Looking for step-by-step instructions for prepping (i.e. compressing) HD video files from Final Cut Express for YouTube? If so, you’ll find the answers you need in this great video tutorial by BIGlittleBROTHER. Very friendly, super informative and, apparently, works for iMovie ‘08 projects as well.
I have to give a super BIG thanks to BIGlittleBROTHER for this one! He really helped me get rolling with Final Cut Express (see last post), and his approach to explaining allowed me to adapt his methods to suite my specific needs.
No wonder his tutorial has gotten 46 thousand views!
After all my worrying, I finally buy Final Cut Express and to my virgin eyes the program looks just like Final Cut Pro — totally intimidating! To get beyond this I force myself to avoid all the possibilities and think about the most basic task I want to accomplish. Answer: Upload video footage from my Canon G9 to YouTube.
This past weekend I grabbed my G9 and pretty quickly had this:
Clearly this sucks. Horrible compression from hell. Worse than “dumb” iMovie would help me produce. However, I have succeeded in getting the footage in and out of FCE and on YouTube fast, and that was the point.
For “Take II” (below) I referred to a FCE tutorial on Lynda.com, and found some help on how/where to compress for broadband, getting this:
Not bad at all, but I wanted to see if I could find better, “ideal” settings I could use.
What’s particularly nice about Kinghorn’s video (besides his clear, lucid teaching style) is that he covers correction techniques for both “straight” photography as well as more creative enhancements. He also shares critical workflow tips, showing how to use presets to make great skies in no time.
