Recommended recording method?

[Ladyboog]

Hey, I got interested in video editing, but I don't know the best way to record a demo. I am asking you to tell me your methods, here is my method:

I open Fraps, lock the fps to 30, and I disable windows sound effects, then I open the demo, find the part I want to record, stop it, type in cl_drawhud 0, and host_timescale 0.1 (to get 300 fps), and start to record it. After I am done, I set back the timescale to 1, enable windows sound effects in fraps, and record the whole thing again to get the audio. After that, I render and compress the file.

Please tell me what do you think, and what could I do to get a better quality, or to make my life easier, by reccording in a different way.
Here is the video:

[Dr. Heinz]

Use lawena etc, not fraps.

http://www.teamfortress.tv/3521/how-to-make-videos-for-tf2

[John]

lawena -> record at 120 fps -> vdub to avi -> sony vegas edit -> export at 60fps avi -> adobe media encoder to h.264/mp4

[plep]

Fraps method is quicker, lawena method produces higher quality.

[dellort]

lawena -> record at 120 fps -> vdub to avi -> sony vegas edit -> export at 60fps avi -> adobe media encoder to h.264/mp4

There's no reason not to use at least 240 fps these days, if storage is an issue you can pick up an external HDD for like $20.

[Dr. Heinz]

Depens, I don't have that much storage and don't want to spend so much time. So I record with low fps and disable resample. Otherwise the higher the better pretty much. But don't half ass it, otherwise it looks bad. Disable resample or use a very high fps.

[Kendrick.]

lawena -> record 240 or higher (for easy slow motion) -> virtualdub (sync the sounds/framerate) turn the tgas to avi -> disable resample (which sometime i always forget to disable) -> render with 720p60fps (spend more times but worth it)

not recommended record anything with fraps

[Reich | Jump.tf]

I just set my game to 4k and record with shadowplay (or any screen-capture software). And I do "demo_timescale .25" if recording at 60fps or "demo_timescale .125" if at 30 which is basicaly like recording at 240fps. It's way faster than lawena and tf2's startmovie command.

Of couse you could just record at 1080p as well and it would make recording with a low tier gpu better. All you have to do is speed it up in whatever editing software you use.

Downsides:
 You need to record the audio separately (if using audio in your video)
 Hard to pull off with a shite computer
 Have to stay tabbed in game for it to record at a decent framerate (so basically your computer is useless)

[crocket]

>Lawena + Srcdemo2
>VirtualDub & turn PNGs into Avi (sync sounds with the framerate of the video)
>Disable Resample
>After Effects, Premiere Pro, or Sony Vegas Edit (I prefer after effects)
>For Vegas save as avi then use adobe media encoder into a h.264/mp4
>For After Effects and Premiere Pro open the project file in media encoder, match source, then save as h.264/mp4

Notes:
The match source option is only avaliable in Media Encoder CC
Srcdemo2 has an option to save as a PNG which uses up alot less disk space compared to a tga file
Srcdemo2 DL and Tutorial http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25171193

My Personal Settings for Srcdemo2:

Final Video FPS:  30
Motion Blur Blend Rate: 30
Simulated Shutter Angle: 180 Degrees (dont change this)
Gaussian Blending: No
Effective Recording FPS: 900
Host_Framerate 900

[John]

lawena -> record at 120 fps -> vdub to avi -> sony vegas edit -> export at 60fps avi -> adobe media encoder to h.264/mp4

There's no reason not to use at least 240 fps these days, if storage is an issue you can pick up an external HDD for like $20.

what external hdd sells for $20? kind of interested but gb/$ isn't that low so it'd probably be around 120gb or so tho...

[dellort]

lawena -> record at 120 fps -> vdub to avi -> sony vegas edit -> export at 60fps avi -> adobe media encoder to h.264/mp4

There's no reason not to use at least 240 fps these days, if storage is an issue you can pick up an external HDD for like $20.

what external hdd sells for $20? kind of interested but gb/$ isn't that low so it'd probably be around 120gb or so tho...

Yeah you're right actually, it probably needs to be at least 500gb to be worthwhile, unless you're just recording shorter clips. You can find 1TB drives on sale at Costco sometimes for about $90, I'm not sure what a 500gb drive would cost but it's not a huge investment. The only issue is if you plan to record 4k or even just 1080p, the frames start to take up a ton of space for larger projects.

[John]

lawena -> record at 120 fps -> vdub to avi -> sony vegas edit -> export at 60fps avi -> adobe media encoder to h.264/mp4

There's no reason not to use at least 240 fps these days, if storage is an issue you can pick up an external HDD for like $20.

what external hdd sells for $20? kind of interested but gb/$ isn't that low so it'd probably be around 120gb or so tho...

Yeah you're right actually, it probably needs to be at least 500gb to be worthwhile, unless you're just recording shorter clips. You can find 1TB drives on sale at Costco sometimes for about $90, I'm not sure what a 500gb drive would cost but it's not a huge investment. The only issue is if you plan to record 4k or even just 1080p, the frames start to take up a ton of space for larger projects.

Actually I'm taking a look at the prices and it seems that 1TB externals are around $60 now ($0.059/GB). Prices have gone lower than I expected in the past few years

[Ladyboog]

Bretty good replies, lawena indeed produces higher quality of content, thank you folks for helping me out!