Forums / Fun! / Creative

.. Maybe "start" isn't the right word. I had it, and used to post random SFM animations on it. But only recently have I actually begun producing a steady stream of material. As of right now, it's become a Let's Play channel, with the current game being FFVII. However, I may expand to different video types in the future.

Being a total noob to making videos, I'm hoping that the more talented users on here could take a look and help me get better at making these kind of things. I use OBS in conjuction with VLS and Movie Maker (i'm kind of poor, don't judge me for that). Any kind of criticism is welcomed with open arms as I learn the ins and outs of YouTubing.

My channel can be found here

I'm pretty sure one of the rules on here is says you can't promote yourself like ya know, what you're doing?

He's asking for help and critisicm, like ya know – the whole purpose of the Creative board.

Anyways – position your camera so that it is level with your face and try setup some basic lighting – your face cam is recording in a darkish area, all you need for basic lighting is a decent point light, a cheap way to do that is to get a cheap light that points in 1 direction and then get a material that'll reflect the light, use a white sheet behind you and you can use it to act as a bounce light or you can go one step higher and use an actual bounce light in conjuction with a sheet.

What you'll need to do is place the light preferably out of your face – rule of thumb is at a 45 degree angle to the subject but in this case I'd say if you have a shelf just stick the fucker on it cus you don't want the light in your face (this isn't a photo shoot) then you place the bounce light (a cheap way is to use one of these and preferably you'll want it as a circle) – you'll use that bounce light to balance the light being reflected onto the other side of your face – if in the footage you can see your face just fine w/o it then don't use it.

Just be careful with lighting – be sure to check your footage because you don't want it to be saturated. Also use an LED – LED's produce white light. Stock lightbulbs use a different component which creates a yellow light.

We split the boards to allow this stuff more easily.

Creating an account to promote yourself is clear advertising and still disallowed. But with already existing members, like OP, who want to share something or receive feedback is fine.

That's gonna be difficult; I live in a dorm and have a roommate. If I set up a lamp behind my computer with an LED light, would that work?

You just need to it up so the light isn't in your eyes but it still lights up your body, if it looks like you're sitting at sunset then the lighting is wrong. So yes using an LED on it's own should be fine but if you want to balance the light then what I said would work.

I took that into account for my newest episode. In addition, I added a short live action segment. Let me know if you think the new lighting helps.

Lightings good nuff – maybe just get a small desk lamp for the other side of your face or summin but at the moment it's good. If you're giving commentary you want the music and ingame sound lower than your voices, it's impossible to hear you currently.

When speaking to the camera – put your eyes on the camera, I know it's tempting to look at the screen but look at the lense.

Possibly in the future consider looking for a cleaner mic – one that is less succeptable to picking up background noise – it isn't bad but for someone like myself who works with this stuff it's a pest. Currently though it's not a problem – just a thought for the future.

Back to the camera I think it needs to be raised just a bit more again – you want it to be level with you eyes. Look at a lot of professional streamers and how they position their cameras and their lighting. People like iijeriichoii and LobosJR who both have professional setups.

You never want the camera under you – higher is safer but you can always have it too high, a good height example would be nickbunyun (image 4) and LobosJr's cam setups.

Stay away from this fiend

Saturation is your worst enemy – just in this case it's because of his screen.

Honestly I don't think you even need a facecam. This is just my personal opinion on the matter but when I watch a let's play I do it primarily for the gameplay and the commentary. 95% of the time, a facecam is just recording someone staring blankly at the screen. I would rather be able to see the top corner of the game.

Well, I really like the live action aspect of the channel. I'm increasingly favoring having one skit per episode. For example, the latest episode had an extended intro featuring my own alternate persona, in the same vein as Markiplier/Warfstache.

I enjoyed making that skit a lot. Should I keep doing them in future episodes?