Option B

[xlxMAVERICxlx]

How do you create films like that? These look AMAZING!!!

[Ganos Lal]

killer movie sir. I would love to vote when option c is available but its sooooo hard to choose between the first two.

[Morgan Shackelford]

xlxMAVERICxlx wrote:

How do you create films like that? These look AMAZING!!!

The short answer is I use several different software programs, starting with STO itself.

Cryptic allows user access to a tool called demorecord. While playing, you enter a slash command, and it records everything around you into a demo file that can be played back later in a modified version of the client where you are able to dictate the movement of the camera. There are tutorials out there on how to use this feature - Soriedem's videos are a decent place to begin.

Soriedem's Demo Record Tutorial - Introduction

If you watch that, you'll see there's another piece of software developed by a player to assist in playback and editing called Demolaunch. I highly recommend downloading this if you feel like trying the demorecord feature out. You can get it here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/stodemolauncher/

Now, personally, I deviate from how demorecord is supposed to function. After you've established your camera motions, you're supposed to export the demo into a series of screenshots (this can take hours and you can end up with thousands of screenshots); and use another program to recompile all these screenshots back in to a video. So, rather than do this, I use another program called Fraps to simply record the demo playback in real time. While this method saves a lot of computing time, it does have some disadvantages; primarily, it will record everything on your monitor, including the camera path toolbar at the top of the scree. Also, if there is any hitching that occurs during playback, this will be present in your fraps'd footage.

From there, I import the Fraps'd footage into a movie editor, where I can edit and crop the footage. I use a program called Magix Movie Edit Pro 17. It was relatively inexpensive for a movie editor, and much more powerful than Windows Movie Maker (which is free with your OS and you can use in a pinch).

Beyond that, most of the graphics (patches, insignias, and text) I make in Photoshop CS5. Evildead is working with me on a new video, where he is going to be using After Effects and possibly Cinema 4d as well for some extra flair on the project.

That's the short version. If you, or anyone else wants to give this kind of thing a try, don't hesitate to ask me questions about the process.

[Stravek]

That was awesome! Bravo sir!

[T-Jericho]

Thanks for all the info, sir. While I won't ever be as skilled as you, I do intend to shoot a few small films of my ships and knowing what you use is very helpful. Thank you.