Here is my workflow. It's just provided as a quick guide for beginners. It's not meant to be the perfect solution -- I'm a total newbie with videos, so if I can do it, you can do it!
The tools I use (the only non-freeware one is Realplayer):
1. RealPlayer (to download the video from Youtube)
Alternative: selmiak suggested jDownloader
2. The free tool Pazera's "FLV To AVI" to convert the video into AVI (most Youtube videos have he FLV format). http://download.cnet.com/Pazera-Free-FLV-to-AVI-Converter/3000-2194_4-10786669.html <-- watch out, the offline installer is a bit tricky to find. That link forces you to install some shitty downloader tool. Use google to find the ZIP offline installer.
Alternative: selmiak suggested jDownloader (directly select the .mp4 format)
3. ffmpeg is a standalone set of codecs and libraries for both compression and rendering. It will come handy later. You should install it prior to other editing tools. Then it will have its very own entry in any editing tool you'll install (namely: VirtualDub and Wax - see below).
How to use it: Whenever you'll render (compress) a video, instead of selecting a proper codec in the editing tool's codecs list, choose ffmpeg. It's not a codec per se. If you select that one, then you must enter its settings to choose what codec you want to choose, with what settings. For example it provides lossless compression formats, so that you can work without worrying about the infamous "JPEG effect".
Alternative for conversions: selmiak suggested SUPER (http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html)
4. VirtualDub is meant to work on ONE VIDEO at a time. Use it to resize, colorize, etc. ... and most important to compress in a clean manner (provided you know what compression format/codec you want to use -- that's the hard part for beginners).
Tip: The "resize" filter can be used for both resizing and cropping.
Alternative for conversions: selmiak suggested SUPER (http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html)
Alternative to VirtualDub: selmiak suggested avidemux
5. Wax 2.0e (by "DebugMode" -- the name is confusing but it's not in debug mode :-D). It's a video editing tool (cross-fade videos, etc.). It's actually a free equivalent to Windows Movie Maker or iMovie, and it's very powerful.
Tip: Use the "quick3D" plugin (already shipped with Wax) to move, crop and zoom your video(s).
Alternative for editing: selmiak suggested the professional tool lightworks (http://www.lightworksbeta.com/) that has just been open-sourced.
Alternative for editing: Now, I know that Blender does videos! That's ideal if you want to : 1. Do some difference-key/rotoscoping. 2. Superimpose 3D objects.
6. If you need to create some masks/stencils (for example, to hide bits of the video behind some pixel-art bitmap), you can do it either in VirtualDub ("logo" filter) or Wax (can't remember the name of the plugin) or lightworks or Blender.
7. Once you're all done and satisfied with your video, make a final, clean rendering using VirtualDub and ffmpeg
8. To convert your AVI to the OGG/Theora format used in AGS: If you're lazy (like me), use any frontend to ffmpeg2theora.
Possible frontends:
- GFrontEnd 2007.2 final (http://download.freewarefiles.com/files/GF_ffmpeg2theora_final.exe)
- theora converter (http://sourceforge.net/projects/theoraconverter/)
9. Oh, when you have your OGG file ready, insert it into AGS using the AGS theora plugin - http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=34910.0 AGS also has native OGG functions. I'm not sure how the plugin is better provided you don't resize or rotate the video.
You voluntarily have RealPlayer on your computer? :o
Screw me sideways ouxx, thank you for that workflow! I have been trying to get my head around video implementation for months!
Okay, consider me excited.
Looking forward to seeing this in action.
Quote from: Babar on Wed 31/08/2011 11:58:32
You voluntarily have RealPlayer on your computer? :o
I used to use
FreeStudio (http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/free-dvd-video-software.htm), which was brilliant, but stopped working all at once for no apparent reason! On several different computers! I have no idea why. I eventually gave up, believing maybe it was taken over by some spyware company, or maybe Youtube got angry and deployed some anti-download system.
If anyone manages to make it work, I'd be very grateful, this was an awesome set of tools.
1+2 can be done with jDownloader in one step, just choose the .mp4 file. (this uses the AVC codec over the MPEG 4 (Xvid) codec, but if you want to convert to ogg anyways this doesn't matter especially when you look at the next sentence...)
all conversions can easily be done with SUPER (http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html). It can be tricky to download the file from the page though...
and just a personal thing, I prefer avidemux over virtual dub. Just try it, I think it's better, but also has its flaws.
(jDownloader+SUPER are freeware, avidemux is open source)
and if you want to cut your videos professionally, lightworks (http://www.lightworksbeta.com/) is open source now. I haven't tried it yet (<3 AE), but even great hollywood movies were cut and edited with this like Mission Impossible or 28 days later and many more.
Ooh, lightworks sounds quite cool. I'll have to check it out.
I just updated the first post with selmiak's suggestions.
what I don't understand is point 1)
Why or what kind of videos do you download from youtube and use in an AGS game?
I just discovered lightworks this week and I've been cutting something on it. Having come from Avid the trimming system is reasonably familiar, but I think the GUI is a bit 'unique' in the way Blender's interface used to be 'unique'.
However, if you're used to FCP or Premiere I think the lack of drag+drop could be quite frustrating and confusing. It also depends on Matrox codecs which don't install on Win 7 without a workaround. But hopefully these things will improve now it's open source!
I used Wax a long while ago, and found it had unreliable saves. Masks would change shape when reloaded so it really wasn't suited to precision work.
Thanks for the workflow. I've always struggled with VLC when trying to make OGG/Theora, so this will be helpful!
Forget about Realplayer and just use the websites Keepvid (http://keepvid.com/) or Clipnabber classic (http://clipnabber.com/clipnabber_classic.php) to grab an MP4/FLV off Youtube or similar websites directly.
I hope AGS will one day support H264, as it is the format of choice in the video editing world (and I just never want to hassle with DivX or the like anymore). What is the best format to use right now though? OGG? I have some WMVs but they will not play in fullscreen.
For #8:
GFrontend (ffmpeg2theora) v2007.2 Final (http://download.freewarefiles.com/files/GF_ffmpeg2theora_final.exe) for ffmpeg2theora (http://v2v.cc/~j/ffmpeg2theora/download.html).
Updated first post with new suggestions.
Quote from: Babar on Wed 31/08/2011 11:58:32
You voluntarily have RealPlayer on your computer? :o
This made me almost laugh right out of my seat!
;D