What else is there better to do at my job? Well, not much. I hop onto Halo Customs and mingle around interesting threads. But sometimes I go on YouTube and search for material made by the Halo community. Among us, we have a lack of quality and quantity in montages. What better way to improve this, than to give out tips that will help us all create wonderful content to spread our talent.
Mini-Glossary!
[A.] Playing
[B.] Clips
[C.] Camera
[D.] Editing
[E.] Production
[A.] Playing
If you're out to make a montage, you have to play the game you're working with. If you already have a theme (sniper, ninja, MLG, vehicle, etc.) then try to find a way to maximize on opportunities to use these options. Half the battle is choosing the right gametype. For example, it would make sense to do Vehicle montages in Big Team Battle or Dominion, or Sniper montages in its own playlist. Once you know where to play, you might want to make adjustments to your playstyle in order to hit these clips. Anything you can do to maximize your chances of success helps get clips.
[B.] Clips
All too often people bicker over what clips are good, bad, unfair, l3g1t, whatever. The central focus has not changed, though - if you can produce a legitimate clip (no setups or otherwise) and make it take skill, it's a viable candidate to become a clip. Here are some standards that one might consider.
This is common knowledge, but having Theater mode GREATLY helps with collecting clips. You'll want to pull potential candidates out of recorded matches, and make a separate clip for each. Leave the speed variation for your editing software. Always leave some spare room in your clip for transitions.
Once you're ready, record separate scenes of your clip with your recording device. You may just want the 1st-person view, which is really quite easy. There are also still shots (place the camera in a spot) and panning motion (set camera to slow and press stick in one direction lightly). Be creative here, and again leave some extra room at the start and end of the clip.
If you or someone you know has an HD recording device, that will make editing look better and the overall project better.
[D.] Editing
This is where a whole lot can go wrong, well, or nothing at all can really take place. Really knowing the limits of your editing program helps in this entire process. There are a lot of miscellaneous tips here, but again, try to stick with the theme you were looking for:
Now that everything has been compiled and you like how it looks, render it out (preferred quality and format of course) and post it up. Have you thought of a name yet? We're all pretty experienced in coming up with something unique around here (cough map names that don't make sense cough). So throw one up, put some tags in the description and share it with us!
Mini-Glossary!
[A.] Playing
[B.] Clips
[C.] Camera
[D.] Editing
[E.] Production
[A.] Playing
If you're out to make a montage, you have to play the game you're working with. If you already have a theme (sniper, ninja, MLG, vehicle, etc.) then try to find a way to maximize on opportunities to use these options. Half the battle is choosing the right gametype. For example, it would make sense to do Vehicle montages in Big Team Battle or Dominion, or Sniper montages in its own playlist. Once you know where to play, you might want to make adjustments to your playstyle in order to hit these clips. Anything you can do to maximize your chances of success helps get clips.
[B.] Clips
All too often people bicker over what clips are good, bad, unfair, l3g1t, whatever. The central focus has not changed, though - if you can produce a legitimate clip (no setups or otherwise) and make it take skill, it's a viable candidate to become a clip. Here are some standards that one might consider.
- Look at the game type. How many enemy players do you have? That is the realistic cap for multi-kills. Doing this without dying (except in circumstances of surprise, like a stick) is preferable
- Analyze the time it takes to complete an action, or multiple actions. There might be too much inactivity, especially if you feel that it cannot be interrupted nicely though editing.
- If there is an objective or your team is loosing, are you helping them? Players who get kills and sacrifice teamwork are frowned upon. Also, if teammates keep stealing your kills or you the same, you might want to consider backing off and doing your own hunting for a while.
- Does the clip fit with your theme? If it doesn't, you can always save it for another time.
This is common knowledge, but having Theater mode GREATLY helps with collecting clips. You'll want to pull potential candidates out of recorded matches, and make a separate clip for each. Leave the speed variation for your editing software. Always leave some spare room in your clip for transitions.
Once you're ready, record separate scenes of your clip with your recording device. You may just want the 1st-person view, which is really quite easy. There are also still shots (place the camera in a spot) and panning motion (set camera to slow and press stick in one direction lightly). Be creative here, and again leave some extra room at the start and end of the clip.
If you or someone you know has an HD recording device, that will make editing look better and the overall project better.
[D.] Editing
This is where a whole lot can go wrong, well, or nothing at all can really take place. Really knowing the limits of your editing program helps in this entire process. There are a lot of miscellaneous tips here, but again, try to stick with the theme you were looking for:
- Optimal video recording/rendering settings for Halo 4: 720p, 16:9 resolution, 6 or more Mbps, frame interlacing enabled, no frame re-sampling.
- Color correcting is optional, but can be good if you can control it. Try to pick 1-3 good settings, and make sure that it complements the game environment you're implementing.
- Music can be background or dominant, synced or loose. Background is below the level presented in the game, while dominant is above. Synced is when the music corresponds to in-game actions or sounds like shots, transitions, etc., while loose really has no impact whatsoever. I find background + loose and dominant + synced to be the best combos.
- With music selection, make sure it's to your theme, but also something that almost everyone can enjoy. Also, it's necessary that your music isn't copy-righted. If you don't know, check out a YouTube video for it. An iTunes link means that it probably is.
- Transitions can either be soft or hard. Soft transitions take longer and can offer many creative ways of scene placement. Hard transitions are brief, but are useful in keeping pace with the music or to avoid adding unnecessary detail. Having a mixture, or a consistent medium, can help tie everything together nicely.
- Most text is boring. Try a new font to spruce it up.
- The more special effects you add, the more it subtracts from the actual gameplay. Strait-up gameplay is boring, while an effect extravaganza detracts too much. Find a balance that you can live with.
- Trying something new is always good, but remember that if it doesn't work out, there are always alternatives.
Now that everything has been compiled and you like how it looks, render it out (preferred quality and format of course) and post it up. Have you thought of a name yet? We're all pretty experienced in coming up with something unique around here (cough map names that don't make sense cough). So throw one up, put some tags in the description and share it with us!
.
If you really know how to get the most out of MM, it's not a bad program. But the limited selection of situational effects, and lack of depth in the technical aspects of video do leave much to be desired.