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The Technology I use to create Flipping Physics!

Hardware: (all $ references are approximate)
  • Primary Video Camera: In fall of 2023 I started using a Sony a6700 Mirrorless Camera with 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens ($1800) as my primary video camera. It's awesome. It can film 4k at 120 fps, which is helpful. Love this camera.
  • Secondary Video Camera: Go Pro Hero 8 Black ($400) and various camera mounts.  I use this for time lapse, when I am dropping something on the camera, placing it on an escalator, mounting it on a car, or filming underwater.
  • Tertiary Video Camera: iPhone 15 Pro (~$1000).  Sometimes I need to film something a 240 frames per second or I find something when I am out and about and need to film it.
  • 15" MacBook Pro with Retina Display ($2500): I need a rather powerful, mobile computer.  This is it.
  • Recording Audio: The microphone on the video camera is used only for syncing the externally recorded audio to the video. For good stereo separation and to be able to record at 96kHz/32bit, external to the camera I have two M-Audio Nova Class A Fet microphones ($90) attached to a Zoom F3 ($300). I also have a Zoom H2essential with a windscreen (~$230)
  • Lighting: I have one Bescor LED-1200 Bi Color Studio Light ($700) which I love. I can adjust the temperature and brightness of the light and it came with an air-cushioned light stand.  I have a pair of Interfit INT293 Super Coolite 455s ($240) which I purchased from Amazon and I recommend that you never purchase these. They are pieces of junk which arrived with 3 out of the 8 bulbs and both light stands broken.  Amazon refunded a large enough portion of the cost so that I could replace the broken pieces, however, they are still flimsy and I am just waiting for them to break.
  • Tripod: Don't underestimate the necessity of a good tripod. I use a Manfrotto 504HD Head w/535 2-Stage Carbon Fiber Tripod System (~$1000) which works quite well. [Okay, honestly, I got it for ~$300. I knew I wanted a really good video tripod and waited for an extra large sale.]
  • Teleprompter: Wow, what a difference a teleprompter makes. Glide Gear TMP-500 Tripod & Shoulder Mount Tablet/Phone Teleprompter. ~$250. Requires a tablet and app. I use an iPad and the ~$12 iOS app PromptSmart Pro.
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Software:
  • Final Cut Pro is my main video editor.  It is an awesome program. The shots of Billy, Bobby and Bo require professional level video software.
  • I use Adobe Illustrator for all my video graphic overlays, for example all of the vector diagrams.
  • I use LaTeXiT to write all the equations and export as png to create the equations.
  • Adobe Audition is the program I use to clean up the audio before I even start working with it in Final Cut Pro.
  • For the website I use Weebly. It is easy and relatively low cost.  Not quite as functional as I would like it to be however, it is good enough for now.
  • For my multitrack audio recordings like the Flipping Physics intro music I use GarageBand.
  • Apple's Motion program I am just starting to learn how to use and I did some motion tracking which was fun.​
  • For my animations I usually use a combination of Illustrator, Motion, and Final Cut Pro. For example, for the animation below I started by filming an object moving in a circle on a record player, then I created a single dot in Illustrator, motion tracked that dot in Motion but restricted the motion to one-dimension, then imported that video into Final Cut Pro and manipulated many, many multiples of the video to create this wonderful spectacle!
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From: What is Sound?
Miscellaneous:
  • I purchased a long, green sheet of paper to use as a green screen and green screen large piece of fabric, and I am amazed at how well they work.  I purchased them from BHPhotoVideo.
  • For royalty free music and sound effects I utilize the libraries that came with Final Cut Pro, GarageBand and iMovie. I also sometimes use sounds from FreeSound.org. I purchased both ProScores and Designer Sound FX from VideoCopilot.
  • Backups: I use an external drive for a Time Machine backup and I use BackBlaze to keep a backup of my essential files in the cloud. On 2014.03.14 the Final Cut Pro library I was working with got corrupted and I almost lost 2 days of work. Using my local backups and AppleCare Support, it took me about an hour to reconstruct the library.