City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Tutorial: Making CoH videos - everything you need

ACowboy

By ACowboy,
Posted on: 2004-08-07 11:52 in Player Guides

 

Posted

Great guide!

I have a question but I'm not sure how to articulate it, so here goes. What are the standard video styles used to capture specific emotions or feelings for the demo I want to create. For example,

I want scene A to evoke a lonliness feel, so I do film school 101 standard sequence X. I want scene D to evoke a panic feel, so I do film school 101 standard sequence Y. I want scene C to evoke sad feel, so I do film school 101 standard sequence Z, etc.

Director's use these standard filming "devices" all the time in movies I think.

Maybe there is a website with an index of Emotion storyboards, something like:

* Lonliness - Single person. Close view. Zoom out slowly while turning.
* Panic - Quick zoom directly on face. Quick cut to person A. Quick cut to person B. Quck cut back to me.
* Buildup - blah, then blah, then blah.
* Mysterious intro - this, then this, then that.

I hope my question makes sense. Maybe my question is too complicated for a website and I need to go to film school, lol.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Great guide!

I have a question but I'm not sure how to articulate it, so here goes. What are the standard video styles used to capture specific emotions or feelings for the demo I want to create. For example,

I want scene A to evoke a lonliness feel, so I do film school 101 standard sequence X. I want scene D to evoke a panic feel, so I do film school 101 standard sequence Y. I want scene C to evoke sad feel, so I do film school 101 standard sequence Z, etc.

Director's use these standard filming "devices" all the time in movies I think.

Maybe there is a website with an index of Emotion storyboards, something like:

* Lonliness - Single person. Close view. Zoom out slowly while turning.
* Panic - Quick zoom directly on face. Quick cut to person A. Quick cut to person B. Quck cut back to me.
* Buildup - blah, then blah, then blah.
* Mysterious intro - this, then this, then that.

I hope my question makes sense. Maybe my question is too complicated for a website and I need to go to film school, lol.

[/ QUOTE ]

As a former film student - I'd give you one bit of advice... three times.

Story Board - Story Board - Story Board.

Get a stack of paper - draw squares on it - and draw it out just like a cartoon to get the look you want.

You mentioned several "stereotyped" (and frankly overdone) visual motifs for various emotional states.

But the fact is - to really make something work well you need to consider what you're doing and when you're doing it in your story.

If it's a quasi-rock video, well the bit with the close up and fly-out effect might work. But frankly I'd be more concerned as to what builds up to that shot.

Here's an example:

[ QUOTE ]
One: Open on Scene of Hero walking - head down - along the street.
Two: Hero stops at base of statue ... looks up.
Three: Slow pan up base of statue to sunlight cresting over top of statue - from the flare of the light we see a set of wings beating flying out of the light at high speed..
Four: Hero at base of statue turning and following running after ... as the winged flying hero zooms out of site... Our Hero running futily after them... tripping and falling...
Five: Close Up on Hero With Determined Look...
Six: Hero Stands ... begins powering up...
Seven: Close Up on Hero... pull back as power explodes from them... and they shoot up into the sky.
Eight: As they fly up - behind them - they are now at the height of the statue behind them and the light flares off of them like the sun...

[/ QUOTE ]

In this - sure the shots tell a story but there's already some kind of a story there. Man on street sees hero - wants to be hero - and becomes one. Story-board it out - even if it's stick figures and very simple script like that. The example above has very few camera directions.

Best advice in film school they give you is when writing a story - to visualize how you would see the story and then write down those camera directions... "Close Up On Face" "Camera Pulls Back and we see...". Literally write it up exactly as you see it in your minds eye. If you see only the blinking eye of someone staring - then "Extreme Close Up On XXX's EYE IN ANGER - FX - SEE REFLECTION OF GLOWING FIGURE MOVE ACROSS PUPIL OF EYE".

There's no sterotypical formula for expressing an emotion. Tell a story first - worry about camera angles later. True - close up shots are personal and provoke intensity. Long Shots are usually place holders or to show desolation - distance. But placement of characters - cool camera angles and FX don't give you a story, and even your best music videos at least tell some kind of story.

Don't limit yourself to the limitations of the DEMO program here either. A bit of photoshop - and careful editing and you can create that effect (the one of a glowing figure passing across just the close up eye). I've seen some really amazing videos done just that way around here.

Tell a story first. Know your story - then worry about how you have to shoot it. You'll come up with the angles and the tech if you need to.

 

Posted

Do u just do the same thing to get video footage from City Of Villains? Cause i dont own City of Heros.

@Everest
@Hoey Moey - Retired

 

Posted

Anyone have any ideas what I'm doing wrong here? [/quote]

i might have awnser to your problem i wont be able to explain how to fix but here's where you need to go to find out.......

Go to Search. Then put it to look under Player Guides, then username to (Choff) make it more the (Days), and click enter or submit.

There you have it click his post and inside that all you need to do is click a post saying (Guide) in the second post upwords.

Hope i helped!

 

Posted

This guide seems to be a bit old. Anyone know if there is an updated version around.

So far I am having 2 problems

* The GameCam program I just downloaded doesn't seem to capture footage from the game (even though it is running in the background, I don't get the preview when I go to load my demo)

* How do I remove player named from my demos? I can remove everything but those.

 

Posted

So the PDF link no longer works, nor does the COHed download. Does anyone still have these available? I've finally decided to play around with capturing and working with demos.

Thanks,

RagManX

"if the market were religion Fulmens would be Moses and you'd be L. Ron Hubbard. " --Nethergoat to eryq2

The economy is not broken. The players are

 

Posted

Yeah, sorry to necro this, but i'm also looking for StormKnight's demo editor. iirc, there is an option in it that replaces objects for you, and it isn't as complicated as in Zloth's (No offense, Zloth :P)

 

Posted

I agree.

Necro.