In a previous group tutorial I had talked with my tutor
about how it would be best to approach the show reel and the result was a few
pieces of advice:
-Keep it focused
-Use Artwork to back up gameplay footage
- Try to maximise sheet space and show everything.
I kept all of these in mind when it came to constructing my show
reel in iMovie. Originally I had planned to use After Effects but when I
arrived at the media lab it was entirely full which meant falling back to
iMovie – which proved to be a happy accident as it was perfect for the show
reel and very easy to use.
(Recording the video)
Recording gameplay footage was actually a substantial amount
of hassle as far as finding reliable screen capture software and actually led
to an entire day almost being wasted without video being recorded. At first I
believed that machinima friendly ‘Fraps’ might be the answer, so I downloaded
it only to discover that it would only record in game…and by that I mean in a
full release title such as Left for Dead. This was immensely frustrating and
led to a Google/ YouTube fuelled hunt for software to do this properly.
Through trial and error with DuckCapture (which proved to be
simply more advanced print screen…) and CamStudio (Littered with bugs and made
my screen go weird often – in addition to recording in poor quality), I found
Microsoft Encoder. It did have its own issues (recording in sound for example)
but nothing that was fatal. At the end of this day I managed to record footage
of both my levels in addition to a brief play through of my point and click
ready for the next day.
Here is the finished Showreel:
And also as promised the link to the Portfolio Website:
On Reflection…
Aside from making an offline mock up using screenshots for submission purposes I have finished both Project 2 Tasks. I feel happy with the portfolio as far as core layout and look – with the feeling that with more impressive work behind it this can only get better as I grow as an artist. The Showreel is something I’m very happy with also, with my only issues perhaps lying with the quality of some of the gameplay footage – but this is down to the quality of the recording which could not really be improved. Although, out of the two, I can see myself returning to the Showreel to make larger changes in the future.
On reflection maybe this was due to the issues with project
1 (in addition to external projects) bleeding across into the time planned for
this project not leaving me enough time to be as happy as I could be with the
Show reel but I am nevertheless satisfied with the outcome.
Project Bibliography:
Juno’s Online Portfolio:
Maxx’s Online Portfolio:
Jason Chan’s Online Portfolio:
(All of the above visited: 05/05/2012)
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