LESSONS 3 and 4 (COMBINED): NAVIGATING, EDITING and PUBLISHING in MOVIE MAKER

[Finlander]

Hey thanks all for good comments.

What really fitted for the firing trebuchet, the shaking doesn't fit for 0.23 of your vid,

I tought it made some strenght to it. But do you think shaking in 0:32 was good? Actually these were my first times I tried shaking effect so sorry if I used them too much.

[Maximus IV]

A request for the nanny: Because of personal issues ( sudden illness ) i 've lost Saturday and perhaps and Sunday so it may not be possible to deliver my homework in time. I hope it isnt such a deal. Sorry for the delay.
Regards,
Maximus.

[MasterBigAb]

Hey thanks all for good comments.
I tought it made some strenght to it. But do you think shaking in 0:32 was good? Actually these were my first times I tried shaking effect so sorry if I used them too much.

Yup it is
As i already said, sorry if it sounded to negativ, i really only focused on the "bad" things

[Nanny de Bodemloze]

A request for the nanny: Because of personal issues ( sudden illness ) i 've lost Saturday and perhaps and Sunday so it may not be possible to deliver my homework in time. I hope it isnt such a deal. Sorry for the delay.
Regards,
Maximus.

Not to worry Maximus...this course is supposed to fun and not add to anyone's stress so do what you can when you can, and thanks for the advance notice mate

cheers!

[Hesus de bodemloze]

NM Found what i was looking for.

[Nanny de Bodemloze]

Is there an easy way to stop the clipping at a specific point in the time line? I mean let's take the example of me wanting to stop the clipping at 3:28 but every time i try to move to that particular time frame the only ones i seem to get are 3:4 or 3:70.

ok there are a couple of ways of addressing this problem.

The clipping is a flaw in the FRAPs or CinEd filming process, where the camera got too close to an image...usually a soldier. The flaw is now part of your raw .avi clip. Here are your options:

- delete the whole clip
- go back a re-film the scene that one shot
- edit out the offending portion in MM
- mask the problem in MM

Lets pretend that you don't want to delete the whole clip or re-film it.

How to edit out the offending portion:
Move the horizontal "play" line to a spot just before the clipping starts. Hit CTRL L to split. Now move the bar to just after the clipping ends. Hit CTL L to split. Delete the offending material. Now, take your newly created 2nd clip and just slightly blend/overlap with the first portion to create smooth transition.

How to mask the problem in MM:
Move the horizontal "play" line to a spot just before the clipping starts. Hit CTRL L to split. Now move the bar to just after the clipping ends. Hit CTL L to split. Now, with the offending clipping material in the middle, add the effect PIXELATE to it. You have 3 sections now where you started with 1. Overlap these 3 portions very slightly to blend them. What this will look like, very briefly, is that the camera-man lost camera focus for a brief second (like in a real movie), but your ugly clipping portion is now masked by the pixelate effect. As long as the pixelate potion is very quick...no more than 2 seconds max...then it will look very natural.

cheers!

[Hesus de bodemloze]

Oke here goes.

[LuckyLewis]

@Hesus, you need to set your video as unlisted instead of private for us to watch it, as mentioned here by The Nanny.

[*]When uploading on YouTube, during the upload, select PRIVATE as the privacy setting, and then SAVE CHANGE. After the video has finished, then EDIT the video and select UNLISTED as the privacy setting. This is due to an occasional YouTube glitch that makes a vid public with you initially select unlisted during the upload.

[Hesus de bodemloze]

But, but, i don't want to.

Oke give me a few and i 'l see what i can do.

Should be fixed now.

[.Mitch.]

I liked your opening to the vid a lot Hesus!


@the Proff's

I'm going to upload mine as soon as I get home monday.

[John Doe]

I have one question on how to do a first person camera with a cavalry with M2TW. When I use the lock unit, I have a nice camera movement (as if on the horse), exactly what I'm after, the problem is that the camera is slightly too high to make it a credible first person view. Is there a way to get the camera to go lower than the default ingame setting (not cineditor).

I found a trick to solve my previous problem (too many clip on the time line and prevent re-rendering): I realised you can copy paste projects together. Select everything on the timeline of project A, press ctrl C, close MM, reopen MM with project B, select the end of the time line, press ctrl V, et voila! you got 1 project BA.

[Hesus de bodemloze]

I liked your opening to the vid a lot Hesus!

Thanks man.

I am not really satisfied with the result but it's the best i can do at this moment. Practice will eventually make me better at it.

[LuckyLewis]

A very impressive effort Hesus de bodemloze, there were many positives in your video that look very encouraging for the future. I particularly liked how you used a similar effect to start and end your video, a very clever technique and creates a satisfying feeling at the end, at least for me! Good music choice too, I think it went well particularly at the start and ending scenes. Nice work hiding all of the user interface too.

Personally, I'd like see some more variety in the scenes, especially between 0:30 and 0:50. Using the same shot for 20 seconds or so can produce a little bit of boredom, so maybe a few more angles would be useful? Secondly, have you tried using Blaine's custom speed effects? The original movie maker slow motion effect is rather choppy and I assume that is what you used in your video? Well, to be honest, the custom speed effects still provide that poor performance effect if you put too much on, but I'd recommend using up to only 25% from the custom speed effects at the most, as that has little effect.

Still, a very impressive start, especially for a draft! keep it up! +rep

@zyxos - I'm not too sure about that, best to wait for MasterBigAB, he is the MTW2 expert.

[.Mitch.]

Solved.

[LuckyLewis]

Keep in mind when you first upload to youtube, the video has to process, and that will take several minutes after the uploading, when you watch it while it is still processing, the quality will be really bad, but will improve in 10 minutes or so, depending on the size of your video.

Which options did you set when you rendered it? because it should certainly be more than 3.3kb.

[.Mitch.]

Ok, heres the first draft, still not 100% happy with the quality. But its better than before.

(Quality might be better if you watch it here rather than going to youtube, I highly recomend.)

^Set at 480p ^

Hope you like it, obviously, my first ever vid of NTW, nowhere near what you guys can do, but Im still happy with it as a first draft.


And I know this is your guys job but these are 3 main problems I've already noticed in the first draft, and I'd like your opinions.

0:14 - Funny camera movement, needs changing?
1:32 - I think this clip is out of place in the vid?
1:41 - Maybe the screen is overwhelmed a tad?

Thanks guys!

[LuckyLewis]

Mitch, that was awesome! I really don't have any criticism other than perfecting the camera movements in the places you mentioned yourself and how certain scenes are slightly choppy such as at 0:23, which may need to be redone. That really was great, a great promotional video for your mod too and I really liked the scene at 0:27. Personally, I liked the scene at 1:32. I don't really know what else to say, but that was very impressive.

[.Mitch.]

Mitch, that was awesome! I really don't have any criticism other than perfecting the camera movements in the places you mentioned yourself and how certain scenes are slightly choppy such as at 0:23, which may need to be redone. That really was great, a great promotional video for your mod too and I really liked the scene at 0:27. Personally, I liked the scene at 1:32. I don't really know what else to say, but that was very impressive.

Thanks Lewis, nice of you to say.

Yeh @ 0:23 I kind of meant for it to look like that, but now you've said it, I think for anyone apart from me who knows it was meant to be like that it looks choppy, Ill redo it.

Yeh, I liked 1:32 aswell, I just thought some people might find it out of place.

Thanks again, can't wait to get more feedback now! tehe

[Nanny de Bodemloze]

Oke here goes.

Hesus...the music is fantastic! where is it from??

Normally I don't like too many sky shots, but you've now got me rethinking this

I don't have any time-specific comments because I didn't see an clipping or obvious technical flaws. About the only critique I have is that some of the clips are a bit laggy...my guess is that your FPS with FRAPS recording was about 15? It isn't a showstopper...any lower would be a major problem...but something to watch out for in future vids. With FRAPS running, your fps will take a major dip, so graphics setting have to be turned down from what you are used to playing at.

Sometime before the final render in lesson 5, you'll have to use some in-game sound.

Well done...wow that music...

[Nanny de Bodemloze]

@ Mitch...

The screen well cleaned...no technical flaws.

I made the comment of someone else's vid...this song is very emotional...don't be afraid of using a clip or two in close. Remember, make it personal, and this is often done by showing some faces. Ever notice that when you watch a movie that has a scene of devastation, that the scene itself doesn't hit your heart as much as when you see the reaction of those witnessing the scene?

0:14 - Funny camera movement, needs changing?....I didn't mind it
1:32 - I think this clip is out of place in the vid?...I disagree, a few shots that are different are good, and this one works
1:41 - Maybe the screen is overwhelmed a tad?....no, I liked it

Like with Hesus' vid, clearly you have the graphic settings maxed, but some clips are a little choppy as a result with lower fps. Remember Lesson 2...smoothness is always more important than quality of graphics. It isn't choppy to the point of needing to all be re-done (just the stuff mentioned by Lewis), but this is a good thing to remember for future.

Your pacing was excellent, and really fit the vid. I'm really looking forward to your final product mate.