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Any YouTubers in the house?

noTuX

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noTuX Rookie

noTuX

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Are there any OCR folks out there that mess around on YouTube?  I would like to network with more experienced people and learn some better video editing techniques.  I do other things on YT, but I'm mainly interested in learning how to make quality game play videos.  I have a bunch that are in my queue, and this is my way of motivating myself to get them knocked out.  I tend to buy a lot of them when there's a Steam sale going on, and I don't actually get around to playing them.  I'm trying to be the next Dashie....No, not really, I'm not that funny, but I do want to get better at it and more comfortable on camera for a future project of mine.

I was looking around the webz for a community dedicated to this topic, but all I could find were as bunch of Sub 4 Sub threads.  That doesn't really seem genuine to me.  I'm looking for pointers and critiques to get better at using my Vegas software and people that subscribe because they want to, not because they expect me to subscribe back.  With that in mind, I want to get better and more entertaining.

Anyway, please drop a link to your channel and tell us what it's all about.

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noTuX Rookie

noTuX

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1 hour ago, TheChargingRhino said:

RIGHT HERE.

Though I just remake VG music...

 

Anyway

 https://www.youtube.com/user/mericalgirl1234

(You can't change the actual name, just your username...)

Nice!  It's good to see fellow remixers out there.  I used to be subscribed to a bunch of remixers on my old channel. Now, I've lost track of many of them and a lot of them aren't very active anymore.  I'll check out your vids.

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TheChargingRhino Newbie

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31 minutes ago, noTuX said:

Nice!  It's good to see fellow remixers out there.  I used to be subscribed to a bunch of remixers on my old channel. Now, I've lost track of many of them and a lot of them aren't very active anymore.  I'll check out your vids.

I just do remakes.

No actual remixes yet. 

Haven't posted in a long time, though...

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noTuX Rookie

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4 hours ago, timaeus222 said:

Been a gamer on YouTube since 2007. Used to make a lot of Mega Man and Pokemon videos. I still kinda make videos, but fairly busy these days.

http://youtube.com/timaeus22222

I also have a music channel, where I put most of my music tutorials and ReMixes:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw3U4J536m3g2e4UhmSBPYQ

You Naruto remix is sick! Subbed! How do you add the music visualization animation at the bottom? I would like to try that in my remix videos. I record myself doing a short game play for mine just to give people something to look at, but i want to do something more to add a little flair to my vids.

I'll definitely check out your tutorial vids as well.  Eventually I'll be making more music to put in my videos.

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noTuX Rookie

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10 hours ago, LuckyXIII said:

Every now and then I post stuff...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbvWcTo6JK_Vyos_naU9VfQ

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNBTRhCEW-ZRFuAKFFPEc-w

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNnWD66iuXAddOacAxPiHSA

Podcast vids! Pretty interesting. What kind ofstuff do you plan on talking about in your future podcasts?

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On 5/20/2017 at 6:53 AM, noTuX said:

How do you add the music visualization animation at the bottom? I would like to try that in my remix videos. I record myself doing a short game play for mine just to give people something to look at, but i want to do something more to add a little flair to my vids.

I used Adobe After Effects, which has an audio spectrum feature that takes input from an audio layer.

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AngelCityOutlaw Newbie

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Just chiming in to say that I have looked — No, scoured through layers of the internet for a good alternative to After Effects for those kind of visualizers and I have found nothing that can get you any more than 75% of the way there at best.

It really does seem to be an After Effects trademark; like, it's arguably a selling point now.

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noTuX Rookie

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20 minutes ago, sephfire said:

Are there any specific pointers you're looking for? I can't offer much help with Vegas or After Effects use (and YouTube is an unpredictable platform in the best of times), but I've been doing the YouTube thing for a while.

Yo!  How are ya Seph?

Well I need a ton of pointers actually...I have been looking for feedback my volume levels between my mic and the game play footage.  My mic was too low in my first few game plays, so I adjusted it in my latest one.  I'm just wondering if it actually does sound better, or is it too loud now?  My hearing has gone to crap thanks to my last couple of jobs, so I have a hard time with sound balancing and EQing unfortunately.

Also, I'm looking for tips to add more flair to my channel and make my videos more entertaining (thumbnails, banners, animations, ect.) especially for the review videos.  I really want to relay the information better about a subject that I am deeply passionate about, and capture the viewer's attention at the same time.  Plus, I'm trying to get over the crazy amount of nervousness I have on camera.  I've been getting some great feedback that I will apply soon, but more will help.

And how do you actually grow your channel?  When I had my Blue Magic channel, it had a pretty decent following even though I wasn't really doing much.  Now, since I'm actually interested in YouTube, I can't really grow it that well.

 

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sephfire Newbie

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Alrighty! I'll split this into a couple sections: first, video production tips!

Audio quality is super important. Video quality is important too, of course: high resolution and framerate while recording will go a long way, as will nice-looking visual elements like overlays and end slates. But audio can make or break your LP channel. If your voice is hard to hear or your mic makes you unpleasant to listen to, a lot of people won't stick around. LPers kinda have to be low-level audiophiles. If you look at the most famous LPers out there, a lot of them have some impressive recording spaces for this very reason. If your hearing makes this difficult, see if you can get a hand from a friend who has an ear for audio! And always prioritize your voice over the in-game audio when editing/mixing in post! Being able to hear the game is important, but if viewers can't hear and understand you, then the whole experience falls apart.

Practice being entertaining! Being a Let's Player is deceptively difficult, way more than most people assume. Talking and constantly being entertaining while also concentrating on the game you're playing is super hard. But being charismatic is maybe the single most important key to Let's Play success. Let's Play channels run on personality. Your viewers could easily play any of these games themselves, or watch any other YouTuber play them, but they came to your channel because they want to feel like they're hanging out with you. Being a Let's Player often means being an entertainer, even if you're not forcing a goofy or screechy persona. So keep practicing! Try to engage the facecam when you can. Don't go silent for too long unless it's appropriate for the moment in the game. Heck, take an improv class if you really want to pursue this stuff hardcore. This is a performance skill just like acting, so keep working that muscle. 

Analyze other Let's Players for ideas! Pick a few channels that you really like and want to emulate, and then carefully study their work. What sort of visual elements do they add? Are their videos long or short? Do they edit their videos to trim out the boring parts? How do they start each episode? What sort of info do they put at the end? Learn from those who are already succeeding in this scene. If you don't know how to do a thing they're doing, that's a perfect opportunity to start researching! The more stuff you learn how to do, the better you can make your own videos.

 

Ok now for some general YouTube tips:

Make your thumbnails eye-catching. You want them to entice. This is why you see so many channels using bright colors, starburst background patterns and faces featured prominently; it's the kind of stuff that catches the eye. Of course, also try to make the thumbnail give an accurate idea of what the video contains so people who are looking for your kind of content recognize that your video is what they were looking for. Featuring your own face isn't a bad idea, and featuring art/logos from the game you're playing is probably a good idea too. There's no secret to success here, just keep experimenting and improving your designs as you go. The more clicks you can draw, the more your channel will grow, so this is a pretty important component of each video's success.

Release videos as regularly as possible. Daily, if you can. It allows you to become a daily part of your subscribers' lives, part of their routine. It's a great way to build and maintain a regular audience.

Try playing new or popular releases now and then. When a game first comes out, lots of people are going to be eager to see that game played on YouTube and Twitch. Hopping on that train can be a great way to draw in some new viewers. Of course, you don't have to do that all the time. Again, personality is the real key to success; your regular viewers will likely enjoy seeing you play anything. But if you only play older games that you never got around to in your Steam queue, you may have a hard time building a large audience as quickly.

There's no single shortcut to channel growth. Success on YouTube is equal parts luck and dedication. Release videos regularly, strive to make your content more and more entertaining, work to become a more charismatic personality. Doing cross-overs with other popular YouTubers can help, but it won't guarantee a fast-track to success. Sub 4 Subs almost certainly won't fast track you either. Your best bet is to just be dedicated, strive for quality and do what you can to stand out. And play to your strengths. Are you funny? Charismatic? Maybe you're an especially skilled player? Or maybe you have something else unique to bring to the table? The more you can stand out in a positive way as a personality, the better.

 

I think my single biggest tip would be this: if being a professional YouTube personality is your goal, throw yourself into that shit. Trying to become a famous YouTube personality these days is like trying to be a famous rock star or famous hollywood actor. It's harder than ever: the scene is flooded now and extremely competitive. Success is far from guaranteed. All the famous streamers and Let's Players you see out there making a living doing this? They work their asses off. Easy as this career looks from the outside, it takes an enormous amount of time and dedication.

So if you want that goal, commit yourself to it fully! Do everything you can to be the absolute best you can be. Study the platform, study your peers, watch your channel analytics and see what you can learn from the patterns. Try to make content that you'd want to watch. If you keep making great videos and releasing them consistently, the audience will slowly find you and the snowball will start rolling.

Good luck!

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noTuX Rookie

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Appreciate it!  I definitely have a lot of work to do.  I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I'm just not very savvy with YouTube.  There's a ton of "get started" guides, but every single one of them are drasticly different.  It's hard to tell what actually works and what doesn't, so I try to reach out to people that have been doing this for a while. I've been checking out others and they do have a formula for their videos and they stick to it pretty closely.  I'm still in the experimentation stage, so every video is slightly different as I learn new stuff, but I want to develop some sort of baseline and build off of that.  Since my channel kinda focuses on three things, I'll need to come up with three different standards for them, I guess.  Or maybe I should split up the channel.  I don't know yet.  But I'm researching how to make custom channel art and all of that stuff now and re-learning Photoshop.

For the audio, I think I'm moving in the right direction with that last game play. I boosted the mic volume a bit, but it sounds like there's reverb on it or something.  Maybe the mic was too far away.  I'm trying to find a way to keep the mic from picking up the sounds from me using my controller/keyboard/mouse.  I have a Blue Snowball mic now and I'm trying to figure out the best way to use it.

I'm a major introvert and I'm camera shy.  With that said, doing the Outlast gameplay with face cam is the scariest thing I've done this year, so this is kinda like therapy for me. I have a hard time trying to play a game and just talk about stuff at the same time.  I lose focus on one or the other, so I just shut up and play sometimes.  LOL.

I'm still trying to figure out how to make better thumbnails.  It's been years since I mess with Photoshop, but I want to make something standard for all my videos that incorporates my avatar. I'll be figuring it out soon.

Since my internet is ass, I can't upload as often as I'd like, I live in a small town, so the internet is not the best.  It literally takes me half a day to upload one video and downloading new games is out of the question at the moment.  Once I find a better ISP, I will be able to post up much more content.  Hopefully I'll have that straight this weekend.

I have a queue of Steam games that I never played, so I was trying to get them knocked out before I get the new games, but I understand that playing new releases will get more views, but at the same time, I would end up competing with guys like Dashie and runJDrun and I don't stand a chance of getting views if they end up playing the same game.

I'm going all in with this channel.  I want to have some fun, do something different, and promote a little positivity.  I appreciate your advice and I will use it!

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FenixDown Newbie

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I'm a small-time Let's Player though I haven't released anything new in a couple months or so. So far I've mostly done classic RPGs like the SNES Final Fantasy games and Chrono Trigger, though I've also done the early Zeldas and some 2D platformers. I take a walkthrough approach to the RPGs, explaining the mechanics of the system and any battle strategies I know of for specific situations, etc. I also usually read dialogue and give the characters voices, admittedly to varying degrees of success, though I have gotten positive comments for it from time to time.

I have some playlists linked in my signature but if anyone's interested in checking out my channel, the link is right here:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1Ek_bkrHSNhwS96nTVlX5Q

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20 hours ago, FenixDown said:

I'm a small-time Let's Player though I haven't released anything new in a couple months or so. So far I've mostly done classic RPGs like the SNES Final Fantasy games and Chrono Trigger, though I've also done the early Zeldas and some 2D platformers. I take a walkthrough approach to the RPGs, explaining the mechanics of the system and any battle strategies I know of for specific situations, etc. I also usually read dialogue and give the characters voices, admittedly to varying degrees of success, though I have gotten positive comments for it from time to time.

I have some playlists linked in my signature but if anyone's interested in checking out my channel, the link is right here:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1Ek_bkrHSNhwS96nTVlX5Q

Nice.  I always wanted to check out some Let's Plays from old school games.  I'll be checking your channel out!

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LuckyXIII Newbie

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On 5/25/2017 at 7:52 AM, noTuX said:

Podcast vids! Pretty interesting. What kind ofstuff do you plan on talking about in your future podcasts?

AGH! Totally lost track of this...

I've also been terrible about posting the subsequent episodes on YouTube...need to get on that.

Well, looks like since you asked, I've had on a local actor, another filmmaker, then did a solo Father's Day episode, and on Monday's episode I talk with a guy I met at an event I MC'd who's in the Navy (like I was), who also teaches swing dancing, speaks publicly on suicide prevention (mostly at other military commands), got called out for his laugh at a Pete Holmes show, and a lot of other neato stuff.  The podcasts themselves are on iTunes and Stitcher (and cuttingitclosepod.com) but I'll try to get those other vids up by the end of the week.

Thanks for your feedback and qwerstions!

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Miyakan Newbie

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Not yet on Youtube. But I'm hoping to get on in the next month. I'll be doing reviews of older Lego sets. (90's era.) I figured rather than competing against the people who already do a great job of the new stuff, I'd try and do quality reviews of the old stuff as all that is out there for many of them is a shaky hand-cam review.

So my question is, what is some good start up software for video and audio editing? I've currently got Audacity. But no video stuff.

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