Category: How-To - Page 5 - Abdullah Yahya

How to Straighten Weed Trimmer Line

I have the MaxPower PivoTrim weed trimmer head because the spool type trimmer heads always get tangled. The MaxPower PivoTrim head makes replacing trimmer line super easy.

When I ran out of the trimmer line that came with the head, I bought a spool of new trimmer line. Unfortunately, when you cut some trimmer line and install it in the head, the line curves up or down instead of pointing straight out. So, I found a way to straighten the trimmer line. Below is a picture of the line straightened (left) and before it was straightened (right).

To straighten the line, I cut the line to length, stapled each end down to a piece of 2×4, took a heat gun and carefully heat up the plastic line to soften it and cause it to take on a new shape.

Then, I folded the straightened line in half and stapled each end down to the 2×4 and heat up the folded end so that it would remember that position.

The end result is trimmer lines that are straight and cut weeds better. Note, you may have better performance if you remove the plastic guard on the trimmer shaft.

Fix Out-of-Sync Audio When Rendering mp4 Videos

If you take an mp4 (mpeg-4) video and put it in a video editing program like Corel VideoStudio and then render the same video without any other assets (images, audio, other videos, etc), then you may find that the resulting video becomes out-of-sync with the audio. To fix this, you can use Avidemux as follows.

Open the mp4 file in Avidemux
In the Audio Output section, check the Shift checkbox and enter a value in the time field. Note that 1 second = 1000 ms. For me, I found that 500 ms works.
Hit the play button and update the time shift value until the audio and the video are in sync.
In the Output Format section, choose Mkv Muxer. This will produce an mkv file. If you choose mp4 muxer, then the output audio will be out of sync with the video again. You can upload mkv files to YouTube.

Easily Highlight Text in a Screenshot Using Photoshop

Let’s say you’ve taken a screenshot of some text and you’d like to highlight part of the text. By using different blending modes, this becomes an easy task. Here’s how to do it.

1. Open the screenshot containing text in Photoshop and select the text you want to highlight

2. Create a new layer and fill it with yellow

3. Change the blending mode to darken or any other one you like to create the highlighted text.

Here, I’ve chose the Darken blend mode.

This is the result.

Easily break up (till) dirt with a tiller

Mantis Tiller and Mid-Tine Tillers

I’ve tried various types of tillers that you can rent from Home Depot. The light duty mantis tillers and mid tine are really only good for soft dirt.

MTA Rear Tine Tiller
(Model # FRC800K1A-656912)

This tiller is heavy duty and can break up hard clay BUT both the wheels and the tines move forward so unless the tines are partially underground breaking the dirt, you can easily be pulled forward and lose control of the machine. Though this is a heavy duty machine, I find it less easy to control compared to the Barreto Hydraulic tiller.

Barreto Hydraulic Tiller
(Model # E1320HX)

This tiller is big and heavy but it’s easy to use, easy to control, and will destroy clay and hard dirt. The rear tines move in the opposite direction of the wheels so the machine never runs away from you moving you forward out of control. It’s the most expensive to rent, but the time savings and ease of use make it worth it. I personally recommend this tiller over all the others.

NewBlueFX Chroma Key to Easily Remove Green Screen in Video

This article explains how to remove a green background in a video using Corel VideoStudio Ultimate 2018 and the NewBlueFX Chroma Key.

When applying a chroma key to a video in VideoStudio, you have two options:

using Corel VideoStudio’s native chroma key feature
using the NewBlueFX Chroma Key filter

Native Corel VideoStudio Chroma Key Feature

To use VideoStudio’s native chroma key feature,

select a video on the timeline,
open the Options panel,
click the Effect tab,
check the “Apply Overlay Options” checkbox, and
adjust the settings.

From my experience, this feature doesn’t work well for imperfectly lit backgrounds. Unless you are filming in a professional studio, the chroma key results will likely be poor.

NewBlueFX Chroma Key Filter

For better chroma key results, you can use the NewBlueFX Chroma Key filter. Disable the native VideoStudio chroma key by unchecking the “Apply Overlay Options” checkbox described in the previous steps. This will minimize confusion due to the application of multiple chroma keys. To use the NewBlueFX Chroma Key, do this:

crop your video to remove any areas outside of the green screen. If you don’t, the background will be gray instead of transparent.
click on the FX Filter button
select NewBlue Video Essentials II in the filter dropdown
drag the Chroma Key filter to the video in the timeline
if the native VideoStudio chroma key panel is visible, close it by clicking the x button in the top right corner of the panel
select the “Chroma Key” filter and then click the “Customize Filter” button

The NewBlue Chroma Key control panel will appear.

Uncheck “Show in preview window” to improve performance
Uncheck “Use keyframes” to apply the same chroma key settings for the entire video. Unless you need to apply different settings for different sections of the video, you don’t need to use keyframes.
If your background is green, leave the “Default – Green” button selected.
Check the “Show Mask” checkbox to show a black mask for any color in the video other than green
Adjust the Sensitivity value until the subject is completely black and the background is completely white. If it’s difficult to use the radial slider, just enter numeric values.
Drag the slider to scrub through the video to see if any section of the video shows a partially gray background or white subject. If it does, further increase the sensitivity setting.
Uncheck the “Show Mask” checkbox to remove the mask and to see the video in color. If you see some of the green background spilling over on the subject (usually around a person’s hair), adjust the “Erase Spill” value.
Click OK to save and exit the Chroma Key panel.

Some of the green background is spilling over around the subject’s hair. Increase the “Erase Spill” value to fix this.

Make Smooth Curves Using Google Drawings

Choose the “Curve” type of link

Click on the canvas to mark the starting point of the curve. Then click everywhere you want an inflection point. When you’re done, double-click to finalize the curve.

Click on the curve to show a bounding box with handles. Drag each handle to resize the curve.

Double-click on the curve to show the nodes on the curve. Then drag each node to shape the curve.

Simple Green Screen Setup for Video Production

In an era of home made videos and YouTube, everyone now is making videos on just about every subject, including myself. Filming a subject against a green background has the advantage that you can replace the green background with a picture or video like what they do in movies or on the news. Though you can buy a complete green screen setup on Amazon with tripod and clamps to stretch and hold the screen in place, I decided to just buy the green fabric and make my own setup using simple and cheap items from Home Depot.

The advantage of this setup is it’s cheap and easy to set up and store each time you use it. The green fabric costs about $16 on Amazon. On one of the shorter sides, it has a pocket the length of the side in which you can insert a rod or pole. I bought a metal closet rod from Home Depot. I then clamped the rod to the ceiling in my garage using metal clamps. Make sure the screws for the clamps go into wood joists and not just drywall. When using the green screen, I place a 2x4x 8 piece of wood (available at Home Depot for $3) to hold the bottom of the fabric down.

For storing the green screen, I wanted something quick and simple. For my setup, I can just roll up the fabric and store it on some large hooks.

To do this, I bought two large hooks which I screwed into the ceiling. I also bought 3/4″ PVC pipe and foam pipe insulation. The insulation makes for a larger diameter rod to reduce how much rolling needs to be done to roll up the fabric. It also provides a cushion in case it falls from the ceiling. The insulation was secured around the pipe using cable ties.

Total cost: $50

Green fabric: ~ $16
Large crew hooks: ~ $6
3/4″ PVC pipe: ~ $2
Foam pipe insulation: ~ $3
2x4x8 wood: ~ $3
Metal closet rod: ~$20

Believe it or not, the metal closet rod was the most expensive part. You can probably substitute it with something cheaper as long as it doesn’t bow like wood might.

How to Lock Tension to Create Super Tight Rope Line

Here’s one way to secure an item using rope that locks tension in the rope. It’s a variation of the Trucker’s Hitch. It involves creating a loop (butterfly knot) and then looping the free end of the rope twice through the loop. For the first, fixed end, I use a ring hitch knot which easily ties the first end of the rope to an anchor without it loosening. No matter how hard you pull, the knot won’t loosen.

Here’s how to tie a ring hitch for the first end.

Loop the rope end through an anchor point
Create two loops
Stick the end through the two loops and tighten

Here’s how to tie the butterfly knot.

And here’s how to use the butterfly knot to create a super tight rope line.

Loop the free end through an anchor point
Loop the free end through the butterfly knot twice
Pull on the free end (note the tension locks)
Tie the free end to the anchor point

I found out how to do this from:

How to Join the Ends of Two Ropes Together Using a Butterfly Bend

Use an Alpine Butterfly Bend.

Using Google Drawings to Easily Annotate Images

When reviewing websites, you often want to point at certain elements and add comments about them. This can easily and freely be done using Google Drawings.