Filmora is a powerful tool and with the know-how can make your art be more than just a still image. Whether it is for a music video or a portfolio showreel, there are better ways than just inserting an image and letting it fade to the next still image. We can make use of effects and transitions to put our art to better use.
In this guide I’m going to show a couple of ways to enhance your images within Filmora for your videos.
In this article
Transitions
By inserting a transition to your image, you can add some diversity to how the viewer first see’s your image, You may want to emphasis a certain element of your art and therefore would select a transition that zooms in on that element before zooming out to the whole image or maybe you have a painting of a cyberpunk angel and wish to have the image enter in a grid formation. The point is that by experimenting with transitions and trying to select the best ones based on the element in your work you will achieve a better first impression. This is true for all aspects of video creation.
Having multiple transitions can create a unique look for your videos with minimal understanding of how to create a transition but there needs to be an understanding of how the layers work in Filmora being that a layer on top is in front of the one below, remember this when you start to add transitions as sometime you may need to duplicate your art as to keep it in the shot.
As you can see here, I have duplicated my image onto separate channels as to always keep the image in the scene.
In the image above you can see how I used multiple transitions, I did this as my image is off center and I wanted to emphasize that, I picked transitions that had clear symmetry and lines so that the viewer had a reference point of where center was without me having to place that in my art. This is a very useful way of adding information to your art without telling the viewer directly. As for the color theory, I went with oranges and yellows predominantly here as they are neighboring colors on the color wheel and we know they work well together with my main color of yellow. As for the composition I have tried to keep all the eye-catching points along the top third of the image as to create a piece more pleasing to the eye even with all this information going on.
Effects
The inclusion of effect onto your art should not be discouraged depending on what the art is used for, in my example i created this as though it was album art and the musician wanted to upload a simple music video using that art, on its own it is static and can loose engagement but by applying relevant effects you can capture the viewer's eye and make the listening experience more enjoyable. Effects can also be stacked to create unique assets for your art and help tell a story, if your art includes fire why not add a fire effect breaking the stillness of the image or maybe your art has motion, you could include a motion effect to your still image and give the viewer more information.
Even when using effects you can use fundamentals such as color theory or composition to better enhance your imagery.
In this image you can see I have added an audio visualizer effect as well as a spectral light effect. I did this to reinforce the face of my image having a strong light source, it creates dynamic movement and the audio visualizer was added due to the nature of the video being music oriented but I felt this could have been done better. The composition of the audio visualizer was front and center and seemed boring and uninteresting. This is where the research into art fundamentals comes into play as remembering the rule of thirds and how all the main features of the image are in the top horizontal third, we can make use of the vertical thirds to gain a better composition and hopefully create more engagement.
As you can see, we have duplicated the audio visualizer and made better use of the thirds nor having opposing placement within the scene, the same information is being given by the effect but we have managed to use the space more effectively and created a visually pleasing aesthetic to our video. Trick like this can make your still image feel more animated and have more purpose within the video itself.
Adding Titles and Text
Adding text is another way of adding information to your art. It's said an image can speak a thousand words but sometimes you need words to talk for an image. When words are needed for your video, there should be some thought into how them words are presented as just selecting any text and inserting that to your video may look jarring to the viewer and result in a loss of interest towards your videos. Selecting the right transition for your text or the color or even the font can have different results and can help with affordance depending on what you're looking to portray.
In my example I wanted to say thank you and felt sharp edges would seem formal and because of the main image it would be too similar so I went with a font that was more rounded. When inserting text onto a scene such as this one you are given a lot of information for your selections, we already have color in there to help us choose our font and background color, I went with yellow and pink due to the fact it was already in the scene and I didn’t want to take the attention away from the focus. The way the text transitions onto the screen secures just enough attention to itself that the viewer knows it's there and can read it if they wish to. If I wanted to gain full attention i would have picked a transition that overlaps the key element and picked complementary colors on the opposite sides of the color wheel guaranteeing the viewer's eyes would notice and engage with the motion.
Conclusion
By incorporating all the art fundamentals and skills we have learned we can use the tools provided by Filmora more effectively and create dynamic and engaging videos that are aesthetically pleasing for our audience. Upon learning the many different types and styles of transitions, effects, and titles we can enhance our artwork for use within our video. This includes artwork specifically made for use in video or even to show off your art and gain a wider audience. These are forever evolving and what you find is pleasing now may change in the future but that's part of the fun with learning a new skill as you will find what you like and progress from there creating an identifiable style that viewers will recognize and associate you with.
