I like seeing the different ways everyone creates their videos - there is no real right or wrong way and I like the approach above - gives you plenty of opportunity to add in extra special effects in photoshop etc to the frames.
There's an alternative, that uses different software in the (to be updated soon - honest) guide on my website. See my sig for the link.
Nice one IttiBittiKitty!
Interesting... I have a totally clueless friend in my SG who wants to make a Movie (which will probably suck by the way 
). Ill definately show him this, as complicated stuff confuse him. Alot.
[ QUOTE ]
I like seeing the different ways everyone creates their videos - there is no real right or wrong way and I like the approach above - gives you plenty of opportunity to add in extra special effects in photoshop etc to the frames.
There's an alternative, that uses different software in the (to be updated soon - honest) guide on my website. See my sig for the link.
Nice one IttiBittiKitty!
[/ QUOTE ]Hehe, I've used the current version of your software and it does some good stuff (removing duplicate chats, ghosts, etc.). Can't wait to see a new version!
Ooooops! If you have problem with Sloth's Demo Launcher, you probably need to go download Microsoft's .Net Framework. My apologies to anyone who didn't already have this and had problems... 
--
Itti BittiKitty Science, Tanker. Security Level 42
Arctic Magma Mutation, Blaster. Security Level 36
Bloodveil Magic, Scrapper. Security Level 30
City of Heroes Faces!
kk i downloaded the .net windows thing and i sarted to down load sloth's demo launcher it asks me the following:
File to Launch: ...
Disable Text
Full Screen Speed(FPS)
Demo Dump Resolution,,
k, i dont know to much about thist stuff so what should i choose?
JPG or TGA
Dunno about the other options, as I don't have the launcher in front of me. But I can tell you that betwen JPG and TGA, it's pretty close.
JPG is a smaller file size because the image is compressed. That means you can sometimes lose detail, or you get 'squares' show up on the image. It's hard to tell the difference usually... but if you have a scene with a lot of small or detailed objects, you might not want JPG.
TGA is uncompressed, which means it is much higher quality than JPG. Of course, the tradeoff is that the filesize is larger. If you have a lot of hard drive space, this should give you a higher quality movie 
Besides needing the bump, I seem to be getting a number of requests for help making videos, and this guide is a wonderful place to start. 
[ QUOTE ]
Besides needing the bump, I seem to be getting a number of requests for help making videos, and this guide is a wonderful place to start.
[/ QUOTE ]
That's because lots of peeps have seen your TRULY AWESOME music vid and are impressed at your skills!!!
Take it as a compliment, I know that's how my post is intended as.
Glad to know my little guide is still around! =^.^=
excellent guide. i may try this now. thanks!
If you're looking for a place to put your videos, http://www.ourmedia.org/ can probably get it done. ('Probably' because it is very much in testing still.) It puts the videos in www.archive.org.
Great guide and still works like a charm. Only question I have is how do I get the screen data such as my health screen, nav screen, chat screen, etc.... to show up in the movie? I remember a post (which I can't find now) that talked about changing a setting to enable that in the screenshots and I assume it's the same thing but I can't remember how to do it.
I have a question. Do those programs allow you to replace character models with different ones like I have seen in other videos (I remember one where a guy bought a kronos titan suit, would like to know how he did that). If they dont, what program is it and how do I get it?
[ QUOTE ]
Remember that kitties have no thumbs so this is a VERY basic, step-by-step process. It does not make the BEST movies but it makes GOOD movies. It's really here as a starting point so people can learn the process. I'm updating this slightly from my post in the Screenshots and Video's forum.
Conventions used in this post:
<text> - This represents text. Usually something you're required to type in. There are no <>'s or ""s or anything other than what's inbetween the <>'s. Again, don't use the <>'s.
Now, one of the best things about making CoH videos is that almost everything needed to do so is free. Now if you want to share them, you'll need to spend a few dollars on something called a "Codec" but it's really not very expensive.
Here are the tools that you will need:
1) Sloth's Demo Launcher - HIGHLY recommended for all users and required for the Kitty Video Process.
2) Virtual Dub for Video Editing - I use this (free) AND Adobe's Premiere (not free) for making videos.
3) IrFan View - Used for Image Conversion. ZDNet often changes the link when a new version comes out so if you can't find it just go to Google and enter "Irfan View".
4) DiVX Pro Codec - This is NOT required. It is NOT free. However it WILL allow you to make your movie files relatively small and maintain a very nice picture quality. Kitty strongly recommends DiVX.
Other than City of Heroes, that's all you need! Nothing too hard yet!
Now, on to the how-to! <ul type="square">[*] Play CoH.[*] type in "/demorecord <demoname>" to start recording your demo.[*] type in "/demostop" to end it. Zoning also ends Demos.[*] Exit CoH.[*] Start Demo Launcher[*] Click "Demo Dump" checkmark.[*] Set your screen/video resolution. The larger you select the more disk space you will use. I like 1024x768.[*] Set your Frames Per Second. 12 is OK, 20 is good, 30 is awesome. Again, higher = more disk space required.[*] Launch demo and wait. When the demo is done you will have a new folder in your CoH\client_demos directory called "screens" and under that you find another folder named <demoname> with all the JPGs of your demo. 1 for every frame per second you selected.[*] Launch IrFan View.[*] Go to File->Batch Conversion[*] Browse to CoH\client_demos\screens\<demoname>[*] Click Add All[*] Select an Output Directory (can't be the same as the input)[*] Ensure "Batch Conversion" is selected under "Work As"[*] Change the Output Format to "TGA - Truevision Targa".[*] Click Start[*] Wait for process to finish and click OK.[*] Close IrFan View.[*] Launch VirtualDub (just doubleclick the VirtualDub.exe file in the folder you unzipped it to)[*] Go to Video->Framerate[*] Click "Change to [ ] frames per second."[*] Enter the Frames Per Second you used in the demo dump.[*] Click OK[*] Go to Video->Compression[*] Select a Codec, such as DiVX 5 or Uncompressed.[*] Go to File->Open Video File[*] Change "Files of type" to "Image Sequence"[*] Browse to the output folder you selected with IrFan View.[*] Select only the first TGA file.[*] Click Open[*] Wait a few moments while the sequence is compiled[*] Go to File->Save as AVI to save your movie![*] Done![/list]
Now again, this is a very basic process designed only to take a raw demo file and make it into an AVI movie file that doesn't require the CoH client to play.
As always I will attempt to answer any questions I can regarding the process both here and in PMs.
--
Itti BittiKitty Science, Tanker. Security Level 42
Arctic Magma Mutation, Blaster. Security Level 36
Bloodveil Magic, Scrapper. Security Level 30
City of Heroes Faces!
[/ QUOTE ]
good one...its funny to cause my cats name is actually itty bitty kitty....lol
[ QUOTE ]
I have a question. Do those programs allow you to replace character models with different ones like I have seen in other videos (I remember one where a guy bought a kronos titan suit, would like to know how he did that). If they dont, what program is it and how do I get it?
[/ QUOTE ]
If I were you, I'd find and ask Ms Abyss (Not sure what her board name is, but she does it all the time). She even has a way of making objects do certain things... Such as 5th Column using a boombox and dance emote!
Ittibittikitty, ILOVEYOUILOVEYOUILOVEYOU!!!
Thank you for providing good tools to use (I guess a thanks to Zloth for making the launcher thing). But the biggest thanks I can give is a good link to the .net framework. God damn. I have never had it because any microsoft page has always confused the hell out of me.
Do you know of any good programs to use to convert MP3 files to wav, or to use to edit wav files?
I use DB Power Amp Music Converter -> http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm for all my audio-to-audio conversion needs.
Audacity is free, can edit your MP3/.wav file and can output a .wav, but be warned that it chews up a lot of hard drive space in the process. For simple conversion, what the kitty said.
I've been reading through all of these great guides... thank you for being so helpful!
... but I have a problem. It's probably really silly, but I can't find a mention of it anywhere. I can arrange a charming scene of half a dozen of my friends having a dance party with Miss Liberty in mid-air in Firebase Zulu, but I cannot get the names over the heads of player characters to stop appearing.
I've tried everything I can think of, including the obvious... I change my setting in CoH and when I turn player names off, in my demos they just turn from blue to orange, and get picked up in video recording.
Does anyone have an idea of how to make them go away?
In the cohdemo file, you'll see lines that look similar to this:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>0 234 NEW "High Lord Darketty McDarken"</pre><hr />
Simply remove the name from between the quotes.
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>0 234 NEW ""</pre><hr />
-sc
I think it was MisterMarbles tutorial that showed some extra options to use when executing a demo. One of them is
-disable2d
This will remove player names, floating damage, etc. My execute statement looks like this
"c:\program files\city of heroes\cityofheroes" -disable2d -demoplay dancing_trio1
Test Subject 42 - lvl 50 Sp/DA Scrapper
Oku No Te - lvl 50 MA/SR Scrapper
Borg Master - lvl 24 Bots/traps MM
Pinnacle
Nyghtfyre - lvl 50 DM/SR Scrapper
Champion
I will try this... thank you so much!
Remember that kitties have no thumbs so this is a VERY basic, step-by-step process. It does not make the BEST movies but it makes GOOD movies. It's really here as a starting point so people can learn the process. I'm updating this slightly from my post in the Screenshots and Video's forum.
Conventions used in this post:
<text> - This represents text. Usually something you're required to type in. There are no <>'s or ""s or anything other than what's inbetween the <>'s. Again, don't use the <>'s.
Now, one of the best things about making CoH videos is that almost everything needed to do so is free. Now if you want to share them, you'll need to spend a few dollars on something called a "Codec" but it's really not very expensive.
Here are the tools that you will need:
1) Sloth's Demo Launcher - HIGHLY recommended for all users and required for the Kitty Video Process.
2) Virtual Dub for Video Editing - I use this (free) AND Adobe's Premiere (not free) for making videos.
3) IrFan View - Used for Image Conversion. ZDNet often changes the link when a new version comes out so if you can't find it just go to Google and enter "Irfan View".
4) DiVX Pro Codec - This is NOT required. It is NOT free. However it WILL allow you to make your movie files relatively small and maintain a very nice picture quality. Kitty strongly recommends DiVX.
Other than City of Heroes, that's all you need! Nothing too hard yet!
Now, on to the how-to! <ul type="square">[*] Play CoH.[*] type in "/demorecord <demoname>" to start recording your demo.[*] type in "/demostop" to end it. Zoning also ends Demos.[*] Exit CoH.[*] Start Demo Launcher[*] Click "Demo Dump" checkmark.[*] Set your screen/video resolution. The larger you select the more disk space you will use. I like 1024x768.[*] Set your Frames Per Second. 12 is OK, 20 is good, 30 is awesome. Again, higher = more disk space required.[*] Launch demo and wait. When the demo is done you will have a new folder in your CoH\client_demos directory called "screens" and under that you find another folder named <demoname> with all the JPGs of your demo. 1 for every frame per second you selected.[*] Launch IrFan View.[*] Go to File->Batch Conversion[*] Browse to CoH\client_demos\screens\<demoname>[*] Click Add All[*] Select an Output Directory (can't be the same as the input)[*] Ensure "Batch Conversion" is selected under "Work As"[*] Change the Output Format to "TGA - Truevision Targa".[*] Click Start[*] Wait for process to finish and click OK.[*] Close IrFan View.[*] Launch VirtualDub (just doubleclick the VirtualDub.exe file in the folder you unzipped it to)[*] Go to Video->Framerate[*] Click "Change to [ ] frames per second."[*] Enter the Frames Per Second you used in the demo dump.[*] Click OK[*] Go to Video->Compression[*] Select a Codec, such as DiVX 5 or Uncompressed.[*] Go to File->Open Video File[*] Change "Files of type" to "Image Sequence"[*] Browse to the output folder you selected with IrFan View.[*] Select only the first TGA file.[*] Click Open[*] Wait a few moments while the sequence is compiled[*] Go to File->Save as AVI to save your movie![*] Done![/list]
Now again, this is a very basic process designed only to take a raw demo file and make it into an AVI movie file that doesn't require the CoH client to play.
As always I will attempt to answer any questions I can regarding the process both here and in PMs.
--
Itti BittiKitty Science, Tanker. Security Level 42
Arctic Magma Mutation, Blaster. Security Level 36
Bloodveil Magic, Scrapper. Security Level 30
City of Heroes Faces!