10-24-2005, 03:05 AM
Version 1.0
This is a very BASIC beginner's guide to makeing Your own Counterstrike or any Half-Life + mod movie as far as I know. All commands will be written in apostrophes for clarity. Remove them when typing in the game. I shall also soon be adding a tutorial of how to get sound from the game with Your clip as well.
For this You need:
-a decent amont of free space, minimum a Gig if You're making a small clip, for a movie, You may need up to 200 Gigs.
-a decently fast computer
-some basic knowledge of Counterstrike
-Videomach (free for a fortnight) for basic effects + clips.
-Videovegas for more complicated editing
(Download someone's CS movie and watch the credits. They always list the programs that they have used)
-some decent codecs, I suggest the Gordian Knot Codec Pack. It is absolutely VITAL that You have the XVID codec
Now, to the actual making of the movie.
1) record a clip. This can be done in two ways.
-type "record xxx" when in game. XXX = any name that You want to give Your clip. The disadvantage of this is that You see eyes-only. This clip can then be found in the cstrike folder.
-call HLTV to Your server. The advantages of HLTV are that You can spectate the entire game, every single player in every single view, remove unwanted elements (health + ammo + money counts, player score tab, etc), You can make Your own camera angles. Also, this demo is much smaller in size. You then need to download the HLTV clip from their server.
To stop recording, simply type "stop" in console
2) You now need to export the clip that You have saved as basic material that You can edit. In order to save space and make the process faster You need to edit it inside the game before exporting. In order to do so:
-change the resolution to 640x480. This will greatly reduce the size of the clip.
-keep the FPS to a minimum. WARNING! The greater the FPS when exporting, the better the quality of the movie. However, good quality takes a LOT of HD space. I would recommend 10 FPS as a starter. If You're actually making a movie, go for 30-50 FPS.
-to view the demo, type either "playdemo" or "viewdemo". If You are not sure where the place is that You want to copy, use "viewdemo" to find it. The "viewdemo" command gives You control over the demo, such as fast forwarding and rewinding. Now find the place that You want to make into a movie and note down where it is on the timeline. Now, type "disconnect" and use the "playdemo" command. This way You will not be able to control the demo (no rewind, fast forward, etc), however it is better to use this, because fast forwarding + rewinding can alter the information in the demo. For example, Terrorists may appear in the Counter-Terrorist skins. If You then kill them, it often shows You losing money instead of gaining etc.
-once You get to the place that You want to make a clip of, type
"startmovie XXX 10". Replace XXX with the name of Your movie. 10 means that 10 frames per second shall be copied. This shall make most computers very slow, so try keeping movie lengths to a minimum. Once You've gone past Your clip, type "endmovie". Exit CS.
3) In Your cstrike folder, You shall now have all of those frames as .bmp files. Example: If You typed "startmovie ownage 10" and let it play for 10 seconds, You shall now have 100 .bmp files (10 sec x 10 FPS = 100 frames). Cut all of these .bpm files into a separate folder. Go through them and delete the useless ones at the beginning and the end (screenshots of You typing in console etc). This prevents You from mixing different clips up. You are now ready for editing.
4) Download VideoMach.
-click on the "Open Video and Audio Files" tab and add all of Your .bmp's there.
-in the box that pops up, choose the frame rate that You recorded the movie at.
-You now have a video that consists of a number of .bmp files. In order to get a quick preview, click "Preview -> Create Preview Movie"
5) Creating the movie.
-"File -> Save As"
-choose "Video Only"
-type the name of Your movie
-choose the format
a) .avi seems to be the best, however it tends to be very buggy for me, so I tend to go for
b) .mpeg reliable.
-go under the Video undersection
-I wouldn't recommend resizeing it. If You want to choose a different resolution, go back to step 2.
-do not touch the FPS. This will make Your movie play at unnatural speed.
-You won't need to touch the Colour Depth either
-if You chose .avi format, pick "Xvid mpeg-4 codec" from Codec Settings
-if You chose .mpeg format, just keep the default one.
-click "Start".
Here You go, it's Your CS movie.
This is a very BASIC beginner's guide to makeing Your own Counterstrike or any Half-Life + mod movie as far as I know. All commands will be written in apostrophes for clarity. Remove them when typing in the game. I shall also soon be adding a tutorial of how to get sound from the game with Your clip as well.
For this You need:
-a decent amont of free space, minimum a Gig if You're making a small clip, for a movie, You may need up to 200 Gigs.
-a decently fast computer
-some basic knowledge of Counterstrike
-Videomach (free for a fortnight) for basic effects + clips.
-Videovegas for more complicated editing
(Download someone's CS movie and watch the credits. They always list the programs that they have used)
-some decent codecs, I suggest the Gordian Knot Codec Pack. It is absolutely VITAL that You have the XVID codec
Now, to the actual making of the movie.
1) record a clip. This can be done in two ways.
-type "record xxx" when in game. XXX = any name that You want to give Your clip. The disadvantage of this is that You see eyes-only. This clip can then be found in the cstrike folder.
-call HLTV to Your server. The advantages of HLTV are that You can spectate the entire game, every single player in every single view, remove unwanted elements (health + ammo + money counts, player score tab, etc), You can make Your own camera angles. Also, this demo is much smaller in size. You then need to download the HLTV clip from their server.
To stop recording, simply type "stop" in console
2) You now need to export the clip that You have saved as basic material that You can edit. In order to save space and make the process faster You need to edit it inside the game before exporting. In order to do so:
-change the resolution to 640x480. This will greatly reduce the size of the clip.
-keep the FPS to a minimum. WARNING! The greater the FPS when exporting, the better the quality of the movie. However, good quality takes a LOT of HD space. I would recommend 10 FPS as a starter. If You're actually making a movie, go for 30-50 FPS.
-to view the demo, type either "playdemo" or "viewdemo". If You are not sure where the place is that You want to copy, use "viewdemo" to find it. The "viewdemo" command gives You control over the demo, such as fast forwarding and rewinding. Now find the place that You want to make into a movie and note down where it is on the timeline. Now, type "disconnect" and use the "playdemo" command. This way You will not be able to control the demo (no rewind, fast forward, etc), however it is better to use this, because fast forwarding + rewinding can alter the information in the demo. For example, Terrorists may appear in the Counter-Terrorist skins. If You then kill them, it often shows You losing money instead of gaining etc.
-once You get to the place that You want to make a clip of, type
"startmovie XXX 10". Replace XXX with the name of Your movie. 10 means that 10 frames per second shall be copied. This shall make most computers very slow, so try keeping movie lengths to a minimum. Once You've gone past Your clip, type "endmovie". Exit CS.
3) In Your cstrike folder, You shall now have all of those frames as .bmp files. Example: If You typed "startmovie ownage 10" and let it play for 10 seconds, You shall now have 100 .bmp files (10 sec x 10 FPS = 100 frames). Cut all of these .bpm files into a separate folder. Go through them and delete the useless ones at the beginning and the end (screenshots of You typing in console etc). This prevents You from mixing different clips up. You are now ready for editing.
4) Download VideoMach.
-click on the "Open Video and Audio Files" tab and add all of Your .bmp's there.
-in the box that pops up, choose the frame rate that You recorded the movie at.
-You now have a video that consists of a number of .bmp files. In order to get a quick preview, click "Preview -> Create Preview Movie"
5) Creating the movie.
-"File -> Save As"
-choose "Video Only"
-type the name of Your movie
-choose the format
a) .avi seems to be the best, however it tends to be very buggy for me, so I tend to go for
b) .mpeg reliable.
-go under the Video undersection
-I wouldn't recommend resizeing it. If You want to choose a different resolution, go back to step 2.
-do not touch the FPS. This will make Your movie play at unnatural speed.
-You won't need to touch the Colour Depth either
-if You chose .avi format, pick "Xvid mpeg-4 codec" from Codec Settings
-if You chose .mpeg format, just keep the default one.
-click "Start".
Here You go, it's Your CS movie.
