I have received several emails over the last few weeks asking me how I create my videos.  Now might be a good time to stop for a moment and explain it to my fellow line-art enthusiasts.

If after reading this you decide to create and post similar videos online I hope you’ll send me a link so that I can come and watch yours too!  I’d love to see what you all are up to.
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I make several types of videos for various projects sometimes for pleasure and sometimes for work.  However I really only do two different types for my Rainbow Elephant blog readership.  If you have visited here much at all you’ll know that I primarily create:

1. Very short How-To videos to help folks see the line strokes involved to create basic line-weaving, tangling, doodling repeat-pattern art.

2. Simple slide-show videos showing snap shots of various project pages I’ve drawn – at several stops along the way in a “From Start – to – Finish” type layout.

Love or Hate the Short Videos?

Now here’s the thing – making these videos is not a short or simple process for the average line-weaving tangler.  Many people make videos showing steps on how to draw repeat-pattern art and the videos come in different flavors.  For doodling and pattern drawing I’ve noticed we usually see folks video tape their hands while they are drawing.  And sometimes during the video they are talking you through the line drawing steps.  And other times they speed up the movie and set it to music.

This process of taping your hands and speeding up the video is actually a much easier way to create the videos than how I do it.  So if you are a beginner at making videos you may want to try that style video before attempting the type I make.  Neither is necessarily better than the other.  They are just different styles.  Like line-art patterns….. different strokes for different folks.

My How-To Video Process:

For the how-to videos where I draw the patterns. It usually takes me about an hour or longer to make the 1-5 minute video you see on my blog.

• I use my electronic sketchpad to do the drawings using PhotoshopCS4 and I have Camtasia recording my moves.
• Then I use Camtasia to do some editing (cutting out errors, speeding up the movements, etc).
• I render that video and then import it into Windows Media Player to put the final touches on it such as adding transitions, music, etc. I could actually use Camtasia for those finishing touches as well, but for me it takes fewer steps to accomplish this part in W-Media Player.
• When it’s ready to go I render the movie again and then upload it to YouTube.

My Slide-Show Video Process:

For the slideshows where I’m just showing projects as they progress along – it’s much easier to make the movie.  While the drawings takes a bit of time to accomplish the video making process is actually much shorter.  It takes me about 30-minutes or less to make these videos.

• I simply do my pen-n-ink drawing on a paper sketchpad and stop to take digital pics along the way using either my iPhone or my Canon digital camera whichever happens to be sitting on the table next to me.
• Then I upload the pictures to my laptop and crop each photo using PSCS4 so they are about the same size and centered appropriately.
• Then I load each of  the cropped pictures into the Windows Media software where I add those final touches (slide transitions, music, etc).
• When everything seems to flow together well, I render and upload the video online as usual.

What’s with the Silent Treatment?

I do a fair amount of public speaking as a part of my Monday thru Friday job and am comfortable in front of a camera, however when it comes to online videos I tend to think people rattle on a bit too much.  Including me.  And when I add talking on other videos that I do, I get the feeling my voice gets to be  somewhat annoying by the end of the video.

When it comes to sharing my line-weaving art in video, my voice can be disruptive to the creative process as well.  Simple music clips are more relaxing to me.   This is why I don’t typically talk thru my Rainbow Elephant videos.  Well for those reasons and because fixing voice over screw-ups is another editing step for me that slows down the video making process even more.  😉

In a nutshell, that’s pretty much all I do when making videos for my Rainbow Elephant blog postings.  And speaking of videos – how about I share a new slideshow video with you now.  This short and sweet little video took me about 25 minutes to compile the photos and build the video:

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about these video making processes and seeing the end results of doodley art pieces too.

Walking Artfully

Here’s a picture of the final “Walking Artfully” page I did.  To create it I simply traced my feet onto a page in my sketch book and started having weaving together some fun and funky patterns!

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Walk on the Artful side of life this week and let me know what you’re thinking about these days.  I love to hear from ya!
~ Cindy