Video tips...?

[Guest J van E]

Very OT, I guess, but... I'd like to get some tips on how to make movies with FSX. I know you need FRAPS and I read the sticky about the settings, but I wonder how you all actually record stuff... Do you record replays...? Do you record live...? (And if so, how do you actually fly the plane?) Basic things like that...

I don't know if I'll ever finish a movie, but I am thinking about giving it a try and I don't know where to begin, really...

[Blitzer]

Most of the time using fraps as you say to record a playback of an FSX native flight recording. That said most people opt to use FsRecorder to record the initial flight recording as this allows you to also record AI traffic and/or combine a number of your own recordings to playback simultaneously and record them. This is usful if you want to create a formation flight for example using multiple aircraft that you initially fly. A good way to improve the smoothness of your recordings with fraps is to play back the FSX recordings at half speed and then double the speed back up once you start editing the recordings in your editor, e.g. Sony Vegas.

Also worth checking out Ezdok which allows you to create additional camera positions that you can also use during playback for recording purposes.

HTH. 

[Guest J van E]

Thanks! That's a great tip: FSRecorder! I do remember seeing that name somewhere, but since I had no use for it, I never really looked at it. I sure will do that now!

I did already hear about that half time trick, but it seemed rather boring doing that during the actual flight, but with something like FSRecorder it sounds like a good option.

And btw EZCA is the reason I got interested in making movies.

[Patrick Scharnowski]

I did already hear about that half time trick, but it seemed rather boring doing that during the actual flight, but with something like FSRecorder it sounds like a good option.

I doubt that you will need to use that trick very often with the bad ass rig of yours. Even I start recording in real time now, because the framerates are still good enough with Fraps running. and my system really isn't state of the art anymore. The trick may become handy over big cities, though, because they can bring even very powerful systems to their knees when you use maximum details.

[MarkH]

The trick may become handy over big cities, though, because they can bring even very powerful systems to their knees when you use maximum details.

Trouble with the 'half speed' technique is everything else gets sped up too, notably waves and road traffic. There is an FS-Recorder option to set the sim rate according to playback speed (so runs the sim rate to 1/2 speed while you playback a recording at double speed, for example) but in my experience the playback is never smooth unless the sim rate is left at normal speed. I have not tried this with FS-Recorder 2 so things may have changed, but if not you have to accept 'keystone cops' road traffic or turn it off, and make sure you have an unobtrusive wave animation on any water shots.

Also, wake effects and ground effects (dust/snow on taxi, t/o and landing) don't work properly when you play back at anything other than normal speed. (The effects appear in front of the aircraft.)

I'm currently experimenting with EZCA, which seems to have great potential for videomaking. It's just a shame it doesn't work 'live' with TrackIR

[Xavier Piquemal]

the new fs recorder allows you to record EACH FRAME, instead of the old fsrecorder that used to record at 1/4 frame ( for those who don t understand: record location of the airplane every 4 frames )

Now the new fs recorder record EACH FRAME. so even if you play your fsrecorder file at 10% speed, it will still look smooth after recording with FRAPS.

Remember a key thing: you MUST setup your fraps to 30fps not less no more, and setup your fsrecorder to 31 frame ( don t put unlimited if you don t have a beast of computer. )

Now the goal is to get a shot result having 30fps. If you record at 50% speed having 15fps. Fraps will automaticly Speed up your footage to get a 30 fps Final footage.

If you record at 6 fps, using 50% speed, Fraps will have to speed up the footage by 5, therefore your footage will be wayy to fast. So the only way to get the 30fps, is to record at 20% speed.

20% speed and 6 FPS equal ( 6fps x 5 = 30fps )

This is the basic trick to produce smooth video. 99% of the people watching my video productions wish they had my computer... well i tell you right now... no they don`t. I own a 400dollars computer. nothing fancy

[Patrick Scharnowski]

But that's only the case when you have the "No Sync" checkbox checked, right? I don't have it checked and Fraps doesn't speed up anything, no matter what the framerates are. When I need smooth footage I just set FS Recorder to 50% and speed the clips up to 200% in the editing software (Sony Vegas). That way I get the normal sim speed with twice the framerate. This usually gives me more than 30 fps to work with and the overhead will be eliminated when I render the final video at a fixed framerate. I didn't experience any significant stutters due to pulldown when doing it that way.

p.s.: anyone else having problems with Youtube's video processing taking forever today? My latest video is at it for over 5 hours now and the HD quality version is still not available.

[redeye00]

J van E.

All the above is good advice. FSX movie making is great fun once you make your first film you will be bitten by the bug!

The little film I made was my first FSX film that i actually sat down and planned.

Heres the link, in the description i give the process i followed. Good luck and look forward to seeing your your first film!

http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=20339.0

Have fun

[ziffel]

Hello all ...

I'm very interested in learning how to make decent videos with FSX as well. But I am very raw. I have downloaded FSRecorder (the new 2.0 beta) but have never used it.

I know this is long, and I apologize, but I really need help from you pros. I broke it up and tried to make this moderately readable.

The tools I currently have:

1. FRAPS Pro

2. EZCA (Ezdok)

3. Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD 9.0

4. FSRecorder 2.0 beta

5. VirtualDub 1.98

all above are full registered versions, with FSRecorder and Vdub being freeware of course.

So, am I missing any fundamental tools?

I have some questions if you guys don't mind. I read John's FRAPS recommended settings, but the settings are from an old version and the FRAPS screen has since changed.  Here's what I have now:

I normally have it on 30 fps, but changed to 25 based on John's suggestion. Does everything else look ok? I had been recording sound, but I do overlay music so not sure what to do there.

Guess it would be a good idea to mention system specs:

i7-920 @ 3.6ghz, 6GB DDR3 @ 1800 mhz, ATI 5850 1GB video, 1.75TB total HD space.

Here are my questions:

1. what is the method used to get "far off" fixed position camera angles? e.g. you're at camera level, and the plane is far off, comes towards you, then blows past as the camera retains focus on the plane as it passes?

2. in Jigsaw's new Mt St Helen's video, he uses a soft 'fade to black' transition that I really like. Does anyone know where that would be in Vegas movie studio? And I also need to know how to increase (slow down) transition time. The stuff I've done so far, the transitions are way to fast, like a blink.

3. here's the most important question by far ... how do you get good quality file output?! mine tend to look like crap. My process thus far has been:

a. go into FSX, fly, and then when ready, press scroll lock to start filming. press again to quit, repeat as needed. this makes for a bunch of very large files in the fraps output folder.

b. I go into Vegas and begin the process of stitching, adding music, transitions, etc

c. in Vegas (Movie Studio, not the big 'Pro' Vegas), I click "make movie" and then I start to get lost. I'm not sure what output settings to use,

d. when done I open the Vegas output in virtualdub, and then compress it using the Xvid codec, at a 10,000 bitrate. That's about all I know to do. my videos have been coming out at about 100mb per minute.

Is there a better way?! Any help, or any portion of this you can comment on would be greatly appreciated!

[Patrick Scharnowski]

So, am I missing any fundamental tools?

Sounds like you have everything, although I would recommend replacing VirtualDub. More on that further down when I answer your question regarding video quality.

I have some questions if you guys don't mind. I read John's FRAPS recommended settings, but the settings are from an old version and the FRAPS screen has since changed.  Here's what I have now:

I normally have it on 30 fps, but changed to 25 based on John's suggestion. Does everything else look ok? I had been recording sound, but I do overlay music so not sure what to do there.

I have it on 30fps and don't use John's suggestion of checking the "No Sync" box, because that setting causes inconsistend video speed for me. I haven't tried Bizuland's recommendation yet. I'll try probably will give it a try.

1. what is the method used to get "far off" fixed position camera angles? e.g. you're at camera level, and the plane is far off, comes towards you, then blows past as the camera retains focus on the plane as it passes?

I do that with the Word Camera of EZCA. Once you have placed it somewhere in the area where you plan to film and restarted FSX you can move it around freely with the arrow keys, the Page Up/Down keys and the mouse. There also are the Num 1 and Num 4 keys to speed up the movement via keyboard so you can cover great distances faster. Use the Acceleration 1 and 2 knobs in EZCA's General Setting menu to adjust the movements speeds to your needs. I use the Float preset as base for my settings. Important: reduce the Smooth setting 0.95 or less or the World Camera will get out of control as soon as you try to move it.

2. in Jigsaw's new Mt St Helen's video, he uses a soft 'fade to black' transition that I really like. Does anyone know where that would be in Vegas movie studio? And I also need to know how to increase (slow down) transition time. The stuff I've done so far, the transitions are way to fast, like a blink.

I don't know if they changed it in Sony Vegas 9, but in Sony Vegas 7 this is done by grabbing the upper left or right corner of a clip and dragging the fading setting as far as you need (the mouse pointer should change into a quarter-circle symbol when you have the right spot. That way you can either fade to black or softly fade to another shot when a second shot is in a track underneath it and the clips overlap.

3. here's the most important question by far ... how do you get good quality file output?! mine tend to look like crap. My process thus far has been:

First I export the final video as a raw and uncompressed Video for Windows file (they get quite big, so this might not be an option for you. If not, try exporting it as a high quality .wmv file) and then I use the freeware tool Handbrake ( http://handbrake.fr/ ) to convert it into an x264 MP4 file with an Average Bitrate setting of 4080 (that option is easy to find). That's the tool that you might want to replace VirtualDub with.

I did that with the Saint Helens video for example. The result was a high quality HD video that was 290 MB big (from a 45GB raw file).

[ziffel]

I have it on 30fps and don't use John's suggestion of checking the "No Sync" box, because that setting causes inconsistend video speed for me. I haven't tried Bizuland's recommendation yet. I'll try probably will give it a try.

Ok. I'll test with both methods.

I do that with the Word Camera of EZCA. Once you have placed it somewhere in the area where you plan to film and restarted FSX you can move it around freely with the arrow keys, the Page Up/Down keys and the mouse. There also are the Num 1 and Num 4 keys to speed up the movement via keyboard so you can cover great distances faster. Use the Acceleration 1 and 2 knobs in EZCA's General Setting menu to adjust the movements speeds to your needs. I use the Float preset as base for my settings. Important: reduce the Smooth setting 0.95 or less or the World Camera will get out of control as soon as you try to move it.

Ahh, ok. I haven't yet set up a World camera. (I'm hoping Marniftarr and company release a guide soon!)

I don't know if they changed it in Sony Vegas 9, but in Sony Vegas this is done by grabbing the upper left or right corner of a clip and drag the fading setting as far as you need (the mouse pointer should change into a quarter-circle symbol when you have the right spot. That way you can either fade to black or softly fade to another shot when a second shot is in a track underneath it and the clips overlap.

I am familiar with that quarter-circle grabber you mentioned. I use that on the music track to fade it out at the end of the video, when the music is longer than the video.

First I export the final video as a raw and uncompressed Video for Windows file (they get quite big, so this might not be an option for you. If not, try exporting it as a high quality .wmv file) and then I use the freeware tool Handbrake ( http://handbrake.fr/ ) to convert into an x264 MP4 file with an Average Bitrate setting of 4080 (that option is easy to find). That's the tool that you might want to replace VirtualDub with.

I did that with the Saint Helens video for example. The result was a high quality HD video that was 290 MB big (from a 45GB raw file).

Handbrake, of course! I have that installed and have used it many times to convert my DVD's into avi's and such. Don't know why I didn't think of it for FSX movies. I'd been wondering how people were getting h.264 outputs.

Jigsaw, thanks so much for your help!

[Patrick Scharnowski]

You are welcome!

[Guest bliksimpie]

Thank you Patrick for sharing some tips and ideas. I have learned a lot just from reading this post.