My First Attempt at making a video

[Maines]

[Coogan 1st MRB]

good first attemt but you need to cuz the scenes a bit better instead of seeing you walking to your kill should be like 1,2 seconds per scene or somthing liek that

[Berg 1st MRB]

are you using fraps during play or are you recording a demo and using fraps on that one?

[Maines]

I record a demo first. Is that why its in a blocky resolution?

[Fujiwara]

You should try startmovie in console, but only if you know what you're doing, otherwise you'll have to redo the whole process over and believe me, if you don't have a super fast CPU you'll be very frustrated when you try to redo it to squeeze a little more quality out of the video.

This is assuming one is to work with sony vegas afterwards.

I've got a couple links on how to make HD quality videos from source demos, but I seem to have misplaced them.

EDIT: Well for a first attempt one cannot really expect much, but everyone starts somewhere right? At least your hearts in the right place, so with that:

First off, *DISCLAIMER* this is written to the best of my knowledge while also in 7:30 lecture so I could be wrong or may have missed some points.

Second, afaik, no recording a demo first does not directly result to the blocky resolution, it probably has something to do with what encoding and render you used. You could look into VirtualDub or x264 or something like that. Again, its been a while since I've read up on my movie-making process, so please don't take everything I say as the ultimate final thing.

Third, what editor are you using? There are couple free ones from what I remember to be somewhat useful, but if you really want to make something worthwhile I would look into Sony Vegas Pro. How you obtain it is up to you, but I advocate the legal method of acquiring such software.

Fourth, forget about fraps, its too low quality on the free version that its really not worthwhile imo to even use. But I, too, first used fraps before I was shown the light of source demos by my peers.

Fifth, I would think about how you present your scenes much like anything else in life that you present, "At the end of this ___, I want my audience to ____ _____." And then work your way to achieve that ultimate goal.

Finally, I would say to just keep working at it. The only way we progress is by continually working on it. Don't be discouraged by what others might think or say, just work hard to improve.

I'm sure there are others in the unit that know much more about movie-making than I do, like Branem and what not, so I would try messaging them and asking for tips and what not to make the process easier on you.

Sources: Buddies of mine that have produced many CSS, DODS, TF2, and COD videos and professionals who do this for a living, granted not for video games, but the basics are the same. Plus about 10 hours of toying with mini-projects of my own.

Edited September 9, 2011 by Fujiwara 1st MRB

[Maines]