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> This is where it begins for me..., I'm starting my life as a Machinamist
Fízzles
post Dec 23 2007, 03:30 PM
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hello, Machinima 101! :cool:

I'm starting out as a machinimais and i need your help...
you see, my idols are the great Oxhorn and Nyhm, gods of machinima. but i dont know what programs they use... ive seen that movie "Azeroth in Focus" and i have Autostitch. i have 4 movie up on Youtube, so therefore i have fraps, but theyre not about machinima... and i have fraps with the watermark... so i need an in-game camera that is also fre (low budget production) finally, i need to know how to add in voice-overs and speech, ect.

so please, machinima101, help me out here!

-Fízzles, 56 Gnome Combat Rogue, Chromaggus PvP EU, "The Glitch Hiker"
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Coriul
post Dec 23 2007, 10:36 PM
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Hey there! You are about to take a step into a completely new world ! Exciting and terrifying all at the same time..hehe.

Regarding FRAPS, it is a pretty good deal at $37, and as far as the tools that are used by "The 'Heavies," like Oxhorn, Stone Falcon Productions, Baron Soosdah, Dopefish, DWP, etc., that is the least expensive of all of the tools in their machinima shed.

OK, to make machinima movies, you need the following:

1) a screen capture tool like 'FRAPS,'
2) an 'linear' editing program that allows you to 'layer,' or 'composite' files into the same "time" space (woo .. sounds techy but it really isn't - I will explain)
3) WoW, or another game that you can capture footage from, and
4) a 'compression' tool that will allow you to compress your projects into sizes that you can easily post for poeple to see.

So, let's take these one at at time.

1) The capture tool you are using now is the easiest one that I have found to work with. Bar none. Still, if you want to try others, go for it - its all part of the learning process. In my book its worth the money for FRAPS. One word of caution - the 'files' that your capture tool will generate are very LARGE. Make sure you have plenty of memory before you go wild capturing video. a "40 gig" drive that also stores Windows, WoW, etc., won't last long if you capture your video files to it.. "The Heavies" will use external hard drives to store their raw avi files, and 'daisy chain them' if needed. So, keep an eye on your hardrive space when you are capturing, and later rendering, avi files.

2) Once you have the tools, then capture footage from your games. WoW is one of the best, due to the ability to use 'emotes' that allwo the characters to anmimate motions so that they can walk, talk, fight, run, sit, etc. etc. But, you can also capture tools from just about any other PC game (Team Fortress 2, or whatever).

3) Once you have FRAPs, you will need something to allow you to 'put' your captured video together along with your 'sound' files. Here, you may be able to find some shareware stuff that will allow you to do some basic work, but if you get to the point of 'compositing' avi files on top of each other, you will rapidly go beyond the 'shareware' options. Tools like "Adobe Premier Pro," or "Sony Vegas" are what the really good machinimators use, but note that those tools cost hundreds of dollars. My first efforts were with a tool called, "Video Edit Magic" that is available for a free trial, and if you like it, then $70. As I recall, that tool will let you run with three time lines, one sound track line, and has some 'dissolve' transitions, so it worked fine for an entry alternative. Can't hurt to 'try it,' or something like that, and if you like putting movies together, as I do, then you can plunk down the bucks for Premier Pro or Vegas. You can find some shareware or trial versions of video editors here

http://www.pcworld.com/search/results?col=...iting+software#

4) So, you played your game, captured footage, mixed the footage with a favorite MP3 track in your editor, and rendered a video. But, the video you have rendered in 'raw' avi format is GIGABYTES in size - what to do?? Get Windows Media Encoder 9, and compress it to kilobytes through compression technology! Oh, and this tool costs you ... nothing.... (wOOt). Download it for free from Microsoft' s website. This tool will also let you change the resolution, or 'size' of your movie, from whatever to whatever. I usually reduce my movies to 320 x 240 for posting on a site like YouTube or Google.

Well, there you have it. A start .. I hope that was helpful, and have fun (and lots of patience!).

-Coriul


--------------------
"To live without any of those annoying social obligations, the life of an artist is ideal.” -Seijuro Hiko the 13th, from the Rurouni Kenshin Anime series.
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Fízzles
post Dec 24 2007, 03:07 PM
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damn.... now THAT is advice... :blink:
yet, more problems... i live in the uk. so i use pounds not dollars... my friend reccomend i *cough* (pirate) Fraps without the watermark. i found loads of em but i couldnt open fraps to tuen on the options. i have uTorrent so it isnt a jumble of messed up words and things that no-one (not even Bill Gates) can understand. so i couldnt record in wow.

also, i use windows movie maker, and ill look up that search...

and , many great machinamists like oxhorn brand movies, stone falcon productions and other people like that have great emblems. as i owns my own little movie production company i called "High on Peacebloom Inc." (i tried to upload a picture i used with paint. i am godly at editing still pictures) it was an empty potion bottle with some peacebloom on it with a torch lit under it and smoke coming out of it. is there a program (and a free one at that) that i can use to make a cool one like that?

and thanks so much Coriul. that really helped me :P
-Fízzles, 56 Gnome Combat Rogue, Chromaggus PvP EU
peacebloominc.blogspot.com
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NitroflexProduce...
post Dec 30 2007, 07:41 PM
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If you're looking for something like an advanced paint for a logo, then you could use GIMP. It's free and pretty easy to use. You can get GIMP at http://www.gimp.org/
But I'd say I would prefer to use Photoshop, however, that's a nice $650 (about Ł326.16)

Now if you're looking for a program for 3D animation there are several free programs to choose from. You can try Blender, which is a powerful program but it lacks a good interface. So if you're willing to spend hours figuring out how to work it, head over to http://www.blender.org/ and check it out!

If you'd rather just get something easier to use, but not so powerful, you can try Anim8or. It's another free program, but it's much easier to use than Blender. You can check it out at http://www.blender.org/

Overall though, I would say 3D Studio Max would be the best choice. The downside though is it costs $3,495 (about Ł1753.73) You can check out 3DS Max at http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index...p;siteID=123112

Hope that helps, have fun with your machinimating! :happy:
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Fízzles
post Jan 10 2008, 04:54 PM
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cool! :thanks: Nitroflex :P

im looking for a free recording program... any tips?
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Dan
post Feb 7 2009, 09:11 PM
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Well, I know of a few. To be honest, FRAPs is the best of all of them, but I know of:

FRAPs
WeGame [Beta]
GameCam

and theres another that escapes me. :confused:

Either way, enjoy.
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