Basic Combo Video Etiquette
Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:15 am
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.
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.