GWJer Video Makers Thread

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So a few of us on them there Tweetzers were talkin' video content production. Things like hardware for game capture and such. I promised I'd make a thread dedicated to the topic, and in my natural fashion I've done it several weeks after I promised.

For the most part those of us discussing were trying to figure out what we needed first, but I figured this would be a great place to share other information. Plus, maybe folks would like to team up and work on projects together. Or maybe people just want to share their own projects or the latest thing they've posted.

GamersWithVideos

ccesarano - RamblePak64

EverythingsTentative - Everything's Tentative

ParallaxAbstraction - Retro Flashback/All Together Now

tanstaafl - The Paleogamer

MysticViolet - Valhalla Playground/Valhalla Historia

The Conformist - Comedy!

Baron of Hell - BaronSquared

bombsfall - Toh Kay "With Any Sort of Creativity" Music Video (animation)

Hardware for video capture

For those of us console gamers looking to capture video, there's a few hardware options to make things easier.

Avermedia seems to have a few options available. A month ago their GameCapture HD was about $130 off of Amazon and more available, but it doesn't seem to be available directly through Amazon at the moment. The primary advantage is if your consoles are away from your computer then this device will still work. You just slap a 2.5" hard drive in there and record onto it. Uses Component cable and USB.

Roxio also has their own Game Capture HD as well, which seems to focus on connectivity between the game system and the computer. Allows for HDMI or Component.

Elgato and Hauppauge both seem to require HDMI for Xbox 360, which is silly to me as any older Xbox doesn't have an HDMI Output.

Diamond Multimedia does Component and comes in version 1000 and 500.

EZGamer lacks user reviews, which makes me iffy.

There are also a bunch of video capture cards, but that seems beyond my area of expertise (because clearly I know so much about these options).

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Video capture software

This is something I started experimenting with myself. I'm not sure if the quality of video captured is more dependent on your hardware or how well the software is programmed. If it's the former I'm probably screwed.

In any event, I started with CamStudio Recorder and was not pleased. It didn't run well at all, and when I started messing around with settings to try and capture just a single window instead of my entire desktop, or trying to capture sound "from my speakers" (as opposed to "microphone" and "no sound") it had issues running a function.

It didn't seem to do its job well when I finally did get around to recording something.

I've heard folks mention FRAPS, but I have no knowledge of its quality. I'll probably try it out next.

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OTHER

Since a lot of older consoles are probably a Female Doggo and two halves to record from I decided to try Cloud Emulator Console Classix, which I'm hoping is legal. I pay $6 a month to get access to a whole slew of systems. I experimented with Mega Man X today.

The GUI isn't always intuitive. I had to restart the software to find where to change controls so I could map out my wired 360 game pad, then I had to figure out how things worked in the cloud ZSNES emulator. Once you figure that out, though, it works pretty well. So if I want to do a more retro game, this will be my go-to source.

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So if anyone has any suggestions, any links to share, or any questions, feel free to comment and discuss.

Thanks for the thread! Now we can get to planning and discussion.

I'm using Camtasia Studio 8. It works well enough. There's a trial version.

Well I can confirm that I couldn't get FRAPS to work with Console Classix, so I went ahead and uninstalled that as well. Could be I was just dumb, but it told me I should press F9 to start recording, and no matter what window I was in there was no recording being done.

I'm going to give Camtasia's free trial a try, but I'll still be looking out for alternate options.

EDIT: Larry you bastard. Even though I've barely used it I really like Camtasia. Mostly because it actually works.

I wonder if I can use every e-mail I've ever had and keep using trial versions until I can afford the steep, steep price tag.

In any event, I was able to put this together this morning. Just a simple video of the first two levels of Mega Man X. Camtasia is able to capture a fixed portion of the screen, which is good because Console Classix can't really do full screen. It also seems to record at a high frame rate and the software comes with editing tools built in. It turns out that, even though ZSNES is hiding the cursor, it will still record in the video.

Either way, here's a sample so people can see how it runs (also: I learned yesterday that muscle memory does deteriorate with age, especially when you're mapping a 360 controller to SNES controls).

So besides video capture, my friend and I are also wanting to record our conversation while we play. Any suggestions to what we should use?

Camtasia supports audio input from the mic on the device being used. If you're on the same device, I think it'll capture both audio inputs, though I can't be sure. If nothing else, you can simply capture the audio later as a commentary and layer it over the video in the editing mode.

Sorry about the cost, ccesarano, but you do get what you pay for. No messing around. Just works. I don't know why but the Mac version is just $99. Might want to check out if you can get the same price for the PC version somehow.

A few friends on Facebook started recommending me some software for this purpose. I haven't had time to look into any of these yet though.

XSplit, with a particular emphasis on live streaming.

...and looking back they were mostly recommending editing software, not screen capture. So not the most helpful.

I've started doing more game footage recording of Mega Man X and recording notes, as I know what my first video will be about. With luck it'll be ready in a week or two.

So I got the Roxio HD Capture for Christmas, which was one of the big surprises of the day for me.

I'll let you guys know how it is, but first I need to get to work on my first video. I've recorded the audio and video footage, but need to edit them both. Don't know how long that process will take me.

EDIT:

So here is what I can report thus far.

Roxio Video Capture:

It does a good job. I wish I had a better setup of sorts, but it does a good job. If you're like me and only have component for 360 and an HDMI for the Capture Device to TV, it allows you to convert the signal. It MIGHT have some audio lag, but that could just be Resident Evil 6. I haven't had time to really check. Otherwise the signal seems 1:1 with no lag between my input to the Xbox and the Xbox to the TV.

While they don't advertise it, their FAQ notes that you can also record Wii games as long as you have a component cable.

I haven't tested the PS3 yet as I need to find the original component cable (currently using HDMI), and I think that cable is in the box it came in which means I need to find the box. As for why I don't just use an HDMI cable, well, evidently PS3 has some crazy copy protection or something that won't allow it. You have to use component and then fiddle with things.

I'm capturing the video at 720p at a bit higher than the middle quality, and thus far it is good. Each video clocks in at a few gigs for about 2 hours, though, so I may reduce quality in the future and see what happens. The frame rate is perfectly fine.

Something I haven't yet tested: I don't have a camera currently connected to my computer, but after hooking up the Game Capture device Skype said my "camera was ready to use". It might be possible to stream video via Skype to friends? I don't know, but if you want to do a group Let's Play like Spoiler Warning this might be a way how.

Camtasia Studio

Good news: they don't track IP or anything online when you use it so you can use the 30-Day Trial for as many e-mail addresses as you have.

Bad news: the editing options are "limited". What I mean by that is that there are a lot of nice zoom options and other things, but I was expecting them to at least allow you to chop up your clips before applying them to the timeline, which requires you to cut up everything on the timeline.

So if you want to cut stuff up to make a video like, say, Red Letter Media to use a trite example, then you're kind of SOL on Camtasia Studio. If you want to record audio while doing a Let's Play, however, it might not be too bad. You can also include something like a Webcam recording of yourself if you'd like, or whatnot.

But for the purposes I'm aiming to use it, well, it's just not going to work.

Fortunately Roxio's Game Capture HD comes with a video editor as well, so I'll see if that's any good. I'd hate for Windows Movie Maker to have the clip-cutting features I need when it's free. And, y'know, Windows Movie Maker. :/

Awesome! This all sounds great, so I'm glad to hear this is something to look in to for a future purchase.

So evidently Windows Movie Maker is unique, at least compared to Camtasia and the Roxio video editor, in that it allows you to split video clips apart from the timeline.

If you're not doing an edit-heavy video, then those seem perfectly fine. However, I want to take large segments of gameplay video and pull little snippets out here and there to make use of. The way I'd have to do it with Roxio is to take a video in my bin and drop it to the timeline, then trim down what I want. I'd have to do this repeatedly.

Windows Movie Maker 2.6 allows me to split and trim the videos while they're in the bin and THEN drop what I need into the timeline. So oddly enough, the free "sh*tty" video editor is a lot closer to what I really want.

I'm going to keep looking, but for now my first video is going to be made in Windows Movie Maker. I want to get this made and done before January is over.

I make a lot of youtube videos pretty regularly in Windows Movie Maker. They changed a lot from 2.6 to the newest iteration. Like the timeline portion is gone... But I like it a lot more than the other video editors I've tried.

Yeah, the latest one seems to be Windows Live Movie Maker, which tried to simplify it I guess. So I went and grabbed 2.6.

Honestly, the only problem with Movie Maker to me at this point is it can only do the audio for the video and a separate audio track. If I could throw in multiple audio tracks I'd be a lot happier.

EDIT:

So figure I may as well update, as I've been putting some work into my first video.

In terms of the software, Windows Movie Maker 2.6 is actually a bit more robust in some of its effects and transition capabilities that I'll be testing out, but still has its limitations. It isn't the MS Paint of Video software that it was around the time of Windows ME and early XP days, though.

However, it does seem to have a few bugs. I went to save my project a second time without having made changes (habits, etc.) and it popped up saying "Catastrophic Failure" and then forced me to Save As. I had to chop up an MP3 in Audacity that I wanted to use for some audio as it kept freezing on the import of the full file. It froze once more as well. It has basically just taught me to save frequently is all, which I should anyway.

In terms of, well, me... man, this has been a lesson in how to handle recording and writing a script. Next time I won't do a single draft. For some reason it's so much easier to sound like a smacked ass when you write a script for video in one go.

Don't try to be funny when the situation doesn't call for it.

Open the mouth and enunciate. Sometimes I sound too mumbly and it's God awful.

Most of all, when I write, stick to the point and remember that there will need to be video footage to go with everything. The worst is when you have a few second of audio where you don't really have video to match.

I've got 3 and a half minutes of my video complete. Part of me feels excited enough to render it and put what I have up as a "preview", but it would ultimately be better to just wait until the product is finished. By time it is done, it will be about 16 minutes in length.

If you're doing an opinion video and not a simple Let's Play, then prepare for a loooooong ass time editing and cutting footage together. Do NOT plan on making one video per week. That will be impossible.

My only gripe with 2.6 is that it does freeze. And in the case of one friend, it did corrupt her file entirely, making the whole video useless. So I would be careful. I just use Windows Live Movie Maker for all the stuff I do.

Ahh, for the stuff I'm working on that's no good. I need the ability to split the clips up and pick and choose. I'll probably continue looking for alternatives, but it seems a lot of programs favor the idea of dropping the entire video onto your timeline and then trimming it down there, which, as I stated above, is inconvenient when you're working with long ass clips.

EDIT:

I've been discovering that Windows Movie Maker has grown a Hell of a lot since I first used it on Windows ME (talk about crashes, oi). However, Adobe just made a bunch of old software free, including an old version of Premiere Pro. You can download it here, as I am doing, and give it a whirl.

I'll report back, as usual.

I'm at least 1/3 of the way through my video. It's a lot more work than I expected, but there's something satisfying about it.

Awesome! Free is hard to turn down, and making vids is fuuun.

Normally I'd just do an edit, but I'll keep this as its own post.

It is finished, it is uploaded, it is ready to be hated by the Internet.

Now then, as for lessons learned while making this video.

On the technical side:

- The microphone is the first issue I have. The headset I was using is actually of good quality, the problem is I had it around my neck instead of my head/ears. So every little movement made a scratching noise and the audio came in with a lot of flaws and artifacts. Next time put the headset on right, then test and make sure it's coming in okay while I move.

- The video looks sped up because I recorded at 24 FPS but told Windows Movie Maker to render at 30 FPS. Makes everything look like it is going faster even though it is just the addition of new frames to make up for the six missing a second. Next time, make sure the two are consistent.

- While I learned the audio options in Windows Movie Maker are actually a lot more varied than I previously thought, the title card options are not. Those are very, VERY limited to Microsoft's specific templates. As such, it would be better to make those an image graphic from now on.

- Make sure you have enough footage to go off of every part of your script. There were some moments I had trouble putting something fitting together, especially when it came to NES Mega Man footage.

- If I use something like Camtasia again, make sure I record all the footage at the same resolution.

Critical/Creative Issues:

- Stop trying to be funny.

- Multiple drafts are required when doing a long-form video analysis.

- No, really. There are so many problems with my argument, the first being that I do a poor job of sticking to my thesis. The idea is supposed to be that Mega Man X is designed to funnel you into a specific order of play. However, half the time it feels like I'm just discussing how cool the little things in Mega Man X are. A lot of the environmental changes I bring up should have been saved for when I was discussing those robot master levels specifically.

- Similarly, I mention that placing Storm Eagle and Spark Mandrill on the map side-by-side could be intentional, but I'd get to it more later. I never do, which feels like a glaring omission on my part. I promised something I never delivered on.

- That conclusion is horrible. It is horribly written and opens me up to saying something stupid, that "games aren't supposed to be immersive, but engaging". I know what I was intending to say, but the way I said it makes me slap my forehead. It's the sort of statement that makes someone approach you and say "You don't know what the f*ck you're talking about". It destroys credibility.

- "Those are some delightful feeling hooks"? Really? REALLY MOTHER f*ckER? You not only wrote that, but you read it? You recorded it? And you didn't think "Damn, that's terrible. Let me think of something else"? ARGH!

What I like:

- Can't quite place that. I do like watching it, but more in that "I spent two months putting so much together to produce this, and even though it is flawed, I...I love it."

I've been meaning to post in this thread for a long time but I've been so busy that I haven't had time to do it until now. Before I post my own thing, ccesarano, if that's your first attempt at a video, well bloody done sir! You've got a great foundation there. I fear that the video I'm about to post will look horrendous in comparison.

So I've been pondering doing a retro gaming themed YouTube show for quite a while now. My idea is that an entire generation of kids are growing up not knowing anything about older games and how they have contributed to the games we see today. My idea was to do a show like Giant Bomb Quick Looks or TotalBiscuit's WTF Is... but focused exclusively on retro games. I'd largely play whatever game I feel like in no particular order but talk about what made the game good, unique or even what made it bad. It would be just me commentating over game play but it would be talking about the history and underlying details of the games rather than just being a Let's Play. Giant Bomb has been kind of doing something like this with Encyclopedia Bombastica (though I've been gestating this idea since well before they started that) and while I like what they're doing, I'm hoping to approach it a little bit differently.

So this afternoon, I did a test video to try out my recording settings and see how well I could do it. I chose to do a video of Code Name: Viper for the NES. I've posted it publicly on my YouTube channel and I'm looking for honest feedback. I'll take anything you can throw at me. I don't expect this to get high praise so my feelings won't be hurt. A few things about this, some of which I'd love suggestions for if anyone can offer them:

1. I recorded this with my headset mic. It actually sounds way better than I thought it would but it does still sound like a headset. If I start doing this seriously, I will invest in a proper recording mic.
2. I know there's a lot of "Umm" and "Uhh" in my commentary. For all those people who say the Giant Bomb guys are "bad at games", seriously try playing something while live commentating it. It's bloody hard to talk and play well at the same time! This is something I know I have to work on and I will. It may just involve a lot of practice or it may mean that I have to capture in advance and talk over it later. I'm going to keep practising my speaking ability and try to make it more engaging with time.
3. I have no intro and outro for the video. If I start doing this proper, I want to have both but honestly, I haven't the foggiest clue where to put something together. I have no artistic abilities and I tried out a couple of motion graphic applications and got completely lost right away. Does anyone know the best way to create a simple intro with some titling, effects and whatnot? I know you can find royalty-free music to use which I can do but I'm at a loss as to what else to do. I know a big thing on YouTube is also to put in-line links to previous videos at the end but again, I don't have any art to wrap that in.
4. This is just raw capture for the most part. I re-rendered it and uploaded it to YouTube using the trial version of Sony Vegas 12 Platinum which is probably what I'll end up buying if I start doing this frequently, simply because it's inexpensive and does a great job in spite of that. If I can figure out how to put together an intro and outro, I'll have no problem stitching it all together. I actually am fairly familiar with video editing thanks to a client of mine but motion graphics and such are where I fall apart.
5. I recorded the video in 720p but thanks to my sh*tty 1Mbps upload speed (hopefully improving soon), it takes forever and a day to upload. Since it's an NES game, HD might not be necessary so I may try another pass at 480p and see if people can notice a major drop in quality.
6. I was saying before on a live stream I did that I wasn't sure it was possible to do this due to copyright nonsense since I would eventually like to get partnership and monetise these videos. The good news is that after some research, I found out doing this kind of thing is perfectly legal indeed. If you're providing commentary, analysis, review, parody or something else, it's considered an "educational video" and therefore falls under Fair Use, at least in the US. I believe we have similar provisions in Canada but I think it's US copyright law that YouTube adheres to. Basically, you can't just put up video of the game playing on its own but if there's commentary, it's fair game! I don't think YouTube will offer partnership in these cases so if you want to monetise videos like this, you may have to try to get accepted into a network like The Game Station.
7. The tentative title for my show is Retro Flashback. If anyone has other suggestions, feel free to toss them at me. I'm not great at naming things cleverly.

So yeah, here it is. Feel free to be honest but try to be constructive.

I am too sleepy to watch it at the moment, but as it seems most video serieses focused on retro games are more of the "this is such a terrible game" variety (Angry Video Game Nerd and Jon Tron on the top of my head) one that focuses on good but obscure titles seems pretty cool.

I spent my free gaming time today recording video from ten games. I have all the footage I need for my next video, but it's so interesting how I can come up with so many things I want to say that wouldn't be germane to the discussion my video will be on. Basically, it only makes me want to do future episodes on specific games, partly so I have an excuse to go back to them.

We'll see how I get used to video creation. I feel like I've got enough video ideas for two years at this rate, and growing, if they take as long as my first video.

I'll be experimenting with Adobe Premiere 2 before recording in earnest, and if I like it then I'll switch out from Windows Movie Maker.

Parallax, I think YouTube has tools for simple title cards and such that you can use if that Sony program doesn't have anything. The GamerTagged and Ramble Pak pages are just images at the appropriate resolution.

You're correct, most retro focused shows are done from the point of view of making fun of bad games. I actually spent hours trying to find a YouTube show that does what I'm planning to do and couldn't find one which frankly shocked me. I don't intend to focus exclusively on obscure titles, just whatever I feel like playing on a given day. I'll probably do staples like Super Mario Bros. and the like too if this thing takes off but I figure to start, this is a good way to showcase stuff that retro enthusiasts may not have played but would be interested in. I may take another crack at recording it again tonight as I'm still not pleased with the quality of my commentary.

Got to watch the video. I don't watch a lot of Let's Plays, and the only one I really have familiarity with is Spoiler Warning, and that's basically a group of guys (and for a while one gal) gathered to discuss and mostly critique a game. While on twitter you said you feel like your voice doesn't emote enough, I'd disagree. I feel like there's an energy there as you discuss the game that doesn't at all feel like droning on and on. You sound like you're really interested in discussing this game.

The "umms" and "uhhs" are something that I imagine will go away in time as you get used to it. Otherwise, the only thing I can imagine is preparing a script and recording it, then editing it in Audacity or something. That's what I do, and I imagine a lot of other folks do, but the idea of a Let's Play is more stream of conscious discussion while playing the game as far as I'm aware. And if you're going to write a script, then it feels like you may as modify and edit your video footage to match your point. And that's also a lot of work (trust me, I know!)

I did like the choice of game as well. I hadn't heard of it before, and the smooth animations were actually surprising to me. Sometimes I forget how good NES games could look. However, I have to kind of disagree on the music, at the very least because it was repetitive by time you brought it up as being good.

But I learned there are some things that will slow down really badly using Camtasia Studio, and that was one of them. So it looks like the most complicated stuff I'll be recording are NES, SNES and Genesis games.

Both of your videos were pretty good!

Parallax: For a first attempt, you're already remarkably close to being on par with Encyclopedia Bombastica. The choice of game was good, as Code Name: Viper looks like a lot of fun to play. I might be able to speak to your gripe in the lack of high score counter in that it would have required the cartridges to have batteries inside to save data. Adding that material cost wouldn't have made sense for a game that wouldn't otherwise have any reason to save anything between attempts.

ccesarano: I haven't come across too many videos that set out to argue a point about a video game other than "this game is better than people think" (or perhaps the opposite). I think you did a good job of backing up your thesis both in writing and in the video editing, and I know from experience how much work it is editing that much footage. When it comes to your reading, I agree the enunciation is an area to work on, and your mic sounds like it is clipping a bit. See if you can bring the level down while you're recording and then boost the volume later in the mix.

Re: Jon Tron
If you're not watching Game Grumps, you should be.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm actually trying to get a second video up where I re-recorded the commentary. I also did it in 480p, simply because an NES game doesn't benefit from 720p and my horribly slow upload at home means a 480p video uploads in half an hour whereas 720 takes 6 hours. I'm curious what you think of the differences. A comparison of the two would help me decide a lot. Here's "beta 2":

Unfortunately, I just noticed after posting this that the game play looks squished as Hell. Vegas for some reason forces everything into 4:3 when you encode at 480p but not 360p which makes no sense to me. Even though the capture is 4:3 because it's an NES game, when you encode in 16:9, the game play size in the video increases some. However, the 16:9 game play is also kind of motion blurry, whereas this doesn't appear to be. Do you think the massive black bars on the side detract from things?

Also ccesarano, if you're looking to capture stuff, I use a fantastic program called Dxtory that's not very expensive and does an amazing job. It's got kind of a horrible UI and can be a process to configure initially but I'm happy to help out with that. It works great for recording emulators and it will put things like commentary into its own audio track which makes editing a snap but there's one caveat: Dxtory uses DirectX hooks to record so the emulator must support DirectX video modes which not all of them do. I ended up using FCEUX as my NES emulator but I do have concerns that I won't be able to find emulators for every platform I want to cover that use DirectX. If not, I might be able to use XSplit's screen region mode for that, though it won't look as good or be as elegant a process.

I also fell down the rabbit hole of figuring how to to make a motion graphic intro last night. The trial of Sony Vegas Platinum I'm using includes HitFilm Express which is a lighter version of a product that's designed to be a cheaper version of Adobe After Effects. It's complicated but the developer has a boatload of really easy to follow tutorial videos on their web site, including all the project files and assets needed to follow along with them. I did a couple of lessons last night and have the basics down. It won't look like anything from Industrial Light & Magic but I think I might be able to put something passable together in a few hours. I ended up spending like 2 hours on various stock media sites trying to find a fitting chiptune track I could use as backing for it but came up short. There aren't a lot of options out there on stock sites and all the ones that are freely downloadable are for non-commercial purposes, meaning I'd be in violation of their licenses if I ever achieved partner status with YouTube. A lot of these stock sites also have a ton of pre-created motion graphic intros that looks really nice but they all require After Effects and I'm not really interested in paying $50/month of $1,000 once to own After Effects yet.

See what Adobe software is free on CS2. As stated, I got Premiere 2.0 for free, and while it's almost a decade old it should still be better than having to pay hundreds of dollars for a program you may never use all the features of.

As for music, I had asked permission from most of the bands I use, but that was originally for Podcasting. I can ask them again, but when it comes to these game bands they're usually more than excited as long as you credit them.

I'll get to watching the video later tonight.

If you know anyone who has some good, beaty chiptunes, I'd be interested in talking to them. Credit ain't no problem at all.

I was about to save the day by suggesting you look around 8bitcollective.org, but then I found out that they got hacked and entirely deleted from existence a couple of years ago.

There seems to be some remnants available here.

Aside from that, I'll just throw out some of my favorites: roboctopus (local to me!), smiletron (almost local), spamtron, tettix, and there's a lot more where that came from

Thanks for the shout out Ces. When we video, which is not as often as we would like, Tech Guy does all the capture and editing. I have no idea what he uses but I'll get the info and post it.

I know we have issues with audio sync on longer videos, which is why we haven't posted many (we talk a lot).

Since we are taking down the personal site, expect to see more YouTube videos. We would love subscribes and likes.

I feel like Resident Evil 6 would make for an excellent community Let's Play. I don't stop the game to write down notes because that'll take me out too often, but my mind is constantly commenting as I play. Which kind of stinks because I'm trying not to, but it just goes back and forth between moments of good and moments of bad.

I'm already recording it as I figured it would be perfect to review, but I might have to consider going through a second time strictly for a Let's Play series. Which is interesting, as I just don't visualize myself as doing a Let's Play. I'd want to do it co-op with an additional commentator, though.

I'll focus on doing the review series first, though. I'm not sure if the Chris and Jake campaigns will feel different enough to justify a video per campaign, but my guess is the story part at least should.

By the way, Mystic Violet was interested in doing Let's Plays and such as well. Is she aware of the thread? I thought I shared it with her on Twitter.

I believe she's aware of it but she's been super busy lately. I've been considering some kind of co-op focused endeavour as well. Potentially YouTube but I was thinking more of a live stream thing, though at least on my side, that would have to wait until my home Internet is finally able to get its upgrade. This is the problem with how my head works, I get a million ideas and want to do them all!

If you are planning something of your own ccesarano and need some co-op partners, hit me up. I'd be happy to participate.

I basically am keeping a Google Doc with all of my ideas, and at the moment have no shortage of them either. So I don't see the Let's Play being done any time soon, but I'll keep you posted.

I still have to watch my friend's series, actually. He does one called "Let's Drink to Gaming" and I still haven't seen any of it.

EDIT: Working on my next video script, which is tough since I want to be more careful with some of my wording. I've already reworked the script a bit. I'm also going a bit more ambitious with this one, which has me afraid of trying to learn Adobe Premiere CS2 when I already am familiar with Windows Movie Maker.

On the one hand, I want to use a better program if I can. On the other, I don't want to take nearly as long working on episode 2 as I did on episode 1, which totaled to about two months. I'd like to do at least one episode a month, more if possible.

On the plus side, capturing video is a lot faster a process. After my next video I'm going to start a series critiquing Resident Evil 6 one episode at a time, and I've completed Leon's campaign and am 2/5 through Chris's. I should have several episodes worth of video captured before I move.

I signed up for a trial of Adobe Creative Cloud this past weekend so I could alter a stock template intro video I bought in After Effects. Creative Cloud also includes Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Audition and a boatload of other stuff. I haven't done anything with Premiere for quite a while and hooooooly crap it's changed! Photoshop too for that matter (the last time I used that was before CS1). That said, I got a ton done this weekend. I managed to make some significant modifications to the stock After Effects intro I purchased and it looks fantastic. I also used a template for an outro screen (one of the ones that you link to other videos with) and managed to personalise that quite a bit in Photoshop. Everything I did would have been unquestionably dead simple for anyone with actual experience in these applications but man, if it doesn't feel like an epic victory when I figure out something I've been stuck on, especially given my lack of artistic talent and how intimidating the After Effects interface is. Can't wait to get the new prototype up!

Premiere Pro is definitely a better and more flexible video editing product than Sony Movie Studio Platinum. One of the things I've learned about MSP is that is doesn't allow project templating, meaning that every time I make a new Retro Flashback episode, I'll have to re-do most of the timeline from scratch, including transitions, overlays and whatnot. For relatively simple videos like those, it's not a deal breaker at all, it's just more inefficient and time consuming. That said, Movie Studio Platinum costs $129 once whereas you either pay $50/month with a 1 year contract for Creative Cloud or...about $1,000 each to buy the applications at standalones. Maybe if I actually manage to attain partnership with this thing some day, I can justify going to the Adobe camp but I figure after a few episodes, I'll be able to go through the motion in MSP by muscle memory.

Does Premiere allow the sort of clipping I've mentioned earlier in this thread? Where you can break a single video up into smaller segments before dropping it into the timeline? Because that seems to be the issue with most video editors I've looked at, where they just have you drop a video in and then trim within the timeline.

If I did that for my Mega Man video it would have taken even longer than the several hours it already took me.

EDIT:

Well thank you Wikipedia. This should provide some good amount of time of research, but an entire listing of different video editing software is more than helpful.

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