Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Cloud WIP Video

EDIT:



Hey! Look at that, I ended up going with a streaming source. I'm still not happy with how blurry the downscaled product is, but at least it's all one in big chunk. I'll keep the higher quality files in the Mediafire folder, if anyone's interested in getting a version with text you can actually read. If you're having problems viewing, I recommend grabbing the K-Lite Codec pack, and/or using VLC Media player.

I really liked the idea of streaming, because it meant I could put together a little channel of videos of things I feel are worth displaying, so this is pretty good. I'll make some more soon (I've got one in mind that really illustrates why I break models up the way I do) and post as I get them done. Going to work on Cloud this weekend, then get started on Barret.

Until then, enjoy my irritating voice and the unfathomable boredom that can be the only explanation for why you'd watch this video.


Original post:



Part 1:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1EPFFVPG

Part 2:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UTEKMA9D

Twenty-one 13 minute clips in a shared Mediafire folder:
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=9a3870cea0d9926f4012e8015643d9c82de088bcb2665458

This is the entire process of taking a Final Fantasy VII field model from raw data to a finished PDO. The whole video is 4 hours, 23 minutes long, and was done in a single sitting.

Youtube would've been the ideal method for this, but since it's all detail work, the down-scaling Youtube implements ruins any legibility. I realize it's going to be watched by many fewer people this way, but I think it's worth it to maintain some standard of quality.

If you're looking for the useful details (how to extract, which programs to use, etc.) the first few videos in the set of Mediafire clips will be all you need. If you want to listen to me ramble for 4 hours while I go through the entire editing and layout process, by all means, watch it all. I tried to explain as many reasons for why I edit and lay things out the way I do, which may be useful to novice designers.

As promised in the video, here are some helpful links specifically useful to Final Fantasy VII model extraction:

Ficedula's Homepage (home of LGP Tools)
http://www.sylphds.net/f2k3/index.html


Mirex's Homepage (home of Biturn)
http://mirex.mypage.sk/index.php?selected=1

Battle.lgp list
http://www.alhexx.com/documents/other/battle_database.txt

Sorry, no Char.lgp list. There used to be a complete index, but it's since been lost to time.


I don't think I'm going to bother with a video of the actual model construction. I always do photo documentation, and the build will take even longer than the design phase. I could do a time-lapse video, but I really don't think that'd be useful to anyone.

I may put together some other videos to illustrate some points I made while talking in the design. We'll see. In the meantime, I'll finish up the build and get it ready for release, but I'm saving that for Ninjatoes' Kingdom Hearts Cloud release, so don't get too anxious. I'll start work on Barret as soon as I'm done with Cloud.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello, hello!

First, my English isn't so good, so forgive me for any mistake!

I'm here just to thank you for the FFVII models! They'll be my fisrt attempt in Papercraft because they're awesome and I know two people who'll love to get one as a birthday gift!

I saw you are thinking about the Zack model... and I really would like to build him too, so Aeris won't be alone! XD

About the videos, it would be great to see them on Youtube, but you could upload at Megavideo whithout the time limit.

Well, tahnks again, and congratulations!

Mr. K said...

Time isn't the issue, it's quality. Any downscaling of the video makes everything on the screen illegible, and you generally need to be able to see the details to understand what's going on.

As for Zack, Chamoo seems to have put him on hold indefinitely, so I'll probably just lump him in with the rest of the party and release as soon as I finish him.

Mr. K said...

Also, your written English is much better than most native speakers I know...

Mr. K said...

Well excellent call on MegaVideo, thanks.

Alicia said...

I really hope you feel better! There seems to be something going around my area too.

shanky887614 said...

i cant open the files it comes up with an error for both parts i cant even add the file into my video converter what do i do with it i got both parts?

Mr. K said...

If you're talking about the video files, I recommend using VLC video player. You also don't need to combine them to view them, if that's an issue. Finally, if you're having issues with the downloaded videos, just use the streaming option. That's what it's there for.

If this is all irrelevant to your question, please attempt to clarify. I find punctuation helps...

shanky887614 said...

thanks kaizo that fixes problems i had

Anonymous said...

im having a bit of a problem with this video file
i think they have somehow been corupted because your other vids in the same format work and ive downloaded this a couple times

Mr. K said...

It's a common problem, as you can see by the comments. I'll try to get a new version encoded and uploaded, but at the moment I'm swamped.