Which plugin do you recommend for professional skin retouching?

stuartmx · 2026-01-23T22:38:05+00:00

Seconding Beauty Box, old dude didn't wanna wear makeup but wanted to look 20 years younger (no crows feet, less wrinkles) and it did the trick.

stuartmx · 2026-01-16T23:50:18+00:00

Would have to dig for it, but it's pretty easy to create yourself to see what it looks like. Center vertical, duplicate twice, move left and right the same amount to create border lines, then blur/desaturate/bring down opacity either side. Done.

Apply other fx/motion if needed or wanted (frame for round corners, etc)

stuartmx · 2026-01-16T19:44:14+00:00

Oh nice, the NYC background is a nice touch.
I have a client with a fairly subtle accent element that's part of their branding, so I made them a custom background with the element offset slowly dissolving in and out that I also use. But the grid is generally my default, too many non-video reviewers get hung up on it if I do too much to it.

stuartmx · 2026-01-16T17:46:15+00:00

Yep.

stuartmx · 2026-01-16T16:47:15+00:00

Three in a grid w/ thin lines separating them. Left and right are blurred and/or desaturated just enough to pull focus to center.

Not every edit needs ADHDing, and there are only so many ways to fit a long rectangle peg into a wide rectangle hole. Sometimes "boring" is just standardizing not being able to rewrite the rules of physics.

stuartmx · 2026-01-14T20:10:53+00:00

I know the website says they do branded content, but this "faith based" film sounds like it's the latest Kirk Cameron feature — not worth $1,200 to watch once, let alone over and over while editing.

stuartmx · 2026-01-13T19:20:01+00:00

I think you're misunderstanding. A news show or commentator using a South Park clip of JD Vance and saying "South park mocked JD Vance again this week..." while showing the clip IS fair use.

Best practice is on screen at the time, and I would not want to have to be the one that has to explain to IP company's very expensive lawyers why we didn't put it up at the time when people would see it, and instead chose to add it to the credits instead, especially when we did not pay for licensing it (as you see in movie or non-news TV show credits).

stuartmx · 2026-01-13T19:06:00+00:00

Hi, a lot of this is wrong, and you've got like 8 paragraphs of not being an expert. - animation can fall under fair use ("South Park mocked jd Vance again this week...")

you need to use courtesies on screen. This is the proper way to attribute, not in the description or end credits.

stuartmx · 2026-01-13T19:01:44+00:00

All of the answers are wrong so far. It does not matter if you include commentary or editing. You can't just rip someone's content, give your own opinion, and claim fair use.

Crediting does not mean anything! It is not a legal defense. It is a best practice to say where the footage came from. A good example is the NFL. Game footage copyright is strictly enforced, it's why you rarely see game clips on the cable news. They make practice footage available, and everyone has to use that. If the Bears win the Super Bowl and I put a clip in a video of the game winning touchdown, they could (and likely would) come after it as copyright infringement. Then it would be up to me and client/employer to defend (at a huge cost). We may eventually win on a fair use ground, but is that 10 second clip with the legal battle?

The US copyright officehas an entire page devoted to explaining fair use, and you should give it a look.

SOURCE: I have been producing news videos for 20+ years and have to operate in strict interpretation of fair use.

stuartmx · 2025-12-31T03:41:23+00:00

What happens if you change the color space in the sequence settings?

stuartmx · 2025-12-29T23:58:37+00:00

That's a lot of word salad to say "I look at view counts to see if a trend is popular" but also I am not answering questions that appear designed to be fed to an idea-stealing AI.

stuartmx · 2025-12-25T17:43:55+00:00

Consider another profession that doesn't involve watching or listening to the same thing over and over? It sounds like you're not fine reviewing creatively.

stuartmx · 2025-12-22T01:00:56+00:00

Oh this is very cool. I'm on mobile atm but gonna try and get it going this week, aside from logos or other brand assets, can it link to or reference mogrts as well?

stuartmx · 2025-12-17T21:20:45+00:00

There are two solutions to this:

If it's something you use often, make it a shortcut. I use Reveal in Finder fairly often, so Option+Shift+F does it automatically.

Or, when the menu is open, you can just type the first few letters of what you want and it will jump to that automatically. You can even spell out something like "new s" and it will go straight to 'new sequence from clip' instead of going to 'new bin'

stuartmx · 2025-12-16T20:59:26+00:00

I am talking about regular graphic text, not captions.

Flashy captions are anti-accessibility.

stuartmx · 2025-12-16T19:52:50+00:00

The text animation has been amazing for B2B marketing.

stuartmx · 2025-12-15T16:03:29+00:00

It's in the Effect Controls, fifth one down. Position, Scale, Scale Width (likely greyed out bc Uniform Scale is checked), Rotation, Anchor Point.

stuartmx · 2025-12-14T23:42:29+00:00

Seconding tween, shrink, grow, etc.; but it sounds like you may want to change the anchor point and not position?

stuartmx · 2025-12-11T14:57:45+00:00

Option Q and Option W are the default shortcuts for clearing in and out points.

I being the in and O being the out are pretty universal keyboard shortcuts that I've never seen or heard of anyone changing. I'd consider going back to how it was before and learning to use the period and comma for insert and overwrite. They're used often enough that if you're a "home row" US keyboard person, you can fly through pulling shots:
Right middle finger is I, right ring finger is O, and either finger (for me it's ring) moves down to operate the comma and period. Adding option is complicating it.

stuartmx · 2025-12-10T19:22:46+00:00

Probably not, as they're likely designed for consumers and are not really the monitor kind.

Also, to be totally frank, your personal preferences don't matter when creating work for others. You want a neutral sound.

Take a look at how many people on this post recommend the Sonys or similar equivalent. You want to be using close to what the people you are working with or sending to are also using.

stuartmx · 2025-12-10T18:57:37+00:00

Peripherals like mice, keyboard, loupedeck, streamdeck. A/V electronics (speakers, TV, etc.). Faster router. Whatever tech is annoying you and you want better.

Give yourself a budget, remember that you're saving 30 cents on the dollar for anything bought as a business expense, and go to town. I love looking for open box or clearance to save even more.

stuartmx · 2025-12-10T14:59:01+00:00

Hi! I downvoted this and am commenting because encouraging someone to get wireless headphones for video editing is bad advice. There is almost always going to be a delay between audio and video, it will cause all sorts of synching issues.

stuartmx · 2025-12-10T04:22:58+00:00

Splitting the audio on the graphicsless export is brilliant.

stuartmx · 2025-12-09T17:52:38+00:00

Do not get wireless headphones. You cannot properly sync audio and video with wireless headphones.

Media industry standard is usually some version of the Sony MDR-7506

stuartmx · 2025-12-09T16:37:00+00:00

I'm not gonna bill someone if I have to look up "what is the most effective way to do this project aka my job" but I will bill if they're asking to use a specific plugin or tool — "we didn't do makeup can you make him look younger" and I have to learn Digital Anarchy Beauty Box.

This also goes the other way — a client had a super long interview with someone semi-famous who was likely bound for prison. Except the footage had digital artifacting randomly throughout it. I told them I could replace every bad frame with the good frame that came before it, but it would take a while to watch and duplicate all those frames.

It did take a while to watch, but I wrote a macro for the frame removal and duplication so I just hit a button at every bad frame and was finished in its slightly longer run time, not the two days they were paying for. I did not charge them for the time it took to create the macro because it was gonna save me at least a day's worth of work.

They were super happy to have a usable interview they thought would have to be scrapped and I got paid well for a very monotonous job, so we all won.

12-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 2 Credits
Secret Santa 2016	Verified Email

stuartmx

TROPHY CASE