Shapes to Emphasize a Point in a Video

Using shapes in ScreenFlow

Shapes Yellow road lines white arrowsYou might want to use an arrow, a box or some other shapes when explaining things in a video.  Watch the above YouTube video to see what I mean.  That solid shape can do lots to drive home a point.

Adding solid shapes to ScreenFlow videos in 8 steps

To begin adding solid shapes to your video, open up the video in ScreenFlow.  Then

Solid shapes panel

  1. Click on the shapes icon.
  2. Click on the plus sign.
  3. Select one of the 5 shapes.  (Let’s start with the box.)
  4. Draw a box around something you wish to emphasize.  (In the sample in the above video, it is the number 23.)
  5. If it’s too fat, reduce its thickness.
  6. Click the outer top perimeter of the color icon to change the color.
  7. Experiment with moving the shapes around, changing direction and changing the opacity.
  8. Every time you want to add a shape, click the plus sign and then one of the 5 shape icons.


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After you read this, watch the above video and start practicing.

Related web pages

Magnifying glass over map

This YouTube video show how to make a magnifying glass move over a map.  Looking through the magnifying glass, that portion of the map will appear larger.

Adding effects to the mouse pointer

This YouTube video explains effects like:

  • Every time you hit the mouse a red ring pops up around the pointer to let people watching the video know that you clicked the mouse.
  • Increase and decrease the size of the pointer to make it clearer for viewers to see.
  • Change the opacity of the pointer which makes it lighter or darker – very handy if you’re doing a video on a dark background.
  • Change the shape of the pointer to either a light circle, dark circle, square or your own custom shape.

Tools to enhance your videos

Watch this SlideShare presentation for tips on what you can use to make your marketing videos more effective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Peter Enns has been developing websites since 1996. He is a social media blogger and author of the free YouTube video-creation tutorial called 7 Day YouTube.

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Editing Video to Make Minor Changes

Modifying a YouTube video

Occasionally you may go into one of your old blog posts and see an error.  Perhaps a point on one of your YouTube videos has become obsolete.  Editing video using the points below may be your best option.

editing video Movies reels orange

 

Editing video in 18 steps

  1. Look at your video on the YouTube website.  Write down the date on a scrap of paper.
  2. Configure ScreenFlow so that you will be recording the computer audio.
  3. Start recording your computer screen.
  4. Open your video to full screen mode and record it in its entirety.
  5. Start editing video and upload it to YouTube.
  6. Right-click on your new video and copy the embed code into your clipboard.
  7. Find the old video on your web page.
  8. Memorize the 5 or so words above it.
  9. Open the page in edit view.
  10. View it in text mode.
  11. Press Cmd F to find those 5 words you memorized. (In the example the words are “screen at the same time”. As soon as “screen at” is entered, text right above the old embed code is highlighted in green.)
  12. Delete the old embed code and press Cmd V to add the new.
  13. Make sure you have the ideal width and height for your page.  (I usually use 660 x 371 pixels.)
  14. Update your post.
  15. View your post.
  16. Check out the updated YouTube video on the post.
  17. Go into the YouTube website and find the video from the date you wrote down on scrap paper.
  18. Delete the video.


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Related pages

iPhone videos

iPhone in hand 2The Trancappuccino website has a video entitled How to Transfer iPhone Video Files to Your Mac Computer to Edit in ScreenFlow.  If you have an iPhone, watch it.

Online Course

Grumo Media has a SlideShare presentation entitled How to Create an Online Course in 60 Minutes.  The idea is to create instructions on something you are very good at.  Then sell it online or give it away in a squeeze page.

Sample squeeze page

Below is a mockup of a sample squeeze page. As you can see, it is very simple. Remember, more is less. It has

  • An eye-catching headline that makes people want to read more.
  • A few pictures to help tell the story.
  • A minimum amount of text to tell the story.
  • A place for the visitor to leave their name & email address.

Click on the graphic now.  You will see how the original squeeze page also has a video.


 


Peter Enns has been developing websites since 1996. He is a social media blogger and author of the free YouTube video-creation tutorial called 7 Day YouTube.

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How to Add an MP4 Video within a Video

Special effects using an MP4 video

This tiny tutorial will show you how to have a picture of a computer screen within your video.  The computer will be showing an MP4 video.  So, you will be having an MP4 video within a video.

MP4 video within video in 7 steps

Export to MP4 video
1. Using ScreenFlow, create the video that will be playing within the computer screen.

2. Export it onto your desktop as an MP4 file.

mp4 video Mac computer Empty screen3. Using GIMP, delete the inside of the picture of a computer.

4. Save it as a PNG file and drag it into a Keynote slide.

5. Drag your MP4 file from your computer desktop to the same Keynote slide.Click to Buy ScreenFlow Now

6. Size it to fit inside the computer screen.

7. Edit using ScreenFlow and upload to YouTube.

Earn a percentage of the selling price for every book sold.

Click here to learn more.

Value-added email marketing

email-marketing-ad-ad

Click on the image to go to the post about value-added email marketing.

Related pages

Buy ScreenFlow

To buy ScreenFlow or to get a free trial copy, go to the ScreenFlow website.

Business video service

Learn about a new business video service that allows anyone with a business email address to sign up and upload, share, and tag videos in their organization.   Read about it on the Windows Central website.

MP4 player

The WikiMedia pages say: The name MP4 player is a marketing term for inexpensive portable media playersRead more.

MP4 file

An MP4 file is a file that can contain both video and audio. Videos shared on the Internet usually have an MP4 extension.

The YouTube video below explains what an MP4 file is. There are examples of how MP4 files can be used.

 This file name may have gone by too quickly: bit.ly/screenflowelements. Click on it to see it now.

The video also tells you to go to this link: freewebdesign.club/scrolling-text.

drop down  drop downFacebook logo

 


Peter Enns has been developing websites since 1996. He is a social media blogger and author of the free YouTube video-creation tutorial called 7 Day YouTube.

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ScreenFlow for Professional Video Production

28 things you can do with ScreenFlow

This page has moved to the How to Make Amazing Videos website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Index of Videoguy videos

 

 

Free Stock Images

    13 sources of free stock images

    • Better Google rankings if you use images
    • Each of the 12 links below go to a website full of free stock images.
    • Stocksnap.io
    • Pexels.com
    • Pixabay
    • On Dreamstime you can use search terms to find free images.  For instance, I entered “tall buildings” in the search box and saw 31
      search_tall_buildings-black-outlinefree pictures of tall buildings. If you are not on this web page and wish to go to Dreamstime, bit.ly/nocostimages will get you there.  Dreamstime has tens of millions of pictures & short videos from which to choose.
  • Go to the freeimages website (freeimages.com) and sign up for a free account and get free stock images.
  • download free photosAnother excellent source of free stock images is Picjumbo.  Every day more gorgeous free pictures show up.  They are available for free, even for commercial use, with no restrictions.    Important note: To get a free download into your Downloads folder, click on any image. Then click on the button to the left that says “FREE download”.
  • Gratisography is another site with royalty-free photos.  It does not have the excellent search feature that Picjumbo has.
  • Unsplash has free stock images — mostly landscape photos. They can be used for free commercially if you wish. There is even a search bar so that you can search for things such as “offices”.
  • Little Visuals is another source of free landscape photos.
  • After writing this post, I found another source of free images: DeathtotheStock.
  • And another one: Superfamous Studios.
  • Think about the category of high resolution images you want
  • Enter it in the search box
  • More free photos at public domain photos.
  •  Get free fitness, weight loss, and food photos

  • More free image websites

 

How to download free stock photos from FreeImages

  • Suppose you wanted a stock photo of a dog
  • Enter dogs in the freeimages.com search box
  • Many hundreds of pictures of dogs
  • 80% of the pictures free
  • 20% of them have a price
  • That’s how freeimages makes their money
  • Pictures with a price tag can be as cheap as $1.
  • More specific
  • Picture of a Dalmatian dog
    • Enter Dalmatian in the search box
    • Several dozen stock photos of Dalmatians.

 

 

 

  • After you see a thumbnail of a Dalmatian picture you want, click on it
  • Gives you a page with a larger picture and a download button.

 

 

 

 

  • Clicking on the download  button gives a large image
  • To save it in computer, right click and select Save image as.
  • This service dependent upon members sharing photos
  • So, if you become a member, upload some of your best photos
  • Let other members use them as royalty free images

Combine your free stock images

Pin it with Pinterest

After you download a number of images, the cheapest way to edit them is to use PhotoEditorX. It’s virtually the same as Photoshop which costs $120/year. PhotoEditorX costs $47 to download. The download comes with huge numbers of instructional videos. There are never any other costs.

To order it, simply scroll to the very bottom of that PhotoEditorX link and click on “click here to download now”.


High resolution and free stock images

  • One minor problem with high resolution images is the size
  • Just PART of it may occupy entire computer screen.
  • I solved that stock photography problem with Skitch
  • Look at the stock photo in Finder
  • Expand the finder as much as possible
  • Capture it with Skitch
  • Save with a descriptive name.

My photo is never too large now.


 

 

 

 

 


Peter Enns has been developing websites since 1996. He is a social media blogger and author of a free YouTube tutorial. It’s called 7 Day YouTube and will teach you how to make entertaining videos & animated GIFs.

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Wistia Video from YouTube

How to create a Wistia video

from a YouTube video in 13 steps

At the bottom of this post is a video that shows a picture of a man who won a funny face contest.  You can practice on that YouTube video to change it into a Wistia video.

    1. Open the YouTube video
    2. Open ScreenFlow and begin to record the screen
    3. Change the YouTube video to full-screen view
    4. ScreenFlow screen sizing iconPlay the entire video
    5. Press Esc to leave full-screen view and save your video with a descriptive name
    6. Click your screen sizing icon and resize the canvas to 1920 x 1080 pixels.
    7. Audio waves are too small in ScreenFlow timelineAudio waves are too small.  So, select the video clip.
    8. Click the audio icon
    9. Slide the volume button to its highest point and click Action > OK.
    10. If the video has unwanted material on it, you will still likely keep ALL of the audio.  So, right-click on the video clip and click Detach Audio.
    11. Icons show up on ScreenFlow videoNow you will isolate the individual shots that may have to be reproduced.   Study the YouTube tutorial if you do not know how to recreate a shot.  Move your scrubber to the very end of the shot, right-click and click on Split Clip.
    12. If there are unwanted icons at the bottom of a segment, isolate that segment. Enlarge it.  However, that could cut off some of the sides.  If so, the entire shot may have to be made over again.
    13. As soon as your video is ready to publish from ScreenFlow, click on File > Publish to Wistia


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Return to main Wistia blog post.

Sample shot editing

The Wistia video below shows how I took one of the shots from a YouTube video and changed it into a shot for my Wistia video.


Editing questions?

Hopefully these 15 points with all of the hyperlinks will show you how to make a Wistia video from a YouTube video.  If you have gone through the YouTube tutorial and still can’t quite get it, feel free to fill in the comments form below.

 

 

Return to the main blog post

 

 


Peter Enns has been developing websites since 1996. He is a social media blogger and author of a free YouTube tutorial. It’s called 7 Day YouTube and will teach you how to make entertaining videos & animated GIFs.

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Video Editing Tips for Superb Promotions

Video editing the Dogs & Butterflies film

I enjoy video editing to make some of the special effects like you see in the video below.  On this page are some tips for making higher quality videos.

If you are skimming this page, the tips are highlighted in brown.

Short videos

People prefer short videos.  You should aim to get your video as short as possible to get your point across.  While video editing, you may have to ruthlessly delete footage.  Once you’re at that place, do not remove so much that people miss the point. But, don’t add anything either.

Getting point across as quickly as possible

In the first segment of the video, I wanted people to know that

♦ The dog, Shavi, had been seriously injured.
♦ Shavi’s friend, Nina, had not entered the picture yet
♦ Later, Nina became her friend

I wanted to get those points across as quickly as possible.  This is how I did it:

♦ Seriously injured — Picture of Shavi. Used Keynote to briefly explain the injuries with moving text.  (Note that much of the video movement was created by using ScreenFlow to record a Keynote presentation on my  computer screen.)
♦ Nina not entered picture yet — 2 identical pictures of Nina and Shavi.  Used GIMP to create a translucent screen over Nina in one of the pictures
♦ Nina became friend — The identically-sized picture with Nina replaces the one with the translucent screen.  Done in such a way that Shavi does not change position.

While video editing, always keep in mind that you must get a point across quickly at the beginning.  Otherwise, people may not bother to watch the rest of the video.  To see an example of getting a few points across quickly in the first 8 seconds, watch the 14 Tips video.


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Why and how travel 200 miles?

To get this why and how information across as quickly as possible, I

♦ Explained that Shavi had been given to friends
♦ Showed a map to emphasize the 200 miles
♦ To show Shavi’s emotional state, reused the picture of Shavi without Nina
♦ Used the map again so that the viewer would quickly grasp the enormity of the distance

Transition from Shavi’s navigation to animal navigation in general

Special effects

You will not be able to make many of these special effects until you have had lots of practice.  Things are just too complicated.  However, while video editing, keep asking yourself how you might add some  special effects.

The rest of the video is about amazing animal navigation.  Here’s how I quickly got some of the points across.

♦ Used the map again with a question to emphasize the navigation concept
♦ Used the stories of the 29 cats and 60 dogs to show how Shavi has a homing ability in common with many animals
• YouTube video below shows how I created the segment with the dogs and cats

 

♦ In a nutshell, this is how I created the dog-cat statistic section:

• I used just the faces of dogs and cats to quickly get across the point of homing dogs and cats.
• Notice how after I select one cat picture, all I have to do is copy and paste it using Keynote.
• After I press Cmd V, the picture will be reproduced down and to the right.
• Look at the Inspector.
• Notice how the built-in effect changes to “appear” as soon as I either click on a picture or else press Cmd V.
• Even though I press Cmd V quickly, the images do not show up fast enough.
• So, after I use ScreenFlow to record the action, I use Clip Inspector to speed it up.
• Initially it took 2.2 seconds to make the 4 cat pictures appear.
• After using the ScreenFlow Clip Inspector, it took 1.1 seconds to make the 4 cat pictures appear.

Other creatures

The main video goes on to mention homing pigeons, the albatross and monarch butterflies.

Monarch butterflies

While video editing, I used video footage from other YouTube videos.  I used the ScreenFlow text box feature to credit the owners of that footage.  To see how I created this snippet of text, go to the Screenflow text creation page.

I wanted to emphasize the fact it takes the monarch butter flies 3 to 5 generations to migrate from Michoacan, Mexico to Canada and back.  A female butterfly may leave Mexico.  The great grandchild may be the one to return to the great grandmother’s former habitat.

I made a montage of the egg, caterpillar, pupa and butterfly leaving the chrysalis.  I used the Clip Inspector to speed the montage up.  While the montage was being shown, I was speaking about one generation laying eggs, dying and then being replaced by the next generation.  My voice was close captioned at the bottom to help people follow the whole process.

 

video editingSpecial effects to show life beyond the fourth dimension

At one point I said that I believed the homing ability had something to do with life beyond the fourth dimension.  I used 2 special effects to get that point across.  First of all, I used the Keynote spin action from the Inspector to make the picture of Albert Einstein spin.

video editingThen, after making a ScreenFlow video of it, I overlapped two video clips on the timeline.  Double-clicking on the overlapping portion gave the transition inspector you see on the right.  You can see that “Ripple” has been selected.  That was the transition that appeared to suggest “beyond the fourth dimension” more than any other.

Next chance you get, you should investigate the various transitions.

Link at end of video

video editingWhen people watch YouTube videos, the end often opens up in a related YouTube video. It could belong to your competition.

To avoid that problem, I often give the URL of a related web page on my website.  To shorten the URL, I often use a Bitly address with a descriptive name.

While video editing, I may expand the clip to let it play for 20 seconds while the music finishes.  I suspect people will usually close or pause the video before the competition’s video shows up.

Translucent boxI also often add a translucent button within the website that visitors can click on to link to a web page.

Add Free Music

YouTube has over 50,000 tracks of free music that you can use on your YouTube videos.  You can select them by genre and mood.  To learn more, go to the free background music blog post.

Making background softer during the speaking parts


ScreenFlow has a feature called “audio ducking”.  With it you can control the volume of your background music.  Then, when speaking parts begin, the background music will soften until the speaking is finished.  Go to the audio ducking page.

Keyboard shortcuts

J, K, L

While editing,

  • J makes the scrubber go back.
  • K stops the scrubber
  • L makes the scrubber go forward
  • The more you tap J & L, the faster they go.

MP4

12,000 should be the minimum kps.

Tiny talking head in corner

Make a separate video of the talking head. Make it small.

Copy clip into clipboard & Cmd V to paste in the TOP layer in a timeline. Drag & drop to position.

Excellent intro

Watch the first 8 seconds of the video below.  That’s the type of introduction you can make with ScreenFlow.

Note that you have to get people’s attention at the very beginning.  Otherwise, they will not watch the rest of your video.

If you are really interested in knowing how to make the 8-second introduction, go to the 10 steps to make the intro.

   We put a great deal of effort into each blog post.  Please use the comments box to tell us how we are doing.  How could we improve our blog posts?  Do you find these blog posts useful?

 


Peter Enns has been developing websites since 1996. He is a social media blogger and author of a free YouTube tutorial. It’s called 7 Day YouTube and will teach you how to make entertaining videos & animated GIFs.

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Improve Your Video Creation Skills

Why improve your videos?

Study the statistics below. You will understand why it is important for you or someone on your team to improve their video creation skills.

improveAccording to Marketing Profs, people remember only 20% of what they read if not accompanied by graphics.

The same website said that posts with a graphic have a 650% larger engagement rate.

WebDAM says that by 2018 79% of Internet traffic will be video content.

The same website says that viewers are 86% more likely to buy a product after watching a product video.

10 points to think about

Now consider these 10 points carefully.  At the bottom of this page there is a video to help you remember them.

1. Goals and Outline. Before starting to create your video, write down the precise goals of your video.  Jot down an outline of what your video should look like. Ask how you could improve it and rewrite it.

2. Tutorial. Go online a find a good free video tutorial.

3. Images. Improve the quality of your images. Go to FreeImages or Adobe Stock Photos.

4. Presentation Software. Improve your video by having more movement on the screen. Use presentation software such as Keynote or Powerpoint to animate your images and text.

 5. improveMP4. Add MP4 files to make a smaller animation within a video.  Here is a YouTube video giving an example of an MP4 file that can be shown within a Keynote presentation.  Notice that an image of a computer monitor is on top of the MP4 file.  Other things, such as text, can be happening on the screen at the same time.

6. Screen Capture. Use screen capture software such as ScreenFlow to capture all of the movement in your presentation software.  Then use it to edit your video.  (Note: You must have a Mac in order to use ScreenFlow.)


Earn a percentage of the selling price for every book sold.

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7. Print and Voice. Rather than just using your voice, have print moving across the screen as you are speaking it.

8. Music. Present pleasant background music using audio ducking.  Then  isolate each voice clip so that your music background will be loud enough between voice clips and soft during the voice clip.

9. Image Beyond Voice Clip Freeze video frames so that each image clip goes beyond the voice clip.

10. Genre & Mood of Mucic. Go into your YouTube channel and then Creator studio > Gear icon > improveAdditional features.  Click on the “Help” menu and search for “music library”.  You will be told how to have access to tens of thousands of music clips for your YouTube videos.

Filter the music by genre and mood. Listen to many samples of music and choose an excellent music clip for each video.

 

This page condensed into 14 SlideShare slides

This page content in a YouTube video

 

social media marketingInevitable Social Media
is a free 25 page ebook giving an excellent overview of social media
marketing.  To get your free copy, click on the picture of the ebook.

 

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Chroma Key to Use a Green Screen

Start with a simple green screen

chroma keyUsing a green screen and Chroma Key, you can change your cluttered office to look like a professional TV studio.

When starting out, practice using inexpensive materials.  You can go to a dollar store and buy a dozen or so sheets of green bristol board.  Tape it so that everything behind you appears green.

Using Chroma Key

Make a video of yourself talking in front of a green screen. Use the ScreenFlow subroutine (Chroma Key) to remove all of the green from the background.

Go to a website such as Free Video Footage to download some free video material to use behind your head. (I had trouble signing up at first.  I finally figured out that my username had to be a unique word with no spaces.)

Paste a video behind your head and you can make a mock news story teaser like the one you see below.

Materials required

1. Mac desktop computer
2. Copy of ScreenFlow video editing software
3. Enough green bristol board to make your entire background green

That’s all you need.

 

Producing a video like the one above

chroma key

Let us assume that you have gone to the Free Video Footage website and downloaded a video to use for the background.

1. Write a script for your mock newscast
2. Open ScreenFlow
3. Configure your ScreenFlow program to record video from the built-in camera and record audio from the built-in microphone
4. Build the bristol board green screen behind you
5.chroma key Have your script on the computer screen so that you can look into the camera while doing the news cast
6. Click the ScreenFlow camera icon > Record
7. Read the script.  While you are doing that, the camera will record youchroma key
8. When finished, click camera icon > Stop Record
9. Go to the YouTube tutorial to get an idea how to begin editing your video
10. Click Video Filters > Chroma Key > Add
11. Drag the .MOV file BENEATH the green screen file

12. Download some free music and add it to your video
13. Edit the rest of your movie and upload it to YouTube.

 

Chroma Key

Click to Buy ScreenFlow NowWatch the video below to learn more about Chroma Key.  ScreenFlow 7.x is out now.  Chroma Key works about the same in each version.

This lesson as a slideshare presentation


 

Music Online Free for YouTube Videos

Free music online from YouTube

The YouTube website has free music online for you to use in your YouTube videos.  It has over 50,000 online music clips that you can filter by genre and mood.

Find free music online in 6 steps

Music Online
Music Online1. Go to your own YouTube channels.
2. If you already have a YouTube video on your website, you can do this by clicking the tiny YouTube icon at the bottom of your video.

3. Click on the blue icon in the upper right-hand corner.

4. Select a channel and then click on Creator Studio. Click on Edit > Info and Settings. (If you are having trouble with the above instructions, simply go to the help menu at the bottom of a YouTube page.  Search for free music and go to the audio library).

5. Among the tabs at the top, click on Audio.

You will find a list of songs.  Click on any one of them to hear it.

You can click on the dropdown arrow at the top to find the different genres of music.  You can search over 50,000 songs by genre.  Once you have your genre, you can click on the mood you would like.  For instance, you can create a list comprised of nothing but happy, cinematic songs.<

Note
: From time to time YouTube changes their software around and instructions do not work.  If the above instructions no longer work, open one of your accounts and find the list of all videos in that account.

Scroll down to the bottom, click on the “help” button and search for free music.  You will end up with a link talking about their free music library.  Simply follow the instructions.


Earn a percentage of the selling price for every book sold.

Click here to learn more.

Downloading your free background music

To download your free background music, keep your list of songs open.  Then start your ScreenFlow screen capture/video editing program.  Note that the music will stop playing as soon as your video stops.  So, if your new YouTube video is quite long, have an equally long YouTube video playing while you are recording the music.

Keep music soft while speaking

While someone is speaking in your video, you want the music to go soft.  Then it will go louder after the speaking stops.  To learn how to do this, go to the ScreenFlow ducking tutorial.

Artificial intelligence composing music

On the Jukedeck website, artificial intelligence will compose free music for you. As long as you credit Jukedeck properly, you can use the free music in your videos.

Slide summary of page

 

Pages related to free background music

25 websites with free music online

The About Entertainment website says

If you’re looking for the best to stream free music online, I found 25 great options for you to choose fromRead more.

 

 


Peter Enns has been developing websites since 1996. He is a social media blogger and author of a free YouTube tutorial. It’s called 7 Day YouTube and will teach you how to make entertaining videos & animated GIFs.

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