_Aral__EU

Hi there,

Since my former video - Night Prayers, kindly posted here by Swissy - was well received on this board, I figured I'd post the new one.
It's called Pulse (Or How To Attain Enlightenment In Five Easy Steps).

As with all my previous videos it contains original music written by Coffy, another Coh's player and friend.

So, to view it you have the following choices :
- Either this sweet and lovely little download : Right-Click + Save as
- Or this horrible Youtube link : Here

(Actually, the quality is not that bad on Youtube if you watch it in high quality, but the audio is somewhat distorted).

Hope you enjoy this one
Aral

PS : If interested, here are YouTube's links to my previous works (Hi-res version available on Vertical Studio page) : Night Prayers - PoD - Dies Irae

[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />
Aral should make a 2 hours long CoX movie....

[/ QUOTE ]
... and die of old age and exhaustion in the process

Well, first, thanks to Swissy for posting the vid here, I would have done it myself sooner or later, but being introduced by this talented person is a reward in itself.

Then, thanks to all of you above who took the time to download the vid and leave a comment. I know it's a strange way nowadays to distribute a video (youtube is the standard) but I worked hard on the visuals (lightning, texture enhancing, sky coloring etc.) and I didn't want to downgrade the quality too much.

Anyway, I'm glad you liked this video.

[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />
Sinon ce fut bien sympa, même si effectivement CoX a brillé par sa discretion sur le salon ! c'est pas comme ça qu'on gagne des abonnés !

[/ QUOTE ]

D'un autre coté CoX a squatté le palmarès du festival machinima (The Gamekillers pour le prix du jury, Dies Irae pour le prix du public), ça a du faire un minimum de pub

Puisqu'on est dans le thread des videos rigolotes, je reposte ici une trouvée sur JoL : la
Dans le genre comique, c'est pas mal fichu

[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />
Aral m'avait dit, il me semble, qu'il y aurait deux vidéos CoH/CoV de présentes (sur cinq, soit 40% quand même). Une idée de qui a réalisé la deuxième ?

[/ QUOTE ]

On a toujours pas confirmation des participants (...), mais à priori Shakle présenterait ça
(le thread associé est dans la section JoL-machinima qui va bien)

[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />
c'est qu'il faut le soutenir le Ralou, c'est quelqu'un de sensible et qui serait profondement marqué de ne pas gagner


[/ QUOTE ]

Bonta, je ... hum, Midoh, pourrais-tu désactiver le filtre à insultes 20 secondes stp ?

[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />
Aral si tu avais un lien vers un tutorial pour la programmation du jeu, ça me ferait très plaisir
Traduir ça va mais trouvé c'est autre chose


[/ QUOTE ]

Tiens Sehn, j'avais commencé à écrire un petit tutorial, qui contient le lien du site donné au dessus, plus un excellentissime editeur, plus quelques trucs et astuces (c'était pour répondre aux questions les plus courantes reçus par mail ou par mp) :

* bon puisque j'ai du mal à le retrouver à chaque fois sur le board Uk, je le reposte là *

_____________________________________________

1. Learn the demo langage
Demo Fime Format FAQ (Zloth)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...?Number=851259

75 % of my video is made of demos created from scratch (ie no demo recording in game), the 25% last being on-line recorded demos that were deeply modified later (like the battle with Statesman).

This langage is very easy to learn, so go for it !

2. Get yourself the best demo editing tool
CoH Demo Editor v0.8.9 - by Balshor
http://home.earthlink.net/~balshor/

Even if my prefered CoH Demo editor is still the Notepad, this tool has very useful functions to help you analyze and modify existing demo, or integrate your own complex camera movements into your own demo.
The great idea behind this tool is very simple : Its translates CoH demo from relative time into absolute time. This means that you can then merge different demo very easily.

3. Use the best CoH Demo Database : the city of heroes Codex
http://home.twcny.rr.com/scuzzbopper/coh/
Yes, it’s not up to date. It’s still the best I know.

4. For smooth video, a slower capture can be better
A simple trick : Know your final video format. Will it use 25 FPS ?
Then do not capture at 30 FPS, thinking it will be better, because it will only lead to missing frames in your final compression which in turns will lead to non-smooth animations and camera movements.
In this example, capturing your video at 25 FPS will lead to the best results.

5. Do not think you can record smooth camera movement on-line
No no, don’t fly or hover around in 1st person view ! It just doesn’t work It won’t be smooth. It won’t be precise . It won’t be fun. Believe me, I tried.
For my video Dies Irae, I kept only 3 second of in-game camera recording, in two very short shots (1.5 s each). This was possible only because in those shots i do not move the camera and let it track the player (in this case, Statesman flying over Boomtown and landing in front of the ruined city hall).
Im sorry because it means more work, but imho you need to create your owns camera movement « by hands » and integrate them to the demo, after using Balshor CoH Demo Editor to strip all originals camera commands from the files.

6. But what is a « smooth » camera movement ?
It’s subjective. After a lot of test, I’d say it’s at least 20 Hz. Yep, I refresh all 6 camera parameters (3 positions, 3 angles of orientation) every 50 ms for complex camera movements. For simplier and slower camera movement I can use 10 Hz. (My first video, Paragon in Hell, uses 10 Hz max, and you can clearly see the difference between the two vids in some shots).

[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />

cependant je voudrais vous demander si vous savez comment ils ont fais pour faire dancer des mob ou encore pour utiliser des npcs merci.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tu peux en fait "programmer" le jeu comme tu le souhaites, puis faire tourner ton programme "hors-ligne" et prendre tes captures video. C'est identique au système de demo, que tu peux activer en jeu via la commande /demorecord (y'a un tutorial là dessus sur ce forum caché qqpart). Quant au "language de programmation", si tu lis l'english, tu trouves des tutos trés bien fait sur le forum US (section guides).

Et donc, par exemple, tu peux programmer le jeu pour mettre Statesman en face de ton perso, pis tu lui files une beigne, pis il meurt direct, pis t'en fais une video titrée "kom je r00x ce n00b de Stat3 !!1", pis tu postes ça, pis tu te fais lyncher

Voilà voilà.

[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />

Bon, vu qu'Aral a posté plusieurs versions fakes ...

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah oui, tiens Celle ci notamment était assez prémonitoire
Plus les vidéos ... je l'ai finalement pas mal fantasmé ce moment

Moi non plus, aucune idée ...
Mais on est les plus beauuuuuuuxxxxx

[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />
Sounds awesome! But how did you translate the camera movements into the program though is what I reaaaaalllly wanna know

[/ QUOTE ]

Laustin,
Prepare your camera commands (POS and PYR), and put them in a stand-alone text file ; save.
Prepare your demo and strip all camera commands from it using Balshor's CoH Demo Editor (Add filter for camera reference, Delete All, Remove filter, Save).
Now open the two files in the CoH demo editor
Select your demo file and click Import Commands, select your camera file, click Select.
Select again your demo file, click Resort. Save.

You are done.
Good luck

[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />
Please write a guide!

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi guys,

As promised I have gathered a few tips for you. Do not hesitate to ask questions if something is not clear. Those tips, given in no particular order, are for those who are already acquainted with CoH video making, as i will not cover the basics of demo recording, video capture and editing. Sorry for bad english.

1. Learn the demo langage
Demo Fime Format FAQ (Zloth)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...?Number=851259

75 % of my video is made of demos created from scratch (ie no demo recording in game), the 25% last being on-line recorded demos that were deeply modified later (like the battle with Statesman).

This langage is very easy to learn, so go for it !

2. Get yourself the best demo editing tool
CoH Demo Editor v0.8.9 - by Balshor
http://home.earthlink.net/~balshor/

Even if my prefered CoH Demo editor is still the Notepad, this tool has very useful functions to help you analyze and modify existing demo, or integrate your own complex camera movements into your own demo.
The great idea behind this tool is very simple : Its translates CoH demo from relative time into absolute time. This means that you can then merge different demo very easily.

3. Use the best CoH Demo Database : the city of heroes Codex
http://home.twcny.rr.com/scuzzbopper/coh/
Yes, it’s not up to date. It’s still the best I know.

4. For smooth video, a slower capture can be better
A simple trick : Know your final video format. Will it use 25 FPS ?
Then do not capture at 30 FPS, thinking it will be better, because it will only lead to missing frames in your final compression which in turns will lead to non-smooth animations and camera movements.
In this example, capturing your video at 25 FPS will lead to the best results.

5. Do not think you can record smooth camera movement on-line
No no, don’t fly or hover around in 1st person view ! It just doesn’t work It won’t be smooth. It won’t be precise . It won’t be fun. Believe me, I tried.
For my video Dies Irae, I kept only 3 second of in-game camera recording, in two very short shots (1.5 s each). This was possible only because in those shots i do not move the camera and let it track the player (in this case, Statesman flying over Boomtown and landing in front of the ruined city hall).
Im sorry because it means more work, but imho you need to create your owns camera movement « by hands » and integrate them to the demo, after using Balshor CoH Demo Editor to strip all originals camera commands from the files.

6. But what is a « smooth » camera movement ?
It’s subjective. After a lot of test, I’d say it’s at least 20 Hz. Yep, I refresh all 6 camera parameters (3 positions, 3 angles of orientation) every 50 ms for complex camera movements. For simplier and slower camera movement I can use 10 Hz. (My first video, Paragon in Hell, uses 10 Hz max, and you can clearly see the difference between the two vids in some shots).

Ok, that’s all for now. I know that I have to explain what i mean by "create your own camera movement by hand" but im falling asleep right now

I hope I have not been too cryptic, please ask questions if needed, and more later if some are interested.

Aral

Wow, thanks a lot for all the nice comments, guys

Captain_Morgan, I promise i'll write something to explain how to obtain smooth and free camera movement with off-line software processing (imho, it cannot be done using the on-line camera recording, so the first thing i do to a demo is to strip all camera commands from the file).

in fact, I think i'll try to write this down really fast just to to prevent Kingwill from coming in my house

As for "Why Statesman again !?" let me say that some people (including our community manager) here over the french board, asked me to re-shoot the combat from the first video, but this time with a real combat and no more shaming one-shoting. This is the result
/* ok ok, to be completly honest I like hitting on this guy ; but i think i'm finally done with it now */


@Maximillion : The power State uses is indeed his Zeus Lightning animation plus Lightning Storm power. Both power and animation are just awesome.

Once again, thanks a lot for your answers.

Hi there,

Following my video Paragon in Hell, posted here a few weeks ago, you can find below a new one called Dies Irae.
This time it's a double creation, as CoffyTdb, another user of this forum, is the author of the music.

This video follows the trend of the last one, as 100 % of the shots are tampered with, one way or the other.

Right-Click + Save-as

Hope you like it

P.S. : Many thanks to Bontakun for the hosting on his site !

[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />
That was awesome.

One question. How did you get the characters to walk over to Statesman? Usually they would run.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks. That's simple : The demo file acts as a server for your client. In Cox the server tolds your client to move a given (N)PC from point A to point B in a given time and using a given animation.

My demo file just asks the client to use the one of the many "Walk" animations available in game instead of the "Run" one we all know.

The only exception to that rules is : if there is more than one second between two positions indication, you are just "teleported" from point A to point B.

Thanks a lot guys, I had a lot of fun making this video (Except for poor Sally in the pool, this was too much cruelty ... and Hamidon was a real hassle too as he thinks he's a star and wanted all the screen time for himself ).

Af for your question "how did you do that", well there is a few nices guides on the US forum that teach you how to edit your demo files ; That's what I have done. Take a look at this one if you're interested.

The only technical innovation here (as far as i know) is the use of software-generated camera motions using spherical coordinates for a more "motion picture" feeling.