Sick New Montage! - Topic

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Dec 25 2015 04:09pm

Allow me to start you off.

But first, let me tell you a story from a long time ago, and share some good creative tools to inspire.
Back in the 1.6 and Source days, I used to do work with the mostly german team Ghost Pictures, a Counter-Strike 1.6, Source, and now GO editing group.
They are very widely known among the montage community for their crisp, high quality editing, impressive editing techniques and creativity, and long montage movies - if you are interested in seeing any of their work, you can see a somewhat incomplete archive of their work here: https://www.youtube.com/user/GhostPicturesTV.
Also, a very good movie made by SliNK, the founder of Ghost Pictures; feature very good 'flow', 'sync', and post-process editing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf38MSqALLA

Now - to your montage! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpzK1W7fP64

Pros:

The image quality was decent, and the footage was smooth and without chop or rendering errors.
The frags were acceptable for a beginners montage.

Cons:

The intro sequence you recorded ingame was a creative idea (and creativity must always be praised, as it is at the very heart of editing!) - but it didn't feel like it fit with the sudden swap to action and frags.
The pacing was a bit awkward - the clip didn't seem to 'flow' with the music, though as you said before, this is just the beginning!
The transitions were kind of slow - although I like the usage of simpler transitions like you used here, simply speeding the transitions up a bit will do wonders for the over-all flow of the clip.
Lack of more creative transitions - but as you said, this is only the beginning!
Lack of an 'outro' or 'intro'. - Branding is everything in this field, my friend, make sure people know your name / your movie editing team name at the beginning of the video. Make the font you use here as creative and self expressing as you can!
Default fonts, lack of font creativity - dafont.com is a very nice place to find free fonts that are more stylish / fit the specific 'mood' of a clip.

Assertion:
You've only just begun, so I won't be harsh, especially considering the fact that you've got a solid foundation, and you remind me of myself when I started editing, what feels like forever ago.

_ What do you use to edit with? The best program for beginners to start with is Sony Vegas PRO, as it has a LOT of robust features and a very easy-to-get-the-hang-of-interface / timeline.
Sony Vegas has a free 30 day trial - available here http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/vegaspro10.
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Give Vegas a try, if you don't already use it, and Youtube search for montage effects / transitions tutorials! [searching: 'frag video tutorials' is a good place to start!]
We all started off with tutorials at one point, so never feel bad about following a tutorial!
Example of a useful Modern Warfare 3 tutorial made by Enigma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5VqQtGDBhs
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If you try Vegas and end up enjoying it, I can get you a fully activated version after the 30 day trial period, free of charge.
Example of editing a frag in Sony Vegas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIImY4wdlX4

_ In Vegas, there's a feature called the Velocity envelope, which allows you to speed up, slow down, or even reverse a clip by making points along a line and dragging them up or down, to speed up, slow down, or reverse. The above video touched on that a bit, but the Example below this section is all about using velocity.
The best feature of Vegas if you ask me is the velocity feature, as its directly responsible for creating the 'flow' of a clip.
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With the velocity envelope feature, you can even sync your kills to the beats of your chosen music track.
Example of using velocity in Vegas to sync shots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njwsyNr1ufo
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VELOCITY ENVELOPE IN ACTION [Examples of Moviemakers using velocity (and many other effects) very well to make a 'smooth' feeling clip that 'flows' to their chosen music tracks, you can see the video as it slows down and speeds up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqR_VBBKTJw, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuGeeZYLai0, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3IsxDXSg20

One issue velocity has is that if you record a clip while at 60 FPS for example, and then try to slow it down REALLY slow, it will cause the video to begin chopping, because it wasn't recorded with enough frames.
To make the footage as smooth as possible while slowing with velocity, use this tutorial when you are recording your gameplay clips: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1727209.html, or google more about "Call of Duty AVIdemo 1000 fps".
Note: 'Vdub' stand for Virtualdub, which is a free, open-source program that allows you to turn image-sequences into video files.

As an alternative to velocity (velocity being a built in feature of Vegas) you can acquire the plugin (or let me help you acquire it) twixtor for Sony Vegas.
COMPARISON OF VEGAS AND TWIXTOR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpn8qIxwchc

Inspiration:
An amazing CoD4 movie made by Katha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaOKZ7qssfca

Closing:
My advice is to never stop editing, every clip you make will make you better at editing, no matter the length, the time put in, or the creativity exercised. Think of making a clip as though you were working out - you'll see results, but every little bit helps!

There's a strong sense of community behind frag video / montage editors and their viewers - so don't hesitate to jump right in, and don't take criticism personally, instead use it to help you grow, and if its extra negative, just ignore it!

Tutorials may not be everything, and you may need to exercise your own creativity to a degree, but always use tutorials to your advantage; as they can teach you things you can apply elsewhere, and are a very good tool to help you into getting better at the fundamentals, or even help you to come up with new ideas!

I am going to add you here on JSP, if you ever need any help, please let me know, and happy holidays. :santa:

This post was edited by xXMiGaaraNoSabakuXx on Dec 25 2015 04:10pm