Hellion Video

[Rekuja]

Hey guys

After making that silly Raquel video, i did some more testing with my software and was able to produce 720p high quality 60FPS recording of FFXIV without the choppy footage you saw previously.

Translation: smooth video footage, yo.

With that being said, this will be a rough explanation of some plans for an event, nothing finalized by the way this is strictly "throwing it out there" once I finalize something I'll make a new thread with some fancy posters and a trailer etc etc.

I'm looking into an event that will go for a few hours, gather some FC members and make a music video that'll go on our home page, this is a chance to get your character some screen time with your glamours etc. I'm also thinking some of us could use a break from slaying bad guys and facepalming at atma, let loose for a day or two and have some fun.

This could be a recruitment video, a funny video, a serious role playing video (um.... no) or even a video showing the world how much practice Kaane needs with Paladin... get some ideas together and post them, I'm all ears.

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I recorded this last night to see if my computer could handle this game with max settings and maintain 60 frames whilst recording, to my surprise it managed just fine. This was also a personal test to redeem myself after the choppy Raquel dance :\

I made a few changes to the midtones, highlights and saturation levels, this was purely done for testing purposes for future projects (like our Hellion video) please watch the video and tell me what you think of the colour, sharpness, and all the other little enhancements I've made and how it plays on your monitor.

You don't need to watch the entire video by the way, just the combat scene is more than enough.

[youtube]ZOXijoZnE2w[/youtube]

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Remember, this isn't something happening anytime soon but the floor is open for any suggestions.

Cheers,
Rek

[KaaneMoka]

The only thing I would suggest to change is to change the lead actor from you to me, and it will be the best seller of the year  ... and many years to come  ....and many thousands years far after    .....

[Min Kim]

Can you post up what software you use to record, what settings you have, and what editor you use also?

I have my own settings, but I'm always curious to see if there are better ways.

[Rekuja]

Sure

Nvidia Shadowplay is the best out there to be honest but you have to install Nvidia Experience (gross) and it only works in full-screen mode, you can't use it with borderless.

I'm using this setup for that cutscene

DxTory using Lagarith Lossless Codec at YV12 settings
Recording at 30fps at 1280x720 resolution (make sure it doesn't sync your FPS to 30 whle you're recording)
FFXIV on High at 1920x1080 resolution
Vsync Disabled
Sony Vegas 8 Pro for editing

My computer still lags when I'm trying to preview any video editing (cross effects, transitions, etc) I'm not sure if that's Vegas being stupid, my computer itself or the recorded files.. which makes editing a real pain in the ass.

[Tigerlilley]

The only thing I would suggest to change is to change the lead actor from you to me, and it will be the best seller of the year  ... and many years to come  ....and many thousands years far after    .....

This made me laugh out loud

[Fufu]

My computer still lags when I'm trying to preview any video editing (cross effects, transitions, etc) I'm not sure if that's Vegas being stupid, my computer itself or the recorded files.. which makes editing a real pain in the ass.

I dont use sony vegas but in after effects you have to buffer it using ram preview before playing, it's not your computer / vegas being stupid. That's normal, and that's why people invest a lot in computers for compositing.


This is a general tip and not specific to your video but if you're doing some post processing on the colors then keep subtlety in mind. You might think the effect looks cool at first but overblown highlights and incorrect black points never look right in the long run. I took a quick look and it wasn't so bad other than the whites looked too white (but not overblown), and you never want pure white when you're texturing a character since nothing (that's in this game) can be pure white. Only exception is eyes because you want high contrast (pure white / black) between the pupil and whites since that's where you want people's attention.


If you want really good quality and don't mind a bit extra file size try photo jpeg encoding at around 85% quality. It's what I've found to be best quality:size ratio for videos where you can't afford to sacrifice quality. Dropping to 75% for videos like these should be acceptable also to reduce size a bit. Honestly though with photo jpeg you might not like the larger size, you can get a better ratio in the event that perfect quality is not essential with other codecs.

[Rekuja]

Thanks Fufu, some pretty cool information. I was wondering, do you know if Sony Vegas can buffer before previewing special effects?

As for the colours, it was purely for testing I tried to mix n match but not over-kill the scene, it turned out pretty good in 720p except for Maelstrom leaders face at the very end imo, but that's actually part of the cutscene, Square kinda butchered the lightning during that final scene.

[Fufu]

Thanks Fufu, some pretty cool information. I was wondering, do you know if Sony Vegas can buffer before previewing special effects?

As for the colours, it was purely for testing I tried to mix n match but not over-kill the scene, it turned out pretty good in 720p except for Maelstrom leaders face at the very end imo, but that's actually part of the cutscene, Square kinda butchered the lightning during that final scene.

I haven't used sony vegas, I always use after effects since it's what I used in the industry, that and nuke -- which is overkill x 9001.


A google search should yield your answer. And if it doesn't do it it will have it's own way of dealing with it - and if it doesn't then it's garbage and should be thrown on the curb.


Specific to your video (this time) the whites are overblown and are distracting, they're pulling attention where you don't want it pulled. If you want a different look try color grading it rather than modifying the white/black points.


Edit ^ Here's an example: Look at your video, don't play it, just the frame it starts on when linked on the forum. The first thing you'll look at is merlwyb's gloves... because they're white and pulling attention. Her gloves are irrelevant.

[Rekuja]

Yeah I see what you mean, lmfao, again was purely testing purposes I didn't really spend much time on the colours just a few adjustments here 'n there to see what it would look like.

I think if I was making something serious I would spend hours on the colours anyway, I was never a fan of strong overblown editing.

I'll have a look into the vegas thing tomorrow, surely it has something... could always grab after effects and make it co-exist with vegas.

[Fufu]

Yeah just trying to be informative for future reference, not dissing your attempt


Type 'sony vegas ram preview' into google, and viola. It has it.