How-to: Create a Black Ops Gameplay Movie

by TheDeagMan on November 14, 2010

A bunch of my fellow gamers have asked me how I put this video  together (it’s only a teaser of vids to come, but shows a few  effects):

Black Ops Crossbow Movie (HD 720P)

black ops theater recording

The Theater situation as it stands isn’t the easiest, but you  can make it work for you, just have to know how:

1) First, find servers that are actually recording that day  (and no, it’s not only Treyarch servers recording). I usually  play one map on any server and as soon as it’s done, go back to  the Main Screen -> Theater -> My Recent Games. If the game from  the server I was just on is there, I’ll reconnect and keep  playing. Arguably the most frustrating step (hopefully fixed by  the time I post this).

2) Play for cool frags. Obviously a bunch of us love HC S&D,  but towards more active & “lively” games. CTF, DOM, DEM have a  lot more opportunities for any given timeframe then S&D does.

3) Once you’re satisfied with your frags, use a popular screen  recorder to turn your theater replays into actual movies that  you can then edit. Here is a list of popular screen-capturing  tools:

  • Fraps- http.//www.fraps.com (Most Popular)
  • WeGame – http://www.wegame.com/download/
  • GameCam – http://www.planetgamecam.com/
  • Growler Guncam – http://www.growlersoftware.com/

4) When using the capturing tool, keep the following tips in  mind:

  • Make sure your HUD is turned off
  • Make sure your Playback Control Panel is turned off
  • Get some cool angles and different takes on the same frag or  event!
  • Use variable speed for some nice frag/explosion effects.

5) At this point you should have a bunch of unedited frag clips  which you can now start piecing together. Plenty of the  software out there can be used on a trial basis, so of the  popular ones are:

  • Sony Vegas – http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegassoftware  (Popular in the CS scene due to easy time editing)
  • Adobe After Effects –  http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects/
  • Others include – Pinnacle Studio, Ulead Video Director, Adobe  Premiere, Roxio Media Creator, etc..

6) Once you have a final movie, be sure to keep it 720p and  upload in h.264 format (with a rate of c. 15mbps is good  enough).

7) Share, have fun, plan the next vid :)

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