FA Video Project

[Tbone]

I think it's not too early to start on this. What we're thinking of is either a promotional video for the faction or something to go along with the website challenge thingy. A friend of mine in another faction showed me a video that they made, and I will tell you that the potential is endless. I would show it to you, but I can't for obvious reasons. It was a VERY nice video and will be hard to follow up, but MxO lends itself to the cinematics. I've got fraps and Adobe Premiere, so I think I can direct/edit it. I just need ideas. Here's some questions we need answered:

What is the purpose? Promotional or part of the challenge or both?
What is the plot? Is there a plot?
How will we convey meaning without dialogue? Or should we attempt dialogue?
What music should be used? The Furious Angels song?
Who is interested in acting in it?
Does anyone have any skills that they think they can add to the project?

Those are just a few questions to help us get started. Some of you may be wondering how to film - there's no first person mode. Well, the basic methods I have seen are

-sitting down and zooming all the way in. This provides a stationary camera.
-Hyperjump view. This provides certain aereal views that can move (providing fly-bys, etc.)
-Hiding your character behind something. Once again, pretty much stationary.

What about the UI? Well, so far I have seen no way to completely get rid of it. Adobe Premiere may have a way of chopping off the edges of video. If that is possible, I might be able to manually chop it off that a way. No doubt the current setup is tedious, though. My friend said he spend three weeks on the video. With the Constructs down and all us lvl 50s stuck with not much to do, though, I think now might be a good time to attempt something. If for nothing else, to get an idea for the future. Let me hear your feedback!

Current test version (featuring Grim, Acidic, Lithium, and Helez):
http://liquiware.net/tbone/Test.wmv

Test based on Broin's Idea:
http://liquiware.net/tbone/BroinTest.wmv

Official video in the making:
http://liquiware.net/tbone/FuriousAngels.wmv

[Broin]

Sounds like a great idea... And count me in for whatever I can do.  I can work on the storyline, plot, theme idea.  I am fairly adept at coming up with an idea but I do not have the know how of putting it into the computer in any way shape or form.  In fact I have no idea how to even begin to take a video shot in game.  I know that F12 is for screenshots and that is pretty much it  

[Anonymous]

When you say acting...what is it you need us to do?

[Anonymous]

How odd, I was thinking that doing a video using game clips would be pretty cool a few days ago. The trick would be to have a few awesome fight scenes, maybe some odd pieces of dialoge. I watched a pretty crappy one done in WOW a few days ago, but the principle was sound. Man meets woman, they fall in love, she dies, he kills himself and they meet again in teh spirit world. Now of course I am not suggesting we use this plot, but a movie is a good idea.

[Anonymous]

well, music wise, I think that some songs we could use are The Halo mjoinder mix, the Furious Angels song, or music from the matrix movies

[Anonymous]

Part of the challenge?
I don't think it needs to be.  The Path will be able to stand on its own two feet.  Live video would be cool, however, the size is already getting fairly large.

What is the plot? Is there a plot?
Not sure what the goal of it would be.  Recruiting?  Promotion? Or are those one in the same?  I'll let some of the brighter minds ponder this.

The FA song?
Yes, I think it would fit nicely.

Acting?
I think just about everyone would be willing.

Skills?
Hmmm...going back to my After Effects days.  I think I could help with Intro and ending credits, as well as transitions, if needed.  Just got to shake the cobwebs out of that portion of the brain.

UI?
I think this could be done by making the Premier render resolution size just small enough to crop the top, bottom, and sides off.  It would probably be easiest if all sides were decreased equally.  That way you could just center the fraps movie in the middle and not worry about any of the GUI.

[Broin]

Can anyone enlighten me on how to take video in game?

[Anonymous]

oooo oooo pick me! pick me!! i wanna act! err .... jump around .... on roofs

awesome idea. in light of seeing what is possible, this could be a very real project, and really fun hehe

What is the purpose? Promotional or part of the challenge or both?
i think we should make a video to put on the front page (a link, maybe, to not kill the bandwidth) that is more for promotional things, or so it would seem on the surface. but we can put things in the video that can be parts of the challenge. for example, part of the challenge can consist of a riddle of some sort and the answer is something that was hidden in the background of the video, or even something blatantly obvious.

What is the plot? Is there a plot?
i think that we should start using some of the screenshots we have (turning them into video, of course, but we can implement stillframes as well). perhaps it can start with some of the angels surrounding tbone, have some of the angels act as mervs or machinists (maybe desigante a color for each, when editing the video, pause the video and make it look like a computer is giving a readout of the stats of the enemy), coming up around the circle to attack, bight lights, special effects, boom, everyone not in the circle /suicide and lay dead around the circle of angels. this can prove that we stand together and will rise above all opposition. that's just one random idea that popped into my head.

How will we convey meaning without dialogue? Or should we attempt dialogue?
i think the above idea speaks mostly for itself, but we can flash text with motivation things like "never eat soggy waffles" ... wait .... damn, wrong movie. serious motivational things like, perhaps, Bible verses pertaining to angels. whether you are religious or not, angels hold Biblical meaning. one of my favorites is:
"He makes His angels winds,
His servants flames of fire ...
Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet."
(Hebrews 1: 7, 13)
I think we can easily incorporate that into the video.

What music should be used? The Furious Angels song?
that would be awesome, also consider these (mostly chosen for lyrics):
3 Doors Down - Duck and Run
Godsmack - I Stand Alone
Simple Plan - Me Against the World
System of a Down - Chop Suey
POD - Sleeping Awake
Bryan Adams - You Can't Take Me

Who is interested in acting in it?
me me me!!! pick me!! oo oo oo!!! pleeeeez!!!

Does anyone have any skills that they think they can add to the project?
hhmmm i just downloaded fraps, and if someone can teach me how to use it, i'm up for that!

the only other thing was that, as tbone said, the video we saw took 3 weeks to make, and it was only about 4 minutes long. this would require a lot of time from everyone willing to participate, and TONS of focus and concentration, so keep that in mind as well. this will most likely be tedious and stressful, so be prepared to keep and open mind and hold your patience.

[Tbone]

Ok, I've messed around and turns out my version of FRAPS was waaay out of date. I downloaded a recent version, but it's a trial. Does anyone have or know where to find a registered version of FRAPS that is 2.5.0 or above?

[Lithium]

Oh I know... you could buy it!

[Anonymous]

I'm interested in being an actor.  The only voice, in my opinion, should be you as some sort of narrorator.  Or telling something about the angels, something like that.  Something Mysterious and Morphieusesque.  I wouldnt mind lending a few ideas too if you wanted.  I think it should be some sort of short of the angels freeing a mind, sky shots of a group of 3-4 jumping acorss gaps ..  Then we could go to Debir court and get all of our spies to use agent disguises and surround Tbone or something just for fun

[Anonymous]

I have used fraps on many occassions and made a few videos back in the SWG days. One problem I encounter with this game is my machine, which has a hard drive attack every time I attempt to record something, the framerate drops to single digits. I would gladly help any way I can though, be it acting or plotting.

[Anonymous]

so were thinking more along the lines of Red Vs Blue kind of video? if its something like that, i'd be totally for it.  im a bored lvl 50 and it'll give me something to do for the last couple weeks im here before im off to italy. yah count me in on acting and voice overs stuff like that.

[Tbone]

Broin, you use a 3rd party software like FRAPS to take video. For FRAPS, you simply press F9.

Ok, I've been messing around all day and I've got this test up. It's recorded in half of 1600x1200 then edited w/ Adobe Premiere. It's encoded to wmv to cut down on size. This is a pretty small resolution - I'll increase it, but I was trying to cut the UI out. As you can see, it is a work in progress. I just thought I would share what I have so far. I'll update the file with each new version I get until we get it working right. I need to find a way to get rid of the cursor. My friend said his cursor never showed up during the video...hrmm.

http://liquiware.net/tbone/Test.wmv

[Tbone]

I have used fraps on many occassions and made a few videos back in the SWG days. One problem I encounter with this game is my machine, which has a hard drive attack every time I attempt to record something, the framerate drops to single digits. I would gladly help any way I can though, be it acting or plotting.

Iris, upgrade your recording software. Mine did that to and I saw I was running fraps 2.0.0. I upgraded to 2.5.1 and now it runs real smooth!