Svetnikov's Video Production Guide

1. Overview
2. Tools of the Trade
3. Lights, Camera, Action!
4. Tips, Tricks, Techniques
5. Output & Upload
6. Final Words

1. Overview
_____This guide is intended to help those just getting started with video capture & film work in PWI. While experienced video creators may already know much of this info, it is a compendium of what knowledge and techniques I've acquired during my time filming. It is my hope the knowledge will be useful to all.


2. Tools of the Trade
_____To create any kind of video, you'll need at least two additional programs besides PWI - capture software to record what's on the screen, and editing software to put your various clips together and create a final output. Be sure to have plenty of space set aside on your hard drive since video capture usually outputs as a "raw" uncompressed .AVI movie file. These are bitmaps (.BMP) arranged at anywhere between 12-30 per second of film, and if you've ever noticed the file-size on even one bitmap, you can imagine how large a raw .AVI would be. The editing software is to help you arrange all these raw files and "render" them to a compressed output - be it an .AVI saved under a different "codec" (method of file compression/encoding) or as another filetype entirely. In other words, to save it as something you can upload to the 'Tube.

Video Capture Software
● FRAPS : By far, the choice I recommend the most. It will record at whatever resolution your current window is set to, and automatically adjust to your current framerate. Thus your output will be steady and consistant without needing any fine-tuning or adjustment. The freeware version will capture up to 30 seconds at a time, the full version can run indefinitely.

● Hypercam : There are a couple different versions of Hypercam, but they share the same basic characteristics. Unlike FRAPS, it is up to you to set the desired recording area, resolution, and framerate, so this one is a bit more difficult to work with. Patience and practice however, may yield better results, and it's a good alternative for people who have difficulty with FRAPS.

● CamStudio : An open-source screen recorder. No experience with it personally, but open source programs in general tend to have good support and an active developer base - thus, you may find it easier to resolve problems, glitches, or just learn how to use the thing.


Video Editing Software
● Sony Vegas : My drug of choice, Vegas offers a free trial and is one of the more powerful options available. While the basic options such as blending and transitions are easy to learn, it also offers a wide variety of graphic effects and overlays, compositing methods, and can export in nearly any format you need.

● WAX : The "Poor Man's Vegas," it has nearly the same interface and many of the same options, but with the bonus of being completely free. It also offers support for the above Vegas and other top-line video editors, in case you upgrade at a later date.
(*Be sure to note, "Render" is for output of your final video, "Save" is for preserving project files.)

● Zwei-Stein : Another freeware option, ZS offers a wide library of special effects and compositing options. While the interface may appear daunting at first, it retains all the necessary options for producing a quality video.

● Windows Movie Maker : An act of desperation. Use this only if you can't get anything else to work.


3. Lights, Camera, Action!
_____Now that you've got your software ready, it's time to make use of it. But how? Where do you start? Before you actually fire up the camera, you need to decide on your film's content, and figure out what's most important. Will people need to remove their genies, or is it alright to have them flitting about? Is there a certain armor or fashion ensemble you need, or will nooby gear do? For a gameplay video (PK/TW filming, duels), this generally won't matter. But for anything more abstract, such as a music video or machinima, it's best to consider as much detail as you can prior to gathering anyone for a shoot.
_____If you're only just getting started with filming, but have a big, exciting IDEA! for a film, I have an important bit of advice: write it down, and ignore it for a while. Why? Two reasons:
1. You're not ready. If you attempt to make some big impossible idea right off the start, you're setting yourself up for failure. Odds are, you will burn out at some point along the way and lose motivation to continue the project. And even should you finish, the final output will be far less than you'd hoped.
2. Ideas need time to gestate, solidify. By writing it down, you're giving your idea substance, and you may find when you go back to it in a day or a week that something doesn't quite "work right," and needs changing. This is why Hollywood takes months planning and scriptwriting for a movie, and only a few weeks actually shooting it.
_____Start small and work your way up. Learn your software (and hardware), get a solid grasp on what your tools can build for you. If you've only just downloaded capture & editing programs, experiment with a few test videos just to understand how things operate. What settings are best for capture, what the output files are like, which encoding gives your video the best possible quality when rendering - things of that nature.
_____Bottom line, videos are another form of art, and like any artist you'll get better the more you practice and learn.

_____So what can your video be about? Literally, most anything you can think of. If you're stumped for ideas, here are some suggestions to get you started...

● Public Service Announcement (PSA): (example)
A relatively short segment designed to convey a specific message. Anything from "Gratz to <name-here> on reaching lvl 100!" to "Remember folks, only you can prevent Oracle Noobs." It's better if they're humorous, but that's not a rule.

● Music Video: (example)
I'm sure you all know what a music video is. Probably the simplest to do, all this entails is filming - well, pretty much anthing at all - and putting it to whatever music you want. Whether it be a combination of your favorite PWI music and scenic locations, or a wicked action sequence of your character destroying the opposition (you BMs who like to AOE-grind for instance), pretty much anything goes.

● Short Flick: (example)
You don't need a Master's in film & animation to make a short film - just a good idea, and the ability to describe it. Perhaps you'd like to express your frustrations over the chronic KS'ing in Tusk Town, or simply recapture that sense of awe the very first time you logged in.

● Boss Kills/Instances: (example)
Whether it's your first time in and you want to record it, or whether you just want to show people how 'pro' your squad is, this is a fairly simple route to take.

● Commercials: (example)
Something you'd like to advertise? Real or fictional, toilet paper or dimensional flux agitator, if you can imagine it, you can (pretend?) to sell it. Heck, maybe you do sigs and artwork for PWI and want to advertise your skills?

● Faction Films: (example)
Want nothing more than to show off how freakin' AWESOME your faction is? No problem.


4. Tips, Tricks, Techniques
_____Part of the reason I've continued making films in PWI for so long is how easily it lends itself to the activity. There are a wide variety of emotes, wardrobe & costumes, landscapes, and the almighty Camera Mode to work with. Here's some pointers on how to make the most of them.

● Disabling the GUI : By far the most important thing for any "clean" filming is turning off the GUI. Press ALT+H in-game to clear your screen.

● Hotkeys : If filming yourself, you can set various emotes to hotkeys, same as you can skills. While using the (`) and (v) keys to toggle menu bars will not work with the GUI off, you can use the basic number and Function keys (1-9, F1-F8) to activate skills or emotes. This will also work for equipping/dequipping weapons, if you wish to film someone "drawing a sword" or the like.
*Also be sure to set a good hotkey for recording - something out of the way that the game typically does not use. My personal favorite is the Num-0 key.

● Camera Mode : F9 enables camera mode. Enable this before turning the GUI off - it will not work afterwards.
GLITCH: In recent patch updates, there is a glitch where pressing PrntScrn to take screenshots after the GUI is turned off will cause the interface to reappear, and will not turn off again. Avoid taking screencaptures during a film session, and if this happens, you will need to relog to get ALT+H working again.
LIMITATION: Camera mode will only work when your character is stationary. Walking, running, jumping, or enabling/disabling flight will "break" camera and revert you to 3rd/1st person.

● Camera Piloting : While Camera Mode is enabled, use the [Ins][Home][PgUp]/[Del][End][PgDn] key-block to move the camera. This is primarily good for panning or zooming shots, but also essential if filming any sitting or laying-down.
*The game camera is set to about head-height on your characters. This makes any shots focusing low to the ground nearly impossible without camera mode, or forces an extreme top-down angle.

● Camera Alts : For some filming, it may be necessary to have a second character act as the camera. This entails shots such as combat (to avoid seeing damage tickers), fly-bys or other "stationary-camera" scenes (camera mode disables if your character moves, remember), and "clean" 1st-person views for characters past their level 89 cultivation (Sage/Demon fairies get in the way a lot). The ideal camera alt is in most cases a Cleric, due to free flight at level 1 with no MP cost, with the added bonus of being safely blue-name on PK servers.
*Note that Multiclienting is against the TOS - you will need a second machine to run two clients.

● Dequip Genies : In many cases, these flying pests have a knack for getting in the way of the camera. Remove them at every opportunity.

● Effects : On occasion, these can become a liability. Need a good clean shot of your character "meditating", but the flashes keep getting in the way? There are times when you'll want to turn your effects level down, or even off. Be aware this does affect the lighting from sage/demon fairies as well.

● Emotes : Don't be limited by the description of what they say they are. Some emotes can be put to many purposes, such as using the second half of a "faint" to show a character getting up from the ground.

● 3...2...1...Action! : When filming with a group of people, turning the GUI off limits your ability to tell them what to do. The method I've found to work best is to give detailed instructions (use "X" emote, run from "A" to "B", etc), and then ask them to count down from 5 before "acting." This gives me time to turn off the GUI, get the camera in position, and get FRAPS recording before the actual scene takes place.

● Double-Take : Even if you think you nailed that scene right the first time, shoot two or three extras, just in case. You may find in reviewing the footage later there was something that "didn't quite work" and another take might be better.

● Variety : The free version of FRAPS can only record 30 seconds of straight footage. Fortunately, this is far more than you'll usually need. Unless there's a lot going on in those 30 seconds, it's generally best to switch camera angles and focus - one long continuous shot is more likely to lose a viewer's interest.

● Beware of Light : Or, more specifically, beware of your shadow. When playing the camera, especially in 1st person, it's very easy to let things like your ground shadow slip by unnoticed - but they become obvious flaws later on in the final product. Also be careful of your mouse - the "light-up" effect of mousing over a mob or player can be distracting if you're going for a nice clean shot.

● Player-Specific Animations : Unfortunately, no one can see it when you land your aero, or the cool animation when you take off. Certain animations in-game are limited to your character only - plan suitable work-arounds accordingly.

● Be Creative! : There are a vast number of ways in which PWI can be repurposed as your film studio and setpiece.


5. Output & Upload
_____When your footage is assembled and your video done, preview it before uploading. There've been countless times where I've needed to go back into the editor and tweak one or several things because of timing issues or flaws. For speed and convenience, I suggest rendering a "test" copy at a low resolution before producing the final output. This way, you won't waste an hour or more waiting for a video you'll just have to re-render in five minutes.
_____The actual output settings of your video may vary greatly, and depend on which codecs you have installed (and which your editor can actually write to). My personal favorite has been the XviD codec, which has a nice balance between compression and quality. The settings I generally use are for HD uploading to YouTube, and are as follows:
1280 x 720 resolution, 24.00 fps (Video)
16-bit Stereo, 44.1 khz (Audio)
Format: .AVI (xvid encoding)

_____...That probably sounds like gibberish if you're just starting out with video work, but it will make more sense as you fine-tune your video's output settings. The stats above result in varying file-size, but even my longest film to date (Hurricane, 6 minutes long) only comes out to about 227mb, more than acceptable for YouTube's upload restrictions. There are of course, other alternatives to YouTube, and they may have different file requirements.

6. Final Words
_____I won't pretend this is "everything you'll ever need to know" about making videos - simply a collection of what I've learned in my time doing so. It is my hope that others will add to it as time goes on. Film is an art, a means of expression meant to be shared - a guide is a start, but your talents will only improve with practice.