases, and we have to stop occasionally to rest. Is quite hilarious when seeing their tired face, they just keep on mumbling about how hard it is just to go up. Then ask for how long for us to reach to the top, my answer will always be “10 more minutes guys” :P

Along the way, I encounter a lot of spiders, with different sizes. There is one as huge as my palm, and it builds a very huge web to capture insect. One of my friends tries to poke the spider while I’m taking photo; she said this can make the spider move nearer to the angle I want.

After all the resting, joking around, and laughing at each other, we then finally reach the Singai Church. The place had indeed change a lot since my last visit, I saw that there is a new building upon our arrival.

And while I’m taking photos just beside the pond, I saw a frog jumping away. Then my heard friends are screaming at me, while I notice a snake just crew over my foot. Oh, they are screaming about the snake, and I was very lucky that it was chasing after the frog and not after me. Thank you god…

So how was the climb you ask? It was pretty fun, when going up to the church; we stop for rest a lot. Not all of us made it to the top though, as there’s only me and another friend of mine. So I told her that we can team up for the upcoming Amazing Race Asia game. To reach to the top, the paths are very steep. I’m extremely tired that time, but my mind keep on telling me to go. My last few steps until the top, I lookup and saw the sunlight shine through the trees leafs and kiss my face. I took a deep breath, and climb faster. Yeah! And I’m finally here, extremely exhausted, but excited.

I notice the platform build here last time had collapse, I had a very clear view on top of the mount. Compare to the foggy view that I had last time. Took a lot of photos, and love it here. After my photography session, we have to go down immediately to meet up with the rest of the friends. This is a wonderful climb, and I’ll come back here again in the future.

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Read More:
Climbing Mount Singai 2006

Here is another travelogue, destination Mt. Sinai and hope you would enjoy it as much as I did. ~ Thanks to Jungleman :)