This is a very basic guide to take you through the technical set up to get a video captured from a game and produce an edited movie. I will keep it to the basics for this guide and stick to one process, the process that I currently use for my own movies. These concepts can be transferred to any setup.
You will need Fraps to capture the game footage, VirtualDub for pre and post processing and a non linear editor - in my case I am using Sony Vegas 7 (for Windows Movie Maker see my next post). Codecs I am using are DivX and HuffyUV codec.
Resolution and framerate
Before you start frapping your video clips, decide what format your final movie will be in. My current preference is for a resolution of 720x404 at 24 fps (frames per second).
There is a large choice of resolutions. Have a look at John L. Sokol's comprehensive list. Quite a few, eh!? The key consideration is - 'The higher the resolution, the higher the quality, the larger the filesize'. Filesize isn't just a consideration for downloading, it is a serious worry for your hard disk drive! If you want to capture all your clips at HDV 720p then you will need a huge hard drive to edit any movie that lasts more than a few minutes.
* I consider 720 pixels horizontal resolution to be of good quality. This is the current resolution of standard DVD's (at least until HDTV takes over the market). I also want my movies to be 16:9 widescreen which makes the vertical resolution 405 pixels. This needs to be changed to a number divisible by 4 for DivX to work so let's call it 404. So we have 720x404. If anyone starts off about anamorphic widescreen I will come and hit you with a big stick - remember, this is a basic guide!
* If you have an uber machine and don't mind asking your viewers to download a higher filesize then go for 1280x720.
* If you are only planning to upload to low quality youtube, then go for 320x240 (320x180 widescreen). Youtube also provides high quality *cough* at 480x360 (480x270 widescreen).
* There have also been very respectable movies made at 640x360. I would name one but might get accused of a shameless plug!
The next consideration is framerate. Have a look at what Wikipedia says.
* My preference is for 24 fps. This is what you are watching when you go to the cinema, so that sounds good enough for me.
* You could go with the PAL 25fps. This is the TV standard in Europe and many other countries. If you plan to convert your movie to a PAL DVD then it is worth considering (there is actually a very easy way to convert 24fps movies to 25fps movies - ask me somewhere else if you need to know). Some streaming sites also use this framerate when they convert your video to a flash video. If you are going to use Windows Movie Maker to edit your movies then you don't have the choice of 24, so go with 25.
* NTSC video is rated at 30fps (or 29.97 to be exact, don't ask why, not in this thread!) as used in the USA for example. This is just silly for digital video. The human eye will hardly tell any difference between 25fps and 30fps movies so don't bother. More frames to capture and render means larger filesizes! The only reason for choosing 30fps would be if you intended converting your movie to an NTSC DVD.
* Some video streaming sites convert movies to Flash at 15 fps. If this is your sole target, then you may as well do all the capturing and editing at 15fps as well.
The Process
I developed this guide with assistance from Lkmaciel who tested each step. My first request to Lkmaciel was to provide a short frapped clip at 1024x768 resolution, 12 fps, captured at half speed. You can download this here if you want to experiment. Unfortunately, there is a stutter half way through the test video. Regard this as a lesson to watch out for. By the end of this guide when you see the finished movie, that stutter will be obvious.
The higher resolution means that cropping, zooming and panning can be used to improve the movie at a later stage. Capturing at 12fps and half speed is known as the Davinci method (after the filmmaker who invented it). Some computers cannot capture at 24fps without dropping frames. It is essential to get a smooth capture so Davinci developed the method of capturing at a slower framerate then doubling this later.
Pre-processing
Set up your game, IL2, to 1024x768 resolution (or as high as you can make it and still Frap without stutters).
Set up Fraps as shown, and capture your raw footage.
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...yd90/fraps.jpg
Open the frapped video (Lkmacial's test is currently 53MB) in VirtualDub.
Click on 'Audio' and select 'No Audio'.
Click on ˜Video', then ˜Frame Rate'.
Select ˜Change to' and type in ˜24'.
Click ˜Video', then Compression'
Select ˜HuffyUV 2.1.1' then press ˜OK'
Drag the slider to frame 12 and press the ˜mark-in' button, then drag to frame 130 and press the ˜mark-out' button.
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...tualdubfps.jpg
Click ˜File' then ˜Save As' and save the file as ˜Raw Clip - HuffyUV.avi'
The resulting file will be 101MB and should play without any problems in Windows Media Player or Sony Vegas.
Non Linear Editing
Start Sony Vegas.
Click ˜File' then ˜Properties' and enter all the settings shown below. Save this setup for future use by pressing the disk icon.
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...vegassetup.jpg
Drop the clip ˜Raw Clip - HuffyUV.avi' into the first video track.
Click the Event Pan/Crop icon in the clip, then right click on the preview in the Event Pan/Crop window and select ˜Match Output Aspect' (you can do a lot more creative camera work with this window, but that's for another tutorial). Close the Event Pan/Crop window.
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...tputaspect.jpg
You can then add any more raw video captures but for this guide we are keeping it very basic with just one clip.
Drop some music into the first audio track and change the duration to match the video clip. Add fades at the start and end of the video and music track.
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...asaddmusic.jpg
Click ˜File', then ˜Render As'.
The first time you do this you need to set up the render settings and save them. For subsequent renders you just use the saved settings. To get a clean template, open the Template drop down menu and select ˜Default Template'.
Click ˜Custom', then click the ˜Video' tab and enter all the settings shown below. Save this setup by giving it a name and pressing the disk icon.
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...ersettings.jpg
Press OK, make the File name ˜Test' and press ˜Save'.
The movie will render and be saved. The filesize should be 40MB.
Post Processing
You can now compress the movie using VirtualDub again and DivX. See my compression guide HERE. This will produce a filesize of 1Mb which you can download or watch on Vimeo.com (complete with that unfortunate stutter that serves as a lesson to ensure optimal set up for frapping!)

