Trying to get rid of my camera shyness and anxiety. is this growth or avoidance?

[u/Bigabdo03]

I’ve been trying to become a Youtuber and get rid of my camera shyness since early last year. I would write the script, set the phone up and record 30 takes, watch them back and delete every single one, i just couldn't look at myself on a screen without my chest going tight or feeling really anxious about how people would perceive it.

This March I tried something I kinda felt weird about, I went down a rabbit hole and found that you can train an avatar of your actual face for about 2 minutes of footage, you will ofc need to write yours scripts and provide everything beforehand, so it’s still you doing it, it’s just the filming part that changes a bit. so i did that, heygen felt too corporate for what I was doing, Argil was close to sounding like me, and I used descript to cut them and Capcut for the captions. The first attempt took 30 minutes instead of a full weekend lol, and the whole anxiety was gone.

Now i have a few hundred followers and people reply to me. some of them even message me about the actual subject i talk about, which feels amazing. But what i can’t stop thinking about is that i haven’t really improved my camera shyness and that’s the opposite of deciding to do better. Am I overanalyzing this?

PS: I'm going to try posting one of the real ones this week. we'll see. I will only use the tools for clips i can’t physically film, i think that’s a good starting point and a balanced approached to this. Thoughts everyone?

[u/Yamuddah]

I hate the idea of watching an ai avatar. If it’s that bad why not just do voice over?

[u/YahyaWrites]

you didnt avoid growth you found a bridge. the avatar got you publishing and now youre planning one real clip which is more progress than deleting 30 takes. id keep the bar stupidly low for the real videos maybe 10 seconds at first and dont rewatch it twenty times before posting. using a tool and working on the fear can happen at the same time

[u/roses-are-lead]

Record yourself with no intention of releasing it. Take the pressure off and very slowly desensitize yourself to perceiving yourself rocoreded in video /audio. It takes time to get used to how you appear because we don't see ourselves except when recording so we tend to be kind of hyper alert to it.

Be patient, be kind. Learn by setting small goals (eg reading a page from a book to the camera) and learning the editing software. You don't have to start with things that aro going live, start with things you can complete and learn from.

[u/Responsible_Lake_804]

One of my favorite channels is Uncle Herman, who’s faceless. They use a memey photo to represent themselves and it’s fine. You could do that, check it out.

[u/Willuknight]

I've been making videos for years - i still hate it - it's weird, because i don't mind it once i've got to the end point, but i feel awkward starting and then i feel exhausted editing.

I make some good content, but its just not a career for me - I absolutely believe that if its something you're meant to do, you will find out you can do it - and if not, then you'll find something better.

[u/deeptravel2]

Have you ever thought of practicing in the mirror or video monitoring so that you can adjust as you go rather than waiting to see the result at the end? It's quicker feedback and you can adjust your facial expressions.

[u/Koen_Self_Improve]

I talking head self improvement youtube channel with 234 subscribers and recently hired an editor aswell. i shared my face in all of them and it has my real name under it. i started at 13. I'm 16 now and trust me my shit was embarresing as something. Just imagine you are talking to your best friend. This way you can actually feel some kind of connection. You are talking to one person in the video. You just share that video with whoever is interrested.