Retrospective - Summer 2022

The last tutorials

Three new balloon tutorials were released last summer:

• The sailboat
• The turtle
• The crossbow

As a reminder, each of these tutorials is published in French and English and consists of a video, subtitled in both languages, as well as an fully illustrated photo guide for each step. This photo guide is downloadable as a PDF in both languages.

Youtube shorts

With the release of the sailboat, I started (a bit by chance) dabbling with the new "shorts" format of Youtube, those videos in TikTok format (the vertical format from smartphones).

I must say that I was conquered. This format makes it very easy to produce fun videos and reach a new audience.

By the way, one of these new short videos has been a real hit, it's theballoon monkeyand I'm therefore thinking about making a complete tutorial for it soon.

You will find all the "shorts" I produced this summer in a dedicated playlist.

NeoTV

I only found out a few weeks afterwards, but NeoTV, a Web TV made a small publication on my life-size balloon motorbike.

Téléchargements

A dedicated downloads area is now available to all site subscribers.

Various formats of upcoming tutorials

As you know, you can send me your suggestions of tutorials for future publications (just post in the comment section of this article).

However, I am exploring various formats that would allow me to cut down on processing time. My usual process includes shooting, video editing, voice-over recording, writing French subtitles and English translation, but also laying out the photo guide and its content. in both languages.

By the way... in case you're wondering, I'm doing all this by myself.

That's why I started the series: 1 sculpture in less than 3 minutes. That's also why I played a little with Youtube shorts format. However, I continue to explore other possibilities.

I'm moving towards a new format of videos that won't be public on Youtube, although they will probably be hosted there for simplicity and efficiency. These will be videos filmed live and with an absolute minimum of editing, without logo, without subtitles etc... In other words, without any fuss (neither hello nor goodbye).

These little informal videos will allow me to show you some ballooners' tips and tricks, but also very simple tutorials for which my classic format of tutorials would be overkill. For example, it was Courbin who suggested I do the recent crossbow tutorial, and my classic format is perfect for this model. On the other hand for the bow, tutorial also suggested by Courbin, I'll probably just make a short and sweet informal video, which will be much faster and I hope, just as effective.

L'école du ballon (The balloon art school)

In one of my previous publications, I told you about my plans for better balloon art teachng.

You'll be happy to know that a first beginners' course  in balloon twisting is nearly complete and will be available soon.

On the program of this very first course:

• the basic material
• 4 essential techniques,
• 3 models (including 2 unpublished)
• quizzes
• homeworks
• 1 forum dedicated to your creations and my observations and advice in return
• and a certificate upon successful completion of the course

I'll give your more details when the time comes.