WUMF: April 2013 Edition

You’re all expecting these to be at least a week now, right?  I know.  Bad blogger.  But, here it is, another WUMF.

Obligatory YouTube Update

So, we’re four months into this experiment and it’s been slow.   I’ve actually found it somewhat hard to record.  Sometimes I need to be in a talkative mood, or at least in a good mood.  I only get to record after 9pm and that’s usually when I start getting tired. 

That being said, I caved and started adding ads to my videos.  Now, to be fair, I’ve only added the ones that overlay the videos and don’t make you wait 30 seconds or more to start watching the actual content.    The reason why I did was that I ended up filling an entire terabyte hard drive in a short time and had to buy another three terabyte one to stave off space issues.  That now brings the total amount of money spent on equipment alone to nearly $300 if you count FRAPS.   Not to mention I bought three brand new games to do videos for.

I also started to see an uptick in a couple of my vids.   The funny thing was, they were crap.  I was trying to play Dead Island Riptide and the fps went to shit when I started recording.   The videos became more about how bad it was and was there a way to fix it.   Still nothing, but both have seen over 100 views.    Yeah, I know that’s still a crap number, but comparative to the rest of my work, that’s the highest view count, by at least three times, I’ve had on any video.   Because of that, I needed to monetize some, so I can start recouping my costs.  That is, after all why I am doing this.  I want to show people how you can do it and make money.

I’m still looking to post an update to all of this, explaining what I am doing, but I’ve found other things to do with my channel.  I have a couple of oddball vids that are either of a tutorial nature or just me having fun with the editing process.  Links below.

Random Bits: Atari Adventure

How To Record DOSBox With FRAPS

The Easter Bunny Is From Best Buy?

My daughter got a tablet for Easter.  She’s five and better at Candy Crush Saga than her mother.   How sad is that?   I was initially against her getting one because I did not want to foster that technology suck hole that has swallowed up so many over-privileged children, turning them into the asshats we’ve come to know and loathe in the world.   Still, she spent a lot of time playing Nick Jr. and Qubo games on her mother’s laptop that it became a bit annoying to have to share.

However, we do have limitations on it.  She isn’t allowed to just install apps without us helping, especially since there are free ones that are intended for 16-18+ age groups.   Also, if she gets a yellow light at Kindergarten, which is a warning, she does not get to use it that day.  And, if she gets one on Friday, that’s the whole weekend.   So, I can always tell how the day went if I walk in the door from work and she’s not on her tablet.

She’s also been running around making videos of the cats and commenting while she plays games.   Trying to be like Dad, I guess.

Mowmentum

Since December, I’ve lost 30 lbs.  That’s still a struggle as I bounce up and down the scale a few pounds.   It has gotten better.  In fact, I spent a lot of time outside in the yard and didn’t mind it as much as I normally do.   This past weekend, I mowed the entire yard, a feat that nearly induces a heart attack since I live on a hillside.   Last year, I would usually split grass cutting duties with my wife.  She would cut the top, flat area and I cut the hill.  However, she was at work and the yard was ragged.   The entire thing was growing faster than normal, so I bit the bullet and did it.   

I had to stop in between, primarily because we had a lot of downed limbs that I needed to cut up and toss.   So, in between the front and the back, I removed limbs.   In between the back and the hill, I sat and drank water.   Then, after every few rows, I had to keep dumping the bag.  

Now, I am usually not a big fan of bagging clippings but the first cut is always a high one and with the added moisture still in the air from April, it is better to clear the clippings instead of letting them stay in the yard to rot.  That mower is a beast, though.   It’s much easier with the standard, no bagger mower.   I just decided to keep on trucking and not stop and it was rewarding to look at a nicer, cleaner, yard.

The AngryCast update #2 - Mongo Smashes and Build It

Since the last update, I’ve been busy with recording and editing.   I managed to put together two more videos for the Minecraft series.  This brings the total up to 10.  Granted, I am still only releasing one a week.  

Part 3 - Arrow to the Knee

Part 4 - Minecraft Part 4 - Inane Ramblings of a Reluctant House Builder

I’ve also posted the last Build It video for work I did on a Multiplayer Server that appears to have gone dark.   It was a project that granted me Builder status on the server and gave me creative control.   Unfortunately, the footage is quite bad and I admit I had to make do with what I had.  At the end, there were a lot of problems with trying to record there.  There was some griefing of the landscape and missing chunks that didn’t make for some great backgrounds.

The Cult of the Creeper

And as if I didn’t have enough going on in that realm, I just got the latest SimCity title and began doing some recording of that playthrough.    For anyone who has considered doing this kind of work, believe me, you find it hard to come up with commentary on a game that pretty much makes you wait for things to happen.  I hated having to do edits to the flow because the soundtrack is pretty good.  Unfortunately, I said a lot of stupid things.  More than I usually do, so I had to do a lot of cutting.   I’ve also enabled longer videos so it ended up being over thirty minutes. 

Part 1 - Shatner You Fabulous Bastard

So, come on by, and see how I'm doing.  I know.  It's bad.  ;)

The Beacon Shrine Part 3

The last part of the Beacon Shrine build is now up on YouTube.

It took forever to edit and post.  Here’s the breakdown of how that worked.

I recorded all of the footage President’s Day weekend using FRAPS, which I purchased. 

Then, I edited each episode down to length using Windows Live Movie Maker.  The first was about five minutes and the next two clocked in at 14 minutes and change. 

Then, I added in narration using Windows Sound Recorder.  After that was done, I saved it all into WMV format and then opened a new Windows Live Movie Maker (WLMM) project and dropped music in from MachinimaSound.

Total financial burden to produce YouTube videos to date:  $37.

Pros:

• Cheap
• Fun
• Creative

Cons:

• Cheap
• Time Consuming
• Frustrating
• Resource heavy

I used cheap twice because for some reason, my videos don’t have the same quality as others I’ve seen.   I haven’t figured out if it’s my FRAPS record settings or me continually making the project into a video file in order to add another layer of audio.   In any given project, WLMM only lets you add in one separate audio track.

I know a lot of other YouTubers use FRAPS to record Minecraft but not sure if they use WLMM to edit and post.  I just saw Sony Vegas 12 on Amazon for $60.  That would push my budget for an unproven venture to just about $100.  May have to mull that one over.

The other frustrating thing is that it takes forever to work in WLMM.  Sometimes it gets hung up and I have to wait for it to stop idling.   The conversion to a video file is also tedious and posting to YouTube could take a couple of hours at least.   I’ve been up late, set a video to publish and went to bed.  Then, finished off annotations and descriptions in the morning.

Now, my biggest problem is doing the actual content.  In my previous post, I stated I had a backlog of footage to edit and post.  I have three episodes done and won’t have to record new ones to work on until almost April.   I left off after recording for one day and now I have to look at the footage to see where the hell I was when I was playing.  I did some stuff on my own and recorded it for another video and I don’t remember the narrative I was working on at this point.

Also, it seems that the server I was playing on is possibly shutting down.   I can understand.  It takes money and time to run a server.   From what I gathered these were high school kids, so as the weather gets nicer, they probably have less time to devote to it.  Sucks that I donated $10 to the server and then they started experiencing issues and possibly shutting down a month later.   I’ll remember that next time I’m on one.

Until then, I will keep going, tweaking the process and letting you know because I know you’re all just at the edge of your seats on this stuff.  ;)