There's a help page!

Yes there is.   I just don't list it in the menu anymore. Some of the content in it is a bit out of date and I have not had the time to up date to to follow the newer layout that is used.  Still has most of the basics though.    Just use the link above and you'll see the section with the sub menu for the other areas in Help.

Well for once I got something done on time. The second show is up.  Last night my itunes program would not work and today I scurried to fix it because my video was in it. Lost somewhere. The good thing is that in made me work at getting out a few more glitches before posting on youtube.  I'm pleased with this one.  The more you work on something the better you get.  For those making films and videos, I'd say take the time to watch them over and over.  It may take several times before you realize something should be edited out, added or changed.

There is a big difference between a live show and a filmed one.  Even if you film a live show, you can crop and edit to make it flow better.  Even live concerts are edited and things are added in studios.  When making a show specifically for film there is a lot you can do to keep it interesting. You can cut out umms and aahs and dead spaces. If you have to chop up a clip to clean it up, you can crop some of the clips(bringing it into a close up) It gives the illusion of having more cameras on the subject.  If you have a program like what I use, "I Movie" on a Mac, (this is a cheep downsize of their expensive complicated big movie program),you have a lot of editing tools at your disposal.  I use their clip adjustments to enhance or change colors, add a boarder of blur or black. My favorite is called vignette. It gives a black border and sometimes hides me inching into the scene. The latest upgrade Ilife11 added the ability to ad cut aways and split screens.  You can download it on line for 14.00. Cut aways can make a long otherwise mundane clip more interesting. I use it a lot during interludes in songs when the puppets are just standing there, so I add reactions from the rest of the cast.  As soon as I can recruit a couple of other humans I would like to use an audience of puppets more.  I did that myself for Millie haskins in concert but it was very difficult.  I just thought I would pass along some tips for those struggling with filming. Nice thing about a video is that once you have mastered it, the work is done. BTW at this point I am only using a 300.00 point and shoot camera with HD. I'm sure the experts can tell.

GREAT. love it.  You definitely are improving in all aspects. I like Patsy's outfit. My daughter told me about Patsy's sister even before I got to watching. We both agree she is cuter. Sorry Patsy, but you know the years don't pass without some damage   Millie seems to be improoving after rehab. She looks so much healthier, with a better hairdo and all. And the earrings work well for her too. Patsy, your aunt,I assume she is from your father's side of the family? Do keep up the good work.

Good filming tips The director. We are on PC here.
We are now going into studio again for our  next  block of filming. We finished some exteriors with some Chroma keying. We filmed ouside, so the color balance is more natural for keying to exterior backgrounds, still photos or footage, but wind, and  cloud cover variations affected things quite a bit. The wind  caused wrinkling of the cloth  background, which was harder to key out, and too much sun ie: no clouds, made  hard shadows, a cloud cover is  nice, as shadows were not so hard, but then  it  sometimes went too dark.. sometimes too much variation between shots. But  overall I am  pleased with results.

Now instudio again, a keying test. I have decked out a room as a cave, to do a full sized human scene, but to get even bigger caverns than the room, I will need to key that into something else as well. We did some smaller puppet sized caves, so the test is with some of those. The catepillar in the second shot is not in the movie.

What a great set! Watch out for that giant worm. About Patsy's outfit how funny.  She really has only one yellow dress. I'm trying to get my sister to make some clothes but in the meantime I improvise.  LOL! she is wearing one of my short sleeve shirts, and underneath that is a pair of ripped up silk boxers that were in the rag bag. The hat belonged to my nephew.  I've gotten a few baby clothes items from him.  Little sister was a great Ebay find.  A later version of the Patsy puppet that Pelham named as "Boggles" She belonged to a woman in the UK who bought it for her son years ago.  He is now an established puppeteer and I think does magic.  He could not use her in his show so they reluctantly sold her.  I've kept in touch with her. It was interesting for her to see her puppet on youtube. In the first season I did a show called "British Adoption" where I merged reality with Patsy's world. Thus the British accent.

Hi to all browsing around the site. I have been wondering for a while if this thread was still active, or whether I could add a few bits and pieces. Since 2012 (the last post here) Blender has become quite a good tool for doing chroma keys and such. I use it a great deal now. If anyone is interested, I have done some tutorials  which might be helpful if you want to give it a go with your puppets. I know Blender can be daunting in the beginning, but I do recommend it, and hopefully the series of tutorials might get you started. if you are interested I can post some links here.

Thanks for bumping this thread, need to go through and read it.  I am up for reviving it if there is material!

Always open to learning something new here so go for it man!

Hi Guys,  sorry about the delay.
Anyhow here are the first 4 tutorials I did. We are already up to Blender 2.74, but  video chroma keying has not changed much in newer versions, so these still apply for now. First one is some orientation just finding your way round Blender without freaking out.


 

Next a few tips on preparing your footage before starting your keys




Then how to set up and do a basic chroma Key (apologies, the audio only recorded on one channel)



Then lastly for this post, how to patch holes in your key that you just couldn't get rid of in the basic chroma keying