Session 1 - Gunship

[Ghiblian]

http://files.filefront.com/BF2142+Gunshipavi/;9658426;/fileinfo.html

Uploaded a new version. Hopefully this will open up in more programs / not experience horrible compression artifacts.

Details:
So I decided to try my hands at creating a frag video. This was done over the course of two days (one day for getting footage, one day for compiling). Timing was really tedious, and even now, I don't think I have it perfected.

Also, just because this is Session 1 doesn't mean there will be more. =P It all depends on demand (and how much time I have). I just want to keep the possibility open if I decide to make more videos later. Give me your harshest criticisms. I wish I could record at a higher resolution, but sadly, my computer can't seem to handle it. If anyone has any tips on how to record higher resolution videos, please post them. I have a 2.4gHz Core 2 Duo with 8600MGT and 4GB of RAM (3GB actually because 1GB is used as a RamDrive for recording footage). It's not a slow computer so I feel like I should be able to get higher.

[iQue]

That was pretty sweet 1337 seatswitching!

Thumbs up, I hope you make more vids infact

[Ghiblian]

That was pretty sweet 1337 seatswitching!

Thumbs up, I hope you make more vids infact

=] Thanks. I'm trying to think of something a bit more original than me running around Camp Gibralter with a Voss. When I come up with a brilliant idea, I'll definitely try to run with it.

This gunship video is pretty run-of-the-mill, but I think it showcases a lot more stuff than most do. I'm actually quite out of practice in infantry combat because I've been armor-whoring to get all my awards.

[Lolyn]

Vimeo is normally good to upload to, but I've been trying to upload my latest vid to there but it just cuts out midway through!

But yeah, nice vid too, good gunship seat switching tools. I use a much different technique for seat switch kills... swoop down and drop a quick one on their faces

[Fingulfin]

Nice work! One concern, I couldn't open it with Windows Media Player... I had to use Quicktime, but meh.

As for the video itself nice music, nice shots, excellent skills and excellent editing! 5/5.

[Ghiblian]

Vimeo is normally good to upload to, but I've been trying to upload my latest vid to there but it just cuts out midway through!

But yeah, nice vid too, good gunship seat switching tools. I use a much different technique for seat switch kills... swoop down and drop a quick one on their faces

I'm trying out Vimeo right now. Thanks for the suggestion.

I call your method "delivering a package of joy." I happened to not do many quick bombing runs (I remember I had a couple in my raw footage but I guess they weren't as exciting / as easy to fit into the music).

Nice work! One concern, I couldn't open it with Windows Media Player... I had to use Quicktime, but meh.

As for the video itself nice music, nice shots, excellent skills and excellent editing! 5/5.

Thanks for the heads up. I really had trouble getting this into even a playable format. When I recorded with WeGame, it wouldn't open up in Premiere. I ended up having to use Quicktime to cut and save all the footage (although I ended up liking Quicktime as cutting mechanism anyways). Then, when I was saving it, I could either save it as a 3.7GB uncompressed file or export with Adobe Media Encoder. Media Encoder kept crashing when I saved to MPEG-2 format and would destroy the video quality if I used H.264. I ended up saving to uncompressed and then using VideoHub to convert it to MPEG-1 format. =\

Edit: So I tried out the Fraps demo and realized it's much better than the WeGame recorder. However, during the recording process, the file size of the recording explodes... It seems to shrink down afterwards (a 30 second video goes to more than a GB and then down to 14MB). Is this normal? If I have the time, I might remake the video with Fraps since it looks so much better...

[Fingulfin]

FRAPS is REALLY weird when it comes to file sizes... So ya, its normal.

[Ghiblian]

Do you think recording with FRAPS to a USB key / USB drive would be viable? I know most video professionals use Firewire drives. I realized that even if I use a RAM drive, I am only addressing the 3GB Windows 32-bit recognizes, so ultimately, I'm still locked in at a 1GB RamDrive. This is only around 2 minutes of video, I think, which would become a really annoying constraint.

I did the calculations and to record a video at 29.97 FPS with 640x480 resolution, correct me if I'm wrong...

Each pixel is 3 bytes (RGB) so a 640x480 image is 921.6KB. At 29.97FPS, that is 27.6MB/s. Since USB Hi-Speed has theoretical maximum of 60MB/s, that should be more than enough for a sustained writing session by FRAPS.

However, most USB drives (including flash drives) only get around 15MB/s which I don't get...

With FRAPS, I can get much better performance at even almost max settings. I guess the WeGame compression which happens during recording was really stressing my CPU. The videos I recorded with FRAPS were absolutely gorgeous.

[MrLyramion]

good stuff!

[Ghiblian]

So I think I'm either going to remake this video with FRAPS or make a "sequel." Anyone have any suggestions on what I should do differently? This first one gave me a lot of experience so hopefully the second one will be even better. I'll probably also have much better footage as the game runs a lot smoother with FRAPS.

I think I want to include more dog fights, but they are so hard to tie to the music.

[Fingulfin]

Suggestions: Use some transitions. The music you used really didn't call for them (music with "bumps" don't need them), but if you use any "smoother" music transitions are in order.

Other than that, your editing was pretty good.

As for storage, I just store my videos on my HD. I have to trash all my footage after making a video though, due to size problems. I am thinking about getting a large Firewire External HD though, I dunno. Right now my goal is to replace my crappy second monitor (dual monitors FTW) with a 20'' Widescreen for video editing.

[Ghiblian]

Suggestions: Use some transitions. The music you used really didn't call for them (music with "bumps" don't need them), but if you use any "smoother" music transitions are in order.

Other than that, your editing was pretty good.

As for storage, I just store my videos on my HD. I have to trash all my footage after making a video though, due to size problems. I am thinking about getting a large Firewire External HD though, I dunno. Right now my goal is to replace my crappy second monitor (dual monitors FTW) with a 20'' Widescreen for video editing.

Definitely. Maybe I'll make the next one with a different song. Anyways, do you record your footage to the same HD that you have your game on? At least for me, this is why I could never record (because the game couldn't read the game files fast enough). Now I record to a 1GB RamDrive. I think I'm going to upgrade my Vista to 64-bit, which will give me a 2GB RamDrive.

[Fingulfin]

Yep, right now I only have 1 HD (and one backup HD, but thats only for more important files, websites, mods, art stuff like that). Its a fairly small one too (got this computer over a year ago, just been upgrading it... Upgraded HD is not high on my priority list).

You MIGHT be able to increase speed like that, I dunno. If your processor is up to the challenge, you shouldn't have any problems. Normally processors are only limited by your RAM and GPU though, so I don't see any trouble.

[Mukky]

Great movie there Ghiblian,
Good choise of music.. i liked it
Hopefully Session 2 comes out soon

[Ghiblian]

Great movie there Ghiblian,
Good choise of music.. i liked it
Hopefully Session 2 comes out soon

I think I may have chosen the music for it. Now I just need the time... =[