LazyBoy Posted November 4, 2019 Author Posted November 4, 2019 2 minutes ago, Dcubed said: Right, watched it. I actually think you guys gelled pretty well, especially for a first crack at it; not bad, would listen to you guys more. The footage situation is unfortunate though; it did end up harming the video cast as a whole. I do think that it’s a good idea with some potential though; I can see how having matching video of you guys playing while shooting the breeze can work. These things do happen though and sometimes things just don’t go to plan with the recording (I’ve been there, it really sucks when it happens); so I think you guys should look to get a few of you capturing video feeds individually, not just one of you. It not only gives you insurance if one person’s video feed buggers up, but it also means that you have additional footage to splice in and play around with in editing. Though this isn’t as useful in Smash as in other games (since all the action is confined to one screen), it would be very useful if you guys did decide to play other games as well. Thanks for the comments mate, really appreciate it. You're bang on with the comment out the footage though, its not sensible to have a single point of failure. Would you mind giving me a brief idea of what I would need in terms of equipment (and cost) to get a basic gameplay capture system going? Beyond this my kid brother wants to start casting, so it would be great to know for that too.
Dcubed Posted November 4, 2019 Posted November 4, 2019 (edited) 10 minutes ago, LazyBoy said: Thanks for the comments mate, really appreciate it. You're bang on with the comment out the footage though, its not sensible to have a single point of failure. Would you mind giving me a brief idea of what I would need in terms of equipment (and cost) to get a basic gameplay capture system going? Beyond this my kid brother wants to start casting, so it would be great to know for that too. I use the Elgato HD60 myself. It's a bit old now (there are some newer versions out now), but it still does flawless quality 1080p/60FPS and does a fab job of capturing video/audio via HDMI. The newer models seem to be about £150 on Amazon, but the older models are probably cheaper if you shop around. It's the device I used to make all of the NEShow/MK Highlight/Smash Bros Tourney videos for the site, so that'll give you an idea of the level of quality you can expect. Other than the Elgato, you'll need a PC/laptop to connect it to and that's about it really! It has a HDMI passthrough, so you don't need anything else if you're just looking for a basic HDMI game capture setup (If you want to capture older consoles, or integrate it into an AV Reciever setup? Then it gets a bit more complex...) BTW: If you want to do this show as a Smash Bros tourney, I still have all of the graphics and material I used to make the old N-E Smash Bros Tourney highlight videos that I can give you guys as well! I might be able to chip in as well with some editing duties as well, but that's all dependent on how much time I end up having on my hands when you guys happen to be recording anything. Edited November 4, 2019 by Dcubed 1
LazyBoy Posted November 4, 2019 Author Posted November 4, 2019 3 minutes ago, Dcubed said: BTW: If you want to do this show as a Smash Bros tourney, I still have all of the graphics and material I used to make the old N-E Smash Bros Tourney highlight videos that I can give you guys as well! I might be able to chip in as well with some editing duties as well, but that's all dependent on how much time I end up having on my hands when you guys happen to be recording anything. Mate that would be great if you could help out, and we'll take anything you have to give. We won't record another now until next week, but maybe after that you could take a look and make some suggestions?
Dcubed Posted November 4, 2019 Posted November 4, 2019 9 minutes ago, LazyBoy said: Mate that would be great if you could help out, and we'll take anything you have to give. We won't record another now until next week, but maybe after that you could take a look and make some suggestions? Sure, why not? Just let me know when you guys are recording, how you're setting up the room and such. I'll see if I can capture the gameplay footage for you guys (alongside Sam's go at it) and we'll take it from there
LazyBoy Posted November 4, 2019 Author Posted November 4, 2019 (edited) 13 minutes ago, Dcubed said: Sure, why not? Just let me know when you guys are recording, how you're setting up the room and such. I'll see if I can capture the gameplay footage for you guys (alongside Sam's go at it) and we'll take it from there It'll probably be the 13th in the evening if you're free. Would love to have you join as well - other people will have played Luigis Mansion by that point, so it would be a great chance for us all to reflect on your review. Edited November 4, 2019 by LazyBoy 1
S.C.G Posted November 4, 2019 Posted November 4, 2019 Thanks for the feedback @Dcubed much appreciated and we'd be glad of any help or assistance you can give us. I am using the same setup as yourself, it's an Elgato HD60 which is the capture device, I just can't work out why soemtimes it captures flawlessly, usually at times when I'm just capturing Mario Kart or Smash on a Thursday night either just for fun or practice but when it has really mattered, like on the nights of A Smashing Cast the video has just not captured correctly and the video which did capture would stutter every few frames make it unusable. I'm using a Windows 7 64-bit OS PC, with a 3.90Ghz processor and 8GB of RAM so I wouldn't have thought it would be the PC even though it's starting to age, I've checked and I'm using the most up to date version of the Elgato capture software that's supported by Windows 7 as well, I don't have that much free space on my hard drive though I have at least 40GB free but I'm working on that. Sometimes I think it's the luck of the draw but certainly if we have more people capturing then that would be excellent. Craig seems to work well for us with the audio, once it's obtainable from the site, it's easier to use the mixed track so long as everything goes well with the recording as then it's just a case of lining up the video and audio timelines... which is a lot simpler if there isn't a lot to cut out. I'm using Vegas Pro Edit 15 and I'm still getting to grips with it... one thing I need to know how to do is to cut from the audio and video timelines independently which sounds like a simple thing but being that I've only started editing barely a week ago it's things like this which I'm still trying to figure out. I still think we should be pleased with the progress we've made but if we can use this next week to refine things then that would be brilliant, assuming then everything runs smoothly on Wednesday 13th in the evening then I reckon we should have the proper start of A Smashing Cast which would be fantastic. 1
S.C.G Posted November 16, 2019 Posted November 16, 2019 (edited) Here it is... A Smashing Cast Episode 1 Hosted on my YouTube channel for now but this is essentially the finished article which we intend to put up on the N-Europe YouTube channel. Everything seemed to go pretty smoothly, the captured footage is of excellent quality so thanks to @Dcubed and @Glen-i for handling that, the conversation went well so thanks to Glen again for contributing in addition to @Vileplume2000 @Jonnas @Nicktendo and of course @LazyBoy for hosting as well as organising most of this. Fun was definitely had in the battles, this week it's Smash 64 themed celebrating the origins of Smash, so only original characters and no final smashes (mostly) in this episode. Let us know what you think, as we'd be happy to hear your feedback so please check it out if you've got the time to watch and/or listen to us play Smash and talk about games for a short while, it was deifnitely a lot of fun to put together either way but it you've got any suggestions on what we could add to the show or improve on for next time, that would be appreciated. (I've now reuploaded the video again after various improvements; I synced up the video with the audio again which is a lot closer this time, then adjusted the game audio to be a bit lower to balance things out, then after I got that far I went looking for the best way to render in at 1080p 60 and I found a useful video which showed me how to do that, also I found that I had some extra options in my rendering resolutions due to my graphics card, so now I can render a full 1080p video at 60fps but cut down the render time from nine hours to just two and a half hours) Edited November 17, 2019 by S.C.G 3 1
Dcubed Posted November 16, 2019 Posted November 16, 2019 (edited) Yeah, this is a good watch/listen. You guys gel pretty well (though @Glen-i does NOT have a radio voice! Come on mate! Step it up!). It's much better than the pilot test run! And the format does actually work well with proper footage, as I figured it would do. I would defo tune in on the regular, so I reckon the format is a success! This version of the episode has some issues though. First off, the video and audio is somewhat out of sync (but I hear that you're already on the case with that). Second, the audio balancing needs work; the game audio is too loud and it can be a bit hard to hear some of you talking. Finally, the footage quality isn't great. The original footage I captured looks a lot better than this, so we need a better way of transferring it over to you if I'm gonna be capturing it for you... Luckily I have a better way! I have gone ahead and set up a shared section of my personal Onedrive for you to use to transfer original the videos over. Luckily, I also still have the original footage too! So I've gone ahead and have uploaded the original uncompressed video for you to use! Check your PMs for login details. The actual content of the cast is coming along nicely, so if we can get the tech side smoothed out, it should be good. We also really need to add the intro/ending N-E graphics onto this video as well if we want to be uploading it to the main site Youtube channel page. @S.C.G I'm not sure if you'll be able to use the NE site graphics directly, but have a go with using them using the details I've sent you. If you have trouble, we'll see if we can work something out. Edited November 16, 2019 by Dcubed 1
Jonnas Posted November 16, 2019 Posted November 16, 2019 Man, my voice sounds worse than ever. Not sure if it's due to the livelier discussion, or because I was playing during the conversations, but I do need to get myself a half-decent headset.
S.C.G Posted November 17, 2019 Posted November 17, 2019 The new and improved version of A Smashing Cast - Episode 1 is now available in the post above, it fixes the audio sync and video quality issues and seems a lot better overall. That will probably be the version which we go with for the N-Europe YouTube channel, with one or two other possible tweaks and additions, that's all for now though.
LazyBoy Posted November 17, 2019 Author Posted November 17, 2019 Ive just listened to the revised version and I love it. Only the third time we've done this (with 2 practice runs) and I am already really enjoying watching it back. @Dcubed would you feel comfortable putting some graphics over the top of the video? If we can get that done, then I think it will be ready to be announced on the main site. Exciting stuff! 1
Dcubed Posted November 17, 2019 Posted November 17, 2019 (edited) 7 minutes ago, LazyBoy said: Ive just listened to the revised version and I love it. Only the third time we've done this (with 2 practice runs) and I am already really enjoying watching it back. @Dcubed would you feel comfortable putting some graphics over the top of the video? If we can get that done, then I think it will be ready to be announced on the main site. Exciting stuff! I can do that, but I'm trying to set up @S.C.G with the bits to do that by himself and am seeing if we can get him up and running with doing that without my direct assistance, since my availability is going to be kinda limited and all over the place from around the 25th of November onwards and you're gonna want someone who can handle that stuff on the regular really; so I'm trying to set you guys up in the long-term. So I've forwarded him all the site graphics and video/audio bits & bobs and am seeing if we can get him doing it himself. If things go wrong though? Then I can do that myself for the time being And yeah, I agree. It's coming together quite nicely! Edited November 17, 2019 by Dcubed 1
Dcubed Posted November 18, 2019 Posted November 18, 2019 (edited) Yo! It's done! And the first episode is up on the main site's channel now! Complete with fancy new intro and fancy new logo! Congrats to everyone involved in getting it up and going! I would recommend that you guys aim for releases on either Fridays or Mondays. People tend to not visit on the weekends and if you're doing these recordings on either Wednesday or Thursday, you will have plenty of time to get these up on the Monday (Friday is doable if you're recording on Wednesdays as well once you've got a smooth workflow going). You've got an intro, you've got a logo, you've got all the bits you need to get yourselves going. So let's get going! Edited November 18, 2019 by Dcubed 5
LazyBoy Posted November 18, 2019 Author Posted November 18, 2019 That's awesome!!!! Thanks you so much for your help mate, and thanks to everyone else who has helped make this a reality. Good times ahead. 1
S.C.G Posted November 18, 2019 Posted November 18, 2019 Introducing A Smashing Cast, an N-Europe vodcast! And it's up on the main site! Thanks again to everyone involved, I think we've done a pretty good job on this overall. I think it might be time to change the name of this thread to A Smashing Cast now @LazyBoy Just a month from idea to reality, that's a pretty decent turnaround. I think with this and the N-E Café Podcast it's going to be a busy time for N-Europe and our community. Here's to a good few episodes of both hopefully and I look forward to being involved helping out where I can and hopefully getting better at Smash. 2
Dcubed Posted December 3, 2019 Posted December 3, 2019 Thanks for your patience. We have not one, but TWO new smashing episodes of A Smashing Cast for your enjoyment! Now that we're back on track, we should be able to keep to a more consistent schedule. Look out for Episode 4 coming later this week! 1 4
S.C.G Posted December 4, 2019 Posted December 4, 2019 (edited) A Smashing Cast Episodes 2 and 3 are now available And they are now up on the main site! Thanks once again to everyone involved and to @Dcubed for casting a resurrection spell on Episode 2 and getting both it and Episode 3 uploaded. But as Dean said though, Episode 4 is coming later this week and we hope to be able to maintain consistency from now on. We've had a blast with this so far though as it's a lot fun for everyone involved and something we hope to keep going, perhaps even hosting different games down the line. There's plenty of scope as far as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is concerned though and we're always grateful for any feedback, comments or suggestions. Until we Smash again! Edited December 4, 2019 by S.C.G 1
Jonnas Posted December 4, 2019 Posted December 4, 2019 2 hours ago, S.C.G said: And they are now up on the main site! Just a quick correction for the article: my name's on the list of contributors for Ep.2, but I wasn't there. 1
S.C.G Posted December 5, 2019 Posted December 5, 2019 2 minutes ago, Jonnas said: Just a quick correction for the article: my name's on the list of contributors for Ep.2, but I wasn't there. You were there in spirit Jonnas. Thanks for letting me know though, I knew there'd be something to correct as the article went up without any issues. It's like the N-E Top Ten "Game Console" articles all over again. All fixed now anyway, it should change on the main article... soon. I'm already looking forward to the next episode. 1
Dcubed Posted December 7, 2019 Posted December 7, 2019 (edited) Boom! Here's Episode 4! Stick around till the end for a very festive message from all of us here on A Smashing Cast! Spoiler Edited December 7, 2019 by Dcubed 1 2
LazyBoy Posted December 7, 2019 Author Posted December 7, 2019 Great episode guys, really enjoyable 1
S.C.G Posted December 7, 2019 Posted December 7, 2019 A Smashing Cast Episodes 4 is now available And it's now up on the main site! Thanks once again to everyone involved and to @Dcubed for some really fancy editing. A really great episode I thought with some decent conversation, intense battles and more than a few amusing moments. We're always grateful for any feedback, comments or suggestions. Until we Smash again! 2
Jonnas Posted December 7, 2019 Posted December 7, 2019 Just saw it... I'm pretty sure I'm the one responsible for that "...oorrin". I thought it was 3 Houses Warrin' 3
LazyBoy Posted December 23, 2019 Author Posted December 23, 2019 Hey everyone, just a note to say we are taking a small Christmas break, and will be picking this up again in the new year. We're just over half way through season 1, but we now have some extra equipment which should hopefully improve the stability of releases. After we're finished with season 1 we will be looking to do play other games as well, with the same casual conversation. Are there any games (switch only) that anyone would particularly like to see given the spotlight on A Smashing Cast? 2
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