Contract_Killa
Member
+70|6339|Australia, A.C.T
Ever wanted to know how people make the in game movies you see posted around the forums? Ever had a really good idea and wanted to make your own? Then this guide is for you. By the end of this guide you should have a basic short film that you can then expand upon.

Section One: Introduction
Before we get started you're going to need a few tools.

Fraps:Video Capturing Software
Information:Fraps is a retail product. The guide will work just as well with the shareware version, but it has recording limitations among various other options locked out. I'm currently using the retail version 2.0.

Windows Movie Maker:Video Editing Software
Information:If you have Windows XP, you have Windows Movie Maker. If for some reason you do not, follow the link above to download the latest version.
You should be able to find it within your drive here:
Start > Programs > Accessories > Entertainment

Notice:Recording is a very taxing operation for a PC. 1 Minute of uncompressed footage runs around 300 Megs of hard disk space. Make sure you have at least 5 gigs of open hard disk space at any given time while recording/editing. Disk space aside, you will need a PC with upper end spec's in order to record effectively. The only way to find out is simply follow the Fraps section below.

Section Two: Fraps

Our first task is to first capture footage, but before we can do that we need to configure Fraps.

Step:1 - Open Fraps - Click the "Movies Tab".
Step:2 - Chose a folder in which your recorded footage will be located.
Step:3 - Assign a key that will begin and end the recording process. Make sure this key is unbound within Battlefield to avoid in any game conflictions.
Step:4 - Choose the "Half-Size" Option.
Step:5 - Frames Per Second - This setting depends on a few factors. The more Frames Per Second you record while in game the larger the file size you will be recording. This taxes your PC greatly. Test which one is best for your system accordingly. Lower FPS settings result in poor image quality.
Step:6 - Uncheck "Record Sound". Recording sound adds to the file size greatly, so unless you want the sound from within the game, uncheck this option.
Step:7 - Your configuration should look similar to the image below.

https://vnmedia.ign.com/wowvault.ign.com/guides/fraps/1.jpg

Step:8 - Minimize Fraps and load up BF2142/BF2
Step:9 - Click the key that you bound in Step:3 to begin recording. Run around and get a feel for how your PC is handling the recording process and adjust the FPS setting from Step:5. Record for a minute or 2, than click your record key once more to halt the recording process.
Step:10 - Go to the folder where you set Fraps to record your footage to view it. If your PC was able to handle it, you should a nice quality clip recorded. At this point the clip you have recorded is enormous in file size. Worry not, it's now time to take our clip and use our next tool, Windows Movie Maker. Proceed below.

Section Three: Windows Movie Maker

Now that we have our clip we can begin the editing process. As for the Fraps section, I will use a step by step format to make it painless as possible.


Step:1 - Open Windows Movie Maker - Start > Programs > Accessories >

Step:2 - Go to your folder with your video clip. You're going to drag and drop it into WMM.

Step:3 - Now we'll view our clip within WMM to make sure everything has gone smoothly thus far. Highlight your clip, than click the viewer. You may need to adjust the size of the window to view it effectively, just resize the windows as you would any other windows program.

Step:4 - For the sake of this guide don't worry about the video making sense. We'll be using our clip just to get an understanding of how to edit and include clips so that when you do make a video worth watching, you'll know what to do. Now scroll your clip to the half way mark.

Step:5 - Now we will split our clip into 2 sections. You will use this step to edit off any unneeded footage in your future video clips.

Step:6 - Now that we have our 2 clips we'll create our opening title. Go to .2, "Edit Movie", than click the "Titles and Credits" option.

Step:7 - Click the "Add Title at the Beginning of the movie".

Step:8 - Enter the title "BF Test Movie", or anything of your choosing. For the first guide I won't go into the specifics on fonts/colors/effects. We'll now add our movie title by click the "Done, add title to movie" option.

Step:9 - Now that we have our title we'll go into the story board section to add transitions and our clips. Click the "Show Storyboard" tab.

Step:10 - Now we'll drag and drop our first clip onto the story board. Click your first clip and hold your left mouse button and drag it into the first empty spot on the story board.

Step:11 - Do the same with your next clip. Your storyboard should now look like the following:

Step:12 - Now we'll add credits to the end of our movie. Click the "Make Titles and Credits" link. This time we'll click the "Add Credits At The End of the Movie." option.

https://vnmedia.ign.com/wowvault.ign.com/guides/fraps/11.jpg

Step:14 - Now we'll add Video Transitions between our clips. Click the "View Video Transitions" tab.

https://vnmedia.ign.com/wowvault.ign.com/guides/fraps/13.jpg

Step:15 - We'll pick the first transition. Drag the "Bars" window down to the box between the clips just like we did for our clips. Do this for each box between our clips.

Step:16 - Now click your title on the storyboard, than click play in the viewer. Congratulations, you just made your first BF Movie!
Step:17 - It's now time for us to encode our video and save it to our hard disk in it's final form.
Step:18 - Under "Finish Movie", click the "Save To My Computer" link.

Step:19 - Choose a file name for your file and click next.
Step:20 - This is where we choose how we encode our movie. The smaller the encode, the more we loose in video quality. You can go lower or higher depending on your choice in quality/file size.

https://vnmedia.ign.com/wowvault.ign.com/guides/fraps/17.jpg

Step:21 - Click "Next" and wait for the encode to finish. Once it's done click the "Play Movie When Finished" to view your new movie!

Section Four: Conclusion
Now you know the basics behind capturing and editing your footage. I encourage you to play around with Windows Movie Maker. It may not be the most advanced program, but it has a lot of utility


****EDIT****

Added:

-Link to torrent download software

-Link to Latest Fraps

Last edited by Contract_Killa (2006-11-20 21:29:54)

bobby177
Member
+129|6444|Texas.. getting out asap
I dont care about making movies but +1 for the nice guide
Contract_Killa
Member
+70|6339|Australia, A.C.T
Hmm anyone wanna make this a sticky, couldnt find any other guides on the forums for Fraps.
Coolbeano
Level 13.5 BF2S Ninja Penguin Sensei
+378|6733

Windows Movie Maker drops the quality of your video by 50%. It may not be visual or audio quality, but the prestige and pride in a movie is lost by 50%. VirtualDub + Adobe Premiere Pro or Vegas.

But decent guide either way.
~Smokey~
Steve Irwin Reincarnate
+396|6508|Internetfitlerland

Nice guide, +1.
mr.widdim
The Second Apostle Of Chuy
+78|6675|Flaming_Maniac = pwnd.

Nice illegal link for FRAPS. Fraps is a paid usage program. http://www.fraps.com You can use the free trial or buy it.

EDIT: Thanks mods for removing illegal links. By the way, another free recording program is Planet Game Cam http://planetgamecam.com . Enjoy.

Last edited by mr.widdim (2006-11-25 08:22:02)

XstrangerdangerX
conversation is combat
+36|6599|Tasmania
This is the perfect guide for me. I can see now that WMM is kinda like powerpoint (which I rock at) and am confident that by playing around I should be able to make a decent movie (which I've always wanted to do).

Thank you very VERY much for taking the time on this, mate.

+1 for you.
falafel
Member
+5|6300
Q: how much do apps like fraps lag my computer? it's not the best computer ever, sometimes vanilla lags (don't know if it is because of the internet connection or my gfx card or something else)
enterprizer
Member
+2|6310|Singapore
i'm not boasting or what so ever,

but fraps didn't even bring my ping up...

in fact, once i started running fraps (couter was running), my latency dropped from 200 to approx 183
_NL_Lt.EngineerFox
Big Mouth Prick
+219|6500|Golf 1.8 GTI Wolfsburg Edition
I use screenrecorder instead, no bullshit about timelimit and i find it much better quality then Fraps.
http://www.thesilver.net/
pasngr
Member
+50|6615

_NL_Lt.EngineerFox wrote:

I use screenrecorder instead, no bullshit about timelimit and i find it much better quality then Fraps.
http://www.thesilver.net/
That's a cool little program.  Haven't tried it with bf2 yet, but it will come in handy at work.  Thanks Fox.
theit57
I am THE Frodo Baggins.
+124|6369|6 feet under
it still wont start the video capture, meaning it wont register that its capturing, it also wont capture at all
Jameseyy
Banned
+108|6198|Scotland!

enterprizer wrote:

i'm not boasting or what so ever,

but fraps didn't even bring my ping up...

in fact, once i started running fraps (couter was running), my latency dropped from 200 to approx 183
Fraps doesn't affect anyone's ping, fraps lowers frames per second (FPS)

Ping is affected by internet speed and distance from the server you're playing on.
Freezer7Pro
I don't come here a lot anymore.
+1,447|6167|Winland

mr.widdim wrote:

Nice illegal link for FRAPS. Fraps is a paid usage program. http://www.fraps.com You can use the free trial or buy it.

EDIT: Thanks mods for removing illegal links. By the way, another free recording program is Planet Game Cam http://planetgamecam.com . Enjoy.
GameCam will get you kicked for "multiple 3D"- something... It's crap.
The idea of any hi-fi system is to reproduce the source material as faithfully as possible, and to deliberately add distortion to everything you hear (due to amplifier deficiencies) because it sounds 'nice' is simply not high fidelity. If that is what you want to hear then there is no problem with that, but by adding so much additional material (by way of harmonics and intermodulation) you have a tailored sound system, not a hi-fi. - Rod Elliot, ESP
VaLzbeStoNeD
Member
+17|6106
My pc sucks, I'm starting to hate it. I can barely get any cool killstreak while recording... it works like sh!t. And yeah, punkbuster kicks you for using GameCam since it hooks up to the game, it may look like somekind of haxxoooor to the pb.
Safrguns
Member
+105|6101
Removing HUD and player name tags during recording sessions

Related Thread

(just thought this was a good place to sticky this info)
DecLanD
Member
+7|5946|San Antonio, TX
How can I play demo files in BF2 ?

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