Janis_Petke
\m/(><)\m/
+49|6664|Brunei Darussalam

Very nice! Camerawork is exellent!  Score: 9½/10 (theres always something to improve,hehe!)
I bet Khalid shitted his pants!
John-Paul
Member
+4|6622|Victoria, Australia
I'm sure he did, too! Did you like his cowardly scream?

I've got to say, it's been a great surprise to discover so much feedback on this thread already! Thank-you to everyone who has posted and shared their thoughts and opinions; it really has been lovely to hear from each of you. If I fail to address your post individually, please forgive me. Be assured, I've read every word in this thread and I really do value every comment.

Flyboy63 and [DEI]Bart, I'll send PMs to each of you to explain how it was done.

Tyferra, I am really keen to do an action film as either my second or third project, so keep an eye out. I'm a big fan of action films (especially in a war-time setting), so I'm always conceiving of shots and sequences and I already have lots of ideas swirling around in my head.

†FW†Ravenwolf, regarding your questions:

All the editing was done with Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5. I've played around with Windows Media Maker a couple of times but there was no way I was willing to do anything with WMM. I tell people unfamiliar with APP 1.5 that "Notepad is to Microsoft Word as WMM is to Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5." I'd like to buy a copy of Sony Vegas, mind you, just to learn how it compares.

The bf2demo files were all recorded by creating a local server and then using the 'demo.recorddemo demo_name' console command, so I'm guessing, by default, the quality setting for a local server is 10. I used the BFRecorder to play back the bf2demo files and then Fraps to record all the footage I needed. The Fraps settings were 30fps, full-size (800x600). All the raw footage was directly imported into Premiere Pro; eventually exported as a raw AVI file (over 8GB in size) and then encoded using a great little program called AutoGK, where it was simply a matter of selecting the Xvid codec and specifying a file size. I was happy enough with the results to upload the file but there's a lot more I'd like to learn about encoding for future projects.

(EUS)Gen.BadSnipaDay, thanks! I like you, too.

tF-afrojap, I'm really glad you enjoyed it, too. I'm sure a project involving a great community like this one would provide a nice logistical challenge, so it's definitely something to consider.

Xaven, I'll copy in what I wrote in the TotalBF2 thread re: camera movement:

"As for the smoothness of the camera shots ... well, that was a bit of an ordeal. I used a joystick for some, a mouse for others, and sometimes a combination of the two. The other thing I did was create profiles depending upon the type of movement involved. Some profiles allowed me to use the keyboard for certain movements but also allowed analog control via joystick for different directions; it all depended on the nature of the shot and, to be honest, it was still very frustrating. For a couple of the shots, I spent more than four hours trying to get fluid camera movement for just a few seconds of footage. Not too many people are willing to go to those lengths but for me, it's a must. Jerky camera movement can be very distracting. Of course, therein lies the other reason for using Fraps instead of Battlelauncher. I didn't want to create dozens of useless cam files every time I screwed up the camera movement."

Obviously it would have been better if Dice had provided us with advanced tools for moving the camera around. I'm sure it's wishful thinking on my part but perhaps one day they'll include something like that in a patch.

Fingers crossed ...

Last edited by John-Paul (2006-02-10 08:09:07)

Landepaukku
Finnish bush-man
+23|6808|Finland
Unbeleavable for a 1 man production! Superb editing. I loved the part when the heli got up the first time. Laughed so much on that one.

He/She/It will strike again...
jord
Member
+2,382|6649|The North, beyond the wall.
ive just seen it now after downloading that code its a good film how did you get it under the water without it exploding though?

sorry forgot about giving the surprise john-paul.

Last edited by jord (2006-02-12 05:43:14)

John-Paul
Member
+4|6622|Victoria, Australia
Jord and Landepaukku: glad you guys enjoyed it ...

I've sent you a PM, Jord, so check your messages (where all is revealed).
John-Paul
Member
+4|6622|Victoria, Australia
For Cold Fussion and the other members who wanted to know about the encoding methods used for this video:

I'm completely new to all areas of video development / editing / encoding, etc. and I wouldn't claim to have any definitive answers on the best compression methods to use. I can, however, share the exact method I chose for "Khalid's Surprise," so if you felt the quality was good, then by all means use the same method.

All of my timeline editing within Adobe Premiere Pro was done using raw Fraps footage, with the exception of about five clips that were encoded with HuffyUV v2.1.1 before being imported into the project window. Even the 'Huffy clips' were essentially uncompressed AVI files, though.

Having read that it's best to export from Premiere Pro in an uncompressed format, that's exactly what I chose to do. The resultant Microsoft AVI video (3 minutes, 25 seconds) had a file size of 8.7GB which, of course, looked very nice but would have been a real bitch to upload via my 256/64 ADSL connection. I suspect the number of downloads would have been fairly limited, too.

Obviously, the file had to be compressed and with a popular codec.

A lot of people recommend VirtualDub but after seeing a brief video tutorial, I went with AutoGK. Here's a guide, replete with download links for AutoGK itself:

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/autogk.htm

Oh, and here's a link to the quick and easy video tutorial:

http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/01/249.shtml

Via AutoGK, it was simply a matter of following the steps outlined in the video tutorial and selecting the desired file size. AutoGK compressed the 8.7GB video to my selected file size of 70MB on the first try and I thought the results were great.

Not surprisingly, I'd recommend the same method to anyone.

- JP
Cold Fussion
72% alcohol
+63|6638|Sydney, Australia
How do you get AutoGK to work? i've installed it 5 times and i keep gettingan error message on startup
The Buzz
Hired to kill... you... and you...and you
+8|6701|Québec, Canada
Great, John Paul... loved the quality it is stunning
John-Paul
Member
+4|6622|Victoria, Australia
Glad you enjoyed it, The Buzz!

Nice to hear from a Québec resident, too. I'm heading over to Montréal in a few months' time, so I'll be sure to wave in your general direction.

Cold Fussion, what version of Fraps are you using? Your version must be different to mine. I'm using version 2.6.1 and have the 'Record Sound' box checked and, to the right of that box, I've got the 'Detect best sound input' option selected. My Sound Device comes up as 'NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio' (I don't have a fancy sound card yet) and the Sound Input field reads: 'Stereo Mix.'

With that said, Fraps is definitely not the ideal software for recording sound. I'd recommend you look into using something else (Audacity, for example) and then synchronising the audio and video files within Premiere. Most of the sound I recorded via Fraps yielded poor results, so I ended up using the BF2 source files for most of the audio in this project. There were also sounds lifted from Far Cry, samples from the "Jaws" DVD and even some audio from a Windows theme.

As for AutoGK not working, I'd need to see the error message you're getting. By all means, post a screenshot within this thread (just in case someone else is having the same problem). I never had a problem with the installation itself ...

- JP
Cold Fussion
72% alcohol
+63|6638|Sydney, Australia
Heres the error message:

https://img60.imageshack.us/img60/4715/autogkerrormessage4jv.png

and im using fraps 2.7.2
oberst_enzian
Member
+234|6713|melb.au
hmmm.. the three people whose opinions i trust at this forum liked it. i better have a look at it.
John-Paul
Member
+4|6622|Victoria, Australia
Well, don't keep me in suspense, oberst_enzian! Did you enjoy the movie?

Cold Fussion, I googled the error message on display in your screenshot and eventually found my way to this thread:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p … post751574

The users in that forum identified the problem you're experiencing as AutoGK getting upset with the divx.dll file. They discuss, in some detail, ways to work around the problem.

Actually, just go here:

http://www.divx-digest.com/software/autogk.html

… and read through the 'Description' section from the Author of AutoGK. You'll learn how to completely resolve the issue.

(Your alternative would be to use VirtualDub to do the encoding. As with AutoGK, it comes highly recommended.)
Inquatitis
Member
+1|6609
we were watching it here with a bunch of my buds, damn that was funny.
very well done.
superb graphics.
im looking forward to more from you.
John-Paul
Member
+4|6622|Victoria, Australia

Inquatitis wrote:

we were watching it here with a bunch of my buds.
Cool! For anyone who has made a movie, I can tell you that's a great visual! I'm really glad you guys enjoyed it and got some laughs. The very thought makes me smile.

I'm going to embark on a new project very soon, Inquatitis, and it'll be far more action-oriented; a kind of cinematic portrayal of the Battlefield 2 experiences we've come to know and love.
pure_beef_69
Banned
+186|6617
haha im bringing this back up to the top its a brill movie
John-Paul
Member
+4|6622|Victoria, Australia
Not so much a shameless bump as a quick request to Markimus ...

Any chance of getting this ol' video of mine hosted on BF2S? FileFront is unreliable at best and RapidShare seems to confuse some people, so it'd be great to have it hosted right here.

Also, for anyone interested: I'm currently working on a new BF2 video and should have it finished within 2-3 weeks. Perhaps even sooner if time permits. I'll post some links here as soon as it's ready.
see-pie
Member
+1|6646|Denmark
nice job...keep up that good work lol i was wondering if it was a shark
-=Scott=-
Member
+2|6803|San Diego, CA
My_pet_squirrel
Have you seen my nutz?
+126|6591
dling it now ill tell you what i think in  a few
John-Paul
Member
+4|6622|Victoria, Australia

-=Scott=- wrote:

BF2S files mirror - http://files.bf2s.com/details.php?file=404
Excellent! Thanks, Scott ...

(Glad you enjoyed the video, see-pie!)
My_pet_squirrel
Have you seen my nutz?
+126|6591
Wow that was cool nice camera angles and they flowed smooth very nice and really good quality i like the heli part very spiffy superb job 10/10



+1 karma fo you

Last edited by My_pet_squirrel (2006-04-19 12:09:37)

*TS*tphai
The Forum Alien
+89|6776|The planet Tophet
downloading now wow its taking a while
My_pet_squirrel
Have you seen my nutz?
+126|6591

*TS*tphai wrote:

downloading now wow its taking a while
Ya the dl took a while its not really a long movie but very well made
*TS*tphai
The Forum Alien
+89|6776|The planet Tophet
it was awsome i loved it cool good job
DonFck
Hibernator
+3,227|6602|Finland

Beautiful!

Loved it from title (Which made me rofl) to end!
I need around tree fiddy.

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