Newbie's guide to making videos & screens

[Thargore]

I saw a lot of people wanted to make some movies and such, but didn't really know how, so I just wrote a little tutorial on it.

I know it's very basic, but it's just so that everyone can learn how to do it.

So, you want to make a video or screens of the cool stuff you do in GTA?

Here's a short tutorial on how you do it.

Screenshots:

You can simply press "F12" in-game and the screenshot will appear in the GTA directory, or use FRAPS.

Replays:

Replays are a little trickier, but worth it.

There are three keys used for replaying:

F1: Press this to see a replay of the last 30 seconds

F2: Press this to save the replay of the last 30 seconds

F3: Press this to view the saved replay.

Notice: In SP the replay length is 30 seconds, but since MTA uses more memory, the replays in MTA are only about 6 seconds. Unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done about this, though you can very well work with 6 seconds when you time it right.

Saving replays:

So if you want to save a replay, press F2 afterwards.

What happens is that the replay is saved as the file:

"My Documents\GTA Vice City User Files\replay.rep"

Problem is, everytime you save a replay, it overwrites the old one. So what you need to do after you saved a replay you want to keep is to move or rename the file, so it doesn't get overwritten when you save a new one.

Personally I like it better to store it in a RAR-archive (http://www.winrar.com)

You do not need to quit GTA for this, you can just press Alt+Tab in the game, store the file and come back.

Loading replays:

If you want to see one of your old replay's, or check out someone else his replay, all you need to do is move the replay.rep in the My Documents\GTA Vice City User Files folder, head back in the game and press F3.

WARNING! Replaying in MTA usually makes your client crash or desync, so be sure that if you're in MTA, ONLY use F2 to save replays (not F1/F3!).

Afterwards, watch and capture the replays in a SinglePlayer game, NOT MTA!

Capturing replays:

Can easily be done with FRAPS.

Load up FRAPS, head in game and press F9 when you want to record. It will put the recorded video in the folder you installed FRAPS to.

Converting movies:

What FRAPS records will be very big, way too big to pass on. Luckily you can convert to DivX or different formats, which saves you a lot of space.

The easiest way to do it is in fact with Windows Movie Maker (if you have Windows, you can download the latest version from http://www.windowsupdate.com). You'll get an .wmv format and although some MS hating people won't like that, it is the easiest way.

Another format is DivX. First, you'll need the DivX Codec, if you don't have it already, get it here.

5 min of searching will find you tons of freeware/shareware tools that convert to DivX, but a rather good one which is fairly easy to use, but still with a lot of options is VirtualDub,

get it here

To convert using VirtualDub:

Start VirtualDub

Select File->Open and choose the AVI in the FRAPS directory you wish to compress.

Select Video->Compression and choose the codec you wish to compress with (usually DivX)

Select File->Save As AVI and specify a filename for the new AVI.]

If you want to encode to different formats (XviD, QuickTime), just do some Googling.

Editing movies:

This is recommended if you want to make a good stunt video. Put some effects in, cut it, dub it, edit it, soundtrack it and you might make a masterpiece.

But I can't help you with it. I can say that Windows Movie Maker is the easiest, and quite alright to make some stuff with to show around.

A little harder, but with some more options is Pinnacle Studio.

And best, but hard to learn (and not free) is Adobe Premiere.

I hope this helped somewhat. Tell me if I missed out something.

Good luck with it, hope to see some cool replays of you ^^

Edited April 29, 2010 by Guest

[raiden]

Thanks for that, now no one will ask anymore!

Well, I bet they still will, but nice anyway.

[Thargore]

i know they'll still ask (most people ask before looking around ;p), but now you can just direct them here instead of explaining it time after time

[raiden]

True, excellent.

[NoReason]

has anybody an idea where i can place my video?? it's 21mb, divx and produced with premiere...

on my website of my provider, i only can put files not larger then 1mb...

[raiden]

Buy decent webhosting if you want to host video files. Faster download speed and better quality that way.

[NoReason]

buying webspace just for 1 movie of mta:vc... no thanks...

thx for your help anyway

[raiden]

Then use it for other stuff. You can't expect a free host to host files that are 21 MB then have enough file transfer for a ton of people to download it. If you're lucky someone with web hosting will host it for you though.

[kev/n]

i found a place for him that stores 50mb+ and he got it on there nice and fine but an error message comes up and says its not available for viewing or downloading, also they arent accepting any new customers.. So the moral of the story is, buy a webspace, free ones are very un-reliable

[me]

the replays actually save the past 30 seconds

[Thargore]

not in MTA it dont

[ProstheticWilly]

yeh thats annoying that there only like 12 secs long

[SM Gulag]

Adobe Premiere 6.0 rocks. It's not that hard to use. You can also use Adobe After Effects which can add some pretty cool editing effects. I use Premiere right now because is has the best compression options, without costing a lot of quality loss.

[AbXI]

Do you record or edit with Adobe premier...

Was just wondering if u can record with it... in that case it would be much better then the frap or what the name of the record program was called..

[me]

record with fraps, edit with adobe premiere or whatever your favorite vid editing software is

[AbXI]

Does any1 here happen to have a full fraps 2.0..

and about the video sub program.. the movie still gets VERY large any1 know another program which i might use to make the file smaller and covert it to another format....

[LoL]

Does any1 here happen to have a full fraps 2.0..

and about the video sub program.. the movie still gets VERY large any1 know another program which i might use to make the file smaller and covert it to another format....

I have the full one But why don't simple fix one by yourself?

[me]

use Virtual Dub to make itty bitty files.

[Thargore]

it's all in the manual?

[SM Swede]

using TMPGEnc-2.520 is a good prog for taking a really large .avi file and converting it down to a small file .mpg

program is simple to use with its wizard

just do a search for TMPGENC to find it

[AbXI]

Hey Lol.. cant u send it to me

[AbXI]

ARgh'!!!

Why does the movie get messed up it got a bunch of lines across it cant see what really happens on the film... This happens only with 2.0 and not with 1.9.. (fraps)

And yes i have uppdated my video card and everything why does the image looks the way it looks..?!?!

It works perfect with other games it is just Gta vice city movies that gets really odd..

What really happems is that the screen get divided on four and a bunch of lines cross all over the screen so make it almost impossible to see what is happening.....

[LoL]

Look like u found one, anyhow if not tell me your msn if u have one

[AbXI]

opss sry.. .just add [email protected]

btw where did u get the full lengt i cant find it anywhere...

[Cerbera]

I think this topic should be pinned as it contains a lot of valuble information. I've been thinking about putting together a promotional video for my Total Handling Overhaul and the tools mentioned here would make that possible. I used Windows Movie Maker to make a test video but the compression was diabolically lossy. I guess I'll have to use something a little less idiot-proof if I do decide to make one.

If someone wants to offer me some help putting together a promo video of my handling overhaul, or for the upcoming pre-release of the Majera Raceway then grab me on Messanger: [email protected]