Gore Truck Show Video

Updated Video (see below):

Made with Shotcut 21.03.21. Still a WIP and I will update with the final product when it is completed (missing about 30 winners from various categories and I am waiting on the names of the kids colouring competition). I shot most of the video on a low end Samsung phone, but had to scour around to get the drone footage and the 3 portrait videos from an iPhone.

Drone footage is a bit choppy since I downloaded from vimeo and it was recorded using 50fps (I couldn’t seem to get it super smooth on a 1080p 25fps project, and had to work with the slower moving portions which are still cool imo).

Any suggestions for improvement are welcome as this is only my 3rd attempt at a real video, so go for it! And really, if I’m being honest it’s probably only 2.

Edit: The photos of the winning trucks are not the actual winners since I didn’t have the license plates at the time I started.

Credits: Thanks to the usual suspects - @shotcut and @brian for the software, and @jonray and @bentacular for their tutorials and inspiration, which is in part how I learned to do some of the things present in the video.

8 Likes

Excellent skills!!
I loved the 3 vertical videos side by side showing the trucks.

With all of the classics shown, how or why did the modern day trucks win?

1 Like

That is impressive! I didn’t know these type of effects were possible in Shotcut.

10-4

2 Likes

Love it. Nice text effects and transitions.

Well, starting at around 0:42 seconds, you completely (or almost) mute the song and replace it with the trucks sounds. In my opinion, it might sound better if you faded down the audio level of the song at, say, 50% while fading up the truck sounds at 50%.

1 Like

Great visuals. I love the transitions. Well done!

1 Like

Hi @Hudson555x, my bad, I will edit the original post. Those images were simply the first 3 good truck photos in the canon folder and were only used as part of the creation process. When I started making the video I didn’t have the license plates of the winners, so they are not the ACTUAL winners. I hope that helps allleviate any concerns you may have, although there are so many categories and the first few will be newer trucks (under 40,000kms, 40-100,000kms etc). I will update the link when all 45 winners are added, as there are definitely some classics that made the cut!

Edit: Ironically, the iPhone user who decided portrait was a good idea actually made my life slightly easier since all I needed to do was take a still from one of them, enlarge and blur for the background, then mask each video accordingly (also needed to mask-trim the right edge of each one to cover some of the black that appeared after stabilising). AFAIK one should NEVER video in portrait, even for the likes of twitter, since a landscape video can always have black side bands or a blur added. Am I wrong?

Great suggestion, thanks! I could almost claim great minds think alike (but that might be doing you a disservice as mine is probably more twisted). I knew that was a good idea, but just didn’t have the fade in from the trucks start late enough, nor was the song fade out duration long enough so it definitely wasn’t smooth.

The reason I ended up cutting the song in several times around that point (and earlier) was to cover some loud yelling and screaming from a few people nearby, and I really didn’t know any other way to deal with it other than perhaps just copying some other truck audio and just using the regular audio crossfade to mix it in. I’m unsure which is better but I will just do as you suggested.

Thanks again, such feedback is always appreciated and I’m adjusting now.

1 Like

Thanks! Edited my original post mentioning your tutorials which were helpful during my initial learning process some time back. Haven’t used shotcut much unfortunately since then so this was a great way to redevelop some old and new skills.

2 Likes

Roger that! Well I’m no Shotcut expert - not by a long shot - so that should give you hope. Imo most things are achievable in Shotcut; occasionally it might require a workaround or a different way of thinking compared to the more powerful video editors. Take a look at the @Jonray and @bentacular youtube channels for various tutorials on transitions (among other things) assuming you’ve already done the Shotcut channel intro lessons. @Elusien has some really cool stuff too, depending on your skill set. I am sure there are others and I hope I’m allowed to post that here, since they helped me a lot when learning.

2 Likes

Great job on the video. Very fun to watch.

:+1:

6 Likes

OMG that is HILARIOUS!! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: Cracked me up!

Hi @PoisonedSlice , I knew this was going to be good when I saw your name because I remember your previous post (well worth watching for those who haven’t seen it):

This video is full of humour, nice transitions and slick editing. Love the text effects! :+1:

1 Like

Thanks for the kind words, as always. I took inspiration from one of your tutorials on a whip-pan transition and used the extra wide image technique at 1:15. I also appreciate that you (and probably most of the other posters to be fair) noticed some of the comedy I incorporated. For the record, I tried to enter the colouring contest, since I had to do some GIMP magic on the original image to make it useable, but they said I was too old!

Genius!

1 Like

Yes! Thanks @brian. I’m going to be pointing to that video every time someone posts a video of their serve or strokes in portrait on the Talk Tennis Warehouse forums (because it happens FAR too often).

So I have an updated video based on the @MusicalBox suggestion coupled with (quite) a few more modifications. Not sure if this thread is the best place for it but I will also document some of my own learning, since I’m really still a Shotcut newbie and some of my lightbulb moments/discoveries may help others less experienced.

Updated video:

Changes/additions:
/////////////////////////////////

  • Changed text fade out in titles to masks (example title at 11s with masks at 14s)
  • Removed the song from the beginning of the parade at 42s and cheated by copying another part of the truck audio and mixed it in. Not perfect, but good enough given the time I’ve had to spend doing other more labour intensive duties (like identifying winning trucks from over 1000 photos using the provided winning license plates - great fun!). On another project I might open audacity for this.
  • Made a minor edit and stabilised the videos cut into the 3 portrait videos starting at 1:26s
  • Changed transition at 1:44 to clock
  • Increased dissolve length transitons on joined videos from 1:50 to 2:00 and attempted to make the short speed ramp smoother. I don’t know how to easily fix the change in sky positions during the dissolves which is very obvious.
  • Under prize giving results I discovered there were truck entries that were the recipient of more than one prize, and in some cases more than one trophy, while other winners didn’t receive any trophy, so I had to edit the different text variations accordingly. I’ve included a sample of each type and have added the real winning truck in each case (although there are over 40 prizes so I have a lot more work to do). Went from simple to rich text so I could bold winner names (example at 2:10, which also cycles through the various prizes this truck has won). On those that didn’t receive a trophy, I just added a slide in from the bottom (with transparency) on top of the photo. Interesting that the same font settings using rich text aren’t quite the same as simple text.
  • Fancied up the colouring competition winners page since it wasn’t working for me. Did a cursor flash effect because I wasn’t inclined to go the full typing route, as in @Jonray’s tutorial. For me, that’s just too much work for the ROI (call me lazy!).

What I Learned
///////////////////////////

During the Prize giving creation I discovered a couple of things about transitions, and why I should limit their use when working with colour blocks and text that might end up being re-used. Instead, I went with size/position/rotate and mask filters to achieve the same outcome in a more efficient manner, even though initially it took slightly longer to synchronise timings).

Long story short; if I use a transparent block to add a transition to text (slide in from right, for example, which is what I did on all texts to achieve the effect from 2:07 - 2:10) then when the entire effect over multiple tracks is copied, changing the text content for a different prize unfortunately means the transition keeps the original text. The transition has to be removed and recreated on every track, which is a real pain.

Here is a screenshot of what I mean:

Changing text B leaves the green arrow transition with the original text A. Also, using this method there are a lot of elements to copy to duplicate the overall effect, so this was just stupid in hindsight. After playing with simple masks and reviewing my earlier sideshow video, minimum came to the rescue!

Much easier!

The blue/purple colour was a little too purpley for my liking on the TV, so editing the mlt file with find and replace all was a lifesaver.

EDIT: Damnit, audio swish is out of sync, fixing now.

2 Likes

Looking great @PoisonedSlice ! Thank you for giving details of what you changed and what you learned. That is so helpful. BTW I forgot to say before that the whip-pan transition looks cool.

BTW also … that song is cool too! Brought back memories of way back (I’m old enough to remember when it came out)…

1 Like

Updated the link so the transition sounds are sync’d properly. That happened when I sped up the Gore Truck Show title slide in at the start. Like I said, amateur hour here! Sorry about that.

1 Like

You’re welcome! Not applicable to the likes of yourself obviously, but anyone starting out or still new should try and minimise the use of transitions as much as possible when using text elements imo, since there are other ways.

The whip pan transition was based on one of your (and bentaculars) tutorials that I watched some time ago. Didn’t use the exact same numbers as you but the principle is the same, thanks!

2 Likes

Well said! Although I do spend a fair time trying to create transitions and text effects, often just a simple dissolve or fade in (for text) does the job!

Glad you found it useful!

1 Like