Journal Entry 8

Date: 13.05.2023

Activity: 

- Starting at 17:00, I made 7 minute raw footage of me playing the game for the trailer video using Open Broadcaster Software (OBS).

- Spent some time searching for a simple video cutting tool, eventually ended up with a program called Avidemux.

- I also fixed one teeny tiny bug in the scene, and uploaded it as "Build (Project C, v2).zip".

- Tried my best to trim down the 7 minute raw footage into a 90 second trailer video.

- Writing the journal entry now, at around 19:05.

Notes:

I first downloaded OBS and recorded a roughly 7 minute of my gameplay for the trailer. So far so good. OBS is a great program, and no complaints in this respect.

The problems started when I had to edit said video. You see, we're only allowed to have 90 seconds max for the trailer video, so I had to cut things down. No problem, I can sit down and do it I suppose. That is, if I had a program for it...

I don't know how long, but I spent an unreasonable amount of time, just searching the internet for a FREE SIMPLE VIDEO CUTTING PROGRAM. It turns out that Windows Photos application has a barebones feature where it allows you to cut the video. However, it also makes the video lose its compactness, causing a 300 mb raw footage into a 2gb edited footage, despite the fact that it's meant to be shorter and smaller in size.

I found a program called "kdenlive". Looked shady as heck, so I deleted the .exe without running. Then, I saw that THE INTERNET recommends a program called "DaVinci Resolve". Apparently, it has a free version, but you have to sign up, and give your email and phone number. Nope, scratch that.

In the end, I found this program called Avidemux. The trailer video is made using that program. However, at first, I just cut the video where ever I wanted. The program said something like "you didn't cut using the keyframes, so the video will be corrupted". I didn't care and I did it anyway. After spending some time, I finished my work, and watched my first trailer attempt. It was horrible, as it was full of artifacts and things. The program wasn't lying about corruption.

Therefore, in my second attempt, I only used keyframes to edit and trim down the video. This is why the trailer video is 93-94 seconds long. I know the maximum we're allowed to have is 90 seconds, but the program literally won't let me cut frames unless they're keyframes, so I hope I don't lose any points from that!

Anyways, I made the video and uploaded it on YouTube. It's unlisted, so you need a link for it, which is embedded in the game's main page.

I believe I've done pretty much everything in this course, except video game development.

Invested Hours:

- 2 hours working on the game trailer.

- 5 - 10 minutes on the journal.

Outcome: 

1) Build (Project C, v2)

2) Video game trailer.

3) Obsolete journal entry #8.