I Decided to Get Back Into Video Editing...

The reason for this is because I decided to start posting on YouTube! I did some light video editing back in 2022-2024 for someone else, and before that, I also did some video editing for myself on Instagram. Speak of which, I decided to have my art Instagram account in my linktree, which will be on all of my business cards! Getting back into video editing is weird; I dropped it because I felt like what was good for content, wasn't what the client wanted for the videos, granted, I was only learning (and still am) while the client knew next to nothing (to my knowledge). Relearning a whole application I completely only knew of the smaller version of? AND older version? The main reason it feels so strange though is because I once hated it... I love editing, any and all, don't get me wrong. What I hated was editing videos where I felt like my input was just bad or overall just wrong or flat out ignored. I don't care if my opinions matter, but I do care if it's to help; I don't like offering advise that's not good, because at the end of the day, you are the deciding factor as to what your fate entails. I'm a firm believer in my faith; the Universe is completely based on your actions and words, so if you truly believe you won't get anywhere in life, then that's what the Universe and Deities/Gods will give you. It all just feels strange; coming back to editing... but this time the videos are ones I'm posting? It's a bit weird. I learned new things this time around: How to make something funny, how to create characteristics, and where to find free, royalty free audios. The first challenge is actually very much seen in the video; I used to ONLY record in portrait mode. I used to create and edit videos back in 2020-2021 for Instagram, as I mentioned before, but because of the orientation of how Instagram works, I immediately let muscle memory take over and did it ALL in portrait mode. I was CRYING (not literally, mentally) because it was such a small mistake, I couldn't help but laugh at myself, and if you took the time to watch it (Thanks!), I hope you laughed too! I also was even debating if I should have even been recording my screen like that at all. I know many artists on social media who draw digitally just screen records and do it that way, manually needing to speed up the clips in editing. But I did it with my phone in hyper-lapse because it meant that you could also see my hand drawing the picture, not just my mouse cursor. It also meant you could see if I was tracing or not, which is a huge deal to me. The second challenge was recording my voice-over... As a trans-masc nonbinary person, I have a love/hate relationship with my voice. I love how smooth it can be and how it can sound, however, I just wish it was more gender neutral, so listening to my own voice, just as a thought, was taunting. I do think my voice was soothing, but again... I do wish it was more gender neutral sounding... I guess you could say my in-head voice doesn't quite match what my actual voice sounds like, and it's frustrating to hear sometimes. The last thing I struggled with was finding background music I liked. I am an loyal listener to pretty much one band/one type of music, and I don't really like trying to sway away from that because most times other music just doesn't feel like me. Tied into that, was sound effects and literally anything else audio wise that wasn't my voice-over. I found two great royalty free websites for both the background music and the sound effects, which honestly feels like it ties in the video a lot more: If I had just talked with no music or anything, I feel like that would've been not only awkward, but honestly even more nerve wracking than I felt like it was. Editing was really simple, and I know it's different from gaming content, considering that's what I did previously edit (and not great, considering limitations), but I feel good coming back into video editing and being able to relearn old things I knew AND now add the new things I've learned to edit this video! It makes me feel a little more confident to be able to get back into editing videos, even if it's just for myself right now. So to summarize what I did (because I do believe it can be applied to most things): I recorded myself drawing, as well as used the drawing application for a second timelapse, I combined them both into one video and edited out long moments I was gone for or planned out funny moments, I recorded my voice-over while watching the video, I added in music and sound effects, I also added in reaction pictures to go with how I was feeling during my voice-over and to give characteristics to the video, and I rewatched it at least twice to make sure it was a video I would watch if it was someone else. The hardest part about all of this, was learning, and honestly that's the hardest part about life, but the most powerful tool we have in humanity. "Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back," is an amazing quote, and how I interpret it is how learning can be a struggle, and being curious can get you between a rock and a hole, but once you have the skill set and understanding it will always come back in abundance to you. If you want to have a small tutorial, I'd be happy to make a little playlist on YouTube about it! Please like, share, and leave a comment, even if it's just an emoji or short memo. I want to make people's dreams a reality, and to do that, I need your help! May you all have a good day, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.