Sort the photos as desired, usually by date, so they appear in chronological order.
2. Select and drag photos to video track
All photos will be added to the video track
3. Change duration of each photo
If the duration of each photo is too short or long, select all photos, right click and click on “Change Photo Duration …”. This will change the duration for each and all photos.
4. Add a transition effect
Choose a transition (a simple “crossfade” is the best”), right click and click on “Apply current effect to video track”.
This will result in the transition being applied to all photos.
5. Add Pan and Zoom effect
Select all photos, right click and click on “Auto Pan & Zoom”.
6. Drag audio file to music track
You can find some background music from Sound Cloud.
7. Add intro slide
Click “Instant Project” icon, click on “Beginning”, choose a template, right click and click on “Add at the beginning”.
8. Edit intro slide
Since the intro slide is a template, you will see placeholder content.
Drag a photo to the placeholder clip and hold “Ctrl” to replace the clip. This will cause the photo to be formatted to fit the template.
Double-click the text clip to edit the text of the intro template.
9. Add end slide
This process is the same as for adding the intro slide but click on “Add at the end” instead.
10. Add text to some photos
Click “Title” and then pick a title template. The one with a semi-transparent background is good. Drag it to the Title track where you want the text to appear.
11. Change text and background color
This title template animates the text.
Convert it to a simple fade in and out by clicking on the “Attribute” tab in the Options Panel for the title, click on “Attribute” tab, click on “Animation”, and disable animation by unchecking the “Apply” checkbox.
The background of the text is too light so let’s darken that semi-transparent bar. Double-click on the title clip and in the Options Panel, click the “Edit” tab, and click on the black color in the Text Backdrop context menu as shown in the screenshot below.
Double-click on the title clip again and edit the text.
12. Add more text
Copy and paste the text clip to other photo clips and edit the text.
13. Render video
Click the “Share” tab, choose a setting, and click “Start” button.
I bought a 7’x10′ green screen. I got just the fabric because I semi-permanently attached it to my garage ceiling since I don’t plan on using anywhere else.
Create presentations slides and export them as images
Record video
Stand in front of the green screen with softbox lights on
Clip lavalier mic to shirt and connect it to smartphone on tripod (if necessary, using USB extension cables and an adapter).
Place laptop on laptop stand outside the camera field of view
In video recording app, ensure audio source is set to “external mic”.
Press record and speak while reading and changing slides remotely using the wireless presenter pen
Create final presentation video
Google Slides Tips
Export all slides as images
Creating slides in Google Slides is very similar to how you create them in other presentation apps like MS Powerpoint. In Google Slides, however, if you want to export all slides as images, you need an add-on. I use Slides Toolbox by Digital Thoughts. Once you’ve added that add-on, you can open it
and choose to export all slides as JPG or PNG images.
Set a background with transparency
Notice how in my final rendered video, the background video shows through the slides.
That was accomplished by setting the transparency of the background in Google Slides to around 70% opaque (30% transparent). If you want a semi-transparent background, then you must export the slides as PNG images rather than JPG images.
Test Slides
Download a sample presentation with semi-transparent background in ODP (OpenDocument Presentation) format which you can import into Google Slides.
Position the lavalier mic such that you don’t hear the sound of you breathing.
Stand far from the camera to record more of yourself. You can always crop the video later.
If you have a fast computer with plenty of SSD space, record your video in 4K for ultra hi definition (UHD) resolution. Otherwise, record at 1080p hi definition (HD).
Using the softbox lights, and other lights, if necessary, eliminate as many shadows as possible. For example, the picture below shows dark shadows which will be difficult to remove when you’re editing the video.
In the Cinema FV-5 video recording app, set audio source to “external mic”. When you push the cable into your phone, the wired microphone icon near the top-right corner appears in the app. This tells me the audio source will come from the external mic.
When you export the video, you will have many settings and export presets to choose from. For each preset, you can see the estimated output file size. There’s no point in choosing a high quality output if the source video is low quality. In Windows Explorer, right click on the foreground video and click Properties > Details to see the video specs. The screenshot below shows that my foreground video taken on my phone was 1920×1080 with a bit rate of 22254 kbps (~22 Mbps) and a frame rate of 30 frames per second (fps).
For this, I chose the following spec which gave an estimated output file size of 252 MB for a 13 minute video.
Workflow
In VideoStudio, my workflow is
Create a new project
Add all assets (videos, slides, etc) to the project
Verify SmartProxy is enabled
Add an overlay track so that I have 2 overlay tracks
Drag the background video to the Video track
Drag the slides to the Overlay 1 track in order
Drag the foreground video with the green screen to the Overlay 2 track
Crop the foreground video as necessary
Using NewBlue FX Chroma Key filter, remove the green background so that it’s transparent
Copy and paste the background video multiple times to span the duration of the foreground video
In the Preview panel, drag the foreground video to the left
In the Preview panel, drag the slides to the right and line them up using the grid that appears
Preview the composite video and make changes, as necessary
Most people take pictures by just manually taking a shot when they are ready. Since many things could go wrong with taking just a single shot, e.g. the subject blinks or yawns, a car drives by, etc, then some people will take multiple shots manually – maybe 2 or 3. However, this still doesn’t necessary offer the best shot because the subject may not like how they look in a particular stance or the lighting may not be at their particular angle. Also, photos of people just looking straight at the camera or posing often look boring, as opposed to photos that appear to be taken randomly or without the subject knowing.
Snapshot from Video
To resolve this, you could take a 4K video from your mobile phone, open the video in a video play like VLC, scrub through the video and when you are on a frame you like, take a snapshot (not a screenshot).
Pros:
many frames to choose from (usually 30 frames per second)
Cons:
large file size
must open video and scrub through and pic from you like
videos are generally more compressed than images
Series of Still Images Taken Automatically
To get around the cons of the video approach, you can take a series of still images and just pic the ones you like. This is sometimes called “burst” mode. Ideally, you would be able to
set a delay timer (if you will put the camera down and be in the picture yourself)
set how many pictures to take, e.g. a max of 5 or 10 pictures or unlimited if you want to stop taking pictures when you push a button
an time interval between which photos will be taken, e.g. take a picture every 0.5 seconds, 1 second, 5 seconds, etc.
One app that meets these requirements is Open Camera. It’s free and looks well made. In the screenshot below. I enabled Face detection so that if the subject moves, like when you’re taking a video, the subjects face should always be in focus. I set Repeat to 10x to take a maximum of 10 pictures and I set Repeat mode interval to 1s so a picture will be taken automatically every 1 second.
In this example, I’d end up with 10 pictures. I could then just pick the best one and delete the rest.
Comparison
To compare the picture quality of this method verses taking stills from a video, consider the following photos.
From videoFrom a series of still images
If we zoom in to 100% and focus on a small section, you’ll notice there are more artifacts and blurriness in the still taken from the video, not to mention the contrast and color looks much better in the still shot.
From video
From a series of still images
If I enlarge the images, the artifacts in the video snapshot become much more apparent.
From videoFrom a series of still images
If you set the Repeat to Unlimited and Repeat mode interval to No delay, the app will take as many pictures as it can until you push the stop button. For comparison, a 10 second 4K video consumed 61 MB whereas 10 seconds of unlimited, no delay pictures produced 23 images totaling 45 MB.
The next time you want to take a picture, you may want to try Open Camera and take a series of many pictures as your subject walks around or behaves naturally.
This weekend I built the frame of a pergola. The posts are 6x6x10 Redwood posts and they’re heavy. We had the posts go 15″ in the ground but before pouring cement, we wanted to make sure the posts were level and plumb.
To hold the posts in place while we measured, we filled buckets with dirt and temporarily secured each posts to them using either screws or clamps.
Once the posts were held in place, we installed the headers on top. This would hold the posts in place and, theoretically, help ensure the posts are plumb.
We then measured for level and plumb using straight levels and post levels.
We also measured the distance between posts to ensure corresponding sides were the same length. We could have also measure the two diagonal distances but we didn’t. We measured using a laser measure and a tape measure. Unfortunately, these can give inaccurate readings if, for example, the laser or tape measure isn’t perfectly level when taking measurements.
Despite measuring using levels and checking distances, we still found some posts were not lined up perfectly with other posts.
To make measurements easier, stick a nail near the top and bottom of each post at the same vertical position.
Then, hook the end of your tape measure to the nail head and pull to measure the distance to the corresponding nail on other posts.
Another, albeit extreme, way to ensure all posts are plumb and positioned perfectly is to use scrap 2x4s to temporarily secure all sides at the top and bottom. If you don’t have any 2x4s, you can use 2x3s. They are cheap at the Home Depot. If your 2x4s are not long enough, you can join / splice them together using metal plates or scrap plywood.
Again, you can temporarily secure the 2x4s to the posts with either screws or clamps. By securing these 2x4s around the top and bottom of the posts, and ensuring they are level, there’s no way the posts could end up being offset from each other or not plumb.
I wanted to build a pergola in my backyard. The patio is a cement slab. I could fasten post bases to it for the posts but I felt that that wasn’t as safe as having the posts sit 1.5′ in the ground. The control lines of the cement slab are just bricks with mortar. I figured I could just remove 3 bricks and dig to 1.5′ for each post hole. The concern was to not crack neighboring bricks and cement. Here’s how I managed to make rectangular holes with clean edges.
Drill
First, I drilled into a brick until I reached the dirt. This gave me an idea of how deep the slab was.
It wasn’t too deep.
Cut
I then used a cordless angle grinder with a diamond blade to score the perimeter of my desired hole. This was especially important so as to not crack the brick next to the hole.
You could also use a circular saw with a diamond blade.
Demolish
I used a jack hammer to demolish the bricks.
I have the XtremepowerUS 2200Watt Heavy Duty Electric Demolition Jack Hammer Concrete Breaker which I got on Amazon.
It easily broke up the bricks into nice big chucks.
Below the brick was a layer of cement.
I broke that up, too, with the jackhammer.
The next layer was dirt.
I dug into the dirt using the Bosch Bulldog Extreme jack hammer and a heavy duty drill with an auger drill bit.
Result: nice clean hole. I’ll have to put back two bricks for each hole but that’s easy.
To secure, make a neck out of the plastic bag, fold the rebar wire tie around the neck, insert the screw end of a hook into a drill, insert the hook end of the hook into both loops of the wire tie, pull the trigger on the drill to twist the wire until it secures (chokes) the neck of the plastic bag.
Weeds are a nuisance. The grow quickly, often can penetrate thin layers of weed fabric, and definitely can pop up along perimeters where weed fabric meets a cement patio, for example. After losing a battle with weeds, I decided to take somewhat extreme but necessary measure to never have to deal with weeds again.
1. Remove dirt
If you don’t remove enough dirt, then your mulch will not be deep and if the top of the mulch is level with the surrounding area – in my case, cement patio – then the mulch will easily spill over and make a mess. I decided to remove 5 inches of dirt. This was a lot of work so I rented a heavy duty hydraulic tiller, a mini excavator and a mini skid steer.
2. Secure weed fabric to perimeter
Weeds will most definitely grow along the perimeter of your mulch area. For my mulch area, there’s a fence on three sides and a cement patio on one side.
For the fence sides, the weed fabric will be stapled to bottom 2×4 horizontal fence rail. Then, a fence board will be screwed horizontally over the 2×4 rail thereby sandwiching the weed fabric.
For the cement patio side, I wrapped weed fabric 3 times over a long piece of PVC moulding and screwed it into the cement using concrete anchor screws.
I first folded the edge of the weed fabric over the PVC moulding and stapled the two together over a piece of scrap wood (soft corkboard is better since it’s easier to remove staples from it). Then I flipped the moulding over and hammered the staple ends down to secure the staple in place.
After doing that along the 8′ length of the PVC moulding, I wrapped the weed fabric twice over the moulding and stapled it again to further secure it to the moulding.
Then I predrilled holes in the moulding every 1 foot.
Then, using the special drill bits that came with the screws, I drilled holes in the cement through the predrilled holes in the moulding. When doing this, I used the hammer drill setting with high torque. Then I screwed the anchors through stainless steel washers.
The weed fabric is now secure and flush against the concrete.
Now, there’s no way any weeds could sneak their way up along this edge.
Note about drill/drive options
The drill I use is the Ridgid 18-Volt Lithium-Ion Cordless Brushless 1/2 in. Compact Hammer Drill. As you can see in the picture below, the
Drilling in hard materials such as brick, concrete, etc. use carbide-tipped bits and select hammer mode and use LO (1) speed
Drilling in materials with hard, brittle surfaces such as tile, etc. use carbide-tipped bits and select drilling mode
Drilling in soft materialssuch as wood, etc. use twist drills bits, hole saws, etc. and select drilling mode
Driving screws choose speed (LO – 1 or HI – 2), adjust torque ring, select driving mode
Torque Ring
When driving screws, increase or decrease the torque to help prevent the possibility of damaging screw heads, threads, workpiece, etc. In general, torque intensity should correspond to the screw diameter. If the torque is too high or the screws too small, the screws may be damaged or broken. The torque is greater when the torque adjustment ring is set on a higher setting. The torque is less when the torque adjustment ring is set on a lower setting.
NOTE: The torque adjustment ring only functions in drive mode.
When drilling or driving into a hard material, attach the auxiliary handle for more leverage.
Update:
Instead of using a regular drill with the hammer drill mode, use a heavy duty hammer drill like the Bosch Bulldog Xtreme. It’s takes an SDS plus drill bit which are available in 5/32 shaft diameters for 3/16″ screws.
This makes drill holes in concrete super easy. But, don’t drill in brick. Brick is too soft and screws will be loose.
The PVC moulding is good in that it is waterproof but it is flexible which means weeds could slip their way behind it unless you use many, many screws fasten it to concrete. Therefore, I decided to use pressure-treated 2×4 wood which is rigid and only requires 3 or 5 screws per 8 foot length. If you use 2×4 wood, then I found the best screw to use is Tapcon 1/4″ thick x 3-3/4″ long screws with 1/4″ washers. Driving these screws in with washers really pull and secure the wood against the concrete edge. Another option is to use Steelworks 1-1/2-in x 4-ft Interior/Exterior Mill Finished Aluminum Solid bar but they are $7 per 4 ft length.
3. Overlap weed fabric by 50%
Lay down weed fabric overlapping each strip by 50%. Use landscape staples to secure fabric to ground.
When picking weed fabric, I find this matrix grid style to be good. Unlike the one pictured above, which I got at Costco, the one pictured below doesn’t have fine hairs that stick to things like mulch.
Cement boards are non-organic so they will not break down. I know this is extreme but it’s better than having to pull weeds every month or two. I used the thinnest and lightest cement board. To allow for water drainage, I placed each cement board a few inches apart. Since the cement board is heavy, there’s no need to secure it to the ground.
5. Add rubber mulch
I don’t want to have to keep adding mulch every year or two and I don’t want the color of the mulch to fade away so I chose to use rubber mulch.
Update Jan 25, 2022
So, the cement board worked to prevent weed growth but the weed fabric was mostly useless. Just use weed fabric along edges and everywhere else, overlap cement board.
If you need to join two ropes of similar size together, the Zeppelin Bend appear to be the best option for general use. This knot is as effective as the Double Fisherman’s Knot but it’s easy to untie.
