Great Videography Tips from Videomaker

Videomaker.com posted a few lists of helpful tips for those starting out shooting their own stuff. I'm happy to say I follow most of them. Below are a few of my favorites, with some commentary:

• [No] Headhunting--placing every subject in the center of your frame.


• [No] Backlighting--too much light falling on the background instead of on the subject.


• Use manual focus if your camcorder has it. [You really need a camcorder with manual focus, unless you're shooting a home movie.]


• Set white balance at every location. [Even if you're using presets.]


• Shoot to edit.


• Use an external microphone if you have one. [Period!]

Here's the link to the article.

 

How do I learn Blender? Check out Blender Cookie

Now that Blender 2.57 has been released -- a stable/production-worthy version completely re-written from the ground up -- more people are considering it for their projects.

I have been tinkering with it for years, and am now using it for Crawler,  so I had planned to write an article about how I learned this amazing (and free) piece of software, but it looks like Blender Cookie beat me to it. They just posted the Blender Community Starters Guide, a comprehensive guide to the who, what, where, when, and why of learning Blender. Of course I recommend Blender Cookie itself as a good starting place for training. They have free streaming video tutorials covering most topics you need to get started, and plenty more for advanced users. They also have exclusive content for a modest fee. If after visiting their site, as well as the others on the list, you still don't know what Blender's all about, maybe you should consider another line of work (or hobby).  ;)

Related articles

• Blender 2.57 Released (talesfromthecellar.com)


• Get a Daily dose of Blender Knowledge (dreamsgate.wordpress.com)


• Blender 2.5: Blend File Preview (mostly3d.wordpress.com)


• New version of Blender released, learning curve no longer a brick wall (thenextweb.com)