Silkroad Online Forums

Credits to Ru Yi for writing this. Credits to me for updating/editting it



Making Movies 101
For all you Spielberg-in-the-Makes, a little guide with tips and tricks to make a movie.

Recording Programs:
For creating a movie, you basically need two programs, a program to record and one to edit.
The recording program is your camera in this process. It records whatever is going on to your screen and when you're done with recording you have enough footage to create a video.

Fraps:
http://www.fraps.com/download.php
The most known recording program around. It's easy to use and has all the features it needs. You can use the free version, but it will only allow you to record 30 seconds at a time, and you have a watermark with a link to the Fraps site on your footage. A full version can be bought for $ 37.

Gamecam:
http://www.planetgamecam.com/
Another good recording program used by lots of people. It's cheaper than Fraps, the full version can be bought for $24.95 or a Lite version for $9.95. It has a nice feature that allows you to place a watermark on your videos to prevent them from being stolen by people who pretend they made your video.

ZD Soft Game Recorder:
http://www.zdsoft.com/game-recorder/
Not as well known as the other two programs I mentioned above, but the people who did heard of it and use it, are enthousiastic about it. From all three programs, this one doesn't disturb your videogame, i.e. lagging while you're recording.
It's the most expensive with a price of $39, but perhaps a nice option for those with a less powerful computer.

CamStudio:
http://www.camstudio.org/
Another recording program, but this one is free! I never tried it so I can't really give an opinion about it.
The price is worth the try I'd say.

Xfire:
http://www.xfire.com
Xifre is a program which allows you to have a friend list, and see what game they are playing. you can also join their servers in one click. It just got the video recording beta. Totally free.Records as long as you want.WORTH IT

Editing Programs:
An editing program helps you by making the video. It puts all your footage together and with the features the program has to offer you make a brilliant looking video.

Windows Movie Maker:
XP version
Vista version
Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker is a free and easy to use program. The perfect program for the beginner, but the fact that it's easy to understand doesn't mean it is a basic program. It has lots of very nice features, and for a free program it's definitely recommended to use!

Adobe Premiere:
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/
From what I've heard, it's a very nice high quality program with lots of features. I never used it myself, so I can't really give an opinion about it. With a pricetag of $799 it's the most expensive program in this list.

Pinnacle Studio:
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/
Very nice program with tons of features. Everything is devided in categories, so you know exactly where to find what. It's extremely easy to use, even a beginner can start right away.
Prices vary from $ 49.99 for the standard version, $ 99.99 for the Plus version and $ 129.99 for the Ultimate version.

Roxio Videowave:
http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/videowav...d/overview.html
Never used this program myself, but I saw movies made by it. The program got whatever you need and the result is very good. Price is low, compared with the other programs. You can get this program for $49.99.

Sony Vegas:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/vegasfamily.asp
Program with unlimited abilities. Sony Vegas is without doubt a great program. If you want your movies to stand out from the others and stun your audience, Sony Vegas is what you need. A beginner is better off with Windows Movie Maker or Pinnacle Studio, but when you are familiar with movie making and want to take your videos to the next level Sony Vegas is a must have for every video creator.
Originally meant for sound editing, Sony Vegas still has countless options to make the audio of your movies perfect!
Sony Vegas Pro 8 is the latest version and comes with a price of $584.95.

Compression:
After you put blood, sweat and tears into making that perfect video, didn't slept for 3 days straight, you find out the filesize of your new blockbuster-to-be is HUGE.

Compression time!

VirtualDub:
http://www.virtualdub.org/
For a tiny program as VirtualDub, it has a big assortiment of features. Mainly used for compressing your videos, it has all the basic features of an editing program, but on a smaller scale. The author of VirtualDub is very impatient. That means his program is designed for speed, both in the interface and in the processing pipeline.
And last but not least: The program is entirely free.

Uploading:
Finally! Your movie is finished and ready to be viewed. Below a list of the three most used video websites in the internet!

Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com
Being the most used video sharing website, with Youtube there's always someone to watch your video. The official site of SRO has a link for Youtube SRO video's.
When you registered an account, you get your own customizable channel where all your videos are placed. All videos uploaded to YouTube have a limit of 100MB. The longer the video is, the more compression will be required to fit it into that size. The time limit is 10 minutes. For these reasons, Youtube video's are usually around 7 minutes in lenght. You can create a Director account which enables you to upload longer videos, but a standard account does the trick too.

Google Video
http://video.google.com/
Has a bigger screen size as default but no where near as widely used. The site isnt very user friendly, nor it has the nice features Youtube and Stage 6 do have.
I only use Google video when I quickly want to see a video without too much hastle and when I don't care about the quality of it.

Veoh
http://www.veoh.com/
Nice video quality. Not so famous as Youtbe but the quality is definately worth it. Screen a bit bigger than youtube.Has got some nice animations while watching.

+ sticky?

It IS stickied lol?

Wow great guide dude

+1

I <3 sony vegas, good description

I pretty much mentioned the more known programs only. If there's anyone who uses a lesser known program which also works great, let us know so we can update the guide.

Veoh is good for uploading videos too. I'd say better quality than YouTube, but Stage6 still his the best quality out of all of them. You can also download a video player for free from Veoh that can download any video of any website, which is great for watching videos over ten minutes.

Don't forget veoh!!

Edit: Noticed a typo with "ZD Soft Came Recorder" which is supposed to be "ZD Soft Game Recorder".

Can any1 make a guide to make a silkroad video (cutting sth., adding music and text, zooming in and out) with any of these programs i think that would be great for beginners (like me )

Ok i found a program and it is much better then windows movie maker at least this is working (no errors etc. ) programs name is Video Edit Magic it is as easy as windows movie maker if any1 pm me i can send download link

RuYi wrote:I pretty much mentioned the more known programs only. If there's anyone who uses a lesser known program which also works great, let us know so we can update the guide.

Bulent's Screen Recorder
Works great and it's free

I'll add these new programs later. I'm at the internetcafe and I'm almost out of cash. Leeches. -.-

ciko1984 wrote:Can any1 make a guide to make a silkroad video (cutting sth., adding music and text, zooming in and out) with any of these programs i think that would be great for beginners (like me )

Might be difficult since it's different for all programs, but I'll think about it.

i think it might be easy for an easy program like the one i gave or your choose, i know that most people just want to add text, some zoom for critics,cut paste and add a music that's all

CamStudio:
http://www.camstudio.org/
Another recording program, but this one is free! I never tried it so I can't really give an opinion about it.
The price is worth the try I'd say.

I tried CamStudio and it works rather well. The version I have is actually in German but I got it to work fine. It records in window, full, and selected views and records in .avi and .swf files.

Window: (approximately)3inch by 3inch box
Full: your whole screen
Selected: you choose the size

RuYi wrote:I pretty much mentioned the more known programs only. If there's anyone who uses a lesser known program which also works great, let us know so we can update the guide.

Dr DivX is another good compression utility and DivX converter for putting high res vid clips and movies onto stage6. It turned a 1.3gb fraps avi file into a 50mb divx encoded avi file. So it is definatly worth a look.

You coulda given me a teensy bit of credit.

SRA Guide Database wrote:Movie Making 101

So... You wanna make a movie? Here some tips on getting started.



Programs

FILMING: How to get the rough stuff

FRAPS http://www.fraps.com/download.php

You can use fraps for free, but it only records 30 seconds at a time. You can do a lot with 30 seconds, you'd be amazed. It's $37 if you want to buy it and record as long as you like. TIP: Start FRAPS before you start SRO and it will work. If you try to start it after you load the game, then it wont record because GG blocks it for some reason.

Gamecam http://www.planetgamecam.com/?locid=download

Lesser known but prolly just as good. I havent ever personally used it, but I know many people who have. Cheaper than FRAPS, you can buy the full version for $24.95 or a Lite version for $9.95 which can be upgraded whenever you wanna. I cant tell if it has a trial period, but Im sure it does. Has a cool watermark that can be added to vids.

ZD Soft Came Recorder http://www.zdsoft.com/game-recorder/

Purported to not lag like the first two, this is an even lesser known program. Many FPS users seem to like it. It's the most expensive at $39 but like I said, its supposed to have the least impact on your gaming while using it.

CamStudio http://www.camstudio.org/

OMG IT'S FREE. Yes ppl, free. Thanks to Eukanuba for giving me this link to include in this tut. It appears to work quite well!


EDITING: Putting it all together

Windows Movie Maker

Look in Accessories in your start menu and you probably already have this basic tool. Its not fancy but it will get the job done and who knows? You might hate movie making! No sense in buying something straight off. This will edit and compress your movie for upload and is great for any beginner.

There are many, many, MANY editing programs to choose from. http://video-editing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ This site lists the top ones and links to buy them. Its all a matter of preference. If anyone has good ideas about free ones, feel free to post them.



Sharing

COMPRESSION: OMG IT'S HUGE!

DivX http://www.divx.com/

Prolly the best codec for compression. When you save your vid in whatever program you use, there should be an option as to what type of compression you want. Ppl may disagree, Im not as knowledgeable on this part of the process, but I use DivX and it generally makes it small enough with good quality.

UPLOADING: Share it with the world

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/

Easily the most widely used vid sharing site with a handy link from SilkRoad Online's main site to give added exposure. You can make your own little movie sharing site with a semi customizable URL even. [url="http://www.youtube.com/nightbloomingvids"]www.youtube.com/nightbloomingvids[/url] This is mine and the possibilities are endless. All videos uploaded to YouTube have a 100MB file size limit. The longer the video is, the more compression will be required to fit it into that size. For that reason, most videos on YouTube are under five minutes long and there is a 10-minute length limit for all videos. You can apply for Directors' account and get a bigger upload size, but there really isnt a need IMO.

Google Video http://video.google.com/

Has a bigger screen size as default but no where near as widely used. The site isnt very user friendly OR informational, I couldnt even find their vid size requirements!

Stage6 http://stage6.divx.com/

Put out by DivX, its probably the best kept secret vid site there is. Unlimited time and size means you can upload your vid in its original, high quality form and lose nothing. Unfortunately, its not as commercially viewed as youtube and its longevity is questionable. They force you to watch other vids in order to alter your channel visually on a points system so if you are a serial movie maker purist, this is your site.



TIPS
I got film, I got editing software....

http://www.youtube.com/t/studio_article_14

THis is a great little article that gives the basics on how to make a movie look good. I have learned from trial and error myself. =) Just push a lot of buttons, dont be afraid to try things and see what they do. My first movies were SO BAD.

In-game tips

Film in the highest possible vid setting. You dont want that fuzzy look when you upload because the compression is gonna take away a lot of your quality, so start right with high settings. Most in-game recorders give you the option to turn off sound and cursor, dont forget this. In game sounds suck. lol So does seeing the cursor. Most movies use music as the BG sounds anyways which you can add when editing.

Last and final tip: PVP/PVE MOVIES ARE BORING!

Ppl.. please. No one wants to watch you train or fight noobs. If I start a movie and the first thing I see is someone buffing, bye bye. Try to find a REASON to make a movie, explore the available vids and see what other ppl have done before you and let that inspire you!

Thanks for updating it... I guess.

Apart from the images, I can't find any copy pasted work. However, my friend helped me with the info of several programs, and he also sent me the images directly via MSN, so I had no referring link to know if it was taken from your guide.
I'll ask him if he used parts of your guide. If this is true, credits will be given and apologies will be made.

RuYi wrote:Apart from the images, I can't find any copy pasted work. However, my friend helped me with the info of several programs, and he also sent me the images directly via MSN, so I had no referring link to know if it was taken from your guide.
I'll ask him if he used parts of your guide. If this is true, credits will be given and apologies will be made.

Why does the guide say, "Credits to Ru Yi" then? If this is true, your friend ripped me, then you ripped him?


LOL

nightbloom wrote:

RuYi wrote:Apart from the images, I can't find any copy pasted work. However, my friend helped me with the info of several programs, and he also sent me the images directly via MSN, so I had no referring link to know if it was taken from your guide.
I'll ask him if he used parts of your guide. If this is true, credits will be given and apologies will be made.

Why does the guide say, "Credits to Ru Yi" then? If this is true, your friend ripped me, then you ripped him?


LOL

Nb, reread it, I made the guide WITH him, so don't accuse me of things without having actual proof I did. I sent him a message about it, he hasn't replied yet. Chill out will you? Instead of shrugging I'm trying to fix it, like I already said in the previous post I made.
The credits were written by Krat, I never asked or put any credits for me on it. It's a mere copy of the one we made together for the guild forums and Krat was looking for a list with programs for making movies.

And if it's such a big damn deal for you, I'll replace my so called 'stolen' guide by yours if that makes you feel better.
Just let me know.

Yeah calm down please. RuYi sent me this to help me out with this section, so i thought it was her guide, i thought it was good idea to put credits here Oo but seems like it wasnt

Big Thanks to RuYi for hook me up TQ TQ TQ

yay, gamecam dint work for me, since i was missing a fiew codecs and it refused to install them

only camstudio works just fine, its very simple, i like it

ty Kratos

I found a good site with a hosting like stage6 and a record software.

http://www.wegame.com

bad stage6 is away was best ting ever

btw kratos, about Adobe premier
i have it.
and erm, it's just an incridible program, you can edit everything...

seriously, it's amazing, semi professional video editing program as far as i know.

wasnt this sticky-ed?

ok so far i made a video on a diff game and its taken about 2 hours to upload and its still not done so i need a good free compressor to make it upload a little faster so if anyone has one please post it here btw the ones mentioned abvoe dont work for me i dont no why

sony vegas ftw!!!!

Indeed. I have Sony Vegas Pro 8.0, and I love it.

do we pay
if its not full version