How to Capture and Prepare Video from Creatures Games (or any game, really)
Written by Aiko, aka Amaikokonut, aka BluburryNorn, etc etc.

This is an extremely condensed version of the full tutorial. If you get confused at any step or would like more information, please refer to the corresponding section of the full tutorial.

I. Introduction

This tutorial was written for use for the community video montage planned for release during the Creatures Community Spirit Festival '08. Each member of the Creatures Community is highly encouraged to participate in this project. All you have to do is capture a short in-game video of yourself doing whatever you do best in your favorite Creatures game, and submit it along with a short message to be added to the video.  This tutorial is also meant to be an all-purpose guide, so any text written in green only applies to clips being submitted for the CCSF'08 montage. It can otherwise be ignored.

II. Setting up your Capture Application
      A. Choosing your Application

There are several applications you can use to capture video from your game; these are also known as screencasting applications. For this particular tutorial we will be using CamStudio because it's free and easy. If it's not working out for you, try SnagIt, HyperCam, or Fraps.

       B. Setting up CamStudio

1. Go to Options > Video options and set your compressor. I highly recommend the CamStudio Lossless Codec. Also, adjust the slider at the bottom until the gray box labeled "Playback Rate" equals 30 frames/second:

2. Go to Options > Cursor Options and hide the cursor.

3. If you want to record sound, select Options > Record Audio from speakers. Keep in mind that this will not only record audio from Creatures, but also any other sound on your computer, so make sure any other programs that make sounds are closed. If you want to include audio in your clip for the CCSF, please also make sure the ambient background music is turned off in Creatures-- otherwise it will clash with the montage music.

4. Go to Options > Keyboard Shortcuts and set/familiarize yourself with the Record/Pause, Stop, and Cancel shortcuts. These will make it easier to control your recording:

5. Go to the Region menu and define...the region. I personally prefer to use the Fixed Region option.

II. Recording Video
    A. Capturing

Tap the record shortcut key (F8 by default). Depending on what you selected from the region menu, you may be prompted to draw a box or place a window before the application begins to automatically record. When you are done recording, press the stop shortcut key (F9 by default) and you will be prompted to save your video.

      B. Troubleshooting

If your video is really slow or choppy, try one or all of these:

• Close unnecessary programs while recording-- maybe even freshly restarting your computer just to be sure.
   
• Go back to your Options > Video options Menu and lower the Frames/Second. (Find a balance-- too low will just make your problem worse)
   
• Make the capture region smaller.
   
• Start a new Creatures world with no add-ons to record in.
   
• If none of these work, you might have to try a different video capture application

If your video has no sound and adjusting the Audio Options for Speakers yields no change, you might benefit from the following workaround method:

• In CamStudio Select Options > Record audio from microphone.
   
• In Options > Audio Options > Audio Options for Microphone , make sure your soundcard is selected, then click the Volume button and select Stereo Mix as your recording device.
   
• In the playback Volume Control window, make sure every element of your soundcard is muted except for the main Volume Control and Wave.

Upload time!

IV. Uploading and Submitting

Upload your video file to personal webspace, or use an upload site like FileFront  (reccomended), MegaUpload, or YouSendIt. Please avoid RapidShare. Video sharing sites such as YouTube and Google Video are also not recommended because they compress your video and make it very hard to convert to a usable file format.

Once you have the download link, all you have to do is move on to the submission form.

V. Advanced Preparation (Compressing, Cropping, and Editing)
      A.    Gathering Tools

This step is absolutely unnecessary if you are simply submitting a clip for the CCSF Montage. The only reason you might need to use this is if your file size is too large to upload anywhere and requires further compression.

Overall, this section is really too complex to condense, so think of this as an overview. If you want to do any post-capture pre-production editing there is a nice freeware application called VirtualDub. You can use it to compress, crop and otherwise edit your video clip.

     B.    Compressing

If your file size is simply too large or if you recorded your video with an application that does not allow you to choose how your video is compressed, you may need to do it manually.

Drag your video file into VirtualDub and go to Video > Compression. Pick your preferred codec and click OK. Save the file, but you can't overwrite the original file.

Also, if you're using VirtualDub (or any other program) to compress your video for the CCSF montage, please, please write down the name of the codec you compress it with so if I don't have it, I can find it. If I can't open your video, I can't put it into the montage.

     C.   Cropping

In VirtualDub, go to Video > Filters. Click on Add in the window, and scroll down the list of filters to find Null Transform. Select it and press OK, and you can now choose the Cropping option, the third button from the bottom in the filters window.

Open the cropping window. You can crop the video by grabbing the edges of the display and pulling them inward so only the content you want is visible.

Make sure you go back to Video > Compression and re-select the codec like you did in the beginning, or else your video will save uncompressed.

Keep a few things in mind-- First, the codec you compress the video with may not encode properly if you did not crop it according to the restrictions. Also, if you intended on editing your video later in Windows Movie Maker, your clip will be stretched to a 4:3 aspect ratio, which can look pretty ugly if you didn't keep that in mind while you were cropping.

     D. Other Refinements

There are a lot of filters to play with in VirtualDub (But not for your CCSF montage clip, please!). If you've ever used Photoshop or similar software, you probably have a pretty good idea of what filters are.

Go to Video > Filters to access them. Some particular filters of interest are as follows:

- The logo filter allows you to overlay an image onto your video. This can be a useful way to watermark your video if (for some reason) it was in danger of being copied or ripped off, or just as a nice personal touch.

- HSV adjust is fun if you desire for your Creatures to look like freakish technicolor aliens (wait... isn't that what they are anyway?) If you like playing with the colors and values of your video, you might also consider the Invert, Levels, and Brightness/Contrast filters.

- Motion Blur is a particularly interesting effect for Creatures videos. You might couple this with the Blur and Box Blur filters to create an even stranger atmosphere.

VI. Closure

I hope this tutorial has proven to be helpful for you. However, if it wasn't, or if you got confused, or if you see a mistake or have a suggestion, you are greatly encouraged to voice yourself. Email your feedback to MindMongrels (at) Songua (dot) com.

My desire in writing these tutorials is to spread the knowledge contained within it as much as possible. You are therefore free to post this tutorial or portions of it (unedited) on your site or on web forums, but please provide a link back to this page so others will know where to find the most updated version. Also, please do not hotlink my images-- that's just bad conduct.

Happy Editing!