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Forums > Home› Player Corner› Art and Fiction

MARCH of the CUBES (video)

angryspriteangrysprite Member Posts: 4,982 Arc User
edited April 2014 in Art and Fiction
So Cryptic releases the GELATINOUS CUBE Mount and people either go nuts loving it or hating it. Count me as among the former on the subject (yes, I have one!) Somewhere in these here forums someone mentioned a joke about Protector's Enclave being overrun by cubes, which turned into the idea for "March of the Cubes" and I said I'd turn something like that into a video. (Original forum thread here.)

AND WE DID!

So this one's to all the People at Cryptic to say 'hey thanks for these cubes!' and it was a lot of fun to make this. If you have any idea on a group-participation "theme" we can turn into a video, please say so in this thread! Let's get organized and do it! Maybe we can get ATROMATIK to rally us into something wonderful?

"March of the Cubes" video (2.5 minutes) at YouTube:
---View Here---> http://youtu.be/v2WDRwYcTxE <---View Here---

CREDITS/PARTICIPANTS:

STARRING as GELATINOUS CUBES:
ELDARTH (@eldarth)
IRIX (@enzodod)
DRESDEN (@melodywhr)
(yeah, we were hoping for a lot more people, but meh)

Demo Recorder Cameras in-game:
ANGRYSPRITE (rugorim@skytzyc)

MUSIC: "Protector's Enclave Remix"
MELODYWHR (@melodywhr)

EDITING:
ANGRYSPRITE (@skytzyc)

Got ideas for other group-themed videos we can make?
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • valwrynvalwryn Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,620 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Nicely Done!

    I was watching you peeps make this video....it turned out great. Now if ya can get a few dozen more for the next one. Watch out for the Water Bombing witch, she's everywhere.
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  • zebularzebular Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 15,270 Community Moderator
    edited April 2014
    Very cool, loved the sound effects!
    [ My Character Bios | Discord: Zebular#9524 | In Game: @zebular (PC) • @MtnDewFreak (XBOX) • @Terraseer (PS4) ]
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  • angryspriteangrysprite Member Posts: 4,982 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    The sound effects are all 'generated" - nothing from the game at all (I do video production among other things in the real world).

    The method to create it was:

    IN-GAME: three takes where my character (Rugorim@skytzyc) just stood still. Once at Neverember Statue, once at Fountain below Invoking Alter and Once next to Neverember himself. If you look closely at the video, you'll see my half-orc all dressed up in Pirate Regalia just standing there! (Call it a cameo appearance easter-egg! Can you spot him?)

    Then I went into DEMO_RECORD to set cameras and follow our cubes around. They ran specific courses so I knew (mostly) where they were. Then I used the "Save Images" export from Demo Record to save about 13GB worth of high-resolution screenshots. Then I copied all this over to my Mac (my "production" machine).

    I used Apple Motion to import all those JPG images into video files, then edited the video files in Final Cut Pro X. In that editing I had to fill in a LOT of "ambient" sound because Demo_Record does't export any. It's like, well literally is working on an animation: zero sound. So it all had to be created and added. Since I do pro video work I have a large library of sound effects, including crowds, swishes, burps, splooshes and whatnot. So I added those in just to give a touch of "comfort" because no ambient sounds at all feel unnatural.

    Thank you to @MELODYWHR for composing the Protector's Enclave Remix on her own with whatever app she uses. Great job there! Once all the video imagery was edited into place, I just added the sound effects and then finally laid down the music bed @melodywhr passed along to me.

    It was a lot of fun and the work went a LOT faster than I anticipated. Basically, it turns out I'm a lot more adept at DEMO_RECORD than I thought I was, so technically this was a one-day production: about thirty minutes in-game recording, then about three hours in Demo_record building the shots and exporting image-sequences (which goes a LOT faster than the Cryptic PR team would have you believe! (-cough-)), then about three hours in video editing.

    My thirst for creating more Neverwinter (or Star Trek or Champions) trailers and videos has now become insatiable. I might just start making trailers for upcoming Featured Foundry quests just for laughs or sum fin'.

    OOH, Maybe I should make a tutorial video on the finer points of how I use DEMO_RECORD, just to supplement the lifestream video the Devs did last year. Hrrrmmm... -mind and imagination starts kicking into overdrive....-
  • duurduur Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 112 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    I liked the video :) and I will be looking for your plans to do more of them :)
    Play for fun, Work to get rich, These two are not compatible!
  • msrebel1972msrebel1972 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>! I forgot all about this!!
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • angryspriteangrysprite Member Posts: 4,982 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    duur wrote: »
    I liked the video :) and I will be looking for your plans to do more of them :)

    There are two kinds of Machinema: the typical screen capture, often when people simply record their screen while while they are actively playing, and the style I prefer myself which is a lot more cinematic; planned shots, camera blocking, precise framing - a way to "tell a story", no matter how simple the story is.

    Many will likely remember the Mr. Bean shows - what made them so great is that spoken words are never used, they're 100% visual. So I'm working up some ideas to tell a couple short stories in this fashion and I have enough character slots that if I can't find any actors to play the roles, I'll just play them myself!
    msrebel1972 wrote: »
    <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>! I forgot all about this!!

    I suspect a lot of people forgot about it, but that's okay. Even with only three actors we were able to pop-out a pretty dent little video!

    I think my next video will be more elaborate, including some video SFX and the like - more than just what the game client provides alone. I'm thinking an amateur wayward wizard run amok in PE or something. Hrrrmmm -ideas start percolating-
  • dandare#8529 dandare
    dandare#8529
         Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 337 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    angrysprite wrote: »
    I think my next video will be more elaborate, including some video SFX and the like - more than just what the game client provides alone. I'm thinking an amateur wayward wizard run amok in PE or something. Hrrrmmm -ideas start percolating-

    Haha, looking forward ;). The video was cool and despite my slight animosity towards the cubes I had fun watching it :)

    By experience I can say: |Many IDEAS|+|Lack of TIME|= |Work BLOCK{!}|

    So I would wish you all the time you will need and only 'enough at the time' ideas for the work :P

    Sincerely Yours ~Angry Neko Elf
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  • angryspriteangrysprite Member Posts: 4,982 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    d21e4 wrote: »
    Haha, looking forward ;). The video was cool and despite my slight animosity towards the cubes I had fun watching it :)

    By experience I can say: |Many IDEAS|+|Lack of TIME|= |Work BLOCK{!}|

    So I would wish you all the time you will need and only 'enough at the time' ideas for the work :P

    Sincerely Yours ~Angry Neko Elf

    Here's what I tried to do with the Cubes video: I figured there's not a lot of in-between: you either love them or you hate them, more or less. So for those who loved them I wanted to show-off the playful nature of them as they ran around hopping and jumping around, with a close-up here and there.

    Yet, I wanted to also make the video entertaining for anyone who doesn't much care for them: this is where I added an 'overkill' aspect to the "splat" sound and added the, ummm... well for lack of a better description I'll call it the "<font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>" sound. None of the sounds in the video come from the game at all. These are all sound effects I added myself - so the goal was to allow those "cube-nay-sayers" an easy path to laughing at how "silly" those things really are, and in both cases not offending either side, as in "laugh with me, not at me".

    It was a tricky balance, but my goal was: love them or hate them, hopefully you will find this video entertaining!

    I am now working on a massive project that even Cryptic doesn't know about that I hope to share with the Cryptic Studios player community (yes: all of 'em: Neverwinter, Star Trek Online and Champions) that will help anyone who suffers the same math equation you do some relief in that regard!

    As for my next blockbuster (yeah: I wish!) I'm already storyboarding the particulars.

    Muahahahah!
  • melodywhrmelodywhr Member Posts: 4,220 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    speaking of other projects... check out this demo_record work done my another member of the neverwinter forum community:
    anagriasen wrote: »
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KVLLycU2LWo

    very nicely done.
  • angryspriteangrysprite Member Posts: 4,982 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    melodywhr wrote: »
    speaking of other projects... check out this demo_record work done my another member of the neverwinter forum community: very nicely done.

    I agree completely; beautiful work and obviously a lot of passion in that movie-maker to get all those camera moves just right (without clipping and other wonky shots). It's a little long for my taste (as for a single long-cut un-edited camera flyby) but exceptionally well done indeed. These are what my pre-edits usually look like before I start hacking and whacking them into edited form (the March of the Cubes for example looked just like this, then it was knife-time and a lot of rearranging). :)

    I've been doing pro video and cinematics for a few decades and I certainly do not throw such comments around very lightly.
    Hollywood Star for Anagriasen!
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