NASA Video Background

Reuse content to make a new video

Making videos is fun, but it can take a long time.

When I started making videos for YouTube I had a lot of ideas, but I didn’t have enough time to put them together. I had to come up with a plan.

https://youtu.be/-u9ZEyW76lE

One of the easiest ways to speed up your workflow is content repurposing, or reusing your content for more than one project.

If you ever watch old movies you can sometimes recognize the same sets in different films.

Since I need backgrounds for my videos I decided to use the same idea. I would make stock video backgrounds, so when I start a new video I can just grab what I need from the backgrounds folder.

This will save me a lot of time and effort, and allow me to concentrate on sharing the message in the video.

Since my site and my YouTube channel are a space theme I decided to go straight to the source for everything space – NASA.

NASA Image & Video Library

The NASA Image & Video Library is a massive collection of photos, videos, and audio of space exploration stretching back to 1920. NASA images are generally not copyrighted, so I don’t have to worry about using them.

I have been making my videos with an old Macbook Air. It is impressive that I could even edit and render videos on such a humble laptop, but it was working hard.

One video I made of a Steve Pavlina podcast almost melted the Air when it took hours to render. The fan swooshed like a helicopter taking off. I finally got a new Mac Mini just so I could make videos without worrying about fire hazards.

Along with the new computer I got the latest version of Screenflow, the software I use to make my videos. It is a screen recording software similar to Camtasia, but it happens to also be really easy to use as a video editor.

I went into the NASA library and pretty quickly I had found a bunch of images that would work well as backgrounds. As I got a new image I put it into Screenflow and turned it into a 30 second clip.

Timeline with all my background clips. There are more now.

With such a gigantic collection of images it wasn’t long until I had added 50 or more.

To add some variety I started positioning the images to make them more visually interesting. Screenflow also has a bunch of options to add actions, such as moving an image, or zooming in or out, etc.

Positions of images in the Screenflow timeline.

As I was adding the movement to the still images I began to notice a ‘flow’. One clip would end, and as the new clip would begin it seemed like they were flowing into one another. As I was watching my clips along the timeline I got the idea to combine them into a video.

Since I had the background clips I could collect them all into a compilation video. I liked the idea of making a sort of video background, similar to a favorite screensaver of mine called Electric Sheep, but with an abstract space theme.

I started to put the clips into order. I added all the best looking backgrounds, then arranged them so the transition between the clips was the smoothest.

Unfortunately some of the backgrounds I had made did not work in the compilation video. I didn’t know which ones I would use until the very end, so you can see all the clips I worked with to get the final result.

library of images & audio clips used while making this video

I had to go back into the NASA library and pick out more images, but this time it wasn’t as easy. To choose these new images I had to select by:

  • color
  • image position
  • image contents
  • other stuff unique to each image

The new background clip had to fit in by what was in the image, the colors in the photo, and if I could figure out a way to make a graceful transition from the first image to the third image.

Sometimes I would try an image and put the time and effort into making a background, only for it to not work in the compilation video. (The clips you didn’t see in this video you’ll see them pop up in upcoming videos.)

I didn’t manage to get all of these images perfect, but I got most of them pretty close. And some of the transitions are pretty slick, I think.

With the video more or less like I wanted it, now it was time to add music.

YouTube has a royalty-free Audio Library so you can add music to your videos without having to purchase a license for the songs.

YouTube Audio Library royalty-free music catalog

One reason I chose to use the music from YouTube is that I (hope) I don’t have to worry about them changing the license on the music retroactively.

On one of my first videos I used music from a channel on YouTube that said to use the song free but with attribution. I used the music and put the attribution details in the description, but still soon afterward I got a notice that my video had been copyright claimed by the music creator.

This person had decided to revoke the free license and claim advertising income on the videos where the music had been used. Thank goodness YouTube has a tool to remove background music, so I was able to delete it and remove the claim. I don’t expect YouTube to do something like this with music from their royalty-free catalog.

While putting the images in the video together took forever, the audio fell together like it was meant to be. For whatever reason each song I inserted into the timeline made a graceful transition to the next. The mood inspired by the music matched well with the images.

I had the music right where I wanted it, and I had rendered several versions so I could watch and listen to it outside the editor. I was almost ready to make the final version. Everything was going awesome, until…

Finished timeline. You can see where I repaired my audio timeline emergency bottom right.

In the morning I was listening to the version I had rendered the night before. The music at around the 27 minute mark was ducking (getting quieter) for some reason and it messed up the mix. I checked to see if there were any changes in the actions I had placed on the clip but I couldn’t see anything.

I tried a bunch of fixes, but no matter what I couldn’t get the audio remixed correctly. Thank goodness I had made and kept the earlier versions. I was able to detach the audio from the last version where the mix was correct and stitched it into place.

I wasn’t able to get it to match up perfectly, but I did what I could to mask the cuts in and out. Thank goodness there are lots of bleeps and bloops in the music so it just sounds like part of the song 🙂

For the final touch, I added a sonar sound effect I found at Sound Bible.

00:00 Underwater Exploration – Godmode

01: 51 The Anunnaki Return – Jesse Gallagher

03:07 Stuck In the Air – The Tower of Light

05:22 Sad Piano Wind – Coyote Hearing

08:37 Keeping Sacred – Emily A. Sprague

11:54 Fern – ann annie

15:52 Feels – Patrick Patrikios

18:11 Sunrise on Mars – Audionautix – licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

19:52 Two Moons – Bobby Richards

21:37 Dream Escape – The Tides

24:21 On Foot – Underbelly & Ty Mayer

27:02 B-Somber Ballads – Kevin MacLeod – licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

31:04 Orbit. – Corbyn Kites

32:23 Simple – Patrick Patrikios

Sonar – Mike Koenig

This project ended up taking a lot of time and work, but I will get a lot out of it. Besides giving people something to enjoy, from this one video I get:

  • a lifetime supply of background clips
  • the experience & satisfaction of finishing a complex project
  • content for my YouTube channel
  • watch time
  • content for my website (This article + more. Content repurposing!)
  • & maybe more.

I am writing this article before I put the video on YouTube because I am expecting it will get views and people will want to learn the story why and how I put this video together.

I will put a link in the description so viewers who are interested can visit my website. Building a community is a big part of getting a new channel started, so bringing people to the site for more info is a great way to do it.

I hope people will really like it & share it with their friends. I want everyone to enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Thanks!

How to make a YouTube channel trailer

With the channel trailer YouTube gives creators a great way to make a splash when visitors come to their channel home page.

The idea is that when a visitor comes to your channel you can put the exact video you want in front of them.

YouTube makes it easy to set up 2 custom channel trailers – one for visitors who are not subscribed, another for returning subscribers.

You can show:

  • A video telling a new viewer what they can expect to see & hear
  • One of your videos that gets lots of subscriptions
  • Your most popular video
  • Your latest video
  • Whatever works best for you

To make a trailer for your channel is simple. Follow along as I make mine using free tools and royalty-free and public domain audio and video.

YouTube Channel Trailer Example

A guest on the vidIQ podcast described how he made a special 45-second long trailer to introduce new visitors to his channel. His trailer explains exactly what the viewer can expect to see and hear in his videos, in a short and catchy way.

Since Blast Off My Channel! is new and I don’t have any subscribers yet, I want to tell people what they will find here.

I had already come up with a catchphrase or slogan or whatever as I was making the banner for my channel.

“Start your channel. Attract your audience. Spread your message.”

I wanted to get that message out fast and easy to understand.

Now I just needed some way to catch the attention and keep the viewer watching.

What better way to get someone’s attention than red hot flames blasting loudly from a rocket taking off?

I needed some content for the video. Since government documents are public domain, I got the audio and video from the Apollo 11 launch.

I used 4K Video Downloader to grab the video from YouTube.

I pulled the video into Screenflow, cut it down to the section I wanted, then cranked up the saturation until the flames were a hot red.

To make the video fit in the 19 second short channel trailer I had to speed up the video a lot. I needed to bring a 3 minute 20 second portion down to about 7 seconds long.

Screenflow allows you to speed up a video clip by about 330%, so I:

  • sped up the clip
  • exported the clip
  • imported the new clip

Then I did it 3 more times! Finally, I put the clip in place on the timeline, made some adjustments, then it was good to go.

I made the video thumbnail from a frame in the video and screen captured it.

For the background behind the text I made another screenshot. The flames were white in the video and it made the text easy to read, so I took a frame where the screen was brightest and made the background static while text was displayed.

I used the font generators at Font Meme to make the graphics.

I got the audio of the rocket launch here:

I heard the deep synthesizer sound I liked in the sample compilation audio clip on the free sound effects page at 99 Sounds.

Instead of trying to dig through the site and find that exact sample, instead I recorded the screen with Screenflow while the audio played on the website. Then I cut down the clip until it was just a small burst of sound that would fit 4 times in the video.

The robot voice is from Online Tone Generator.

I put it all together and rendered it and it looks pretty good. It’s lofi, like everything else I do.

But considering how I hacked it together using a bunch of free tools and content it’s not too bad.

I wanted something short and sweet that gets attention and shares my message fast. It works for that.

If you don’t yet have a trailer for your YouTube channel yet, what are you waiting for?

It’s easy, quick, and will help you blast off your channel. Get started on yours now!

Hello world!

Welcome to Blast Off My Channel! with Michael.

Do you want to start and grow an awesome YouTube channel?

Me too!

Starting out from the very beginning? Have a channel already and want to get more out of it? If either answer is yes, then you are in the right place.

A few years back I started out with a personal channel called The Easy Path Project. It was going nowhere fast so I let it sit idle for a while. Now I have started building it again.

I am on a mission to learn everything I can to help grow my YouTube channel from scratch. With so much great info out there I can’t wait to put it to the test.

This website is my journal so you can follow along and blast off your channel, too. Join in the conversation in the video comments and on the livestreams. Share your ideas and help everyone grow even faster!

There are so many useful lessons and handy YouTube tips & tricks. It would be impossible for someone to find them all by themselves. If we help each other we can bring all these goodies together and everyone can benefit!

For example, I put together a playlist to learn how to make a YouTube channel for beginners. This playlist features Annie Dubé, Nate O’Brien, Matt Par, and Gallagur, Matthew Encina, and others.

These creators are sharing how they are growing their channels, making it even easier for us to build a channel and get subscribers fast.

(Watch for upcoming posts sharing what I have learned from each of these creators. I’ll report my results following their advice, and what you can expect once you start watching their videos, too.)

There isn’t just one map you follow to start a successful YouTube channel. There are many paths to get where you want to be.

One thing that every creator has in common is they are giving the audience and YouTube exactly what they want.

YouTube analytics give you the tools to discover – down to the second – what your audience likes. You can easily understand how to provide more of what they want, and less of what they don’t want.

YouTube shows you exactly what they expect with the algorithm. To rank high and get suggested you need high click-through rates, more watch time, and longer audience retention. You don’t have to guess what YouTube wants.

  • You give the audience what they want.
  • The audience gives YouTube what it wants.
  • YouTube gives you what you want.

When you are keeping your audience happy that makes YouTube happy, and they’ll recommend and suggest your videos to new viewers.

This sounds easy, but it still takes some effort to make everything click. But much less effort than before!

I see questions like “is it too late to start a YouTube channel?” and “should I start a YouTube channel?”, and it seems like this is probably the best time ever to begin.

You need almost nothing to start your channel – as little as a device and YouTube and you’re set.

Then you have all this information showing you how to do it right. The tutorials, the tools, the support of other creators – everything at your fingertips. It’s all right there for you.

Just hit that sweet spot between entertaining and engaging. Follow a consistent posting schedule. Keep the audience tuning in and continue to grow.

Thanks for checking out the site!