Month: May 2017

Greetings, nerds! It is I, Charlie! With a quick note about this week’s blog post:

Attention! Before reading, you should know this is a continuation from parts 1 and 2 of How to make a Let’s Play, so if you’re just starting out and want to know what to use and how to record gameplay footage and audio, give a quick look through our previous parts.

…And now we’re back!

We left off just as you finished the importing of all your sweet, sweet raw footage and audio into your timeline. So now that it’s all up in there, What next?

1) Import any graphics, animated pieces, pictures or cards (end cards, title screens or otherwise) into your project. This includes things like your name tags, Title tags, all that good stuff.

2) After you’ve lined up your sync (using the 3-2-1 CLAP method noted earlier, in which you line up the audio to the video with a menu scroll) insert your name tags in the appropriate area.

3) RENDER. YOUR. FOOTAGE. After everything is placed on the timeline (roughly where you want them) Render the footage. This helps prevent ‘Loading Lag’ wherein a succession of quick cuts can cause your machine’s video display to fall behind and appear out of sync, even if that is not the case.

4) Once rendered, editing will go much smoother. Import any music you’d like into your timeline. If you’d like to give your video a ‘Bed’, (soft music playing in the background during speaking bits), place it just low enough to cover up any awkward silences.

5) Place your name tags, title screens and any other relevant information into the timeline. Don’t forget to add transitional effects (like fades) into your titles as well.

Remember that most adobe programs can cross over into others, so taking the time to learn things like photoshop and aftereffects can pay off in huge dividends for a final product.

6) After you’ve pieced together everything comes the rough stuff. The export. When exporting in any program (but in this particular case, Premiere Pro) try to keep your export settings as close to your import settings as possible. For example, if you imported a video that was a resolution of 1920X1080, try to export it as the same resolution. If your program has preset settings for a particular platform that you would like to use it on (such as a ‘YouTube’ setting), try and use those settings as well.

Seems simple enough, right? You can check out our finished product here:

Well we’ve covered a ton here so don’t forget to take the time to review everything before uploading your next video. If you’ve got any questions don’t forget you can reach out to us at the ZeMind social media accounts below.

Thanks for reading!

Follow @ZeMindGames

So now that we’re set up with our equipment, it’s time for the hard part.

For editing we run the most recent premiere Adobe Premiere (Creative Cloud), along with the program ‘HandBrake’. Why Handbrake? For those of you who aren’t familiar, the built-in DVR you can find in the XBOX app (comes with Windows 10) can record at higher frame rates, but often doesn’t CONSISTENTLY record at higher framerates.

Essentially what will happen is your footage will either gain or lose frames as it plays, leading to occasional de-sync between your voice and the video. Handbrake is used to level out the frame rates and thus give a more accurate sync between audio and video.

Speaking of being in sync, it’s important to give yourself an editing start point. For us, it usually involves going to the game menu and scrolling through options while simultaneously counting ‘1-2-3, 3-2-1′ into the microphone before a large CLAP.

What this does allow an identifiable point in both audio and video which you will use as a starting point for your project in editing. (the clap will show up as a HUGE spike in the audio waveform so all you have to do is align it with the visual clap on the screen). To save yourself some extra time later, write down the time of any significantly entertaining moments happened on a piece of paper next to you (or just make a mental note of it for later).

Once you’ve performed your sync, and put your video through HandBrake, you’ll be able to align both up properly in editing. Play your game as planned, and nearing the end, perform a sync again (just to make it easier to tell if your video has fallen out of sync at the end). Quit your recording and POOF! You’re ready to go.

When exporting audio files, it doesn’t really matter what container your sound comes in as long as it’s high quality and readable by your editing software. This also applies to your video footage. For transparencies sake we try and export as .wav in audio and .mp4 for video.

Once you’ve opened up your video editing software, import your audio and video to your timeline. Watch your video until you find the clap from your sync earlier and align it with the clap audio and VOILA! You’re all ready to start editing.

Use whatever tool you can in your program to assemble all the good parts of your video while leaving out anything dull. This is often done in a click/drag motion and found in many of the programs’ tutorials. Don’t forget to do the same with the audio as well as fine tune the levels to the appropriate volume.

That’s all for this week, NEXT WEEK we’re rocking the overlays and editing tricks to add a little flair!

Don’t forget to follow us on social media, and in the mean time enjoy the latest video from our YouTube channel and don’t forget to subscribe!

-Charlie Ze Newbie

Follow @ZeMindGames

So you want to be internet famous? Make a ‘Let’s Play’ video or five, do ya?

Well you’ve come to the right place. In an upcoming series of blogs, I’ll walk you through a behind-the-scenes peek of how we make the videos currently releasing on our YouTube channel in our series ‘INDIEcent Exposure‘.

For a quick overview, INDIEcent Exposure is a series where we highlight the gameplay of ‘Indie’ developers from Toronto and the world by playing them (occasionally really poorly). You can check out an example of us playing Ballistic Tanks by Kirklight Games on our YouTube Channel!

Alright, now to the good part.

What is our set up?

Right now we’re running a pretty basic set up. We use the ASUS gaming laptop ROG GL552VW to play/record the game audio/video. It’s nothing fancy but it does everything we need it to do.

SPECS: Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.6GHz Memory: 16384MB RAM. DirectX Version: DirectX 12

We’ve hooked it up to an extra monitor (yet again, nothing fancy). Any HD monitor will do, in reality. As for our Facecam, we’re cycling through a few different options (webcams, our own phones etc) but we’ve settled in on using the same Macbook we use to record our sound (Just so happens it’s the latest and oft hated Macbook, but that’s negligible. As long as it can run ‘Audacity’ software as well as its own webcam at the same time, it’s good in our books).

When it comes to microphones, we’re using the ‘Blue Snowball’, a classic choice among early streamers/podcast enthusiasts. You can find it here.

All of our recorded video is kept on an 500 GB SSD (which will undoubtedly need an upgrade once it gets full.)

Our next video will feature a lighting and set up using this green screen kit (provided it ever gets here).

When it comes to the software on the Macbook, we’re running the built-in webcam programs, as well as Audacity in the background to keep things going simultaneously. While my personal experience would request the use of an ElGato capture device, the Windows 10 laptop we have uses the DVR built into the XBOX app. The footage taken from the XBOX app can be in varying qualities, so it’s important to note your settings before hitting the record button.

Anyways, that about wraps up the prerequisites for our set up, tune in next week for the next step of making a ‘Let’s Play’ styled video montage!

Until next time, don’t forget to follow us on social media and watch our videos!
-Charlie Ze Newbie

Follow @ZeMindGames