COUB.com Entry 10 - BOTS
For several weeks COUB.com has been infected with a poison(BOTS). This poison seeped in and has basically ruined certain aspects of how a user may enjoy the website. The funny thing to me is that it's not a change to the programming, but someone posing as a user. They could be a coub operative. This evildoer creates fake channels. What is a fake channel? They aren't fake, but they aren't real either. They ALL have similar sets of naming conventions like AbbbAbbb or ABaaaa, etc... They ALL have approximately the same number of recoubs, likes, follows, followers, and no banners, so they are what we call FUCKING BORING!! None of them have made any coubs. There is no pattern to what they recoub. Curating channels is an art, but these "randomers" have nothing. Most of that is inconsequential, however they automatically like new coubs made by others. This robs all other users of the joy of discovery and exploration. All coubs having likes already destroys a part of the fun. It is sad that someone made the website less fun for me. Bots are like herpes.
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Monday, November 9, 2015
COUB.COM - Entry 9 - Trimming Audio
When you explore Coub.com you wil find some with a small gap of silence after the coub starts. The video will have started already but the audio begins a fraction of a second later. That is just sloppy. In fact, there are serious users out there that like to "fix" coubs that have this type of flaw. Do not get confused with the good kind of flaws. That is another story. This story right here is about that gap of silence. I'm going to try to explain how to trim the audio so there is no silence before and after, unless you want it.
First go here http://www.audacityteam.org/download/ and download Audacity.
Once it's installed and open, import an audio file that has a silent part at the beginning.
After the file is loaded, locate the magnifying glass at the top toward the left and click it a few times.
Now you should be able to see where the soundwave begins.
You are going to click to the left of where the line becomes jagged. Hold the click and drag to the left to 0.00 time.
Then press delete.
You can do it to the end of the soundwave as well. Click the zoom out (next to the zoom in) until you see the end of the soundwave. Click on the line after the jagged line smooths out. Zoom in and click and drag to the end. Then delete the selected part.
Next you will want to export the audio and save it. Click File > Export Audio. You have to rename it.
Now you can make your coubs have sound that starts straight away.
First go here http://www.audacityteam.org/download/ and download Audacity.
Once it's installed and open, import an audio file that has a silent part at the beginning.
After the file is loaded, locate the magnifying glass at the top toward the left and click it a few times.
Now you should be able to see where the soundwave begins.
You are going to click to the left of where the line becomes jagged. Hold the click and drag to the left to 0.00 time.
Then press delete.
You can do it to the end of the soundwave as well. Click the zoom out (next to the zoom in) until you see the end of the soundwave. Click on the line after the jagged line smooths out. Zoom in and click and drag to the end. Then delete the selected part.
Next you will want to export the audio and save it. Click File > Export Audio. You have to rename it.
Now you can make your coubs have sound that starts straight away.
Monday, October 19, 2015
COUB.COM - Entry 8 - Linking the Video Source as the Audio Source
Briefly.
When you make a coub from a link and the link has music,
but the visual component that you want to use doesn't fit with the sound very well,
here is what you can do.
Either choose another audio file to link or to upload,
OR, OR, OR
Use the same link you uploaded for the Video as the Audio!!!
Oh, is there a silent part at the beginning of the file? I will show you how to fix that next time but feel free to look up how. Peace.
When you make a coub from a link and the link has music,
but the visual component that you want to use doesn't fit with the sound very well,
here is what you can do.
Either choose another audio file to link or to upload,
OR, OR, OR
Use the same link you uploaded for the Video as the Audio!!!
Oh, is there a silent part at the beginning of the file? I will show you how to fix that next time but feel free to look up how. Peace.
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
COUB.COM - Entry 7 - MicroCoubs
MicroCoubs - Really short coubs. Less than 1 second. You can ping pong loop it if you like but keep it short. If you reverse it you can get it to go a tiny bit faster.
Creepy and Their Groovy
Collin Strange - Liberal Paradise https://soundcloud.com/collin-strange
liqid
I don't have too much to say about this technique for making coubs, but I have a lot of fun making them. Sometimes I leave the sound. If the coub is extremely short the sound can be quite punishing at loud volumes. Sometimes I mashup two or more clips and still keep it under 1 second.
Here is a link to the channel http://coub.com/micro.coubs
These are just a few. Please make them. I guess tag them with #microcoubs in keywords section.
Have fun!
Bird Don't Care
Here is a link to the channel http://coub.com/micro.coubs
These are just a few. Please make them. I guess tag them with #microcoubs in keywords section.
Have fun!
Bird Don't Care
Creepy and Their Groovy
Collin Strange - Liberal Paradise https://soundcloud.com/collin-strange
liqid
Sunday, September 20, 2015
COUB.COM - Entry 5 - Using Audio, Substituting Audio
Oh wow, so much to talk about. OK, I am a big fan of using the original sound (sound that is on your source) of a video when I make coubs, but I make many different styles too so I also like to pick smart music, or clever audio sources.
When you are creating a Coub, and have uploaded a video source to edit, you can easily see the large button for Upload Music. When you click it you see something like this.
Here you can add a separate audio source. Clicking on these will open appropriate windows or fields to link or load your audio. Again, this is completely optional. Maybe the source is from a movie and you want the sound. Maybe the sound of the source is bad or ineffective, and you choose to replace it with a song you like.
If you make a Coub that has an identical twin you can EDIT your Coub once it is finished and replace the sound. This is a technique that can add a little attitude to your creations or make fun of the Coub you accidentally copied. There are some users that feel the need to actually copy others' work. If you become obsessed with Coubs, and make a lot you will eventually make an identical one that may have been done over a year ago. I think it's fine to leave it due to the general rotating usership and shuffle of suggested Coubs.
I made a Coub of a cat sitting on a washing machine. The original sound was Digital Versicolor by Glass candy. There were already some Coubs made from this source. One was from October of 2013. That one used a song by Soulfly called Umbabarauma. It had 50,000 views 204 likes and 95 recoubs.
Yeah, ok. That user has only 4 followers. This Coub appears to be their first. I wasn't a user then so I don't know if it was popular in 2013 or gained popularity later. It was probably featured but has too many views for the number of likes and reposts. Maybe "too many" is confusing to hear. What I mean by this is that Coubs get posted on websites like Facebook, Twitter and VK. On VK the Coub seems to count the views often inflating the view count. The views on other site don't show up on Coub.com's counters.
There was a Coub on Aug 19, 2015 by a user who has 31 followers. This Coub has over 180,000 views, 559 likes and 248 recoubs. Four times as many views than the previous one, and double the likes and recoubs. This view count is also inflated by posting on VK.
Here is that Coub that used the original sound.
So I made one with the same source video and posted it. I was shown the first one up top by a friend and found the second one on my own shortly after. I was a little disappointed at first and went to Youtube to try to find a song that fit, but if there are already two music Coubs with the cat on a washer, then why bother making another. I could have deleted it and moved on, but I did not. Instead, I went on Youtube and lucked out finding a video of a guy reviewing his new washer. I clicked the Gear located below the frame next to the Embed button. You can edit a Coub there. Once it reloaded the Coub into the editor, I substituted the sound with the Youtube video link.
Here is that Coub.
This Coub has about 11,000 views, 300 likes and 100 recoubs, and was not posted on VK. Well not by me anyway. I have had some of mine posted there and they get massive view counts but not nearly as many likes and recoubs. I used to spend a lot of mental energy stressing over views and getting featured. Features are great and make me feel good, but honestly you don't get that many V/L/R's from features. Trust me, just keep making them and eventually they get seen. Grow your followers. Engage in the scene.
I was going to also talk about music selections but this got a little long. Next time. See you.
When you are creating a Coub, and have uploaded a video source to edit, you can easily see the large button for Upload Music. When you click it you see something like this.
Here you can add a separate audio source. Clicking on these will open appropriate windows or fields to link or load your audio. Again, this is completely optional. Maybe the source is from a movie and you want the sound. Maybe the sound of the source is bad or ineffective, and you choose to replace it with a song you like.
If you make a Coub that has an identical twin you can EDIT your Coub once it is finished and replace the sound. This is a technique that can add a little attitude to your creations or make fun of the Coub you accidentally copied. There are some users that feel the need to actually copy others' work. If you become obsessed with Coubs, and make a lot you will eventually make an identical one that may have been done over a year ago. I think it's fine to leave it due to the general rotating usership and shuffle of suggested Coubs.
I made a Coub of a cat sitting on a washing machine. The original sound was Digital Versicolor by Glass candy. There were already some Coubs made from this source. One was from October of 2013. That one used a song by Soulfly called Umbabarauma. It had 50,000 views 204 likes and 95 recoubs.
Yeah, ok. That user has only 4 followers. This Coub appears to be their first. I wasn't a user then so I don't know if it was popular in 2013 or gained popularity later. It was probably featured but has too many views for the number of likes and reposts. Maybe "too many" is confusing to hear. What I mean by this is that Coubs get posted on websites like Facebook, Twitter and VK. On VK the Coub seems to count the views often inflating the view count. The views on other site don't show up on Coub.com's counters.
There was a Coub on Aug 19, 2015 by a user who has 31 followers. This Coub has over 180,000 views, 559 likes and 248 recoubs. Four times as many views than the previous one, and double the likes and recoubs. This view count is also inflated by posting on VK.
Here is that Coub that used the original sound.
So I made one with the same source video and posted it. I was shown the first one up top by a friend and found the second one on my own shortly after. I was a little disappointed at first and went to Youtube to try to find a song that fit, but if there are already two music Coubs with the cat on a washer, then why bother making another. I could have deleted it and moved on, but I did not. Instead, I went on Youtube and lucked out finding a video of a guy reviewing his new washer. I clicked the Gear located below the frame next to the Embed button. You can edit a Coub there. Once it reloaded the Coub into the editor, I substituted the sound with the Youtube video link.
Here is that Coub.
This Coub has about 11,000 views, 300 likes and 100 recoubs, and was not posted on VK. Well not by me anyway. I have had some of mine posted there and they get massive view counts but not nearly as many likes and recoubs. I used to spend a lot of mental energy stressing over views and getting featured. Features are great and make me feel good, but honestly you don't get that many V/L/R's from features. Trust me, just keep making them and eventually they get seen. Grow your followers. Engage in the scene.
I was going to also talk about music selections but this got a little long. Next time. See you.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
COUB.COM - Entry 4 - Using Multiple Sources
Last time we were talking about direction buttons. Today I will talk about using multiple source clips. A big part of COUB.COM is the mashup. This flexible term means two or more sources mashed, blended or mixed together. Users often make fairly sophisticated Coubs in After Effects or other video production applications and then upload their projects to coub. Within the Coub editor there is however the ability to add several clips either from the original uploaded source using the duplicate clip. I'm going to add a photo that I will use to point out some stuff.
OK so after you have uploaded or linked your initial source, you can change the length of it. Make it shorter for now. We will be adding more next. In the image (zoomed on my screen so it's a little bunched up) you can see on the right there is a drop down window that opens when you click symbol with the + in the middle. The choices are Duplicate Video, Coub Link, Video Link, Upload Video, and Webcam.
Duplicate will copy the entire highlighted clip. If you only have one clip loaded then it is the only choice of which to duplicate. The highlighting of each clip is a little tricky and if you are using very short clips you may want to zoom in so you can actually select the one you want to edit. They should consider a tabbing feature that selects each clip. This is of course for removing parts of a segment that eats up time when you really need it to be shorter. If you over do it your Coub may look choppy. Sometimes choppy is good but sometimes it disrupts the nuance.
Coub Link is when you copy the URL of a Coub you like and copy it into the Coub Link option. See a Coub you think needs help? Really like a Coub but want to change it? Sometimes you will see a clip become a bit of a meme and show up in a lot of Coubs while the sources are relevant. Have no fear, sometimes an old Coub will actually get rediscovered and get viewed a lot after a long while.
Add another Video Link if there are no Coubs that you can use.
Upload a video from your hard drive.
Use your Webcam to record yourself and use that as a clip.
There is a channel called Introduce Yourself that wants users to make a coub of themselves introducing themselves and use the keyword #coubID. I have only found one beside myself that understood or bothered to do one. I search the #coubID keyword from time to time. You should make one. Next time I want to talk about what I do when I make a Coub that someone else already made.
OK so after you have uploaded or linked your initial source, you can change the length of it. Make it shorter for now. We will be adding more next. In the image (zoomed on my screen so it's a little bunched up) you can see on the right there is a drop down window that opens when you click symbol with the + in the middle. The choices are Duplicate Video, Coub Link, Video Link, Upload Video, and Webcam.
Duplicate will copy the entire highlighted clip. If you only have one clip loaded then it is the only choice of which to duplicate. The highlighting of each clip is a little tricky and if you are using very short clips you may want to zoom in so you can actually select the one you want to edit. They should consider a tabbing feature that selects each clip. This is of course for removing parts of a segment that eats up time when you really need it to be shorter. If you over do it your Coub may look choppy. Sometimes choppy is good but sometimes it disrupts the nuance.
Coub Link is when you copy the URL of a Coub you like and copy it into the Coub Link option. See a Coub you think needs help? Really like a Coub but want to change it? Sometimes you will see a clip become a bit of a meme and show up in a lot of Coubs while the sources are relevant. Have no fear, sometimes an old Coub will actually get rediscovered and get viewed a lot after a long while.
Add another Video Link if there are no Coubs that you can use.
Upload a video from your hard drive.
Use your Webcam to record yourself and use that as a clip.
There is a channel called Introduce Yourself that wants users to make a coub of themselves introducing themselves and use the keyword #coubID. I have only found one beside myself that understood or bothered to do one. I search the #coubID keyword from time to time. You should make one. Next time I want to talk about what I do when I make a Coub that someone else already made.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
COUB.COM - Entry 3 - Direction buttons
When you are making a coub there are some directional buttons that are for what direction the coub will play. It is pretty easy to figure out...
The natural state of the coub is forward. The curved arrow that points to the right. Next to it are two other buttons. The one directly to the right of the forward arrow button is the "ping pong loop" button. This button will make the coub play to the end and then play in reverse.
The ping pong loop is useful for creating a number of interesting situations. There is something funny about things going forward and then backwards. If you use the source video to provide the source sound in a ping pong loop you may sometimes hear a sound when it changes from backwards to forwards. I'm not sure why but Coub seems to work very hard to fix any bugs. I always make a bug report.
The reverse button is to the right of the ping pong button. This button makes the coub play in reverse only. Also makes some very funny coubs, but there is more you can do with it. TIP[Use reverse coubs to create suspense or surprise] I guess I should start using examples.
See how the guy is clearly riding a bike with no handlebars, but I put the coub in reverse to provide a little bit of a surprise as the bike comes into the frame and you don't know what's happening right away. Another use for reverse that is not so obvious right away is when the activity or the point of the coub is at the beginning of the loop and doesn't get better throughout it. Here is an example.
In this coub, there is a young man with a new and exciting hairstyle, but the way the source was, it wasn't filmed in an interesting way. Many amateur videos are not planned, they hold the camera vertically, point away from the good stuff, have bad sound...
I think I will end for now. Next I will explain how to add other source clips and the other controls.
The natural state of the coub is forward. The curved arrow that points to the right. Next to it are two other buttons. The one directly to the right of the forward arrow button is the "ping pong loop" button. This button will make the coub play to the end and then play in reverse.
The ping pong loop is useful for creating a number of interesting situations. There is something funny about things going forward and then backwards. If you use the source video to provide the source sound in a ping pong loop you may sometimes hear a sound when it changes from backwards to forwards. I'm not sure why but Coub seems to work very hard to fix any bugs. I always make a bug report.
The reverse button is to the right of the ping pong button. This button makes the coub play in reverse only. Also makes some very funny coubs, but there is more you can do with it. TIP[Use reverse coubs to create suspense or surprise] I guess I should start using examples.
See how the guy is clearly riding a bike with no handlebars, but I put the coub in reverse to provide a little bit of a surprise as the bike comes into the frame and you don't know what's happening right away. Another use for reverse that is not so obvious right away is when the activity or the point of the coub is at the beginning of the loop and doesn't get better throughout it. Here is an example.
In this coub, there is a young man with a new and exciting hairstyle, but the way the source was, it wasn't filmed in an interesting way. Many amateur videos are not planned, they hold the camera vertically, point away from the good stuff, have bad sound...
I think I will end for now. Next I will explain how to add other source clips and the other controls.
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