Video Post Production Editing Terms Explained

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Video Post-Production Editing

When I took up my course in animation, the first thing that our Film Professor told us was this:

“Once you learn the process, you will look at films and movies differently.”

and he was right…

Before, when I watched movies, I never looked at how the effects were made. How these 3D models were created, or if they’re realistic enough or not.

I wasn’t even aware that colors are being adjusted in movies. All I cared about was the story. Well, now I can say, in all movies, there’s always more than what meets the eye.

Remember the 80’s movie The Shining and its eerie bloody elevator scene? It was done using thousands of gallons of REAL red liquid being poured.

Just imagine the cleaning they had to do afterward. But now, if it was to be recreated, which was done in the movie Ready Player One, CGI got you covered.

In creating a film, there’s this thing called Production Pipeline: Pre-Production  – Production  – Post-Production.

Pre-production is the planning stage. Determining and preparing the location, actors, scripts, tools, and everything that you might need before the shoot. 

Production is the filming stage, where everything is set in motion for recording. Post-production is where all the editing and compositing happens.

These are Visual Effects, Motion Graphics, CGI, Video Editing, Matt Painting, Special Effects, and so much more.

Video Editing

Video Editing is the process of collecting all the raw footage and arranging it to build the story of the film/movie/video.

It is where you do your cutting, color adjustments, time-lapse, and all those minor enhancements.

Video Compositing

Video Compositing is adding in new elements from different sources that are not part of the scene.

It could be an image, effects such as an explosion, a meteor shower, a ray of light coming in from a window, a 3D modeled dinosaur, birds flying in the background, OR eliminating elements from your scene that are not needed.

Video Compositing brings in all these elements to create an illusion that all these are parts of the same scene. 

Visual Effects

Visual Effects, also called VFX, are digitally manipulated images or videos, could be CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), and could be a mix of CGI and live footage.

These are elements added that were not initially on sets, like smoke, fire, a 3D element, a person getting shot, cars crashing onto each other.

Changing the green screen background into a mountainous view, cities collapsing because of an earthquake, or anything that can’t be done on set as it will cause danger, too expensive, too complicated, or just simply impossible in real life. 

Special Effects

Special Effects are different from Visual Effects. Special Effects or SFX are effects done on set. These are real-life effects. There are 2 Kinds of Special Effects: Optical and Mechanical. 

Optical Effects are made by working on a camera and light on the set.

These are adjusted to make the scene look different than it would normally.

It works on different lights, camera lenses, camera movements, positions, light angles, and other environment settings that could alter the look of the scene.

Mechanical Effects or Physical Effects are mechanized props added to the scene.

Like animatronics (animated robots), prosthetic makeup alters the look of the actor, creating atmospheric effects using machines for fog and rain. Using pyrotechnics and scale models.

CGI

CGI or Computer Generated Imagery are digitally created 3D elements that are incorporated within the scene.

These elements can either be still or animated, like Godzilla, Jurassic World’s dinosaurs, the tiger in Life of Pi and Avatar. The 70% CGI is used to make the actors look like felines. 

Matte Painting

The Hobbit

Considered a photography technique, matte painting has been adopted and used in films since the 19th century.

It digitally creates a landscape or a set to be used as an environment or background for a film.

It is usually done to depict distant locations that are not present in the filming location or to create an out-of-this-world-looking environment.

Motion Graphics & Animation

Catch Me If You Can movie title sequence

If you’ve seen the graphic design of a flyer or brochure, imagine giving life to those elements and making them move.

That’s motion graphics. Like logo animations, Motion Graphics are animations done on shapes, texts, and objects, typically setting abstract objects and other graphic design elements in motion. 

I am making a digital character move or an object move is called Animation, not motion graphics. Animation has many forms: 2D, 3D, stop motion, traditional, and motion graphics.

 In videos, motion graphics are usually used in creating an intro to your channel, movie title sequences, end credits, commercials, or music videos. 

The word “Video Editing” seems to be used to define the entire post-production process, but it’s not.

It is just a part of the post-production process, and these processes listed above are just some of the elements involved.

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