Images: Tools for YouTube directors

Ryan, 22, downloaded visual effects from Adorage.com, which made it appear as if she were filming her video from inside a tunnel. Other effects on the video make it appear as if she is being snowed on or in a car's side-view mirror.

Stevie Ryan/YouTube

In this homage to the band The Police, Ryan used her Windows Movie Maker to add special effects. She said the software is simple enough to use for even the least experienced film editor.

Stevie Ryan/YouTube

Effects can enhance a video, but a videographer needs to use them creatively or else they're just props, Ryan said.

In her recurring YouTube role as "Little Loca," a thickly accented Mexican girl from East Los Angeles, Ryan tells the camera: "You don't need Mona Lisa when you got Mona Loca."

Stevie Ryan/YouTube

Matt Harding, the creator of the video "Where the Hell is Matt?," shows children in Rwanda the images he took of them using one of his two Canon PowerShot cameras. Harding used the cameras to record short clips of himself dancing in 39 different countries and then edited them together. The video has been viewed more than 2 million times on video-sharing site YouTube.

George Conard

Harding, 29, said his photo of Sossusvlei, Namibia, was a little washed out until he used Sony's Vegas editing software to instill the dune's true "burnt red" colors.

Matt Harding/YouTube

Although the Canon PowerShot SD500 is mainly used to take digital still photographs, Harding used its video feature to shoot each clip on his YouTube hit "Where the Hell is Matt?" The camera held up as he traveled to 39 countries in six months.

CNET Networks

Logitech is one of the companies racing to meet the needs of the YouTube generation. Its Quickcam Ultra Vision offers twice the image clarity of other Webcams, "even our own" earlier Web cams, the company said in a statement. The camera retails for about $129.

Logitech

NewTek, a video products maker, is hoping serious videographers will try the company's new TriCaster, a 10-pound box that comes equipped with a hard drive, editing software and camera switcher. The built-in switcher enables consumers to receive video feeds from multiple cameras. The device retails for about $5,000.

Greg Sandoval/CNET News.com

Jumpcut.com is a free online editing tool that allows users to cut their videos after uploading them to the site. They can pick out music from the site's library or add clips from videos made by other people. What it can't do is upload the video to YouTube.

Jumpcut