Showing Posts For NeilChapman.5902:

[Halloween] His Moment has Come.

in Community Creations

Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

Wow, I made it onto the Community Showcase. That was not expected as it was uploaded after the deadline.

I’m chuffed to bits!
Thank you.

[Halloween] His Moment has Come.

in Community Creations

Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

Thank you very much all of you, it’s very much appreciated. You might want to check on some of the other GW2 based videos on my channel.

[Halloween] His Moment has Come.

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Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

So this is something that came to me while doing the housework (as it so often does) and happened to be listening to the particular piece of music featured in the video. Composing of the rhyme and recording was done in a single afternoon.. (much to my wife,s irritation when she discovered that not all the housework had been completed.)

The video was only put together once the Halloween content had been released, hence one reason why this video is more than likely not to have a chance at the Community Showcase. The second reason was due to my having to wait to hear back from the band whose music I used for permission to use it.

A huge Thank You to Voe Saint-Clare and Angels of Liberty for allowing me to use their music in the video.

Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OdNd333eVk

(edited by NeilChapman.5902)

[Halloween] The Clocktower Society

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Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

So, this is a video that I made a couple of years ago while the old Lion’s Arch was still intact. It was inspired by the Halloween theme for GW2 composed by Maclaine Diemer. The music made me visualise key points in the story and I was able to build up the rest from those initial ideas, (The opening scene is a prime example of this visualisation, with the Halloween theme and opening titles becoming a key element in the timing.)

Anyway, enjoy.

From initial conception to the finished article it took a year to create the video as much of the inspiration occurred just after GW2’s first Halloween had ended, (I needed to wait until the following year for the halloween décor to be added once again.) But this allowed me to put a script together and record the voices so that it was all ready once the video recording had taken place.
All video recording was done inside a week, and required me to use non-native resolutions as the monitor I was using at the time of recording was not widescreen. I had to use a 1280×720 resolution with a monitor that uses 1280×1024 as its standard, this resulted in distorted images when recording but snapped back to normal once the video was finally compiled and allowed a widescreen format.
Logistics-wise the two biggest headaches involved the Charr chase and the Nightclub scene. Getting together that many players required a lot of co-ordination and I have much to thank my guild for in that regard.
The colour lighting in the nightclub scene took three hours to implement, It involved placing two identical video clips on top of each other with of of them having a certain amount of transparency. Colour filters then had to be painstakingly added to the non-transparent video and timed with the music individually in order to get the nightclub lighting effects. However I am extremely pleased with the end result and it turned the old Crows Nest into a convincing nightclub.
Also bare in mind that this video was created before the implementation of first person views into the game (something that I mentioned and requested during the end credits) I had to use various tricks to ‘remove’ myself from the frame. This usually involved frequent use of Halloween spider tonics, going through several until I had the small black plastic spider that I needed to stay out of scene as much as possible.

April Fool Video: Battle of Britain

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Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

With the April fools update making everyone pretend to be aeroplanes, I decided to make the best possible use of it and create a video with the help of my guild.

Despite the time constraints, the idea and arranging for this video was done in a very short space of time. Post recording effects took a little longer which is why the video has only just been released.

Enjoy, and please, please post comments.

Mail Carrier Suggestion.

in Black Lion Trading Co

Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

I noticed in the most recent patch notes that Mail Carriers are now selectable and this gave me an idea.

Just over a year ago I made a Machinima video called ‘The Clocktower Society’ within which was a point where one of the characters was testing a beta version of ‘Hawk Mail’ with somewhat undesirable results. It would be fantastic (not to mention that I would be thrilled to bits) if this were actually made to be a Mail Carrier in the game.

To see the video and the point at which I’m referring please click on the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lqY884ersI#t=423

The Clocktower Society: A Halloween story.

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Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

Last year I recorded a video that was intended for release over the Halloween event in GW2. Unfortunately due to technical difficulties regarding one of my assistants’ access to the internet, the video was released too late for those events.
However, a year has past and Halloween is upon us again. So it is with great pleasure that I present to you that video.
I give you ‘The Clocktower Society’

Enjoy

GW2 Bobblehead Dance 'incident'

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Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

Myself and a couple of guildies were recording the human Dance emote while the April 1st feature was in effect when the unexpected happened…

Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t94hAVLTse8

TotU. Ep 2: The Clocktower Society

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Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

It is with great pleasure (and no small amount of pride) that I present to you the 2nd in my ‘Tales of the Unsung’ series.
It was intended to be released on Oct 31st to coincide with Halloween (the central theme around which the video is about,) but due to one of the assisting players using up their Internet usage it was postponed until he could log back on and help me finish it.
Anyway, enjoy and please feel free to leave feedback both here and on the Youtube page.

Two individuals attempt to find ingenious ways of recruiting people to rally behind Mad King Thorn.

The Necromantic Crawl, sung by me

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Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

I wrote and performed the lyrics to this for a hopefully upcoming video in my ‘Tales of the Unsung’ series.
The music is not mine however but made by a Paul Lenart. Called ‘The Viper’ its a dixieland jazz piece that is sometimes played after a funeral.. (a prime reason why I chose it, given the songs subject matter.)

A Necromancer explains how he intends to use a character’s body once they no-longer occupy it.

My voice is a little rough in parts and a final edit will be done should the actual video, for which this is intended, be made.

Anyways, enjoy and please comment either here or on Youtube.

!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCV082-uvws!

Tales of the Unsung: Heritage

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Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

This is the first in what I hope to be a series of videos based on characters in Guild Wars 2 whose adventures go unnoticed in the general story arc, hence the name.

In ‘Heritage’ a young Norn learns about his unusual ancestry.

Enjoy.

*Your* Wish List For Next Patch?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

A 1st person perspective to the game like there was in the original Guild Wars.
More emotes.
More content for Personal Stories.
A reason to visit home instances.
Guild Halls.

[Video] Fan-made GW2 Video.

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Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

Yeah, on hindsight maybe labeling it as a trailer video was an error on my part. I will agree that it probably does better resemble a music video. With that in mind I will adjust the title of the topic to better represent the nature of the video

As I mentioned in the original post it was mainly a familiarisation exercise to get to grips with a new video editor, so gathering self-made ingame footage wasn’t really as important as using existing clips and arranging them. I do see what you mean though.

I’d always intended it to be a kind of response to another video that was made for another game using the same band and song. That game is sadly no longer active, (I say sadly as I feel that it was probably the only one out there at the time that could match the feel and atmosphere generated in Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2.) That game being Chronicles of Spellborn. (look up the video on Youtube, it’s still out there.)
If you compare the two you will hopefully see what I was aiming to do.

Thank you for the input though, I will certainly take it on board. As it happens I do have something in mind for my next project which I’ll be starting just as soon as the character I intend to use is of an appropriate level.

Edit: Changed Topic title from ‘[Video] Fan-made GW2 Trailer Video’ to’ [Video] Fan-made GW2 Video

(edited by NeilChapman.5902)

[Video] End of an Era Parts 1 & 2

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Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

On the eve of the Guild Wars 2 headstart access (24th August 2012), I and members of the alliance to which I am part decided to celebrate with one last Urgoz run in Guild Wars 1. But in order to make it memorable we gave it a little ‘twist’.

These two videos detail our run into Urgoz Warren, its inevitable conclusion and what we did afterwards.

End of an Era pt1

End of an Era pt2

These two parts were my first attempts at making a video and as such a few mistakes were made (resolution being the main one.) That being said it still captures the fun that we had while doing this self-made alliance event.
Though this video details events in Guild Wars 1 we were celebrating the imminent Headstart access to Guild wars 2 at the time, So I decided to post it here.

Let me know what you think and feel free to leave comments.

[Video] Fan-made GW2 Video.

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Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

As a familiarisation exercise in getting to grips with a new video editor, I put together clips from existing Arenanet GW2 trailers to create a trailer of my own.

Let me know what you think
Fan-made GW2 Trailer Video

Lost Shores Feedback Thread

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: NeilChapman.5902

NeilChapman.5902

I have to say that I was disappointed with the Lost Shores weekend as a whole.
As with a great many others I waited patiently for the event to start on Friday. Like many others I was treated with a cutscene that began the weekend long event and, like many others, I suffered lag issues almost instantly afterwards quickly followed by disconnection from the game. When I finally managed to log back on I had to contend with being hit and constantly killed by enemies I couldn’t see and a 2 to 30 second skill skill activation delay from the point of pressing the relevant skill key / icon which pretty much killed any enjoyment of the event.
Once the initial event was out of the way I didn’t bother with the others that night as I did not want a repeat performance of lag-outs and enemies I couldn’t see.
I did however give the Fractals of the Mists a go along with a guild team and if I’m honest we had a good time, although there were some points that quickly arose:

1) Those Fractals need an armour repair merchant, or you allow the players to come back into the staging area to repair before continuing to the next fractal.

2) Team members should have the option to get back into the Fractal in the event of a disconnect. (One of our number got disconnected during our third Fractal that evening (although not in a row) and could not get back in without us quiting out first.

3) The Dredge mining power suit boss is grossly overpowered and needs fixing. (We found it impossible to deal enough damage, even after pouring molten slag over it, before it hunkered down and healed itself back up to full health.)
Now I will admit that several factors may have come into play here. The first being that since we did not really know what was expected of us our profession and/or skill selection may not have been up to the task. However, seeing as you have gone out of your way to state that every profession can contribute in some way to any situation I really can’t see how this should be any different. The other factor to consider was that, as mentioned above, one of our number had been disconnected and so we were player down. That being said there should have been sufficient flexibility to allow for that eventuality.

On Sunday evening, as it was the final event of the weekend I decided to give it a try in the hope that some of the earlier lag issues had been rectified.

Wrong!.

After two minutes of lag delay and disconnects I pretty much said “Sod this for a laugh” and left to level up another character elsewhere, rather than get frustrated and angry over an event. (although I continued to experience lag and disconnects throughout the remainder of the evening albeit not as often.) I’m kind of glad that I did leave since if any of the previous posts are anything to go by I probably would have suffered like that for over two hours followed by bitter anger and resentment at being disconnected at the end with no chest reward.

Come on Anet. It’s been what, 3 months since GW2 went live?
These sorts of issues should have been ironed out by now. The huge lag issues experienced when GW2 went live was to be expected as it could be put down to teething problems and huge interest and so it could be forgiven. But the halloween drama should have given a clue that if you insist on ‘one time only’ events, which in the case of Halloween turned out to be just a cutscene, then you are going to need to have the server power to deal with the huge amount of players that will want to be there. Either that or you revert to the tried and tested method of repeating events every three hours as in GW1, which allowed everyone the opportunity to be able to join in at a time convenient to them and as a result prevented lag situations. This would be my preferred method of handling events as not once did I experience a disconnect issue in GW1 and rarely experienced lag during an event such as Halloween.

Don’t get me wrong I love GW2, we all do. But do you honestly think it’s right that players are pretty much forced to do something else rather than participate in the special events simply because of lag and disconnects through no fault of their own?

Please sort it out as it cannot keep going on like this.
Either bring in the extra server power needed to cope with the intense player population (and then some,) or revert to the tried and tested and I suspect much preferred repeatable events throughout the day.