WoW Video making guide!

FRAPS

1. Basics.

For recording your wow sessions you will almost always need some software todo it. In this case we will use probably the most common software, Fraps. Frapsis incredibly handy and easy to use even if you have never used it before. Youcan have the program from Frap’s website http://www.fraps.com.If you prefer a direct link, please visit: http://www2.fraps.com/FRAPS260.EXE.

1.1 Installing.

As long as this is a starter guide, I must lead you through almost everything,which means installing and some basic information. Okay let’s get to business,you have the FRAPSXXX (XXX being the version number) on your hard-drive, pleaseexecute it. A full-screen window will appear in front of your eyes, giving youthe ‘Fraps Software License Agreement’. I suggest you to read this and make yourdecision to install or not. After pressing the ‘I Agree’ -button, the installerasks you where the software should be installed. You can manually type the pathon the text field or you can browse it by clicking the ‘Browse…’ -button. Onceyou are ready, please click ‘Next’ -button and enter (or accept the default)name of the start menu shortcut and click ‘Install’ -button.

Now the installer will install the software to your computer (install speed maychange on different computers, due to CPU and hard-drive speed). You can finishthe installation by clicking ‘Close’ -button.

1.2 Setting Fraps up.

After installing the software, open it. A small, handy program will open. Moveto the Movies tab and choose the folder to save the movies in. Then choose thebutton for start/stop recording (default: f9). Now it’s the most important thing,choosing the FPS.. The better computer (basicly CPU,
graphics card and memory) the higher FPS you should put, in order to make thequality look good.

Choosing Full-size and/or choosing high FPS will require extremely much fromyour computer, so be wise in this part. Please do not ask “how much FPS I shoulduse with this computer: xX XX XX”, use your head and go try it yourself (remember,having multiple users will need more from the computer and therefore lower yourFPS).

1.3 Recording.

So you want to record something? Well this is quite easy.. Just log in to Worldof Warcraft and press the video capture hotkey (default: F9) and once you arefinished, press it again to stop the record (unregistered fraps will only letyou record for 30seconds each time). Now you have a video clip and you can continueto take more of them and when you are ready you may put all the video clips together.

VIDEOMACH

2. Basics

For combining many video clips from different wow journeys, you will always needsoftware to do it. In this case we will use probably the most common software,Videomach.
Videomach is incredibly handy and easy to use even if you have never used itbefore. You can have the program from Videomach’s website http://www.gromada.com/.If you prefer a direct link, please visit: http://gromada.com/dl/videomach-3.4.0.exe.

2.1 Installing.

Like many other installers, this one will ask you to click ‘Next’ -button. Ofcourse you can’t forget the license agreement, which almost every software has.If you agree with these terms, choose the ‘I accept the terms in the LicenseAgreement’ and click the ‘Next’ -button, otherwise click ‘Cancel’ -button. Nowyou will have to enter the path to install the software to, you can manuallytype the path on the text field or you can browse it by clicking the ‘Browse…’-button. Once you are ready, please click ‘Install’ -button.

Now the installer will install the software to your computer (install speed maychange on different computers, due to CPU and hard-drive speed).
You can finish the installation by clicking ‘Finish’ -button.

2.2 Combining files.

Now it’s the time to combine the 1-X (x being any number) movies together. Youcan easily ‘drag & drop’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_and_drop themovies to the first list (Video list). If you wish to have music on the movie,please ‘drag & drop’ the music files to the second list (Audio list).

For adding effects, you must click the Video effect -> Add… and choose an effectof your choice. After having all the video clips and audio files on the lists,please click the ‘Save output file’ -button (the floppy disk icon). Now you areasked for the video Attributes.. The most important is the Mode and the Format,for Mode you can choose 4 different things:
- Video and audio – same file
- Video and audio – separate files
- Video only
- Audio only

I don’t think I have to explain what they do, since you can read it above. Oncechoosing the mode, you need to choose the Format. Since this is a movie makingguide, you should choose ‘AVI, Windows audio video interleaved’ and click Start(don’t forget to pick the destination for the movie by clicking the ‘Pick..’-button.

Now you’ve made a ‘movie’. The file is at the movie destination folder and thesize of it is HUGE. If you wish to make it much, much, much smaller, you haveto compress it.

VIRTUAL DUB

3. Basics.

For compressing your wow movies, you will always need software to do it. In thiscase we will use probably the most common software, Virtualdub.

Virtualdub is incredibly handy and easy to use even if you have never used itbefore. You can have the program from Virtualdub’s website http://www.virtualdub.org/.If you prefer a shorter link, please visit: http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/.

3.1 Installing.

There is no installing o/ you will only need to unpack the file from the .rarfile, and it’s easily done with Winrar which you can get from www.rarlabs.comor 7zip from www.7zip.org, sorry I don’t have time to help you with that program.(Just install it and open the .rar file).

3.2 Compressing.

Open the VirtualDub.exe and click File -> Open video file (or press CTRL+O). Browse your video and click Open. Now click Video -> Compression (or click CTRL+P). From now on, you just have to experiment the codecs by yourself. I can give you a hint: The higher quality and higher bitrate, the higher size will the movie be. After choosing and configuring the right codec, click the ‘OK’ -button and click File -> Save as avi… (or click F7).

Now your wow movie is ready to be sent to be submitted.