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Okay, I signed up for two months of Google AI Plus. That includes access to multimedia tools like Veo, Whisk and Nano Banana. I’m quickly learning about how to use those tools.
Nano Banana Pro uses Gemini 3 under the hood to translate your prompt into something the image generator understands.
Let me say at the outset that I don’t like the shiny gorgeous perfect people inserted in most videos, or the chunky animated figures. I’d prefer something minimal that looks less like photographs than a minimal comic.
The big challenge seems to be using your monthly credits strategically. Even with the pro account you have 1000 credits which you can waste on vid generation.
(20 credits for Veo 3.1)
Useful threads: Convert old b/w photos into recent-looking color photos.
I like the Whisk interface which uses a Subject/Scene/Style interface.
Also, OpenArt creates an interface for generating prompts for each platform. Free 40 credits, $14 month for 4000 credits.
Sony Vegas
I generally find Vegas to be powerful and useful, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to pan and scan images (i.e., the Ken Burns effect). I know approximately how it’s done; I know what part of the interfaces are supposed to control it, but I’ve never actually figured out how to make it work properly. Unfortunately the docs are pretty lousy, and the helper vids on YouTube which demonstrate how to do it always leave out a few steps (and rarely show what the finished video actually does). The vids spend a lot of time clicking through things on the interface, but we don’t often see what all that clicking actually does. This week I am going to focus specifically on keyframe animation. It shouldn’t be that hard, but I haven’t found good guides on the subject.
Fortunately I have found good documentation about this feature (finally). What is KeyFraming: How to Use Keyframe Animation.
Other good introductory docs on the Vegas website: Making Video Montages with Slideshow Creator, Using Chroma Key Effects and Green Screen, Text Animation, Transitions, Video Effects,
Holy cow! Vegas Pro had a built in Video Capture capability and I had no idea.
Here’s a decent video demonstration of the Ken Burns effect.
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