SovietWomble

Random Arma Bullshittery (part 8) - Update #1

Thank you for the feedback on the last video essay. I'll be sure to go through and make corrections. Much appreciated.

Now, for the last three days I've been working on pre-production for the next bullshittery, basically moving things around on the hard drive and finding the relevant footage for the next episode. Which will probably be Random Arma 3 Bullshittery (part 8).

Turns out I did a pretty poor job of storing the footage I need. As it's a mixture of OBS, Fraps and...

EARLY ACCESS - DayZ Critique 7/10

All done!  This is part 7/10 of the DayZ critique, in which I look at something I call hero "decay" as a way of explaining why games like DayZ become shoot-on-sight affairs.

These are the points I'm trying to make:

• Survival games with pvp will naturally decay into deathmatches over time. Because interest in the vanilla fades. And people want more intense experiences.
• This is why the DayZ mod features...
  2017-07-04 07:52:22 +0000 UTC View Post

DayZ Critique - Working on part 7/10 - Update #3

Almost finished here! I'll have the draft available as soon as possible. All the visuals should be ready and synced up with their respective scenes. I'm currently going through and trying to provide quality assurance, fixing mistakes, etc.

As always, audio volume is proving to be a bugbear. It's often not clear there's a problem until after its rendered. Not entirely sure why. Perhaps Sony Vegas' preview window is a bit flaky.

Will let you know when it's up.

DayZ Critique - Working on part 7/10 - Update #2

Sorry, I was supposed to send out an update on Friday but it slipped my mind.

So this week I'd really like to try and finish part 7 of the DayZ critique, rather than leave it unfinished and jump back to random bullshittery. My fear is that, if I keep leaving these to one side, they'll take another year to be complete. So I'd best pull-my-socks-up and get 'em done.

The next video will be bullshittery though. Probably Arma. Not sure yet. Open to suggestions.

So this episode is about ...

DayZ Critique - Working on part 7/10

Just checking in with another update. I'm continuing to work on part 7/10 of the DayZ critique. The work continues just fine, though there's still quite a lot to go.

I've got the script written, spoken in draft form, and I'm working on the visual editing.

This episode looks at a concept I call "hero decay". And is something of a counter-point to the last episode. How I reckon that (even if you get everything right with your PvE mechanics) survival games with some pvp will end up as death...

EARLY ACCESS - DayZ Critique 6/10

So I've finished that draft of part 6/10 in the DayZ video essay. The early access link is here. As always please don't share it. This is just a draft to gather feedback while I work on all the segments and then release them as one. But your thoughts would be appreciated.

What I'm looking for are areas where the points I'm trying to make don't seem convincing so I can adapt the video accordingly. Naturally, I'm not expecting ...

DayZ Critique - Finishing part 6/10

Hello there folks. I've made a video update for those who would rather listen instead of read. 

But the TL;DR version is: I'm almost finished with part 6/10 of that DayZ Critique series. I did some work on it this weekend and I'd really like to finish it off over the next couple of days and present it to you.

After that, with several bullshitteries done I was hoping to get started on part 7/10 of t...

EARLY ACCESS - Random PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Bullshittery

It's ready! And I hope you like it.

So this one was a challenge with the subtitles as there were rarely any consistent tracker markings on any of the characters. Meaning almost all of it was manually done. 

And I also reacted to feedback on the last CSGO bullshittery by doing a few more of those fancy 3D subtitles like I demonstrated in the Far Cry bullshittery. Tell me what you think when you see them. It's where the text is spinning in all three dimensions in a few scenes.

Y...

Random Battlegrounds Bullshittery - Update #3

Teaser footage - https://youtu.be/09jTQSrWljo

Full timeline for the curious - http://imgur.com/RxLAnUW

So it's day 11 of the editing, the start of the third week. And things are progressing well. Of the total video running time of about 10 minutes, I've properly edited up to about 4 minutes and 30 seconds. With some sporadic text editing f...

Random Battlegrounds Bullshittery - Update #2

Another quick update. The pre-production phase came up with about 80 clips available to edit into a bullshittery (full image ). And I've started this process on my timeline. Putting them in an order that seems smooth and flows properly on multiple rewatches. 

I've also been a bit naughty and started properly editing the opening scenes, which is why the middle bit is missing. I'll get there :) But for 3 days in everything is ...

Random Battlegrounds Bullshittery - Pre-production #1

With the Dungeons and Dragons draft out of the way (link for those who may have missed it ), and with the e-mails to cartoonists being sent and waiting on replies, it's time to get started with the next project.

The clan and I have been playing a lot of Player Unknown Battlegrounds recently. Which is a first-person multiplayer shooter in the theme of 2017-05-17 09:59:13 +0000 UTC View Post

EARLY ACCESS - Dungeons and Dragons cartoon

Aaaand it's done

Or at least, the draft cartoon version is done. The next step is to hire a cartoonist somewhere to provide the proper visuals.

I'll leave it up to you whether you'd like to watch the video now in its current form, or wait until it's complete. Either way you'll get early access to both.

This project was actually a hell of a lot of fun. I loved having to think creatively with the vi...

Dungeons and Dragons cartoon - Update #4

A bit of silliness happened today.

During the Dungeons and Dragons edit there's a scene where I briefly inspect my inventory and find a Cast-Iron Pot.

When I need to animate specific gestures, what I do is take the neutral stance for my character: Lumpstands.png and save specific poses. Lumpstands.surprised.png, Lumpstands.pointing.png or Lumpstands.facepalm.png, etc. Depending on what I need for the sit...

Dungeons and Dragons cartoon - Update #3

It's the start of the third week on the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. Things are going well. This should be the last week needed on this end. Then I'll present the draft cartoon and you can tell me what you think.

The total run time is about 20 minutes. And there's about 2 minutes left unedited. At the moment I'm going through QA'ing it, improving the animations, adding extra sounds. General polish really.

Preview scene for you above. 2017-05-08 18:10:33 +0000 UTC View Post

Dungeons and Dragons cartoon - Update #2

Good evening Patrons.  So it's day 8 on the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. And I've finished about 15 out of 25 minutes.

The remaining 10 minutes I'm somewhat struggling with, as these were the areas where the action bogged down a bit. With semi-frequent rule re-explanations and everybody taking 5 minutes to complete their turn. I need to try and focus on that to make it fit with the rest.

While my focus is primarily on audio cutting, what I'm also doing at the same ...

Dungeons and Dragons cartoon - Update #1

Hoorah, I can log in again. For some reason last night I couldn't post anything.

The next update for you all: This week I've started something radically different from what you're used to. But hopefully still very amusing. 

A few weeks ago the ZF clan played Dungeons and Dragons, pen and paper style, with Moogle acting as the Dungeon Master, narrating our adventure. We went into a goblin cave where silliness quickly ensued. We learnt that Waffle is a useles...

EARLY ACCESS - Random CSGO Bullshittery (part 8)

So I think it's finally complete. Part 8 of CSGO bullshittery. I hope you like it. 

As always, please don't share it yet, as it's available only to you folks with my sincere thanks. If you have any feedback I'd love to hear it. Particularly if you spot any goofs so I can fix them/whip the quality assurance gnomes I keep chained up in my basement.

Also it turned out I'd managed to set my default timeline option to 30 fps instead of 60, causing a minor freak-out. There was quite a bit...

TEASER #1 - Random CSGO Bullshittery (part 8)

A quick teaser on the next Youtube video.

And another progress update. Of the 27 scenes I have finished about 21. Though there's quite a bit of tinkering to do on some of them as I go back, so...more like 19.5 to be honest.

I'm discovering that the new After Effects learnings are making the editing more efficient, but it's only really shaving minutes off rather then huge amounts. It is making the editing much more satisfying though. I can just move the c...

Random CSGO Bullshittery - Update #3

A super-quick update from me. It's three days into the second week and I've finished about 11/27 scenes for the next bullshittery. Which is about 3:24 minutes out of 10:00 minutes total.

By the end of this week I should have about 18 scenes finished (though to be fair, scene 16 is ginormous. I'm SO gonna get stuck on that I reckon. Think of that Cyanide Gorilla facts segment in the other bullshittery. It's like five times the size of the other scenes). And edi...

Random CSGO Bullshittery - Update #2

So this week I've been doing the following:

• Monday - After Effects training
• Tuesday and Wednesday - Pre-production. Cutting the needed clips out of the collected CSGO footage.
• Thursday and Friday - Phase 1 structural editing. Assembling all of the scenes to make a coherent video that's about 10 minutes long. 

So I've got a (more or l...

Random CSGO Bullshittery - Update #1

So I've been doing some pre-production for the next video today and yesterday. Going through the available stored footage to determine if there's enough to do a bullshittery. And for CSGO I think the answer is a definite yes. 

So I'm going to take a crack at Random CSGO Bullshittery (part 8) if you fancy it?

I've also been doing something new and interesting this time round (video here...

March 27th - Training day

Lulu has a new cheeseburger squishy :)

Wrapping up today's After Effects training day with the following results:

• I've learnt how to use Null Objects (an invisible layer that sits over the other layers) and text tracking directly onto them instead of the text itself. Meaning there should be less fiddling or copy pasting text layers.
• I've learnt how parenting layers works, so I can make sweeping changes. Any changes made to...
  2017-03-27 18:17:49 +0000 UTC View Post

DayZ Critique - Part 1 to 5 and update on 6

So I'm afraid I'm out of time on the video essay side front. 

In the last two weeks there were 10 working days. I used 6 of them to revise parts 3 and 4. Which should be available in draft form below:

• Part 1 - https://youtu.be/lByX_3dzUy4
• Part 2 - https://youtu.be/u7twpzFTPM4
• Part 3 - 2017-03-27 13:23:41 +0000 UTC View Post

DayZ Critique - Parts 3 and 4 revised

Good evening folks. So I've finished revisions to parts 3 and 4 of the DayZ video essay. Feedback would be appreciated if you have time?

• Part 3 - https://youtu.be/GFI9QquxUEw
• Part 4 - https://youtu.be/GR83kGrcZRE

Part 3 is a look at the available activities in the DayZ mod and the standalone. And how I feel the Day...

Womble's Soapbox - DayZ critique overview

Picture not related. This is Lulu from a while ago knawing on a cucumber and looking worried that I might take it away from her. She really likes cucumber.

I've made this index card  to give you a summary of what's going on with the DayZ video I'm working on. I think I shared something similar while ago, but I couldn't find it. I'm aware that we have some new Patrons and thus they might not be clear on what I mean when...

Training day & next project

This is what my dumbass French Bulldog looks like when she ran inside a soggy basketball court in the park. And then barked at me until I came and 'rescued' her, despite the gate being like...right there the whole time. I love her to bits, but she's a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

So with Random Far Cry bullshittery  finally complete, I decided to start what I hope will become a regular thing: a training day to impro...

Random Far Cry 3 Bullshittery

Good morning folks! The latest Youtube video is finished and is ready for you with my thanks.

Man that editing job ended up MUCH tougher then expected. Here's some behind the scenes details for those curious (I've narrated it for anybody who would rather listen ):

•  The video took 5 weeks to create. And is the second one I've made in Adobe Premiere. It features 841 individual text boxes. With ...
  2017-03-11 11:05:25 +0000 UTC View Post

Random Farcry 3 Bullshittery - Update #4

I've made this video update if you fancy listening instead of reading. And there's a short teaser here. 

It's almost the end of week 3 on Random Farcry 3 Bullshittery and the status is: 12 minutes fully edited out of 15 minutes in total.

There's still an important segment missing though (and I'll need to figure ou...

Random Farcry 3 Bullshittery - Update #3

Thanks for giving me your opinions in that poll . That trailer-type project isn't for right now though, but for some time in the future. I'm finding myself listening to the specific song I'm planning to use (won't tell you what it is yet, that'll be a surprise) and can already picture how I'm going to do it.

For the bullshittery though, not an amazingly informative update. Thursday and Friday were not as productive as I...

Random Farcry 3 Bullshittery - Update #2

So I've finished going through the footage for Far Cry 3. And what I've done is cut the 9 streams into about 150 individual clips on three timelines: 

• a.) Narrative & comedy (like Alien Isolation, Outlast, etc)
• b.) Comedy only (Random Bullshittery)
• c.) Stock footage of combat moments (which made me realise something. I'll explain in a minute).

In terms of suitability, this is what I...