🧠 5 Visuals for Your Next Video

Author

Rickie Ho
March 09, 2024

Happy Saturday everyone,

Sending this out a little later because I was busy the last few days but got a good edition in store for you below!

I get into it in visual #1 but I want to get back into filming! For those that don’t know, I used to shoot nightlife/fraternity content on YouTube and while I don’t miss the lifestyle, I do sometimes miss the actual shooting aspect of the job.

I’ve always wanted to make travel videos to document my travels and I’m hoping to start this year as a hobby! Nothing crazy - just think it’d be fun to do! Kind of as a creative outlet (just like this newsletter but in video form haha).

Enjoy today’s edition!

- Rickie

5 Visuals I Loved This Week

1. These Beautiful Travel Shots

  • This was my favorite video I watched this week (aside from the TikTok’s from Kacey Musgraves’ surprise appearance at Zach Bryan’s Chicago show).

  • Moving forward, I want to branch out into all different kinds of visuals - beyond the usual motion design-centered content.

    • I know that a lot of you don’t just make/edit talking head content like I’m used to so I want to give you guys ideas for visuals that can be physically shot on a camera.

    • This could also be good for hybrid style content that has a good mix of motion design and cinematic style shots.

  • I would like to make more of an effort to document my life and my travels and seeing inspiration like this gets me so excited to make my own videos to look back on.

  • I specifically wanted to note the wide angle shots Tim Spisar included in his video, where he used a Sony 24mm GM lens.

    • It’s expensive equipment, but man do the shots look beautiful.

  • I also found this video on different cinematic shots to capture: Cool Camera Positions - Part 1 🎥 | Sony FX3

    • There’s so much good film school content online!

2. This Magnifying Glass Mask + Accompanying Visuals

  • Here’s a cool mask effect that’s quite easy to replicate in theory.

    • It really just involves two layers, and a circular mask that reveals the second layer. How you want to go about a graphic like this depends on your software of choice, but in After Effects, you could easily achieve this visual with:

      • Primary layer

      • Secondary layer

      • A null object to parent these two:

        • Circular mask

        • Magnifying glass asset

  • I can’t stop and won’t stop raving about the details that go into a visual like this from Vox.

    • The boil on the pink arrows on the bar chart (boil is the slight movement/texture that you use to get back when animators had to hand draw each layer in an animation - each layer is going to be ever so slightly different than the next). Luckily, this is easily achievable in After Effects.

    • The graininess on the edges of the magnifying glass.

    • The grid on the two corners of the frame in the quadrant visual.

    • The non-uniform rhythm of the scrapbook effect giving the visual a hand-made feel to it - as if someone was physically placing the photos down.

3. This F1 Graphic

  • Sam Ellis is one of the best in the business at taking a complicated concept and building a visual out of it - and the best part about this is that he makes it a part of the video.

  • He has a real knack for thinking outside of the box to come up with a way to visualize a complex topic.

  • It may look easy, but coming up with this concept is a tall task.

  • I love the transition from the Red Bull car to the Search Party car.

    • The dials, and the texturing on the dials, are also a really nice touch.

4. This Tech Inspired Editing Style

  • I tend to draw a lot of inspiration from the tech scene for my videos because everyone is used to seeing it, it’s been expertly designed to be pleasing for viewers, and we’re all consuming the content on tech anyway.

  • I’m clearly not the only one who thinks this way, because Jeff Su, a creator that I have started to follow closely quite recently, also seems to draw inspiration from tech.

    • This could also be because his professional background is in the tech space.

  • I like the way the bubbles pop out in his Email graphic, as if they’re like text bubbles (which we’ll revisit in the next graphic)

  • The network graphic at the end is also an amazing graphic, that is so simple.

    • This is definitely something I’d use in the future!

5. This 3D iMessage Format

Video: What Killed the Apple Car?/Bloomberg Originals

  • As mentioned previously, I like taking ideas from tech to add elements for my videos.

  • This is a pretty cool graphic with how the text bubbles are raised with the drop shadow

  • The only thing that’s weird about this is the fact that they didn’t use the Apple icons at the beginning when this is a clear replication of iMessage.

    • Maybe for legal reasons?

  • But this is a cool way to integrate text messages into a visual!

X to Inspire

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