YouTube Battle Reports

By bubblepopmei, in X-Wing

So the Go Pro my brother got has a limit of 3 minutes for video. That won't work for battle reports.

My Microsoft HD Lifecam also fails to take sharp video. It is grainy and blurry.

I have no budget for mics or cameras, so I guess I won't be doing battle reports. I figure that is why there aren't as many battle report YouTube channels.

So the Go Pro my brother got has a limit of 3 minutes for video. That won't work for battle reports.

My Microsoft HD Lifecam also fails to take sharp video. It is grainy and blurry.

I have no budget for mics or cameras, so I guess I won't be doing battle reports. I figure that is why there aren't as many battle report YouTube channels.

I hear that eBay has some great deals on older, used cameras.

So the Go Pro my brother got has a limit of 3 minutes for video. That won't work for battle reports.

My Microsoft HD Lifecam also fails to take sharp video. It is grainy and blurry.

I have no budget for mics or cameras, so I guess I won't be doing battle reports. I figure that is why there aren't as many battle report YouTube channels.

So the Go Pro my brother got has a limit of 3 minutes for video. That won't work for battle reports.

My Microsoft HD Lifecam also fails to take sharp video. It is grainy and blurry.

I have no budget for mics or cameras, so I guess I won't be doing battle reports. I figure that is why there aren't as many battle report YouTube channels.

I am not familiar with vido equipment but I seems to me that there should be an auxiliary input/output that allows you to hook up the Go Pro to your laptop/pc and stream the contract straight to the hard drive.

As it turns out, you're right! That's what I get for accepting my brother's word at face value.

He has a limit of 3 min with a 1080p recording on a 32 GB card. Sigh. That's why we don't put him in charge of the A/V.

I found a YouTube tutorial on streaming via HDMI or USB, so we're back in business.

I did note the fishbowl effect and will have to do some screen tests with it but the quality is what I'm looking for.I'm doing bird's eye not top down because, well I don't have a hanging camera rig. LOL. I hope that people still enjoy it.

So the Go Pro my brother got has a limit of 3 minutes for video. That won't work for battle reports.

My Microsoft HD Lifecam also fails to take sharp video. It is grainy and blurry.

I have no budget for mics or cameras, so I guess I won't be doing battle reports. I figure that is why there aren't as many battle report YouTube channels.

I am not familiar with vido equipment but I seems to me that there should be an auxiliary input/output that allows you to hook up the Go Pro to your laptop/pc and stream the contract straight to the hard drive.

As it turns out, you're right! That's what I get for accepting my brother's word at face value.

He has a limit of 3 min with a 1080p recording on a 32 GB card. Sigh. That's why we don't put him in charge of the A/V.

I found a YouTube tutorial on streaming via HDMI or USB, so we're back in business.

I did note the fishbowl effect and will have to do some screen tests with it but the quality is what I'm looking for.I'm doing bird's eye not top down because, well I don't have a hanging camera rig. LOL. I hope that people still enjoy it.

What program should I use for a digital overlay like you see on many of the YouTube Battle Report channels?

I want to give my own spin to it, but I'm not sure how to even get it up there. I can make stills in Photoshop and replace them with updated shield/damage/token images but that doesn't seem to be likely what the others are doing.

Let's take MNX, Team Covenant, and Sanctioned as example - they have the card info on the screen in one form or another. The shield and hull pips update as damage is taken and when focus, evade, and target locks are taken and used up the overlay represents that. How is that done?

I've been able to do that with Adobe Premiere, but you have to do a separate layer for everything that will change, so every single shield token, every single hull point etc becomes it's own layer... and after starting down that path I quickly gave up because the amount of work, editting, and eventually processing would be staggering to do by hand.

I think someone mentioned using aftereffects to do that stuff. I would have looked into it more but I'm lazy and cheap and don't want to buy more software lol!

I do have After Effects. I'll consult some tutorials and probably reach out to the other channels for their wisdom.

In other words, I'll knock on the sky and listen to the sound.

I do have After Effects. I'll consult some tutorials and probably reach out to the other channels for their wisdom.

In other words, I'll knock on the sky and listen to the sound.

Keep us posted of your progress!

I am in the middle of trying to figure all of this out myself. Took the first video footage yesterday (not a full game) but still haven't even seen what I have recorded on a computer.

What I probably will do is cobble together what I can of an x-wing overlay and then package the elements and make them available to the community.

More Bat reps on Youtube means more community and new players and that means more sales for X-Wing and that leads to the dark side.

Wait, what?

hey MEI!! more bat reps on youtube FTW!

I just want to thanks you for starting this, I still have a lot to learn about this game and can't wait to watch.

I would suggest you consider the fact that not everyone watching will own everything in the game and may not be interested in plays using builds that require owning most of the ships.

Edited by bmwrider

Of course the flip side of that is that they might see a ship they don't have and see how awesome it flies and it will encourage them to go out and get it

Team covenant has the overlay I like, and Miniwargaming has that great commentary, I know what's going on when I watch them.

I am going to resurrect this topic, mainly as I want advice on cameras - I know many use GoPro's, but does anyone use anything else? Are there just as functional units that are cheaper, seeing as how the GoPro is great at action sports, I figure some of those features are unneeded possibly, especially when it's mounted to a tripod for stability.

I ended up going with a Sony HDR CX330.

I filmed my first battle report with it Monday. Once I figure out the overlay in ***** I'll throw it up on YouTube.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with! I ended up putting something together but there are no side bars

Thanks bubble!

I'm building the overlay now and I can tell this is not going to be a good time investment.

I have a hard time imagining how the amount of work that goes into having a dynamic overlay with the information discussed in this thread can possibly be worth the effort. Having to update the overlay image with every action, damage result, crit info, card info, and dice results will take so long. I have been spending all morning just piecing together the details for the initial overlay. I will need to record an entirely new video because at one point I moved the camera just slightly and that has thrown off the angle that the overlay requires.

I recorded a tutorial for Imperial Assault and two videos of playing DC Crisis deck building game - neither require any special imagery to produce for YouTube.

I can easily understand why we are seeing infrequent battle reports with this information - it is not worth the time investment.

I will record a new video sometime in January when I have a minute to catch my breath and try again. maybe. I can't even wrap my head around how this is a better use of the very rare free time I have than rapid firing several shorter, more straight forward videos discussing lists, upgrade cards, and upcoming releases.

I really think battle reports aren't worth the energy - unless any of you have automated overlay updating fanciness and dice roll generating thingies?

What I look for:

Setup and placement of asteroids and ships can virtually be left out. Show the lists and then skip turn 1.

1) Skip setting dials, each round. Unless it's late game and you want drama.

2) Show entire movement phase, not at fast speed. The main strategy of the game is here. Barrel rolling to block, actions taken or lost/moving and setting up shots is what the game is about. Don't skip it.

3) Show combat and rolls, don't just say what happens after it happens. That works in other games, but not this one, because you may change targets or use abilities or tokens based on what happens on the dice, which is a strategy in itself.

4) If you want to comment on the game that is fine, but don't say stuff at the 10 minute mark like at that move cost me the game, because then there is no reason to watch the rest.

I look forward to watching your reports.

Eagletsi

Edited by eagletsi111

I might start doing a few more battle reports - I got a Go Pro for Christmas and that is 100X easier to mount and face virtually anywhere I want it to face.

Nice! Crabby! I'll watch them