New year, new learning

We’re only a few days into this new year, and already I’m learning new things. It’s always good to learn new things, of course, and even if sometimes the temptation to find out how to do a thing quickly beats thoroughness, it’s still learning.

In this case, I wanted to learn how to do certain things for my YouTube videos, and this relaxed time of year is the best time for me to do that, free, as I pretty much am, of routine and chores. So I planned on breaking out the training manual I bought some years ago for Adobe Premiere and actually try to learn it. It can do everything I want to do—if only I could just master it (or, at least, the basics…).

Ever since I made my first videos I’ve used Apple’s iMovie, which comes free with every Mac. Despite changes over the years, some of which have been questionable, the program is still extremely easy to use—but limited.

My options are to use the top-of-the-line Adobe product (which is included with my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, so there’s no additional cost), or I could buy iMovie’s big brother, Final Cut Pro, or some other program. Things that don’t cost any more is always my first option, since all this work on video (and audio, for that matter) is a hobby.

I decided to see f there were workarounds to make the program I’m already familiar with—iMovie—do more of the things I want. It turns out that there are—of course!—tutorial videos on YouTube teaching people how to do the various things I want to do, and there are ones specifically for iMovie.

So, when I make my next YouTube video, I’m going to try the things I learned, and we’ll see if I got it right—no promises.

I have some other things I plan on learning this summer, but that’s for another day. Right now, I need to go look up how to do a few more things.