ComboVid.com

Focus on what you're good at; don't worry so much about the rest.

I know we talk a lot about making videos as good as they can possibly be, but there's something interesting on the other side of that coin as well. One of the things i've learned from working on so many videos is that whatever you make, someone out there will like it.

Honestly it's the weirdest fucking thing to me but it's true. There was a lot of stuff in Fun With SF4 vol.1 that i wasn't particularly happy with, but it had to be included because the concept called for every character to be represented. I wasn't sure how it would be received at all, but sure enough:

Kareeeeem wrote:That blanka combo was too much. It’s the first time I’ve seen a blanka ball>ball combo in any game.

kaneka wrote:That Bison-Rose thing was the most cinematic thing I’ve seen all day. Great vid!

Mineral4r7s wrote:The Gen Combo was awesome

cruzin1440 wrote:The Sagat and Guile ones were the best. 5/5

freakofavrillavigne wrote:I think the Rose/Dhalsim combo was soooo cool!! And Chun Li's double kikoken into super was awesome too

Deathtank75 wrote:dan's combo was so amazing, I think its the most doable combo ffrom all.

ddevil02 wrote:that vega combo was sick. if someone can explain this, how did he air throw when the person was not in the air?

Seriously, what the fuck? You can make any video, post it anywhere, and as long as enough people see it, someone will say "[the worst combo in the video] was the best combo in the video!" And what can you say? People are different. It's funny but eventually you just start going "yeah, i guess it's alright." We all get super opinionated sometimes and think that "everyone knows" the Japanese voices are the best but for sure there's someone out there who thinks that everyone knows American Ryeyou is clearly the best.

The point is, as long as your best material is as good as it can be, it's okay if the necessary filler (whether it's combos or editing or video quality or music or whatever) didn't turn out as great as you'd imagined. After two weeks go by, you kinda forget about all that and overall it always seems fine. Just do your best, get it done, and don't stress too much.

There are some crazy combovids out there, like that new joo MvC2 video that took five years to make. But he can't do that every week. He's got a grand total of one of those in him. Maybe two? If you spent five years on something, i'm sure it would be pretty damn special too. The most important thing is never to get intimidated.

Hm, i guess i left out a major part of the puzzle, which is: Figure out your audience.

For example there's a huge difference between a "fun" video and a technical mastery showcase. Especially considering that fun videos are meant to be watched once whereas it's fair to assume that late-game technical videos will be rewatched by the majority of the people who still care.

In the case of technical videos, you don't really care so much about making it easy to follow, because really it's meant for the hardcore base. So your goal should be to make "i need to watch that again" combos. Just like, the densest, most elaborate combos you can put together. Stuff that will require transcripts and frame-by-frame replays to understand.

On the other hand, fun videos should take the audience along with you, making sure they don't get lost. Your goal should be to make them say "i want to watch that again" without making them feel like they missed something the first time. It's a tiny little sweet spot between "i need to watch that again" and "i don't need to see that again."

Not exactly an easy goal, but the first step is understanding your audience. You can raise the bar pretty high if you're making a single-game video featuring a popular current game, or even an oldschool game featuring a familiar version of a currently popular character (like XSF Magneto or any version of Chun Li). You have to lower it a little if you're making a single-game video from of an obscure title. And you probably have to lower it even further if you're doing a multi-game video, depending on the subject matter, the pacing of your editing, and of course the familiarity/obscurity of the games included.

But yeah, sorting this stuff out at the beginning will help you determine what's safe to ignore.

In the case of tutorial videos (or DVDs), you have to make the audience want to watch it again because it was cool, not because they didn't understand it.

On the subject of mass appeal, this isn't a bad way to start a video: KoF XII Combo Music Video by LostFeather

Normally you want to ramp up your combo content so that it gradually gets better towards the end. Even if you decide to go with mixed random order so it's not like "2hitcombo -> 3hitcombo -> 5hitcombo -> 7hitcombo, etc" it's still better to save your best for last.

That said, it might not be such a bad idea to show your most damaging combo first. Or maybe your second-most damaging combo. That way you get the video started on a high note and even if you go straight back to showing 3-hit combos, people know better is coming.

I saw your comment on the "balance" of the combos system. Which combo makes you think that?

That was such a long time ago, honestly i don't even remember. It would be cool to see how the game turned out at a major tournament like SBO, but it looks like they went with KoF2k2UM instead.

Ah k, well i just wanted to comment on it because some of the combos in that game are not viable as ingame doable or not able to do any more. For example, the first athena combo you cant do no more cos of the patch update and that also goes for the Raiden / eliz bug DM combo. Im not sure if you can do it on arcade tho (athena combo). The shen combos are NOT ingame possible unless you have master 1 frame execution. To me its way harder then Vanessa 1 frame in 2k2 / XI. ALl the other combos are pretty much doable but to get ingame CC doesnt always happen. I remember seeing half decent Jap or even the UK matches where CC were that regular. You get like maybe one or two a game and even saying that the harder / situational combo arent being done. Its not that unbalanced I dont think.