Guild Wars 2

I’m no pro but on occasion I think about writing something up for the those with an interest in recording gameplay footage but think it’s more difficult than it actually is. So this will consist of two fairly straightforward sections. The first is how to get up and running. The second- a suggestion on how to make something people might actually like to watch. Both of these aspects come from my limited knowledge and personal opinions on the matter, and I’ll be the first to say I’ve seen better produced works out there than I’ve thrown together.

How To Get Started

There are two programs available for download that I’ve used. FRAPS, and Bandicam. There are others, Overworlf for example, but I find some are more demanding on system resources than others. FRAPS and Bandicam offer good quality recording without straining your system, and that’s something a lot of people have to keep in mind. As for FRAPS and bandicam, the first has a certain popularity, however out of the both of them if you don’t want to spend any money, Bandicam is functional for a cheapskates uses. Both free versions come with waterstamps (which is no big deal), but last time I used it FRAPS had a 1 minute recording cap while Bandicam allows for 10 minute recording windows. That that means is that once you hit record, it’ll auto stop recording after said time. Considering the typical length of fights, Bandicam will be our go to recording software. Free of charge, great product, and can be found here http://www.bandicam.com/

Next, once it’s downloaded and installed, go to the Video tab. There you’ll need to set a hot key for recording. I like F9 for no particular reasons except maybe it doesn’t do anything else. In the same tab in the “Format” section, the settings button there will allow you to make adjustments to the recording quality. The lower the quality the easier time your machine will have recording while you’re playing. Of course dropping the quality will mean poorer quality vids including low FPS. So you’ll need to play around with this to find a good spot. Go into game, hit your record hotkey, and see how things go while you run around. If your FPS doesn’t drop to a stagger, head out to your desktop, find your recording, and have a watch. This will allow you to see the quality provided by your settings. I can’t say what will be right for your system, but my Video settings are

• Full Size
• FPS: 30
• Quality 70

So that’s the bare bone basics of get the recording software up and running. It’s pretty easy stuff.

Next you’ll need to record some action. Once you do you’ll need to turn it into a movie. To do this I use Microsoft Moviemaker. It’s easy to use, has all the features you’ll need, and most importantly is free. It can be found here
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-nz/windows-live/movie-maker
Once installed and opened it’s a simple matter of dragging and dropping your vid files into the program. You can move them into any order you like. After that it’s a simple matter of going through the various features. The best way to learn is to play with it. You can’t really go wrong, and if you do the undo feature is your best friend. Once you’ve pieced something togeather it’s a simple matter of saving it, and you’re ready to upload. For feature biuld or gameplay vids I save in high definition (better quality on the finished uploaded project). If it’s a quick vid of a bug, or some feature, I’ll save it “for computer” which is the smaller sized, lesser quality file. It saves on save and upload times.

Once you have your vid you need to upload it. This is where youtube comes into play. You’ll need to make a youtube account for this. Once you do there’s an “upload” button that takes you to an upload page. Then you simply drag and drop the saved movie file into the box and away it goes. If, for some reason, the auto uploader doesnt load for you use the manual upload button that will appear. Or use another browser. I’ve run into problems with firefox recently and using a different browser was the fastest, easiest way to move past the problem.

And that’s all there is to it. Give it a try, it’s really easy to get up and running. On to the next bit.

How to make a half-decent vid

So as I peruse the forums I often take the time to open up and watch mesmer footage that is posted. Sometimes I’ll sit and watch just about anything to its entirety, but others I may loathe the idea of even clicking the link. Reason being that, generally speaking I find the wide world of youtube to be a horrid time sink with super low quality entertainment on it as it is. Fortunately I have an investment in Mesmer related things and so I’m more keen than not. However I’ve noticed a variation in material. Some things I enjoy watching. Other’s I do not. I havent put as much thought into this as I probably could but there are at least a few obvious things I can point out for someone wanting to get started, or perhaps to just improve.

Intro
Before I started making videos I first started watching them. I noticed that at least for those who did it regularly, they’d start their videos with an introduction. This is a great way to quickly identify the maker and/or give them some face time. If you’re familiar with the persons name or works you’ll know what you’re in for. If you’re not, you soon will be. So how do you make these good? Well,

• Keep it short. People don’t mind a quick intro clip but keep in mind they’re here to see the gameplay, not a two minute, or even twenty second ramp up or back-story into your characters life.
• Keep it simple. A name, a title, five to ten seconds long. Any more than this and you’re going to lose your audience. They’ll either skip ahead, or close the window all together. And if you think the former is any better than the latter its not. Once a person starts skipping they’re more inclined to keep skipping. Just keep your intro concise and avoid the whole affair.

No Build breakdowns (with small exception)
One thing I can’t stand is opening up a vid to find a build breakdown. This tends to take the form of a (minimum) 15 minute run through of the build and gear with commentary. This might be ok if the commentator had some training in both speaking and presentation, but I’ve yet to come across a GW2 player who is let alone has amature level skills. Often video’s end there, at the build breakdown conclusion, leaving me wondering where the gameplay is. Tacking it on the end however is no better as at this stage I’ve undoubtedly started skipping around trying to find something I want to watch. Of course if I’ve started skipping then I’m likely to keep skipping, unless of course I’ve closed the window altogether. To make matters worse, if I do find myself watching and am interested in your build, I have to skip my way back through 30 minutes of material trying to find the various pieces to make this thing work. At this point it’s just not worth it to me.

So what’s the exception? At the start of your video (after the intro), or at the very end, showing your opened character tab, running your mouse over your gear, weapons, trinkets, swapping to the traits tab, running your mouse over each selection. Then closing the window and getting on with the show. You don’t even need to linger on your selections, nor provide a single ounce of commentary. If a person is interested they can play and pause the video to see the relevant information. If they’re not they can ignore it and it’ll be over in seconds. They can get on to what they’re there to see.

In conclusion the best option is to post a build link to a build site. You can put it on the youtube itself, and/or the thread in the forums. This is pro. I’ll love you forever for it.

Montages vs Vignettes

Maybe you’re new to GW2, maybe you’re not. Either way a lot of enthusiasts have been around long enough that they’ve either seen a lot or experienced it for themselves. Back when GW2 was new, a long gameplay montage was an often made, and welcomed sight. You could really piece together something long and drawn out and it had the ability to draw and hold attention. I’ve noticed, both from personal experience, and from listening to the comments made by others that montages, while possibly good in and of themselves, are less favorable to typical viewers these days. You can have a lot of great footage, but stringing it all together in a long vid might not be the best way to present it. There are exceptions of course. For example if a single feature video has a large variety of encounters with a variety of tactics on exposition, this will hold a viewers attention. If, however, you have a long string of IP power shatter kills, even at 10 seconds a piece (high octane, high action) the monotony of the footage will get stale quickly.

To avoid any complications a Vignettes is a safe way to go. If you have a particularly interesting encounter, or two or three fights used as an example to some tactic, or feature build, this will have a far greater impact on the viewer. A principle to work by is to ask what your goal in making the video is. In doing this, once you know you’ve achieved that goal, the video is as good as done. You can cut, or limit content, and not run the risk of dragging out the viewers time. It’s better to leave someone wanting more than to bore them into an early grave.

Instructional

So I thought I’d make a vid for the purpose of showing a visual of making a vid. My purpose of the vid is to quickly and concisely show the creation of a P/D thief kittenting his pants. In other words, its a video of making a video, with finished product placed on the end. There are a lot of little things you can do to edit your videos to perfection, but this includes the basic steps I’ll go through with captions.

http://youtu.be/iuYx15nbJk0

Note: this is in no way an exciting video. Don’t bother watching it if it’s not something you’re interested in.

Inb4 this goes to Fan generated content. Oh wait we haven’t seen a redpost in ages on the mesmer subforum.

Lovely guide, covers everything I support and think are essential for video making, good job !

Thank you ! very useful.

Have you tried using Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) for recording before? It’s completely free (both open source and $$$,) and doesn’t seem to have any max time limit for recording.

This is an honest question. I haven’t ever tried Fraps or any other recording programs before and I am wondering if I’m missing something.

My system is roughly:
i7 -4770k CPU
AMD r9-290x graphics
(so relatively high-end)

and I don’t notice any decrease from normal game fps unless I’m in a big WvW zerg battle (50v50+ ,) in which case my fps goes from around 25 fps to 18 when I start recording. Otherwise, the fps is not noticeable at all.

Guildmates have tried, quality sucks.

adelaide.6213:

Have you tried using Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) for recording before? It’s completely free (both open source and $$$,) and doesn’t seem to have any max time limit for recording.

This is an honest question. I haven’t ever tried Fraps or any other recording programs before and I am wondering if I’m missing something.

My system is roughly:
i7 -4770k CPU
AMD r9-290x graphics
(so relatively high-end)

and I don’t notice any decrease from normal game fps unless I’m in a big WvW zerg battle (50v50+ ,) in which case my fps goes from around 25 fps to 18 when I start recording. Otherwise, the fps is not noticeable at all.

I’ve not tried anything other than what Ive stated (including Overwolf).

I run an Intel duel core 3.33GHz
Nvidea Geforce GTS 250
so I’m relatively low end I suppose (though I know its much worse out there)

Miku Lawrence.6329:

Guildmates have tried, quality sucks.

As in having a good enough bitrate (you need at least around 5 Mbps to be considered “HD”; Netflix video bitrates are around 7 Mbps to compare.) is too taxing for their systems? Or is there some other metric you’re talking about?

The only thing I ask is that people don’t dub videos with hard rock, heavy metal or dubstep. If you just HAVE to, don’t crank up the volume. That is so annoying!

Added a video of making a video of a p/d thief kittenting themselves.

This is worth bumping, because I’m actually about to download the appropriate software while I lay restlessly in bed!

I have actually made a testvideo like two or three months ago, and this tutorial helped me a lot.

But I kinda didn’t start to record actual fights and stuff yet. I’m recording with nvidia ShadowPlay, and it’s awesome… just it requires me to play in fullscreen-mode (and not windowed fullscreen). Aaaaaaand I totally have a habit to tab in ICQ while waiting for a respawn or a match to start or similar. Or look at a livemap quickly when I’m in WvW. With fullscreen, I can’t actually see what’s happening ingame anymore while doing so. But yeah… maybe I’ll get myself to actually really record stuff at some point. So far, there’s only my testvideo where I’m running through all three LA-jps, haha.

Since this was bumped, I would like to add something. I’m a Mac user, and I think I finally found a recording program that works well.

You can use OBS. It’s free and works fine on Mac. You can even record in 60 fps if you can, which Quicktime doesn’t allow. It also causes less lag.

Thanks for the info, Sorel! That should be helpful to your fellow Mac users.