Option Three: Make Your Own Dedicated VPN Server. You could also just use VPN server software on one of your own computers. You’ll want to use a computer or device that’s on all the time, though—not a desktop PC you turn off when you leave home.
A lot of software developers like to make things complicated. They get something that could be simple and easy and, due to what most people tell on the internet, make it complicated.
Software should be simple. Said that, it's easy to understand why so many developers have a hard time building software from scratch. In their minds, it's a totally complex and difficult thing and they get completely stuck in the middle of the process.
So, the question is… How do you build software from scratch?
Transcript From The VideoJohn Sonmez:
Hey, what's up? John Sonmez from simpleprogrammer.com. Today, I have a question about building software from scratch. This is a question I've gotten a lot of times from a lot of different people because this is something that is difficult to do when you're a beginner, to figure out how you could ever do this.
This question comes from Akash and he says, “Hey John, your videos are great and I highly value your advice. One problem I face is that when it comes to building a big software, I cannot think of how to design the whole thing from scratch. Say, how to break the whole thing into mini sub-tasks and then implementing each sub-task and putting them all together to make it work. It would be very nice if you can guide me on how to overcome this problem. Thanks in advance.”
What I would say here, Akash, is that what you want to do is you want to think—instead of thinking about taking a whole system, this kind of the top-down approach, break it down to all these pieces, assembling all these pieces and seeing how they fit together, and building this massive Transformer or Legos from—these huge Legos. You want to think of software development more like evolution.
What I mean by that is that start with something really simple. Start with the simplest thing that could possibly work that doesn’t have a lot of features and then evolve that into where you want to go instead of doing what they call big upfront design. It doesn’t mean that you should never like think about the overall architecture of the thing and that you don’t have the designs and certain things upfront. In a lot of cases, you don’t have to do as much of it as you think you need.
Now, if you're designing some software that is going to be embedded inside of an electronic device and a hardware engineer is going to have to develop the circuitry or a custom chip, or something for that to work, you're probably going to have to design a lot of this stuff upfront and you're probably going to have to do that. You might even be limited there. For most software that we're building today, especially web applications and things like that or mobile applications, we could build something that is very, very basic and then evolve it, make changes to grow it and to add complexity as needed.
One thing—one reason why this is so important is because the bane of software development, one of the worst things in software development is complexity. This channel is called Simple Programmer and my business is about making the complex simple, because that's what we need to do. As software developers one of your main jobs is to fight complexity because complexity comes into the system and it makes it difficult to maintain and makes it difficult to understand. It makes it more likely to have bugs and to fail. We want to reduce the complexity as much as possible. We want to simplify. We need to start as simple as possible, what is the simplest possible thing that could work?
A lot of times in the entrepreneurial world, they call this an MVP or minimal viable product. What can you do when you're trying to build a big software system or what you can do is that you can start really small. Start with a very, very small thing. I'm trying to think of the book, but I read this really good book on something, I think it was test driven development step-by-step or something like that. In the book, he was designing like a Notepad app or something. He started off with very, very incremental—he did this in a very incremental way and he started off with, I think, his application needed a database, but he started off with not having a database. Instead, just like storing the data in text files that he read from the text files. Then he got to his point where he needed to actually put it into a database, and then he modified the program and made it read the same data, except he created an abstraction to read from the database.
That's the natural evolution of things and that's how you can build this complex software. I guarantee you, most of the complex software that actually gets built today is built in this manner. A lot of it is not designed all the way upfront and then build all these pieces and hope and pray that they work. Otherwise, it ends up going way over budget and way over schedule. Unfortunately, that does happen. If you want to be successful, if you want to be able to do this, just start with something small. There's nothing that is difficult in this world. There is nothing that is complex. It is only that it's composed of a bunch of simple things that make it seem complex.
You can build the most complex architecture. You can build a huge thing, but you have to start with the simple. It's all composed of the simple. Then instead of trying to just take all those pieces, just start. Evolve the thing. Start. Build something. What is the smallest simplest thing that you can put out that does anywhere close to the functionality? Then start adding features. As you add the features, then you add the architecture to support them and you create abstractions.
A book that I'll recommend that would probably help you to do that is called Clean Code. It's one of my favorite books by Robert Martin. I definitely recommend that book, but you want to evolve your architecture. Then the other thing I would say about this is that as you evolve things, you're going to create abstractions to keep it simple so that you don't ever have this huge, huge complexity. Sometimes it might even be rewriting the entire thing or rewriting parts of it, but that's fine. That's how the evolution of software works. It's better than adding complexity.
A lot of times software developers want to prematurely optimize. They want to make things extremely flexible. They're doing premature optimization on the software because they're trying to build this very, very robust system. Blender cgi software. That often fails because we don't know what we don’t know. We don't know what we're going to need so it's better to not try to anticipate it, but just to say, “Okay. Now, I need to add this new feature or make this work in this way. How can I evolve it?”
Remember, software development is not like a bridge. It's not like you've got concrete laid and now you're going to change the architecture of the house. Software is malleable. It's like clay. You can change it around. It doesn’t have a high, high cost for you to modify that and to change it. You need to use the advantage of that medium as much as possible, which lends itself to an evolutionary process to develop software, as opposed to a big upfront design.
I hope that helps you Akash. Great question. I think a lot of people have asked about this in the past. If you have a question for me, you can email at john@simpleprogrammer.com. If you like this video, go ahead and click that big Subscribe button below if you haven't already subscribed. If yo have, I appreciate you. Stay tuned until next time. Take care.
Hollywood studios use green screen to create all kinds of incredible special effects. Your local weatherperson uses it to look like they’re standing in front of a cool weather map.
But you don’t have to be a big-shot movie director or even a local TV station to enjoy the many benefits green screen (or, as it’s technically called — chroma key) offers.
In fact, all you need to make a professional-quality green screen video is a smartphone or webcam, some fabric, good video editing software, and a little know-how.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. Before we get started on the how, let’s talk about the what and why.
What exactly is a green screen, and why would you ever want to use a green screen effect in your video?
Using green screen in video replaces the background of a video with a digital or virtual background. It offers the most natural-looking way to integrate your subject into your video.
Instead of putting each visual element in its own frame (a la picture-in-picture), green screen lets you blend them. In fact, done correctly, you would never suspect they were two separate video streams.
In the most technical terms, green screen, blue screen, chroma key, chroma key compositing all refer to the same idea. Regardless of what you call it, it’s a post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on color hues (chroma range).
In layperson’s terms, it’s superimposing one image or video stream over another so it looks like one image or stream.
Newscasting, motion picture, and video game industries love this technique, but anyone can use the green screen effect.
Given the current working conditions of most people during the global pandemic, it’s a safe bet you’ve had a Zoom meeting or two with coworkers or others who’ve had cool virtual backgrounds. Green screen is really the same concept, but will typically provide a more professional result.
Green screen has come a long way since Lawrence Butler won an academy award for his special effects in the 1940 film The Thief of Bagdad.
Back then, the process was quite complex. Adding green screen required a lot of time and highly specialized equipment.
Now, you can easily do it in the comfort of your own home with minimal equipment and technical skills.
Download a free trial of Camtasia and see how easy it can be to create amazing videos.
As noted above, you’ve likely seen a meteorologist use a green screen to report the weather. Meteorologists stand in front of the green screen point out specific parts of the forecast. But the green screen does more than provide clarity. It also allows them to personalize their broadcast and connect to their viewers.
Although you may not be detailing cold fronts from your desk, I’d bet you still have opportunities to connect with an audience at work. A green screen is a great option for adding a personal touch to lots of different types of videos.
Consider using it the next time you need to:
Chroma key (remember, that’s green screen’s “technical name”) is a big deal for anyone who needs to connect with viewers. When done well, a green screen can give your video a professional aesthetic on the cheap.Create an online training video by superimposing yourself over all or just part of the lesson. This is an instant upgrade over talking through a PowerPoint presentation — and it’s way more impressive than just doing picture-in-picture with your webcam.
Whether you want to make it look like you (or your video subject) is on the moon or an African safari — or you just want to obscure the drab or uninspiring walls of your office or home studio, green screen makes it easy.
And, you don’t need to build a fancy set or rent studio time. You can shoot your video anywhere and replace the background with a branded graphic, stock photo, or video element.
In fact, TechSmith Assets for Camtasia offers a huge library of potential backgrounds you can use!
To pull off this technique, all you need is a few things: A green or blue piece of cloth/fabric, a camera, lights, and some video editing software.
First, get a piece of muslin cloth that’s a bright shade of green.
Avoid a color that matches your skin tone so you don’t blend into your background.
Blue screen backdrops are also available, but they can cause problems if the person on camera has blue eyes or clothes. If you don’t want to mess around with hanging a cloth, a collapsible green screen panel is a nice option.
This example from Amazon includes both a green and blue collapsible screen.
Since it’s not too big (5′ x 7′), it’s perfect for when you need to travel for a shoot. We’ll discuss shadows and more when we get into lighting. But for now, remember to stand as close to the backdrop as you can without casting a shadow on it. This is usually around two or three feet. Also, make sure to keep your hands close to your body. Any part of your arm or hand that extends past the backdrop will look cut off in your final video.
Next, you’ll want to pick a camera or webcam that shoots HD quality video (720p or higher) at a decent frame rate (24 fps or above). Make sure your camera saves out files in a format your green screen software can import. We’ve had good success using an iPhone, but most any digital camcorder will work.
No matter what camera you choose, Camtasia makes it easy to import your video and make your edits.
When you’re just starting out, recording footage on your smartphone might seem daunting. We’ve put together some tips and advice for shooting videos on your mobile device. We cover everything you need to know about audio, shot composition, and lighting.
The next step is optional but recommended. It may take a little trial and error to get it right, but you’ll love the results.
Shadows can be the enemy of great green screen video, so you want to be sure your background is as well-lit as possible. Use a flat green background. The flatter the green, the easier it will be to remove the screen.
Don’t worry too much about getting a perfectly lit set, though. The Remove a Color effect in Camtasia is quite forgiving of background shadows. Spend a few minutes tweaking the settings and you should be good.
If you’re having trouble getting the background to disappear or there’s a slight halo around the person, try to upgrade your lighting. The more even your lighting, the better the effect will be.
The easiest thing to try is a couple of hardware store clamp-on work lights with high-output LED bulbs. You’ll also need something to clamp them on. Aim the lights so that the green screen doesn’t have dark areas or bright areas. Focus your efforts on the area directly behind the person you’re shooting. You’ll be able to crop out the excess space later.
To throw a lot of light, you need a few bulbs in each fixture. You could build your own video lighting rig for less than $100 (see video below). Or if you’re not into DIY projects, you can shop around for a video softbox. CowboyStudio is a good place to start. Look for “continuous lighting” as opposed to flash or strobe lighting.
Whether you buy or build, it’s best to use a diffusion filter for each light. That will help keep your lights from throwing shadows.
This quick video shows you how to build your own lighting kit on the cheap.
(You can also get a few tips of the trade for making your subjects look more natural.)
Not seeing the video? Watch it on YouTube…
In the Camtasia video editor, you can remove your green screen with just a few clicks. In fact, Camtasia 2020 makes it easier than ever to create professional-quality videos — no pro skills required.
From easy-to-use and share video templates and themes to a wide variety of assets and resources to help you on your way, Camtasia 2020 takes the guesswork out of video creation and puts you and your team at ease.
Green screen video may seem intimidating and difficult, but with the right tools and a few tips and tricks, anyone can master this useful technique. Whether you’re making videos for 5 or 5,000 people, they’ll be amazed at the professional quality and engaging experience green screen provides.
Download a free trial of Camtasia and see how easy it can be to create amazing videos.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in May 2012 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
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