So I took the plunge and launched myself into making instructional videos this week. I’ve procrastinated about this for a few years now, knowing that it would not be quick or easy to make videos that have good information, clearly presented in a professional-looking manner.
Not for me the rose-tinted glasses view (“how hard can it be?”) If my years of experience with technology has taught me anything, it’s that it will always be harder than the perky Pollyannas tell me it will be. And, indeed, it has been!
To get the best possible shots of my canvas, my camcorder is on a boom arm, inches from the side of my face. It captures a crisp, undistorted view of the canvas which is ideal, but it means that I regularly smack my cheek into the camera as I move. Bouncy camera moves may be great for arty films but not for art videos.
Hemming me in on the other side, is a boom suspending my cellphone over the palette to capture the colour picking and mixing action. I have to consciously plan before reaching for a brush or raising my arm to mix paint, or I’ll hit the boom and again: bounce.
Clustered behind me are tripod legs and cables running to my laptop (also close at hand), so my habit of backing up to see my work has been replaced by carefully pivoting in place and looking at the painting in a make up mirror.
Finally, bathing the whole scene, are two, large lights at the edges of the clutter. They blind my peripheral vision but still don’t seem bright enough to adequately light the canvas so I’ve added yet another light and another tripping-hazard light stand to the mix.
Such a relaxing and conducive environment.
I painted a portrait one day to test the camera, microphone, and software that allows me to shoot with two cameras and picture-in-picture in real time (OBS, if you’re curious).
Things went well, except that my fancy camcorder blurred out several times in the process, something I was unaware of until I watched the footage later.
Camera overheating? OBS prioritizing one function over another? Computer not powerful enough to handle two cameras at once? Gremlins?
I asked Chat GPT - my go to for tech support - and it gave me several suggestions for how to isolate the problem. The next day was spent on systematically running tests and seeing if the blur happened again.
That day’s figure painting had no sudden blurring but I started obsessing about the small lag in my brush on the canvas. It looked rather dreamy, as if the air had turned thick as my brush swam through it.
Time was spent researching frame rate and its relationship to shutter speed. Which, of course, led to learning about shutter speed’s relationship to aperture. I don’t actually care about these things, but now I have to, apparently.
Day 3: all went well! Until the bubbles appeared onscreen 😳.
Three partial bubbles drifted cheerfully across the left side of the image a few times, just to show me that I have still not seen every weird thing that technology can throw at me.
Lengthy research ensued.
Turns out that my Macbook update to Sonoma operating system has made me prey to “reactions” which, despite Popular Science calling them the “coolest new features” are NOT! Some random gesture had triggered the bubbles which likely had a thumbs up or thumbs down in them. I couldn’t tell which because of the cropping, but I definitely give these juvenile pop ups a thumbs down.
As a side note: I found plenty of irate reddit folks whose first encounter with reactions was during important video business meetings or during live streaming funerals. Nice to see a eulogy get a 👍 I’m sure.
Reactions can be turned off, but, really, who knew they were even on? And is Apple now run by 6 year olds?
This video shows how to turn them off. Make sure you also turn them off in any app that uses a camera such as zoom, google meet and OBS.
This is a preview of how the videos might look. You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to get this!
So, as I’ve long suspected, making videos will not be quick or easy. But I will persevere. It’s a matter of pride.
Wish me luck and no gremlins.
Happy painting!
So grateful you are perservering through all the gremlins. Can't wait to see the course!
Such perseverance! Bravo. I always learn watching people paint and I so look forward to your videos!