Jerky Playback and other Questions

I started with Fraps, until AWM Mars recommended Hyercam....so bought that one too. Love the recording area window AWM Mars - thanks!!!!!

Anyway, I have a few questions.... one is my AV looks all pixelated, can't seem to smooth me out. I am on the Nicholaz viewer as my PC did not like the SL viewer at all. Any ideas ?

So, I record a sequence... play it back to see what I got on Windows Media Player, and it is all jerky and then speeds up, even though whilst recording, I didn't see this. It didn't seem to happen with Frapps...anything I should be doing when recording in terms of settings on the Hypercam popup screen thing ?

I want to put music over the top, how do I do that - I have the MP3 of the music I want to use.

What is the best movie editor to use ? I am currently using the Windows one on a Vista computer, but am willing to take recommendations.

Please keep any replies really simple....I am so un-technical it's frightening - I have just about learnt what electricity is! hehehehe!

Oh and one more thing - why is this forum kept so short? I'm happy to use search to look up answers, but it seems posts are deleted (like the two I made before and wanted to review today with replies from AWM Mars - only to find them gone!). Is there an archive Machinima link ? I bet AWM and others have answered the same questions over and over for this reason.

Thanks for your replies and help

Hi Jinny,

I suspect that you are using Hypercam with no codec during capture, a Fraps with. Look at the AV tab where you select the folder for capture and see if you have 'No Compression' selected. I myself, capture with no compression, but doesn't mean everyone else can, it's dependant on your system and the location. Also make sure you defrag your HD that you capture footage on it sounds like your system is dropping frames during capture.

For editing, I use Sony Vegas. There are 3 versions, the 'basic' version is more than capable of doing what you need with editing, overlaying movie effects and music/sounds tracks. I suggest you download various trail versions of editing programmes and see which one feels more intuitive and has the functions you need.

My advice is only use the effects that you really need to enhance the movie, not just add them because you can. It is too easy to go overboard and the effects are the only thing interesting, for a short time at least.

If you find moving the camera within SL creates a lot of jerky movement, try using the Ken Burn technique, which essentially is pan/cropping and moving the cropped window within the timeline. This can also create some useful visual movement that is almost impossible to do in SL.
Adding movie layers and using the Chroma Keying technique (Blue Screening), you can shoot a scene of say avies against a pure green background, then overlay them into a static scene, which you can manipulate each layer 'Ken Burn' and create greater depth of perspective, even applying degrees of blur to far away sections/layers.

If your avie looks pixelated, that maybe that you have Avatar Impostors checked in the Graphics Tab, in preferences (SL Client), this reduces the graphic quality of avatars supposedly beyond a range of 10 mtrs, but dependant on your system, this can happen before that distance.

Many of us have tried to get a topic started whereby we can share basic and intermeditary levels of machinima but none of which seem to be made sticky. SL does have a wiki although it seems to have gone the same way. Some talented machinimaist have produced their own websites with various stages of techniques. I am sure they will reply with links etc for you.

There are 3 basic levels for machinima producing:
1) Capture - where basic editing is taken place, for the content, angle and length of shot and lighting.
2) Editing - where you make final editing, add effects, pan/crop, sequence the shots, create the format (size and perspective) and apply music/sound, text and effect layers.
3) Rendering - where you make choices for colour depth, pixel shape, final size based on aspect ratio, fps and which codec you want to apply.

There is greater depth to each of these elements.