SethiXzonJoin Date: 2008-08-21
Post Count: 13779 |
You've mastered editing your movie. You can add in some fancy colors and some cool transitions; now you're ready to go further. You want to make some of the highest quality movies ever made in ROBLOX. This guide is for aspiring people like you.
[DISCLAIMER: By simply following everything in the guide, I do not guarantee that you'll make something amazing; obviously, but this is meant to greatly assist you.]
[!!!WARNING!!!: If you think that JJ5x5's 'ROBLOX Gone Crazy' is an example of a great video, or any other video that lacks actual visual effects, (no, Fleskhjerta's old ROBLOX videos may be entertaining for some, but that's where it ends.) then I recommend you turn away unless you think that you can do better. We are going to dive into effects that can make your videos amazing.]
To begin with this, I'm afraid you'll have to go to the Program Dump. There are many popular programs that simply can NOT be used for editing with visual effects, and most of those shouldn't even if they could/when plugins are used.
[EDITING PROGRAM LIST] (NOTE: These are only programs I have researched.)
{Windows Movie Maker XP, HD, Live, etc} - {NO,} and we all know why.
{iMovie} - {No.} While it can automatically generate fancy templates, it cannot automatically make visual effects; that takes actual work.
{Adobe Premiere Elements} - {Yes.} You can make some decent things in this; much better results will be made than with other programs, but as it's meant for home usage, you're not going to get much besides dropping in the effect.
{Adobe Premiere} - {Yes.} While not as limited as Elements, you still can't make the best quality stuff in this.
{Camtasia Studio} - {No.} As said in the previous guide, 'The Ultimate Guide to ROBLOXian Moviemaking 2011', this really can only be used for desktop recording, and so is good for presentations and tutorials.
{Sony Vegas Platinum} - {Yes.} You can create around the same stuff in Premiere Elements. The biggest difference is simply the user interface.
{Pinnacle Studio} - A mixture of Premiere Elements/Sony Vegas and Camtasia Studio, this application is decent at motion graphics, but not too good for visual effects. Of course, it does the basic task you need, which is doing basic visual effects.
{Sony Vegas} - {Yes.} This is a powerful, non-linear editor that is primarily used by the better editors of ROBLOX's community. While it can easily do some decent effects, it's simply not designed for such tasks. It is, however a good compliment to other editors for editing sound and splicing clips together.
{Adobe After Effects} - {YES!} One of the industry standards in creating amazing visual effects. Personally, I use this software, and in my experience it is second to none in easily creating amazing visual effects. It has dozens of powerful plugins already built-in, and even more are available such as Video Copilot's Optical Flare package for creating light beams and flares, Zakwerk's 3D Invigorator, which generates and renders REAL 3D objects in your scene, and Trapcode Particular, a powerful and easy-to-use particle generation system that offers a plethora of features. At the same time it is also the most expensive of the bunch. Even James Cameron's Avatar used this.
{ParticleIllusion} - {Yes.} ParticleIllusion is a program dedicated entirely to generating particle effects. It isn't very expensive, either; though the effects aren't exactly the most realistic ever made. This program offers dozens of premade particle effects as well as the ability to customize said effects and create your own. There is also a plugin of this for After Effects, though limited compared to the standalone application that this is.
To create the highest quality effects you require both STOCK FOOTAGE, and 3D COMPOSITING. While stock footage can be purchased or downloaded for free from a simple search of the Internet, 3D elements are best made by yourself or your studio. [TIP: The most commonly used free source of stock footage is from a website called DetonationFilms. They offer plenty of free and paid footage.]
To create your 3D work, you must pick from a list of MANY programs. However, some can be used for 3D work and some cannot. The following lists what it can do.
{Wings3D} - Made semi-famous on ROBLOX by a certain advertisement creator, this program can be used to model things. That's it, though. Unfortunately, the only thing you can create in this program is quite literally unrendered 3D models. This can be used for still/static scenes and objects.
{Anim8or} - Used by mesh makers before the feature was disabled to create ROBLOX meshes, this application can also be used to model things, but also animate them; hence the name. However, the rendering is completely fake therefore it is nearly impossible to actually achieve a good looking result. The only way to actually achieve a relatively nice result is to render it in an external renderer. This can be used for simple animations and static/still objects and scenes.
{Google Sketchup} - Unless you WANT your ROBLOXian character to stand in an unrendered, blocky 3D world with aliased, black outlines, do not use this.
{Blender} - Often ridiculed for being free, Blender is VERY powerful and can create things on par with professional programs with the release of the Blender 2.5 series. This can be used for actual visual effects that look amazing, from 3D objects to tornados to floods to animated backgrounds that your character can perceive and appear to be in!
{Autodesk 3DS Max/Maya} - The two most powerful software suites on the market. While ridiculously expensive, this is the thing that professional animators use and because of this, it has dozens of powerful plugins such as FumeFX, Krakatoa, RealFlow and Rayfire. In fact, this program along with many plugins was used for destroying Los Angeles in the movie 2012.
{Cinema4D} - A powerful alternative to Autodesk's programs, but about as feature filled as Blender with more support and a cleaner interface. Like Blender and Max/Maya, you can create anything you desire, just with lower expectations.
{Houdini} - The simulation-packed alternative to Maya, this program has tons of different simulation tools to simulate. Simulate, simulate, simulate! From cracking and smashing to fur, water and muscles interacting together, this is the definite choice, besides Maya for simulation.
I hope that this guide has helped you decide on what software you want to use to create professional effects. Unfortunately there is simply no room for a guide on everything; in fact, there are gigantic books for each of these topics.
I wish you luck and I hope you create something great! -- SethiXzon |
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vader10Join Date: 2008-07-17
Post Count: 9913 |
This guide is very well made, except that it is pointless to read. Us, as ROBLOX Movie Makers, don't want to buy high-priced or download an illegal torrent program.
Of course AAE is the greatest to make effects, but the cost on that thing is so high, nobody would use it unless they have a relative or they, themselves, are into serious, RL, movie making.
I use WMM and my videos turn out very well. (StudioROVader, check my channel out if you want). And you know XiaoXiaoMan? yeah, he probably made the best series, ROBLOX God of War, and he uses WMM. AAE can render your movies to be amazing, Piecrust8 being the perfect example, but on a program like ROBLOX, you don't need all those cool effects with a program. ROBLOX Lua is here for a reason, and it makes it look way more realistic.
I'm sorry if I'm being really critical here, but I would just want people to know that effects aren't everything in a movie. Avatar had epic effects, but I found that the storyline was awful.
PS: Do you have a Channel? Can I check it out? =o |
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SethiXzonJoin Date: 2008-08-21
Post Count: 13779 |
"This guide is very well made, except that it is pointless to read. Us, as ROBLOX Movie Makers, don't want to buy high-priced or download an illegal torrent program.
Of course AAE is the greatest to make effects, but the cost on that thing is so high, nobody would use it unless they have a relative or they, themselves, are into serious, RL, movie making.
I use WMM and my videos turn out very well. (StudioROVader, check my channel out if you want). And you know XiaoXiaoMan? yeah, he probably made the best series, ROBLOX God of War, and he uses WMM. AAE can render your movies to be amazing, Piecrust8 being the perfect example, but on a program like ROBLOX, you don't need all those cool effects with a program. ROBLOX Lua is here for a reason, and it makes it look way more realistic.
I'm sorry if I'm being really critical here, but I would just want people to know that effects aren't everything in a movie. Avatar had epic effects, but I found that the storyline was awful. "
I'm going to answer this in order so re-read your comment and then read my replies.
1. Thank you.
2. The torrents themselves are often illegal, but many companies use torrents to reduce bandwidth. If they were illegal the software wouldn't be used by most MMOs for their patches.
3. XiaoXiaoMan uses Sony Vegas now, I believe.
4. Personally I feel that Densle12 is a much better example; Piecrust stole dozens of templates and said they were his.
5. I use effects because in my opinion I feel that the ingame engine is not at all realistic. Now, obviously there are exceptions to this in other games like Crysis and Crysis 2, in which nearly every cutscene is ingame and rendered in realtime, but often you cannot do many things in ROBLOX that you could edit.
6. Yeah, Avatar had a very basic and standard plot that was strangely similar to a specific classic story.
My channel is SethiXzon, by the way. |
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vader10Join Date: 2008-07-17
Post Count: 9913 |
I just realized how wrong I am.. D=
I've never actually seen things made with such amazing detail and effects and all. Can you tell me where you got your programs? I'm so jealous now... |
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SethiXzonJoin Date: 2008-08-21
Post Count: 13779 |
Wait about ten minutes and you'll see some 3D text rendered exclusively in After Effects. |
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vader10Join Date: 2008-07-17
Post Count: 9913 |
What? =o |
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SethiXzonJoin Date: 2008-08-21
Post Count: 13779 |
CHUNKY.avi |
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vader10Join Date: 2008-07-17
Post Count: 9913 |
What are you talking about? |
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vader10Join Date: 2008-07-17
Post Count: 9913 |
Whoooa, that's kewl! Do you buy your software or what? |
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SethiXzonJoin Date: 2008-08-21
Post Count: 13779 |
can't say that |
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vader10Join Date: 2008-07-17
Post Count: 9913 |
So you use t0rr3n75? Can they get you caught? D= |
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SethiXzonJoin Date: 2008-08-21
Post Count: 13779 |
I didn't say I did, and I didn't; I tricked it in a legal way.
But no, you can't get caught unless you run around in the White House screaming about how you steal software. |
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vader10Join Date: 2008-07-17
Post Count: 9913 |
*tricked legally* I like your style. =P |
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SethiXzonJoin Date: 2008-08-21
Post Count: 13779 |
It's not the only thing I've tricked. I discovered an exploit with Windows Vista's trial mode for instance that allows you to use the computer without having it genuine. |
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vader10Join Date: 2008-07-17
Post Count: 9913 |
Smart..! |
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SethiXzonJoin Date: 2008-08-21
Post Count: 13779 |
Bump. |
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I'm sorry, but waaaaaaaaaaay too much reading. What is your Youtube channel anyways? |
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SethiXzonJoin Date: 2008-08-21
Post Count: 13779 |
@bobby
Well, it is a guide; you don't have to read it in one sitting, of course.
My YouTube channel is my name; SethiXzon. |
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Yeah you only use the stuff that costs a good size of money. This is just ROBLOX so I'm cool with what I use. |
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SethiXzonJoin Date: 2008-08-21
Post Count: 13779 |
Bump. |
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KeesheeJoin Date: 2008-09-24
Post Count: 3695 |
All those 3D effects dont matter without a decent screenplay, storyline, dialogue, etc...
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SethiXzonJoin Date: 2008-08-21
Post Count: 13779 |
@Keeshee
I recommend reading my primary guide if you care about that.
If you actually read this one, you would know that this is an extension to my main guide. |
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