Star_Dancer

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And I don't care at this point if I've done something that's going to disqualify me (most likely they're going to get me on content). Screw them. I'm submitting it.

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I'm with you. I'll fight the good fight, legal-wise. But come Sunday, this little puppy is getting posted with a full explanation that I *OWN* every scrap of that vid and that it is fully in compliance with the rules, namely:

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The term “original” in these Official Rules means the Video was newly created by you, using footage from the Selected Games (as defined below), your own ideas, language, content, images, text, graphics, animation, and other materials and, except for the Selected Games, no element of the Video is copied, derived, translated, adapted or otherwise obtained or copied from anyone or anywhere else, regardless of the source, format or medium. Original also means that, except for the Selected Games, you, and no one else, have complete, sole, exclusive and unrestricted rights, title and interest in and to the Video (including, without limitation, each and all of the underlying elements of the Video) when you submit it to the Contest as part of your entry AND that you have the right and authority to give Sponsor all of the rights in and to your Video and its underlying elements that are described in these Official Rules.

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Don't give up yet, Ash.

Where did you find them?

EDIT: There is a second one ("Understanding The Council") now listed.

If I get approved, I'll pass along the form I used for my Performance Release.

LOL. Gotta laugh or I'll cry...

UPDATE: Next # to try is (310) 907-2219

EDIT: My fax did go through to that #. Now we wait...

Oh this just keeps getting better and better... That number isn't even in service. I've emailed asking for another number, but if it takes another week to get a reply, then I've just wasted an entire month.

Finally got an answer from GameTrailers about using voice actors.

I sent:

I am using several voice actors for my contest submission video, and I am obtaining Performance Releases from each of them which gives me total and unrestricted rights to their performances. Although they are credited for their performance, I own the rights.

I know this is legally in compliance with the contest rules, but I wanted to get that straight with you guys before submitting my entry. The last thing I want is to get disqualified because somebody thinks it is a "group" entry. Do I need to make any special notation to make sure there are no misunderstandings?


Their reply:

This would fall under "group" entry, and if you wants his entry to not be disqualified, he needs to be designatd the entrant by the other members of the group. If you can submit the releases from the voice actors, then we can evaluate and determine whether he is the "group designate". If he does not want to risk disqualification, he should consider doing all the voice overs himself.

Fax releases to this number: (310) 907-2458

Oops. Forgot my disk space (wasted) stats:

Aggregate size of video files: 52.1 GB

Did I mention that I have a terrabyte of storage at my disposal? I'm kinda like that person you know with all the equipment/tools/advantages in the world, but never seems to actually do ANYTHING worthwhile! Except that I work my butt off and have little to show for it...

I may not win the contest, but it won't be for lack of effort! LOL

And just to reiterate (since we're rapidly approaching the point where we have to put up or shut up) - My video is INTENDED to draw laughs. Unless it doesn't. In that case, it's camp. Or parody. Or a blatant ripoff...

EDIT: Pez, this topic has been a support group for me from the start. Seldom do I see so many folks that are in competition with each other actually helping each other (and the countless lurkers too).

On a completely unrelated note: Anyone going to Dragon*Con in Atlanta? I'd love to hook up with some of you guys over the Labor Day weekend festivities.

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Number of WeGame avis ripped so far - 3
Number of seconds across these - 30
Number of times Windows Movie Maker has crashed - infinite

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I feel your pain. I used to use WMM and the crashes are what led me to buy Video Studio.

My stats:

Demo Recording files: 170
AVI files captured from demorecordings: 143
Minutes of recorded video: 45
HOURS of audio recording: 41.75

Resulting product: 3 minutes 59 seconds and 28 frames

Oh. My. God.

Leandro, you have the patience of a saint.

On the other hand, isn't that about what you would expect from ConFusionette? {snicker}

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My voice actress sucks. She keeps on laughing at her lines, and even started singing a Hannah Montana song when I asked her to do an evil maniacal laughter!

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I had to take out the evil laugh in my script because my actress just couldn't pull it off convincingly. But at least she took it seriously. Sounds like you're dealing with a kid? My sympathies if that is the case...

I recently bought an external 1TB drive just for my videos. I was using a 200GB partition of a 500GB drive on our home office server, but I was running out of room. This is mo' better. It was surprisingly cheap too - like $180.

Major progress on the video today, in spite of my dad showing up early for his week-long visit. I'm in the home stretch on animations. Doesn't look too shabby...

I have a slight dilemma now. I have a line that contains a mild curse word - "b-a-s-t-a-r-d-s". I'm bleeping it but, like with all bleeps, you can tell what the word actually is. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to whether a bleeped word would violate the prohibition against profanity? I can take it out, but it would be better if it was included.

When I create stuff for YouTube, I normally use Ipod MPEG-4 (640x480). My 4 minute vid is currently genning at about 63 megs.

According to the stickied topics on the GameTrailers site, they accept .avi, .mov, .wmv and mpeg. They get converted to slightly higher than 320X240.

I'm also reading posts about problems with XviD or Dvix codecs on that site, so act accordingly.

3:59 and 28 frames!!!!! WooHOOO!

Now I can get back to tweaking demorecordings and matching the video to the audio. That's easy compared to cutting out material that I really liked. I hated to cut the line where the "villian" rants about how anyone that doesn't submit to her will be "subjected to exotic and needlessly complicated forms of execution."

{grunt}{pant} 4:04...

That speed increase thing just might work. I just hope it doesn't effect the voices. If that works and it's a boy, I'll name it Vorac.

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I have a tech question: FRAPS captures in .avi, is there a way to pull those .avi files and work them in Final Cut on Apple?

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I don't know what formats Final Cut accepts, but I assume it takes MPEG. Maybe a free trial of a AVI-to-MPEG converter like this one will work for you.

BTW - AVI isn't really an encoding scheme like MPEG or WMV. It is actually a wrapper around the actual encoded video. I don't recall which codec FRAPS uses, but in addition to the AVI wrapper, you have to deal with the codec it is wrapped around. I only mention it because some codec implementations are better than others and quality can suffer if you use a third-rate codec.

I did get a reply from the contest guys after several days wait over a weekend. My last request (clarifying ownership rights when using voice actors) was sent Tuesday, but no reply yet.

Ya know, if these guys were just more responsive, the quality of their entries would be a lot better. I think that GrandConjurer's entry would have been quite different if he hadn't been concerned about the whole "no violence" rule.

BTW: Timing of my entry is at 4:17 now and I'm still tightening fractions of seconds here and there. This is like giving birth! "I can see the head! Push!!!" LOL

Apf! My piece is strictly comedy fluff. No daring-do or cutting edge stuff in the demorecording (If I had thought of a rain of donuts, things might have been different!). But I hope people get a laugh out of it. If I win, it will be completely due to my talented voice actors. Both of my "mains" are strictly amateurs, but they had so much fun and really got into the roles.

I guess the reason I do the dialogue first is that it is easier for me to adapt the shots to the dialogue than the other way around. YMMV.

I am pushing to wrap this up in the next couple of days because my dad is coming to visit for a week and I don't want to be heads-down with my 'puter during his entire visit.

LOL - I agree about looking forward to everyone's entries, once they are posted. So... Who's gonna go first? Poor GrandConjurer is probably wetting himself, convinced that he's gonna win by default!

Go Team Machinima!

EDIT: Zloth, I am actually overlapping some of my dialogue, having characters interrupting and talking over/under each other. I've been surprised how natural it sounds.

Well, maybe I do things differently from you guys. I write the script, and then work out the blocking (locations, positions, MOVs, etc.) and any technical issues (animation stuff I've never tried before). Then I record the dialogue, which serves as a timeline to fit my animation into. In this case, I had some time to kill while waiting on my actors, so I pre-scripted some demo files with most of the things I need and I'll tweak the timing later.

Oh, and I'm at 4:19 now. So close...

Ooooh. I wonder how they'd react to a bunch of entries that make up a series?

Dangit dangit DANG IT!!!

I was afraid of this. I've hacked and slashed dialogue practically to the bone and I'm still at 4:25!

I may have to lose the entire intro, which means my announcer goes bye-bye. Even that won't get me under four minutes though.

Arrrrrrggggghhhhhh!

From the WeGames help page:

# My videos folder crashes upon selecting a file.

The issue is most likely caused by not having the proper codec. Our videos are recorded using the Motion JPEG codec, a part of the free K-Lite Codec Pack.
Try downloading and installing this codec and playing your videos again.

The codec can be found here.

Hope that helps.

Woohoo! Had a 2-hour session with my final voice actor tonight. Now I just have to cull through 260+ takes to find the best one for each line...

Have any of y'all had this problem: I originally wrote some lines that just weren't in my actors' comfort zone. Try as they might, they just couldn't deliver convincing performances of those attitudes or emotions. So, I ended up rewriting the roles slightly to play to their strengths. I actually think I ended up with better material when all was said and done.

No mooching my psychoses!!!! I only have two left and the weekend is coming...

{giggle-snort}

Great googly moogly! Y'all are a clever bunch, no question.

And I love the fact that even though we're competing against each other, we're also helping each other out with these sorts of things. I guess that "hero" mentality rubs off on us?

(Still want that Rain of Donuts power...)