Tips for creating product videos which look CGI-slick, but are mostly made with in-camera techniques and careful pre-planning.
In his series of tutorials, product video creator Austen Paul shares a range of creative techniques, tips and tricks. Interestingly, much of his polished-looking results are achieved in-camera, using hand-made setups and strong colour design, and with relatively basic compositing techniques in post-production.
This video goes into more technical detail about the lighting techniques used to achieve his made-at-home product video:
Don’t have a backdrop? Perhaps you have a TV (and, ideally, a few decent lights)…
… or even coloured cardboard – which, together some planning in pre-production and a little masking and basic transformation in post, can be used to re-create static product shots with CGI-like animation:
Further Viewing
We’ve rounded up a bunch of product video tutorials from creators and channels including Daniel Schiffer, Indy Mogul, Parker Wallbeck and Shutterstock, such as this one featuring Steve Giralt, who adds mechanical engineering as the special ingredient in his uniquely imaginative product visualisations: