Here are some quick and easy ways to make any video look more professional.
Combo Creation Advice
1) If you can do the combo midscreen, do it midscreen. Reserve the corner for when absolutely necessary.
3) Don't use Rolento/Zangief/Chang/Honda as your opponent unless the combo demands it. If the combo works against a thinner opponent, use someone less common like King, Vice, Benimaru, Todo, whatever.
8) Do your research. If you're making CvSPro combos, watch every CvSPro combo video you can find and make sure you're either making improvements on their combos or going in a different direction. There's no reason to duplicate anyone else's combos or to produce inferior versions of anyone else's combos. There's always room to find original combos in any game, especially the good games.
Video Capturing Advice
2) Don't use Infinite Meter. If you don't want to take the time to always switch back and forth between Infinite Meter and Normal Meter then just use the Recover Meter option. For some reason, Infinite Meter looks really really tacky to me.
4) Try to mix things up a little. Use different stages, use different opponents, and if you have a good custom color, you might want to use that. But please stay away from those over-the-top custom colors with really high contrast. Also, make sure that the costume colors you choose stand out against the background. (For example, don't pick dark colors on the CvS2 rainy rooftop stage.)
5) Turn off background music in the options menu so that it doesn't clash with whatever song you end up using.
7) When capturing combos, always leave plenty of empty space before and after the combo. That means you should make sure to put a pause between combo retries. It will make the editing process much easier and the final product will look much cleaner.
14) This should go without saying, but it comes up often enough that we're gonna say it. Make sure your combos actually combo. You wouldn't believe how many ghetto combovids had clips that didn't combo midway, or had a jump-in attack that didn't show up on the combo meter because the second hit was done too slowly. Random combo videos pop up all the time containing two or three failed combo attempts and that's just plain simple laziness. It's quite annoying to see something that amateurish in a combo video and makes it seem like a waste of time watching the video.
18) If the game features a recovery function, then the opponent should recover whenever possible. For example, all SFA3 combos should be performed with automatic air recovery (tech flips) enabled in Training Mode. If you're going to perform the combo in Versus Mode, then at least verify that it's inescapable beforehand by using Training Mode or some other precise method. If your video inentionally includes combos that are escapable, then make a note of it in the video.
Video Editing Advice
6) Please don't use horrible overplayed radio music. (For a list of music you should avoid, see this thread.) There was a year where half the combo videos made used some Linkin Park song as background music. Even zerokoubou used one of their (overplayed x9929834) singles in one of his videos. To this day, i still turn off my speakers before i watch that video. There's a quick and easy solution to this problem: Choose your soundtrack from the most obscure bands in your collection. At least that way you'll never get accused of bandwagoning.
9) Don't go overkill on the editing. Make sure your transitions don't obstruct the combos. There's nothing more annoying than watching a video where you can't see the beginning of any combo because the clip is flying all over the place. The best editing tricks are subtle, and blend in with the actual subject matter instead of trying to take center stage.
10) Using programmable pads and emulator tools is fine, as long as you admit it in the video. You don't have to make a big deal of it. Just a small note at the end of the video is fine. The entire tool-assisted speedrun community does this and so do a lot of prominent combo video makers, such as kysg.
11) Using cheats is a little more shady, but that's why it's even more important to clearly state every cheat you use. If you're giving yourself infinite meter so you can do stylish combos, make a note of it in the video. If you're turning off dizzy to make longer combos, make a note of it in the video. Let your viewers be the judge of whether or not they should overlook those cheats. After all, the only reason you used them in the first place was cuz you thought you could do something cool with them right? Trying to hide the fact that you cheated is only going ruin your rep down the line.
12) If the combo ends with a super (or some other move that takes a long time to finish), unless there's some compelling reason to show the WHOLE super, just skip to the next combo. For example, we've all seen a Proton Canon before, so if that's the last move of the combo, skip to the next one as soon as we can see that it connected. For a more precise definition of "some compelling reason," read the discussion in this thread. If we all work together, we can put Proton Cannons and Magnetic Tempests on the federal endangered species list where they belong.
15) It doesn't hurt to list the production and release dates of your videos somewhere. Either post them clearly on the hosting website or if you want to play it safe, make a note of it in the video itself. You don't need to be super precise - the month and year will suffice. This helps you because if you're the first person to discover a glitch, viewers can use the date to compare. Also, with capture devices constantly improving in output quality and your own development as a video editor, your old videos are going to look ghetto. No way around that. At least if you include the release date, you'll put a little distance between your first attempts at combo video making and your latest work.
17) Include the name of the song you used as background music. People always ask for that and in some cases people skip reading your initial post and any other post after that, and just ask what the BGM was. Save yourself a lot of repetition and just put the name of the artist and the name of the song in your video. Besides, they deserve credit.
Miscellaneous Advice
13) Don't be shy about promoting your video. It's rather difficult to keep track of every single combo/glitch/tutorial video that gets made. Figure out the local etiquette of whatever forum you think might be interested, and follow those rules. Some forums have a designated subforum or designated thread for posting combo video news. In this forum, you can either post a new thread whenever you release a video or start a thread where you post all your video releases - whichever you feel more comfortable doing. Either way, make some noise and kick down a link so we can give some feedback, but more importantly so that your videos get a little bit more exposure. Otherwise it's really quite annoying hearing about a video that one of my friends made and wondering how it slipped completely under my radar.
16) If you want to make your video more accessible, write a transcript of everything in it. At the very least, explain the new stuff that nobody has seen before. Everyone specializes in different games and not everyone in the fighting game community plays the game you chose to make a video about. Post the transcript in forums when you announce your video, post it on your website if you've got one, and maybe even include it alongside your video in a zip or rar file.
NKI gets credit for 10, 11, and 12 while buktooth gets the assist for 12. Credit for 14 goes to laugh. Assist for 6 goes to jchensor. Magnetro gets credit for 15, 16 and 17. Xenozip. gets credit for 18.
Basic Combo Video Etiquette
Basic Combo Video Etiquette
Last edited by Maj on Fri Feb 23, 2007 8:38 am, edited 9 times in total.
Re: Basic Combo Video Etiquette
Agreed. Infinite time also looks kinda tacky...Majestros wrote:2) Don't use Infinite Meter.
I made this mistake in my Volume V. There is a part where Zangief and T.Hawk are on the barrels bonus stage, and because I had no idea what I was doing back then, I used the exact same colors for both characters for two different clips, back to back. Because there was no transition between the clips, T.Hawk just "appears" on the other side of the screen after the first clip, and a lot of people actually thought it was some kind of teleport glitch.4) Try to mix things up a little. Use different stages, use different opponents, and if you have a good custom color, you might want to use that.
Also, I'd suggest another rule of thumb: using cheats/programmable pads is fine, as long as you admit it in the video. cough Lezard cough cough
Re: Basic Combo Video Etiquette
oh geezNKI wrote: Also, I'd suggest another rule of thumb: using cheats/programmable pads is fine, as long as you admit it in the video. cough Lezard cough cough
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The whole controversy over Lezard's videos is bound to come up sooner or later, but hopefully it's later. Someone can start a thread to dissect that specific video and we can talk about it there. It's a little off-topic here. (Side note: I noticed that after the whole debate on CV, Lezard's Final Chapter video was removed from youtube. So if anyone ever does bring up that video again, they'll have to repost it on youtube or something so that people who haven't kept the video can still participate in the discussion.)
Regarding what NKI said, i do agree. I think some people who use cheats/tools get lazy and don't say it explicitly in the video. They'll say it in a thread when they post it or maybe even on their website, but not in the video. I think that's a bad idea cuz websites go down all the time and then it's really difficult to find that info again. Also, videos get distributed through peer networks and those viewers obviously never get to see the author's note.
I was looking through the video encoding requirements for tasvideos and they demand that all of the videos torrented through their website have a note in the video that says "This is a tool-assisted recording. For more info visit our website blah blah." Seems like a good idea to me, especially for the future as more and more people start dabbling with emulator macros and progammable controllers.
Regarding what NKI said, i do agree. I think some people who use cheats/tools get lazy and don't say it explicitly in the video. They'll say it in a thread when they post it or maybe even on their website, but not in the video. I think that's a bad idea cuz websites go down all the time and then it's really difficult to find that info again. Also, videos get distributed through peer networks and those viewers obviously never get to see the author's note.
I was looking through the video encoding requirements for tasvideos and they demand that all of the videos torrented through their website have a note in the video that says "This is a tool-assisted recording. For more info visit our website blah blah." Seems like a good idea to me, especially for the future as more and more people start dabbling with emulator macros and progammable controllers.
Thought of one other thing:
If the combo ends with a super (or some other move that takes a long time to finish), unless there's some compelling reason to show the WHOLE super, just skip to the next combo. For example, we've all seen a Proton Canon before, so if that's the last move of the combo, skip to the next one as soon as we can see that it connected.
If the combo ends with a super (or some other move that takes a long time to finish), unless there's some compelling reason to show the WHOLE super, just skip to the next combo. For example, we've all seen a Proton Canon before, so if that's the last move of the combo, skip to the next one as soon as we can see that it connected.
Infinite Meter
I think it's necessary in MvC2 where the combo might not work 100% of the time so you need to have infinite health on if you want to have the combo/thing somewhere else besides training mode.
As for admitting use of program pads. I agree that it HAS to be put in the actual video. I forgot to mention it in my combovideo... But IIRC I mentioned it in my Magneto video................................remember THAT thread? Some people thought I did everything by hand
As for admitting use of program pads. I agree that it HAS to be put in the actual video. I forgot to mention it in my combovideo... But IIRC I mentioned it in my Magneto video................................remember THAT thread? Some people thought I did everything by hand
I actually do disagree slightly with NKI on the allowing Supers to finish part. I think it's very dependent on the video you are making. We've all seen, for example, that 3rd Strike video by Tosaka I think? Where he basically just does the largest number of hits he can for every character. Same thing for some of Sai-Rec's CvS2 stuff. They just go for biggest number of hits in some combos. In those instances, they are Combo Videos showcasing directly the Combo as a Combo. Those kind of videos do require you to at least finish the super.
Also, only do it after the game is realtively old. I remember an old video long ago from Japan of MSHvSF. My friend and I watched it and Norimaru was in it, and we'd never seen him before. They kept cutting out the supers, and my friend got mad. "Why do they cut out supers?" For games that have been out for a while, it's cool. But for games that aren't as well known, let everything finish. That was deeply in my mind for my CvS2 video that I made long long long ago. In the "links" section, I cut out every super short except the ones from the brand new characters. I purposely let Eagle and Joe and such finish their Supers. But I cut out Yuri and Rugal and such. I think the only old super I let finish was Morrigan.
But now that MvC2 has been around forever and we all know the Supers, yeah, probably should skip them if they end the Combo. Or, if you are making a video for showing off editing, feel free to cut out anything you want. ^_^
- James
Also, only do it after the game is realtively old. I remember an old video long ago from Japan of MSHvSF. My friend and I watched it and Norimaru was in it, and we'd never seen him before. They kept cutting out the supers, and my friend got mad. "Why do they cut out supers?" For games that have been out for a while, it's cool. But for games that aren't as well known, let everything finish. That was deeply in my mind for my CvS2 video that I made long long long ago. In the "links" section, I cut out every super short except the ones from the brand new characters. I purposely let Eagle and Joe and such finish their Supers. But I cut out Yuri and Rugal and such. I think the only old super I let finish was Morrigan.
But now that MvC2 has been around forever and we all know the Supers, yeah, probably should skip them if they end the Combo. Or, if you are making a video for showing off editing, feel free to cut out anything you want. ^_^
- James
I was watching old videos that are around and I came to the conclusion that most people don't deinteralce and clip their videos. Also, proper saturation/brightness/contrast/hue is a must if you want your video to be perfect/you're putting the emphasis on editing. All this might sound crazy but I think you have to be crazy in order for Maj to OK your acct.
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fullmetalross
- Posts: 360
- Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:12 am
On the subject of checking colors, there's a really good website that shows the entire palette swap table for every Capcom character in almost every fighting game they're in: Street Fighter Palette Database.
Unfortunately, this isn't very helpful for the crossover games (Marvel, CvS, SvC) because only half the characters are catalogued. But it's still pretty awesome for the entire Street Fighter series. Here's a complete CvS2 color chart but it's made using capture card screenshots in training mode so they're not as clean.
Every time i make a video, i pay (way too much) attention to the colors i pick. I'll keep a record of every color i've used in a text file and i'll try to plan them out ahead of time. I actually try not to repeat the same character color twice unless there's no other way. Also, i try to find a mugen website that has pictures of every stage in the game i'm playing. That way, i can isolate the bad combinations of costume color + stage color for the combo dummies that i'm going to be using frequently and try to avoid them.
For example, Rolento is an extremely useful combo dummy in CvS2 so i ended up using all 8 of his colors in my Reversal Combos vid. So i planned out which stage i was going to use for each Rolento color and then i planned all the other combos around that.
I'm usually not masochistic enough to redo difficult combos just because my preferred combo order puts the same stage back-to-back in two consecutive combos. Usually i'll just move the clips around a little bit and find another order that works. But i definately think it pays off to invest 30 minutes into planning out this kinda stuff before you start spending hours on capturing one combo clip.
Unfortunately, this isn't very helpful for the crossover games (Marvel, CvS, SvC) because only half the characters are catalogued. But it's still pretty awesome for the entire Street Fighter series. Here's a complete CvS2 color chart but it's made using capture card screenshots in training mode so they're not as clean.
Every time i make a video, i pay (way too much) attention to the colors i pick. I'll keep a record of every color i've used in a text file and i'll try to plan them out ahead of time. I actually try not to repeat the same character color twice unless there's no other way. Also, i try to find a mugen website that has pictures of every stage in the game i'm playing. That way, i can isolate the bad combinations of costume color + stage color for the combo dummies that i'm going to be using frequently and try to avoid them.
For example, Rolento is an extremely useful combo dummy in CvS2 so i ended up using all 8 of his colors in my Reversal Combos vid. So i planned out which stage i was going to use for each Rolento color and then i planned all the other combos around that.
I'm usually not masochistic enough to redo difficult combos just because my preferred combo order puts the same stage back-to-back in two consecutive combos. Usually i'll just move the clips around a little bit and find another order that works. But i definately think it pays off to invest 30 minutes into planning out this kinda stuff before you start spending hours on capturing one combo clip.
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fullmetalross
- Posts: 360
- Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:12 am
Actually if there's some kind of a unifying theme to the combos you've captured, maybe you can use that during the editing process. In the second video i ever made (CvS2 Randomness), i had a whole bunch of small segments each focusing on one concept. So i used the same stage and sometimes the same opponent during each segment, and i really liked the way it worked out. Unfortunately i never got to use the same effect but i kept meaning to go back and revise that video with the same editing gimmick.
letting supers finish is also nice so people can see how much damage the combo did (but if the combo is obviously gonna do 100%, go ahead and cut it). as a related note, let the dummy's lifebar reset back to 100% before doing the combo
also, taunting after every single combo is really tacky
i also prefer videos where i can hear the game sounds (not game music), as opposed to only hearing whatever track the author decides to put on
anime clips for no reason are dum
also, taunting after every single combo is really tacky
i also prefer videos where i can hear the game sounds (not game music), as opposed to only hearing whatever track the author decides to put on
anime clips for no reason are dum
This is totally situational. There are plenty of valid reasons to show an entire boring super. If you do one hit linked into Sonic Hurricane, it's a good idea to show the whole thing so that people can see if it really adds up to a combo. If you are doing a combo designed to attain a high number of hits, show the whole thing. If you're playing SF2/SF3 series and you've got some weird gimmick that makes it look like the opponent recovers midway, wait until the counter comes onscreen.buktooth wrote:letting supers finish is also nice so people can see how much damage the combo did (but if the combo is obviously gonna do 100%, go ahead and cut it). as a related note, let the dummy's lifebar reset back to 100% before doing the combo
But sometimes it really doesn't matter whatsoever. If you're making an Iron Man video and you've got 5 combos in a row that end in Proton Cannon, there's no reason to show all of them in their entirety. Show the one that does the most damage and/or show the one where something out of the ordinary happens. Otherwise cut to the next scene once the super connects.
All of this falls under the general heading of "some compelling reason." I agree with the other points you brought up. Unfortunately not all games allow you to turn off the BGM so sometimes that sacrifice is necessary, but there's no excuse for cutting out sound effects from recent games like CvS2 or MvC2.
Some might think this is a given but needs to be stated.
Don't put in combos that don't combo. I've seen a couple of Master Akuma videos that had combos that didn't combo midway, and I see the same thing from some videos made by spanish speaking video groups. Those things make me hella mad and makes me feel like I'm wasting my time watching the video.
Don't put in combos that don't combo. I've seen a couple of Master Akuma videos that had combos that didn't combo midway, and I see the same thing from some videos made by spanish speaking video groups. Those things make me hella mad and makes me feel like I'm wasting my time watching the video.
CC that shit
I thought of another one recently...
Please don't use Yakety Sax in combo videos that are meant to be funny or that show off glitches anymore (most people will know it as the Benny Hill theme song). I've seen it done sooo many times now that the novelty of it has worn way off (sorry Magnetro... ^_^).
- James
Please don't use Yakety Sax in combo videos that are meant to be funny or that show off glitches anymore (most people will know it as the Benny Hill theme song). I've seen it done sooo many times now that the novelty of it has worn way off (sorry Magnetro... ^_^).
- James
Haha, should i make that a rule on its own? I wouldn't want to insult our British allies.
Ok, i've got an idea. I'll make a thread of banned combo video music and then link to it from this thread.
Edit: Made the thread: http://combovid.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=41
Ok, i've got an idea. I'll make a thread of banned combo video music and then link to it from this thread.
Edit: Made the thread: http://combovid.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=41
Last edited by Maj on Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
jchensor wrote:I thought of another one recently...
Please don't use Yakety Sax in combo videos that are meant to be funny or that show off glitches anymore (most people will know it as the Benny Hill theme song). I've seen it done sooo many times now that the novelty of it has worn way off (sorry Magnetro... ^_^).
- James
Meanie. How about we ban Trapcode Shine or ban the member who uses it in a video. SORRY CHEN ^_^
Edit* I actually have a suggestion
DATE YOUR VIDEOS PEOPLE!
Oh yeah, maybe you should mention something about giving credits in a video. For instance if someone helped you with a certain idea in a video give a broad description. If it's a lot of people it can be too long and thats when you can just say "special thanks or thanks to"
Also, another idea is maybe write a transcript for long videos or videos that you might feel deserve a transcript. If you're video is meant to show something new that people didn't know about then maybe you ought to make a transcript explaining certain situations.
Oh yeah, and last one - INCLUDE THE NAME OF YOUR BGM. People always ask for that no matter how obscure you think the BGM you used is. Someone will always want the name, in some cases people skip reading your initial post and ANY OTHER POST AFTER THAT and just ask what the BGM was
Also, another idea is maybe write a transcript for long videos or videos that you might feel deserve a transcript. If you're video is meant to show something new that people didn't know about then maybe you ought to make a transcript explaining certain situations.
Oh yeah, and last one - INCLUDE THE NAME OF YOUR BGM. People always ask for that no matter how obscure you think the BGM you used is. Someone will always want the name, in some cases people skip reading your initial post and ANY OTHER POST AFTER THAT and just ask what the BGM was
Hm, i guess giving special thanks is an etiquette issue but everyone has a different way of deciding who to namedrop. It's kinda hard to narrow it down to one comprehensive rule.
The transcript isn't part of the video so i dunno. It's more of a website or forum thing. Some people have released the transcript in a txt file alongside their videos in a zip or rar file. I guess that's a pretty cool approach, but then again i'm sure that has led to people downloading 50mb files just to get the 5kb transcript. Waste of bandwidth.
The transcript isn't part of the video so i dunno. It's more of a website or forum thing. Some people have released the transcript in a txt file alongside their videos in a zip or rar file. I guess that's a pretty cool approach, but then again i'm sure that has led to people downloading 50mb files just to get the 5kb transcript. Waste of bandwidth.
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ShinjiGohan
- Posts: 374
- Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2007 7:42 pm
- Location: chicago
- Contact:
Re: Basic Combo Video Etiquette
Also I'd like to add that if the game features a recovery function, then the opponent should recover whenever possible.Majestros wrote:14) This should go without saying, but it comes up often enough that we're gonna say it. Make sure your combos actually combo.
I can't tell you how many SFA3 videos include combos that you can escape because of air recovery (tech flips).
Looks like Jolly Ranchers & Baskin's Sherbet.
