5 Tips on Recording Creative Process Videos & Tutorials

Over the past year, I've been making ”how-to” videos for Pixite’s amazing apps. Creating vector art in Assembly, colouring in in Pigment, and journaling with Zinnia. When I started working with the Pixite team, I really had to learn from scratch the best way to create this type of content. Over time, I've created an entire space dedicated in my studio to these types of videos, but you really don't need to do this. And at the start, I didn't spend huge amounts of money on extendible desks, camera equipment, lighting, and editing equipment. All I did was use my iPad and my iPhone. So this video is for all those people out there that want to start creating videos dedicated to the process of your work.

Here's my top five list on getting started with creating how to videos.

Tip Number One Now, if you want to create your process videos as quickly as possible, recording can be as simple as using your iPhone and pressing screen record. Just swipe down from the top-right corner and you'll see a record button there. If you'd like to also record your voice, there’s an option to record your voice simultaneously while working in one of Pixite’s creative apps.

Tip Number Two You do not need an expensive camera! In fact, if you have an iPad, you probably already have an iPhone. And if you have an iPhone you already own an expensive camera — so use your iPhone to record your iPad. Now, if you're doing this and you also want to record a voiceover while you're working, I recommend using your earphones or AirPods directly hooked into your phone. That mic is better than the mic in your phone, and it will be closer to your mouth, usually resulting in a much clearer sound recording.

Tip Number Three Now, the thing about your final video is you have to consider where you're going to be posting it. If you're posting on Instagram stories or Tick-Tock, you want to record that in a tall/portrait/vertical orientation. And if your final piece of work is going to end up on YouTube, you should consider recording that in wide/landscape/horizontal. In both cases, you want to frame your iPad in the centre of the screen and you want to create a square safe area in the middle. That means if you want to crop this into a square aspect ratio, you can post this across all the rest of your social channels.

Tip Number Four There are two main angles for recording this type of content; from above and from the side. Now, if you're doing it from above, you ***must*** secure your iPhone properly. Now, when I started, I wanted to film from above, so I put my iPhone directly above my iPad. I did not have the phone secured properly. I had it balancing on the edge of my rig, and it ultimately landed on my iPad resulting in an unusable, smashed iPad pro.

This is an extremely expensive mistake to make, and because I had a deadline to make, I had to go out that very day and buy a new one.

But to avoid an accident like this, all you need to do is purchase a small clamp. Sometimes these come with a selfie stick or a mini tripod. They are inexpensive, and once you’ve got it you don't have to worry about making my mistake and destroying your really expensive iPad.

Also, when shooting with a tripod, I recommend that you place it to the side of your iPad that you're not drawing from. That way you see the screen without your hand obstructing the screen.

Tip Number Five Our final thought is on editing. Now, you might want to record a continuous video from a single source, or you might be a bit more ambitious and take that a step further into editing a sequence that’s comprised of videos from multiple angles. Now you can record an hour's worth of footage and you need to edit that down. My recommendation is that if you're new to editing, get started by finding a few tutorials on editing on YouTube, and downloading one or two of the easy-to-use video apps and playing with them.