Recommended recording workflow/resources?

[isobuthol_e]

Hey, I just recently thought it'd be cool to make a jump movie, but I don't know where to start. From my vague understanding, I think that I need Lawena to record demo files and VirtualDub to stitch together the .tga files from Lawena, but there's still a lot I don't about what the workflow looks like (how/when do I record smooths, what are HLAE/SRCDEMO2 used for, are there any other resources/programs to install, etc.). If it helps, I'm on a mac (yikes) and I have access to Adobe Creative Cloud. Thanks!

[Torii]

Use Lawena to record your demos into .tga files
Use VirtualDub to stitch together all the .tga files into uncompressed .avi files (at the framerate you recorded at)
Make sure you save all the .wav audio files recorded using Lawena
From there you can edit the files inside your editing software (I used Sony Vegas for awhile, then switched to Premiere)

This is the workflow that I used to use, I'm unsure if there are more modern methods now or whether Vdub even has a MacOSX build, hope it helps!

[Ladyboog]

avirecorder

[Larry]

Editing uncompressed .avi files in premiere is extremely slow for me, I'd compress it with something like handbrake before editing, but I'm not an editor so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Syro]

Use VirtualDub to stitch together all the .tga files into uncompressed .avi files (at the framerate you recorded at)

VirtualDub is pretty much useless nowadays, due to the existence of AVIRecorder.

AVIRecorder is extremely useful since it compiles the frames recorded with either HLAE or Lawena into a video as you record. In doing so, it also deletes frames as it compiles. This cuts down so much on the storage and time required to just get uncompressed footage. The footage that it compiles can be in a variety of codecs. For example, you can compile to Lagarith, which I'd personally recommend as the best lossless codec. Along with all of that, AVIRecorder can also blend frames as it compiles, cutting down on having to do so in post. The only drawback is that you will have to record audio seperately, however that seems like a fair trade-off.

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Link to AVIRecorder:

http://www.teamfortress.tv/39894/avi-recorder

[generic]

Sorry for the lack of concrete facts, but in the tf2 rjweekly discord, there is an editing channel with quite a few people that are incredibly helpful about everything video related for literally anyone; its a gamer idea to check that place out.

Use VirtualDub to stitch together all the .tga files into uncompressed .avi files (at the framerate you recorded at)

VirtualDub is pretty much useless nowadays, due to the existence of AVIRecorder.

AVIRecorder is extremely useful since it compiles the frames recorded with either HLAE or Lawena into a video as you record. In doing so, it also deletes frames as it compiles. This cuts down so much on the storage and time required to just get uncompressed footage. The footage that it compiles can be in a variety of codecs. For example, you can compile to Lagarith, which I'd personally recommend as the best lossless codec. Along with all of that, AVIRecorder can also blend frames as it compiles, cutting down on having to do so in post. The only drawback is that you will have to record audio seperately, however that seems like a fair trade-off.

-----------------------------------------------------

Link to AVIRecorder:

http://www.teamfortress.tv/39894/avi-recorder

also audio has always been there synced up for me when using avi-recorder with my admiringly basic settings, is there something more advanced that may eliminate it?

[qzc]

also audio has always been there synced up for me when using avi-recorder with my admiringly basic settings, is there something more advanced that may eliminate it?

Recording at very high host_framerate causes audio to bug out. Around 240fps and below is typically fine but ymmv.

[generic]

ah that makes sense