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Eris Discordia
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Posted - 2005.03.07 15:07:00 -
[1]
For everybody that wants to make a movie but has no idea how to, if someone could write a step by step guide I would be much indebted, but just a few hints will do as well.
Get ready to make notes class, this may get confusing 
There is also a new ingame channel where movie makers and fans can meet and discuss the art of moviemaking, the channel is called : Eve-Videos
I ♥ my pink dreadnought of pwnage
Mail [email protected] if you have any questions. |
LoxyRider
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Posted - 2005.03.07 17:04:00 -
[2]
Edited by: LoxyRider on 23/04/2005 11:12:44
Guide to Movie making Version 1.1
Read the guide and still confused? Join the channel "Eve-Videos" in game and we will do our best to help you out.
Topics.
1. Fraps
2. Setting up Eve
3. Editing
4. Encoding
5. Hosting
1. Fraps
Q. How do i record Eve?
A. The best program available at the moment is Fraps
Fraps, is a very easy to use program to record any game including Eve. You can download a trial version from http://www.fraps.com/, the trial version will restrict you max resolution (the resolution it will capture not your overall game resolution) and will also tag movies with http://www.fraps.com at the top of all footage. No need to say if youÆre serious about movie making youÆll want to get yourself the full version allowing you to record the full screen without any tagging. The full version can be bought from the website for $30 although there are other means *cough*.
Some notes on using fraps:
- Fraps records without any compression, this helps it reduce the strain on your computer but will cause massive video files if you record for too long. I also wouldnÆt recommend trying to watch these videos raw (uncompressed) as most computers would likely freeze.
- YouÆll get a noticeable cut of FPS (Frame per Second (How often the screen refreshes)) using fraps.
- When not recording fraps provides a FPS counter, when this counter turns red you are recording.
You can cut down on this in several ways.
On improving performance:
- Record to a separate hard drive if you have one, so Eve is on one and fraps records to another.
- In the options you can set Fraps to record "Half Size", this will half the resolution of the end movie but will lessen the strain on your computer while recording.
- Reduce the amount of fps you try to capture, you can choose this on the movies tab on the right. Consider switching down to 25 fps. Or if you intend to speed up your end movie (double the speed it plays) you could even go down to 15fps. As a general rules 25fps+ is smooth to the eye.
- In the options again un check "Record Sound", most movies dont have any eve sounds so it wont be missed and will save some cpu power.
Beyond this itÆs really up to how powerful your computer is, an old pc simply wonÆt be able to cope with eve and fraps while still giving you a good amount of fps.
2. Setting up Eve
This bit is up to you and how you want to do things. If you get visual lag even without fraps on make sure you turn off the advanced graphics options in Eve.
Hit ESC in Eve and go to the Generic tab, make sure "Trails on/off" and "Sun is occluded by ships" are unselected.
The more important thing at this point is the resolution however. There are several factors here that you need to take into consideration.
Beyond making sure your pc can cope with recording at your chosen resolution you need to think ahead to what you want the resolution of the movie to be (i.e. the screen size). As i mentioned before selecting, "Half size" in the fraps options will help with the strain on the pc but you will half the resolution of your movie.
For example, you set Eve's resolution to 1024x768, and fraps to record at half size.
Your raw fraps footage will therefore be 512x384. When editing this footage itÆs really best to stick to the original footage resolution to prevent lose of quality, so in this case this would be the movies resolution.
What you decide on is really up to you, and its best to try several options to find the best one.
As a guide i personally run Eve at a resolution of 1280x960, recording at half size this gives me footage at 640x480. A good size in my opinion.
You can set Eve's resolution by pressing ESC and going to the Graphics tab.
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Eris Discordia; I think the proper term is <3
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LoxyRider
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Posted - 2005.03.07 17:05:00 -
[3]
Edited by: LoxyRider on 23/04/2005 11:09:48
5. Hosting
If you have your own web host then you will proberly be able to host your video yourself. Note however, unlimited bandwidth is a must here as you could have downloads in the hundreds.
For those who donÆt have a host, never fear, C4w3 is here! With his and Chribba's excellent site offering free hosting for your Eve videos. You can find their thread here or go directly to their site here.
At www.eve-files.com simply click browse on the right, find your movie and upload it. YouÆll be given a URL such as http://www.eve-files.com/mycorprocks.wmv and this is what you need to share with your friends ^^.
And for creating a movie that people will remember read below where Riddari gives some tips.
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Eris Discordia; I think the proper term is <3
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LoxyRider
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Posted - 2005.03.07 17:05:00 -
[4]
Edited by: LoxyRider on 23/04/2005 11:07:44
3. Editing
Now the tough part, how far you go with this is up to you.
For the more simple movies and beginners you may want to start with Windows Movie Maker to edit your videos. This should come included with windows 2000 and onwards and youÆll find it under Programs > Accessories.
Windows Movie Maker
It doesnÆt get much simpler then this so i can write a quick guide on the basics.
1. Import your footage. Click File > Import into Collections, and import your raw footage. This will be brought into the application for you too manage, long video will automatically split up into easier segments.
2. Drag your footage onto the time line. The time line is at the bottom with the top fat section for video and the line under for music. Simply drag the clips you want in the order you want onto the timeline. You can "cut" video by selecting the clip then pressing the cut button found in the bottom right of the video display.
3. Video Effects. Click up top on "Tools" and youÆll find Video effects and Video Transitions. Effects can be dropped onto clips to apply them as well as transitions, transitions are special effects that mostly fade one clip into the next while the standard effect will only affect one clip.
Adobe Premiere
Now for the more professional there is Adobe Premiere, a very sophisticated bit of kit. You can download the demo here, the full version however is very expensive but can be found elsewhere *cough*.
Due to the complex nature of Premiere i wonÆt attempt to write a guide here. I personally learnt it by trial and error over about two years but there are plenty of guides out there on the net or perhaps another player could fill in the gap.
4. Encoding
Encoding or compiling is creating the actual movie file from what you have edited. There are several "Codecs" available that offer different levels of compression and quality. However for Eve i find the best by far is Windows Media Video (WMV), also useful in that every windows machine should be able to play it without having to install extra codecs. Another favourite is Divx or Xvid, these offer good compression but Eve's dark colours donÆt work well with it at all and i would recommend you stay clear.
Windows Movie Maker
Now if you have made you movie with Windows Movie Maker itÆs a simple process. First off, just to add the finishing touch go to File> Properties and fill this out, when you play the movie this is the information that will scroll around in places so its neat to have it. When your happy Select File > Save Movie File. This will bring up a wizard, select my computer and then name your movie and choose where to save it.
The next option is an important one and will depend on the resolution you have chosen. Select "Other Settings" so you can see the full list. Here youÆll have to choose the best fit to your resolution. Following my settings again i record Eve half size resulting in 640x480 footage, i therefore choose here "Video for local Playback (2.1mbps) to keep the resolution the same. When chosen click next to create your movie.
Adobe Premiere
WMV Recommended
Select File> Export> Adobe Media Encoder (this sometimes takes a second to load).
At the top in the format drop list box select "windows media". Then choose your options by clicking the headings on the left of the screen.
 General: Select Compressed.
Video: I sugest Windows Media V8 for now, select 2 encoding passes.
Audio: Windows Media Audio 9.1 will do, 2 passes again.
Metadata: This is the file info, text here will scroll in any info boxes that video players might display so fill it out to look good.
Audiences > High Bandwidth: This is fairly important, For max bit rate i suggest 2100 (2.1mbps) that looks just fine with eve video. If your video suffers from sections of video where quality becomes very low with visable blocks on screen (you'l know what i mean if you see it) increase the bit rate, note this will increase the file size. Make sure you set the resolution correctly and set Frames per second to 25.
Click Ok and save.
AVI
Select File> Export> Movie. Type in the Movie name and then click Settings.
Here you can see the options for yourself, Microsoft AVI is what you want to choose on the grpahics tab to create a avi file. Go to the Video section to choose a codec including mpeg, divx etc depending if you have them installed on your machine.
When your done click ok then save the movie.
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Eris Discordia; I think the proper term is <3
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Eris Discordia
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Posted - 2005.03.07 18:06:00 -
[5]
I think the proper term is <3
I ♥ my pink dreadnought of pwnage
Mail [email protected] if you have any questions. |
LoxyRider
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Posted - 2005.03.07 18:20:00 -
[6]
 Originally by: Eris Discordia
I think the proper term is <3
Now thats sig worthy ^^.
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Eris Discordia; I think the proper term is <3
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Leafo
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Posted - 2005.03.08 10:22:00 -
[7]
Edited by: Leafo on 08/03/2005 10:23:31
Awesome guide Loxy! Keeping it simple and rounds it up very good.
Two things though.
1. Another good tip for reducing the strain on your computer from FRAPS is to record without sound. Also the more FPS you capture the more CPU it will consume.
I play EVE in 1280x1024 window mode and capture with half-size, no sound and 25 fps with an P4 2,8 Ghz and 1024 RAM on secondary IDE-drive (7200 spin). Works like a charm, play around with the settings so that you find some that fits you.
2. Starting with Premiere Pro (Premiere 7.0) Adobe has included the "Adobe Media Encoder". This is a tool used to primarly export to Windows Medias different codecs, worked pretty good. In Premiere Pro 1.5 this has been updated and works like a charm. This means that I now can render to WMV directly from Premiere, no need to reencode in WMM (yes I use WMV for the same reasons as Loxy).
If you are using the now really old and quite horrible Premiere 6.0 I believe there is a free update that will give you an old version of "Adobe Media Encoder" for that program aswell.
The only things I could think of right now. 
//Leafo
click on sig for all my videos
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Agenor Deteis
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Posted - 2005.03.08 12:28:00 -
[8]
Originally by: Leafo
Edited by: Leafo on 08/03/2005 10:23:31I play EVE in 1280x1024 window mode
õhm...how BIG is your monitor then? ALl i got is my 17" monitor, running a 1152 x 864 resolution to allow a 1024 x 768 window mode EVE play...
_________________________________________________
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Leafo
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Posted - 2005.03.08 13:07:00 -
[9]
Originally by: Agenor Deteis
Originally by: Leafo
Edited by: Leafo on 08/03/2005 10:23:31I play EVE in 1280x1024 window mode
õhm...how BIG is your monitor then? ALl i got is my 17" monitor, running a 1152 x 864 resolution to allow a 1024 x 768 window mode EVE play...
I only got 19" monitors (dual) with 1600 x 1200 resolution in windows.
//Leafo
click on sig for all my videos
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Riddari
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Posted - 2005.03.09 02:04:00 -
[10]
WILL THIS VIDEO LIVE ON?
So you now have the technical details and are ready to make your first movie.
WAIT! STOP!
Ask yourself this question: What will it be about?
Roughly speaking current crop of EVE videos can be put into two categories:
a) combat snapshots
b) everything else
Presently the "combat snapshots" are in an overwhelming majority. They tell a microfraction of a tale, they give you the viewpoint of one or a couple pilots in one or several combat incidents.
The scenes are all alike, green and purple squares shooting at red or orange squares, missiles flying about, someone exploding, yadda yadda yadda.
Now, this is the sort of video no one will watch again unless it's done exceptionally well (camera work, capturing the battle from great angles and close ups) or the person is trying to catch a glimp of itself in the video.
This is 90-95% of all EVE videos today, most of it in poor quality.
Category B is very varied, it contains lots and lots of different styles and themes.
But the major factor is that they all tell some sort of a story, they intrigue the viewer, he wants to watch it again because while watching it he was inside the world of EVE, living and breathing within that universe.
My advice is... before you start your production, create a script for the video. Even a "regular old ships killing other ships" video can be vastly improved by sketching out the storyline, giving background information on why the battles are being fought, some information on the aftermath and so on.
It also helps you to try and catch those angles that you think will look good in the video.
The script doesn't have to be complex, "pan slowly towards station, see battleship fleet undocking, fade to black, show stargate activating, show fleet uncloaking and warping towards a gate, enter intro text about upcoming battle, put in scene from battle" etc etc etc.
The more ambitious might want to take a look around and spot the other type b videos, those that tell stories or make you laugh or whatever.
Wouldn't you rather be proud of creating a great video than be just another nameless statistic in the a type category?
Don't create just another gank-video. If you want to make a video about the combat you and your corp and alliance have taken part in, put some effort into it, make yourself proud and make them proud of being a part of EVE cinematic history.
¼©¼
a history |
Seleene
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Posted - 2005.03.09 07:18:00 -
[11]
Riddari made the post I wanted to make. I know that Leafo and I share the same view and are working very hard to make our next vid something that people will want to keep on their hard drives.
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T2 Weapons Testing in progress! Volunteer today! |
LoxyRider
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Posted - 2005.03.09 13:10:00 -
[12]
Originally by: Seleene
Riddari made the post I wanted to make. I know that Leafo and I share the same view and are working very hard to make our next vid something that people will want to keep on their hard drives.
So you two are working together on the next movie?
Shall i pass out in awe now to save you the trouble?
-----
Eris Discordia; I think the proper term is <3
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Taz Devlin
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Posted - 2005.03.11 14:35:00 -
[13]
Nice tips guys!
PS: Seleene & Leafo, we'll just hand you the EVE Oscars for next year now, how's that?
Allways move fast, you never know who's catching up!
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Leafo
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Posted - 2005.03.11 15:49:00 -
[14]
Oh man....the expectations...the pressure...I can't take it.
Tbh I am almost afraid to release this one with all the expectations out there.
One never knows the reactions a new release will get. And now people have their hopes up for something really extraordinary...will be very hard to live up to I tell you.
But, we will do our best.
//Leafo
(release on thursday the 18th)
click on sig for all my videos
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Mitchman
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Posted - 2005.03.12 03:44:00 -
[15]
One note, though. I prefer Sony Vegas Video 5 over Adobe Premiere. Should be added to the list as a program that can be used.
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Taz Devlin
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Posted - 2005.03.12 11:25:00 -
[16]
Victim of your own success
Allways move fast, you never know who's catching up!
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Seleene
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Posted - 2005.03.14 06:27:00 -
[17]
Leafo and I are working very hard to try to make our first joint venture something that people will watch more than once. The process has been both fun and demanding. Riddari's post, and others like it, are a big reason why we are on our thirteenth draft so far. 
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T2 Weapons Testing in progress! Volunteer today! |
LoxyRider
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Posted - 2005.03.14 08:46:00 -
[18]
- Updated with tips from Leafo and a pointer to Riddari's post.
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Eris Discordia; I think the proper term is <3
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Guderian
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Posted - 2005.04.11 16:16:00 -
[19]
A little tip to reduce the lag while recording:
- record on a seperate hard drive from where EVE is running.
Another partition wont do it, it needs to be a total seperate hard drive.
"Blessed is he, who walks through life in ignorance, 'cause he does not know the dangers that lies beyond." |
LoxyRider
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Posted - 2005.04.23 11:07:00 -
[20]
- Heavily updated Encoding section with detailed instructions on the Adobe Media Encoder.
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Eris Discordia; I think the proper term is <3
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Novah
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Posted - 2005.05.08 08:53:00 -
[21]
Just a quick one.
1. Webhosting - http://www.servage.net
Current Offer 5.1Gb hsting space / 330GB a month transfer (11gb a day) / Free domain Name / 7.5 euro's a month. have to pay 3 months in advanced though. been using this for some of my stuff and i can get 500kb/s from it downloading.
2. Im using a 2nd partition on the HDD to record fraps onto and ive had NO lag at all.
*********************************************************
Intersteller eXodus - Making Stain A Happier Place To Raise Your Family.
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ColdShot
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Posted - 2005.05.15 11:23:00 -
[22]
Edited by: ColdShot on 15/05/2005 11:23:11
firstly, great thread - there's some really good advice for beginner movie makers.
if possible could someone please type up a guide for using transparency in adobe premier? what i'm after specifically is how to overlay text onto a clip.
so far i've created a 3d logo in 'cool3d' that has a plain pink background, the logo fades in and then zooms toward the camera (like the EXODUS title login-screen for EVE). now i assumed that once i've made this into an avi and imported it into Premier i had to tell it to exclude the colour pink so i can blend the 2 .avis together? i've spent ages trying to get this to work and it just won't :(
any kind of a walkthru would be appreciated
Cheers
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Shintoko Akahoshi
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Posted - 2005.05.17 05:09:00 -
[23]
I feel kinda silly saying "consider doing this" while at the same time having to ask "how do you do this again?" but...
Consider doing your fraps capture with the Eve UI turned off. I know many people leave the UI on while they capture (especially if they're capturing battle footage for a fight they are in), but leaving out the UI can really improve things. If I compare footage I captured with the UI to footage without, the UI footage looks amateurish while the UI-less footage looks much more interesting.
That said, anyone remember the key combination to shut off the UI? It's been months and months since I've done any video capture, and I've completely forgotten...
There's no meaning to life when you cling only to common sense |
ColdShot
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Posted - 2005.05.17 13:10:00 -
[24]
Edited by: ColdShot on 17/05/2005 13:10:11
ctrl and F9
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LoxyRider
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Posted - 2005.05.17 15:49:00 -
[25]
Originally by: ColdShot
Edited by: ColdShot on 15/05/2005 11:23:11
firstly, great thread - there's some really good advice for beginner movie makers.
if possible could someone please type up a guide for using transparency in adobe premier? what i'm after specifically is how to overlay text onto a clip.
so far i've created a 3d logo in 'cool3d' that has a plain pink background, the logo fades in and then zooms toward the camera (like the EXODUS title login-screen for EVE). now i assumed that once i've made this into an avi and imported it into Premier i had to tell it to exclude the colour pink so i can blend the 2 .avis together? i've spent ages trying to get this to work and it just won't :(
any kind of a walkthru would be appreciated
Cheers
Well i dont know the cool3d program so i cant really say, but i think your have to find a way to export the text without the pink background but with a transparent one. With a simple picture you can do this with a .png but i have no idea what options you have with the 3d program.
Apart from that, overlaying text is pretty simple. In Premiere u can create "Titles", right click the area in premiere where u import your raw fraps, New > Title. This will bring up a new window where u can create a page as it were with text and some basic shapes. Once saved (no version of premiere seems to have a save option for this, but just click the X top right and it will ask u to save) you can put this on the timeline.
Remember the higher the Video track thats whats on top. E.G. Have your video on track 1, put your text on track 2 and its on top.
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Eris Discordia; I think the proper term is <3
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ColdShot
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Posted - 2005.05.17 19:07:00 -
[26]
Edited by: ColdShot on 17/05/2005 19:24:40
nice one, managed to get that to work now.
out of interest is the Premier's 'title designer' able to do realtime effects to the text like fade-in/fade-out for example? i couldn't see any options there other than those for static text overlay.
thanks for your help m8.
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LoxyRider
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Posted - 2005.05.17 19:38:00 -
[27]
Originally by: ColdShot
Edited by: ColdShot on 17/05/2005 19:24:40
nice one, managed to get that to work now.
out of interest is the Premier's 'title designer' able to do realtime effects to the text like fade-in/fade-out for example? i couldn't see any options there other than those for static text overlay.
thanks for your help m8.
Apart from your basic scroll sideways or up and down (top left in the title designer) no. What you do is put it on the timeline and add effects just like you do to normal video.
Assuming your using Premiere 1.5 the effects part is in the project box (top left), theres a tab there, by default it shows the files you have imported.
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Eris Discordia; I think the proper term is <3
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Dash Ripcock
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Posted - 2005.05.21 16:48:00 -
[28]
If you're using Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5., or any other decent editing suite for that matter, don't bother recording in-game sound. Instead use exStuff Extractor to un-stuff the game sounds, convert them to mp3s and import them into your film.
It makes the entire thing far more immersive and interesting - and will really add to your piece. You can edit things like the channel it's in, as well as layering the sound to make the entire environment more engaging for the viewer - without worrying about the in-game sounds clashing.
Battle Angels Inc - The Movie
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LoxyRider
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Posted - 2005.06.03 11:52:00 -
[29]
Tip #2562
Name the movie file properly. Not "Final", "Test23", "Movie". Give it a proper name.
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Eris Discordia; I think the proper term is <3
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Eltoro
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Posted - 2005.06.23 16:19:00 -
[30]
Edited by: Eltoro on 23/06/2005 16:26:08
one Q? why wont my fraps work with eve!? no problem in other games, just eve!!! someone got a clue???
sry wrong place to post.. so sry
Me needs a skillbook so i can train 1extra skill per lvl.. ccp can i have one plz?? |
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