Highlights + Commentary from last weeks Loaded vs. 20ID Lower Bracket Final (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDIUP-bnSYA&feature=player_embedded)

Admittedly I could have spent a bit more time on it and done some re-recording (the commentary is my first and only take), but I wanted to push this vid out the door quick. I had it done ~48 hrs after the match, but if I wasn't such a social playboy, could likely have had it done within 24hrs.

My camera work will be getting smoother as time goes on. When I record, the actions goes into slow motion so it's hard to keep myself from snapping my view side to side or having my mouse jerk around.

I'm sure I will also eventually get some pimp graphics instead of just standard text boxes, but um... pretty happy with it.

Gimme your thoughts and let me know if you'd like to see more! :biggrin:

Awesome job, this was fun to watch.

Several things:

You might want to consider using a first-person POV for certain portions. For example, during the mid fight, there is a lot going on, and you need to find some way to direct attention to where most of the action is happening--probably the best way to do this is show it from the POV of whoever is getting the most frags or inflicting the most damage (probably the pocket soldier). Alternatively, if a play is especially important or critical, you could do the first shot of it in third-person, then replay it in first-person, or visa versa, sort of in a "play of the game" style.

I like the way that you showed the team's scores at the end of each round, which is especially important during the second half when the scoreboard doesn't reflect the team's actual score. Minor nitpick, though: You didn't display the final score at the end.

To mitigate camera shakiness, you can simply move the camera less. There were several places where you kept on panning the camera around, when leaving it stationary would have still given you a good view of what was happening. Alternatively, you could try using the demo smoother (http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Demo_Recording_Tools#Demo_smoother), although this could be more trouble than it is worth and you're less likely to miss important things when you are panning manually.

In terms of general commentary, it might be to your benefit to slow the pace a little so you can lay out what the situation of the game is. You can also do this during some "unexciting" pans. For example, when following the scouts as they run to mid, or watching the players cap mid after wiping the opposing team, there's not much happening to comment on, so you could take that moment to say something along the lines of "Going into this half, Loaded had a 4-1 lead and only needed one more round to win this match, but 20id has been making an impressive comeback, tying the match at 4-4" or something really general just summarizing the state of the game.

Some important things you could note are class changes. Ruwin and hubris switching scout and medic for the second half was a big deal and is part of what made it possible for 20id to win three consecutive rounds, so you might comment on the change itself. There is also a difference between stating a change and actually commenting on it. Rather than simply saying "For this round, several of 20id's players have switched classes with hubris going medic and Ruwin going scout," you could make a comment like, "Right now 20id is seriously behind and they need to turn things around fast if they want to have any hope of winning this match, so they're going to switch things up by having hubris play medic and having Ruwin take his spot as scout." You could also note other minor/temporary changes, like when Jaeger switched to pyro for the mid fight (and Loaded wiped at mid) and any places where a sniper played a significant role.

By far my favorite parts were the slow-motion clips, like Loaded's scouts baiting the stickies on last and the action on the spire. Good job of calling attention to important moments in this way.

Overall, great video and very nice work. I look forward to seeing more of these in the future.

I saw this on GF first, so I'll directly copy what I put there.

"I wasn't sure exactly what you had in mind when you first put up your trial video, but I can definitely say that the end result is great. It reminded me of some of the TFTV stuff from a while back, but in a more bite-sized portion. Keep up the good work and try to mess around with watching other battles."


But Kuiper's (<1 page) essay brings up good points, some of which I don't agree with (mainly anything that seems like it could be more trouble than it's worth, like replayed shots or whatever).