About 
I'm Dan and this is my blog. I'm a former high school math teacher and current head of teaching at Desmos. He / him. More here.

7 Comments

  1. Thanks! The whole escalators setting is a stroke of genius, and I appreciate your giving this tutorial.

    What other video editing tools (besides After Effects) can do the masking? Do you know of any? Final Cut Express? (b/c we own that at school)

    Also, great time code demo! It’s distressing that QuickTime 10 doesn’t do frame codes the way QT 7 did (we used to just look at the QT and divide by 30). Any other solutions short of video analysis software or high-end packages?

  2. A solution I can think of if you don’t have any higher end video software is to simply put two videos side by side using windows movie maker or iMovie. Sure you don’t get the cool cloning effect, but the same purpose is achieved.

    I haven’t played with them much, but there’s a few free video editing programs out there I’ve come across before such as Wax and CineFX.

  3. Dan,

    Thanks so much for this tutorial! As a history teacher, I really like showing bits and pieces of pictures in history to focus on different aspects. This can be done through zooming (like Prezi), on my ActivBoard using the reveal feature, or using a document camera. However, I can think of many videos I would love to mask certain parts…not sure exactly how/what/when.

    Thanks,

    Jeff @TeacherThink

  4. Thank you very much. I don’t have a Mac, nor access to After Effects, but if or when I do, I certainly can replicate what you have shown here.

    Oh, BTW don’t delete this post and/or your entire blog.

    Thank you for “escalating” the business of teaching Math to a whole new level!

  5. You can definitely do this in any software that has masking tools. FC Express, IMovie (with some help from Photoshop) etc. But thanks Dan!! You’re a real inspiration!!

  6. Tim: What other video editing tools (besides After Effects) can do the masking? Do you know of any? Final Cut Express? (b/c we own that at school)

    Like Anezka says, it appears Final Cut Express supports masking. Look up masks in “Effects.” I think they give you four-point masks, eight-point masks, and a variety of shapes. A four-point mask would be sufficient for the technique I demoed here.

  7. I’ve always watched your videos and thought to myself, “This is magic, I’d never be able to do that.”

    While I still think you’re exceptional, I no longer think this process is something I can’t do. Thank you.