Grmo
Smash Champion
Have you ever though about making a combo video? Chances are good the thoughr has crossed your mind. It does with many people, and the results are shown clearly in the combo video compilation thread. There is simply an overwhelming number of combo videos. Some of them are good, some are well...not so good. So how do you point out the good ones? Well, you can't, so that's why I've written this guide, in the hope that everyone will be able to make enjoyable videos. I believe video editing is an art, so it should be treated like one even if you're mixing up a bunch of clips of yourself playing video games.
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The guide is divided up into 3 sections:
1) Footage
2) Music
3) Examples
I highly recommend, if you haven't already, to read the stickies in this forum to get you started. BACH and Wak's Guides are particularly useful. Consider this an expansion of those.
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SECTION 1: REGARDING PLAYING
The question I should have asked earlier was "how do you make sure your video will get good reviews?". The most basic things you can do to ensure this is the following:
1) Make sure your stuff will impress people. Watch other videos and compare. If it's an AR video, you've got nothing to worry about; unless you botch the video editing it will be awesome regardless.
2) Combo videos aren't made in a few days. They can be, but most people just have average combos throughout their video with a few awesome ones. Record tons of matches over a long period of time, save the good ones, and when you think you've got enough, go for it.
3) Get a kickass song. That always helps and it'll make the video more enjoyable.
What's the thing you want to see when watching a combo video? Awesome combos, right? Well, there you go. You're going to want to see something creative and new. If you open up a Fox combo video you sure as hell don't want to be watching waveshining. That's not to say you shouldn't put waveshining in your video, but certain things have their place in the video (I'll explain later!)
Alright, let's take Shined Blind for example. We love it. Why? It's simple: it has good combos (IMO they've aged pretty well), it has a badass song, and most importantly the video editing is great. The key to good video editing lies within the music, and I'll outline how to use music:
SECTION 2: REGARDING MUSIC
1) Make sure the type of music suits your playing style and your character. Drephen said that he had a "gay" Sheik so he used funny music in his video.
2) Timing stuff with the music is really awesome, but do it sparingly. If you do it every 5 seconds it'll get boring fast.
3) Most importantly, PAY ATTENTION TO THE MOODS. The music has mood, which changes slightly in different part. Certain clips suit certain parts of the song, and believe it or not, each clip has a certain mood to it. So the best thing to do when making a video is look through your clips and find the one that fits, or a group. I've noticed that in quieter parts of the song things like chaingrabbing or waveshinging work very well, and its especially awesome when the latter hits on the beats. It works with the music because it's not as wild as everything else.
Another thing to keep in mind is that a combo video can feel a little bit like watching a match. That is to say, it works well to start the video with a 0-death combo at the start of a match and end the video with the end of a match. It doesn't hurt to do something creative and wierd either. In fact it will make it more fun to watch. Oh god, PLEASE fade out your song at the end unless it ends.
For good songs you can look on Stepmania or OCReMiX.
With that in mind, we can carry on to...
SECTION 3: EXAMPLES OF GOOD VIDEO EDITING
Some of my favourite video editors are SuperDoodleMan, BACH, Omnigamer, the GERM, and Masterwumpus. Their videos all indicate excellent video editing skills. As I mentioned earlier, each video has a mood. Most of the videos produced by these people had a sort of apprehensive or "OMG" mood.
Anyway, I'm going to go over several videos from those previously mentioned people and examine their awesomeness (what about them was well done), and then two videos with a lulz mood. (for the sake of convenience I'm going to use Whotube links)
EXAMPLE 1: Guess yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euHUAbmkyAY
I don't know what you guessed, but it's Adventure by SuperDoodleMan. Aside from the fact that its Action Replay craziness, it's very well done. It starts off with good timing with the music, followed by the title; the music dies down a bit, you know it's coming, you see Fox selected, black, and then it starts: the music it lively, energetic anc crazy, which suits the video, and it's a perfect way to start. From there you should be able to realize why the rest is awesome. the Perfect control videos are also very well done.
EXAMPLE 2: I know it's old but its a good example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZfTHTee3a4
The FC3 montage. It's just got a good feel to it. The music fits, and tons of stuff times well. It does a good job capturing the FC mood.
EXAMPLE 3: What made me play Kirby so long ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCIyJU8MwgQ
Although half the combos are against computers, it's still an enjoyable video and it's nice to see Kirby kicking the ***** of high tiers. The intro is very well done and it captures the Kirby mood well. The music change around the 3 minute mark is accompanied by awesome video effects that suit the music perfectly. This remains to be one of my favourite videos.
EXAMPLE 4: It was hard as hell to choose from masterwumpus's videos, believe me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHuazOdzk5w
The music suits perfectly. The colours used at the beginning capture the mood quickly and catches my interest, and the first combo times well with the music. Around the 4:30 mark the music stopps and there's a really funny clip ("There's ****in 2 of them!"), followed by a bunch of clips of Nana being stupid, and then there are a bunch of solo Popo combos. The music choice is pretty funny too.
EXAMPLE 5: Hint: this is the last one. Can you guess yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44CRrJVhUIo
Shined Blind. The most well-known video of all, this defines the term "combo video". It's fin to watch and leaves you with a happy feeling at the end of it. It starts off with DBR's (at the time) signature intro and its pretty cool, but the mood changes right away with one of the funniest song's I've ever heard. Throughout the video things time with various moves like shinespikes, and a really awesome part starting at about 5:40. The combos suit the music well, and in a really well-done build up (Marth being upaired to heaven is excellent for that point) the waveshining times perfectly with the song, with the up smash with the starting of the chorus of the song. In the last clips, every move times with the music.
btw, Evolution is also a good place to look.
Anyway, that's it. I hope this helps some people, and if you're making a video, good luck. Whatever you do, make sure you stray as far as humanly possible away from this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DdvU98HB20
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The guide is divided up into 3 sections:
1) Footage
2) Music
3) Examples
I highly recommend, if you haven't already, to read the stickies in this forum to get you started. BACH and Wak's Guides are particularly useful. Consider this an expansion of those.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SECTION 1: REGARDING PLAYING
The question I should have asked earlier was "how do you make sure your video will get good reviews?". The most basic things you can do to ensure this is the following:
1) Make sure your stuff will impress people. Watch other videos and compare. If it's an AR video, you've got nothing to worry about; unless you botch the video editing it will be awesome regardless.
2) Combo videos aren't made in a few days. They can be, but most people just have average combos throughout their video with a few awesome ones. Record tons of matches over a long period of time, save the good ones, and when you think you've got enough, go for it.
3) Get a kickass song. That always helps and it'll make the video more enjoyable.
What's the thing you want to see when watching a combo video? Awesome combos, right? Well, there you go. You're going to want to see something creative and new. If you open up a Fox combo video you sure as hell don't want to be watching waveshining. That's not to say you shouldn't put waveshining in your video, but certain things have their place in the video (I'll explain later!)
Alright, let's take Shined Blind for example. We love it. Why? It's simple: it has good combos (IMO they've aged pretty well), it has a badass song, and most importantly the video editing is great. The key to good video editing lies within the music, and I'll outline how to use music:
SECTION 2: REGARDING MUSIC
1) Make sure the type of music suits your playing style and your character. Drephen said that he had a "gay" Sheik so he used funny music in his video.
2) Timing stuff with the music is really awesome, but do it sparingly. If you do it every 5 seconds it'll get boring fast.
3) Most importantly, PAY ATTENTION TO THE MOODS. The music has mood, which changes slightly in different part. Certain clips suit certain parts of the song, and believe it or not, each clip has a certain mood to it. So the best thing to do when making a video is look through your clips and find the one that fits, or a group. I've noticed that in quieter parts of the song things like chaingrabbing or waveshinging work very well, and its especially awesome when the latter hits on the beats. It works with the music because it's not as wild as everything else.
Another thing to keep in mind is that a combo video can feel a little bit like watching a match. That is to say, it works well to start the video with a 0-death combo at the start of a match and end the video with the end of a match. It doesn't hurt to do something creative and wierd either. In fact it will make it more fun to watch. Oh god, PLEASE fade out your song at the end unless it ends.
For good songs you can look on Stepmania or OCReMiX.
With that in mind, we can carry on to...
SECTION 3: EXAMPLES OF GOOD VIDEO EDITING
Some of my favourite video editors are SuperDoodleMan, BACH, Omnigamer, the GERM, and Masterwumpus. Their videos all indicate excellent video editing skills. As I mentioned earlier, each video has a mood. Most of the videos produced by these people had a sort of apprehensive or "OMG" mood.
Anyway, I'm going to go over several videos from those previously mentioned people and examine their awesomeness (what about them was well done), and then two videos with a lulz mood. (for the sake of convenience I'm going to use Whotube links)
EXAMPLE 1: Guess yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euHUAbmkyAY
I don't know what you guessed, but it's Adventure by SuperDoodleMan. Aside from the fact that its Action Replay craziness, it's very well done. It starts off with good timing with the music, followed by the title; the music dies down a bit, you know it's coming, you see Fox selected, black, and then it starts: the music it lively, energetic anc crazy, which suits the video, and it's a perfect way to start. From there you should be able to realize why the rest is awesome. the Perfect control videos are also very well done.
EXAMPLE 2: I know it's old but its a good example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZfTHTee3a4
The FC3 montage. It's just got a good feel to it. The music fits, and tons of stuff times well. It does a good job capturing the FC mood.
EXAMPLE 3: What made me play Kirby so long ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCIyJU8MwgQ
Although half the combos are against computers, it's still an enjoyable video and it's nice to see Kirby kicking the ***** of high tiers. The intro is very well done and it captures the Kirby mood well. The music change around the 3 minute mark is accompanied by awesome video effects that suit the music perfectly. This remains to be one of my favourite videos.
EXAMPLE 4: It was hard as hell to choose from masterwumpus's videos, believe me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHuazOdzk5w
The music suits perfectly. The colours used at the beginning capture the mood quickly and catches my interest, and the first combo times well with the music. Around the 4:30 mark the music stopps and there's a really funny clip ("There's ****in 2 of them!"), followed by a bunch of clips of Nana being stupid, and then there are a bunch of solo Popo combos. The music choice is pretty funny too.
EXAMPLE 5: Hint: this is the last one. Can you guess yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44CRrJVhUIo
Shined Blind. The most well-known video of all, this defines the term "combo video". It's fin to watch and leaves you with a happy feeling at the end of it. It starts off with DBR's (at the time) signature intro and its pretty cool, but the mood changes right away with one of the funniest song's I've ever heard. Throughout the video things time with various moves like shinespikes, and a really awesome part starting at about 5:40. The combos suit the music well, and in a really well-done build up (Marth being upaired to heaven is excellent for that point) the waveshining times perfectly with the song, with the up smash with the starting of the chorus of the song. In the last clips, every move times with the music.
btw, Evolution is also a good place to look.
Anyway, that's it. I hope this helps some people, and if you're making a video, good luck. Whatever you do, make sure you stray as far as humanly possible away from this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DdvU98HB20
