Documentation:Digital Tattoo Student Orientation/Creating Video/Post-Production

Once your video has been shot, it is time to pick an editing software (see the Selecting Your Tools section of this guide) to edit/polish up your video.

Editing Workflow

If this is your first time doing video editing, you may not know how or where to start. Below is the post-production workflow I became comfortable with and that I recommend for you to follow.

1. Form the backbone of your video: trim and join all your clips together on your video editor's timeline, which is where your clips will be as you work on them. The clips should be in the order of how they will appear in the final video (without any media or special effects added).
2. Add pictures and other kinds of media to your video according to the right column of your script (see the Planning section of this guide).
3. Add special effects: This can include transitions between clips, sound effects, censoring, animations, etc...
4. Run through your video a few times and make changes as necessary.
5. Export your video into a movie file - depending on the video editing software you are using, the location of "Export video" will vary.

Once again, video editing takes a long time, especially if you have no experience with it whatsoever. It can be a headache, but the end result is always worth the effort.

Basic Editing Techniques

There are a few basic video-editing techniques you will need to know regardless of the kind of software you choose to use.

1. Trimming clips: If you want to separate one clip into two, or if you want to shave off the 3-5 seconds of extra video you left during the filming stage, (see the Production section), you will need to trim your video clip. Each software trims video clips in different ways, but the idea is essentially the same.
2. Joining Clips and Adding Transitions: To join 2 clips "together", simply put them side by side in your video editor's timeline. You will also want to add transition effects between 2 clips. This makes your video flow smoother and is also easier on the eyes. Most video editing software employ a drag and drop function to attach transition effects in between your video clips. Play around with it, it's actually very intuitive.
3. Adding/Resizing Media: Most, if not all video editing software will allow you to put images, sound effects, and other videos over your video clips. These images and videos can also be re-sized and moved around the screen. Keep this in mind while filming, so that you know where to leave empty spots in your video where an image could eventually go. Sound effects can usually be adjusted on the video timeline.

There are many different video editing techniques out there that enable you to do different things with the clips you have. For me, learning new techniques to add new features to our video took time, but was well worth the effort in the end. There are many video tutorials online, just do a search!