Espie23:
Haha as luck would have it I've recently started watching GuudeBoulderfist's very first mindcrack LP, was that you on that server Espie23?
As far as the video is concerned:
The one thing that stuck in my mind was that I couldn't actually see much when you were down in the ravine. Consider turning up your brightness settings in the options menu, Youtube makes videos look darker than they seem to the producer.
Correct! I am the same Espie23, haha. I mentioned it earlier in the thread, but I was messing around with Youtube's enhancements and had no idea what the +1 contrast did to the cave portions of the video. It should be fixed for future uploads
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Minecraft Let's Play / Competitive Pokemon Battles / Other things??
The first thing I would have to say is that I don't really understand what's going on soon enough. A less invested viewer would probably quit watching if they don't know exactly what they're watching within the first minute or two. So this is a sort of roleplaying series? This niche is not my forte, but I'll share just my observations. If you're crafting the story as you go, it would be a good idea to re-cap a bit at the beginning to catch up people who may have missed any of the previous episodes or are entirely new to the series (like me, and most of youtube). The objectives you intend to meet in the episode should be clear to the viewer, as well as the reason for the objectives. So you needed to find an ender pearl, what exactly for? This is obviously a modded series so I would err on the side of over-explanation since some of your viewers will probably have very little knowledge of the mods. I think you could also talk to the npc's a bit more to get more into character.
You should also experiment with adding music to these videos. Music can enhance the mood, create the atmosphere you want the audience to feel, and fill empty audio space. For starters, youtube offers a bunch of music that doesn't have any sort of commercial license and is available to use for free with no copyright worries, I highly recommend checking it out.
Ah I see. Well in that case, you should try to quickly establish to the viewer what the genre is. The intro is a good place to start, right now it introduces the two of you as characters but doesn't really do much else in the way of establishing the narrative. This is why it seemed to me more like a 2 person roleplaying modded let's play than a machinima. If that's what you're going for, you should also consider having another username to use as a thirdperson camera. To me, that's much more cinematic than seeing things from the first person player perspective.
@ZuppZ: While your waiting to buy your new mic, there are a couple things you can do to boost audio quality. See my previous comments about using audacity to compress and remove noise. Also, your video audio should favor your voice a bit more over the game sounds.
Your intro is cool, but a little long, about 20 seconds. If you doubled the speed I think it would be perfect. Some of the text with gradients is a bit hard to read, and looks sort of dated as well. Try to sound a bit more interested in what you're saying. For the most part you sound either really tired, or bored. Get excited! If you're not excited about what you're saying, chances are the audience isn't either.
@Gravyc: First, your buddies level is waaaay below yours. Either adjust this in editing or do a little test record first to see if all the levels are ok. So this is a hardcore series, with a death counter? Hardcore means once you die, your done. Just sayin'. But no health regen is kind of hardcore I guess.
What is that little cat thing in the corner?
The episode feels a bit unfocused. The plan is to get to the End and beat the dragon, right? (not the most original goal) So why are you setting up a base first thing? Let the viewers know what you're doing and why you're doing it. Do you even really need a base for this?
15 lives is waaay too many for this challenge. Maybe that's why it seems like you're trying to die sometimes, or at least not trying too hard not to die.
To be completely honest, I don't think that people really want to watch people blunder about the game. In an era where a lot of people have seen and played UHC themselves, I think they expect a certain level of skill when watching other people play. So if you are going to play like 2011 yogscast, it needs to be at least funny.
@ZuppZ: great job tweaking the intro, it's much better now!
@P_Town: just saw part of your posted video, and i've seen some of your other episodes. All of them are really good, smooth transitions and clean audio, it's hard to critique. Methinks you deserve more subs :3
If anyone's got time, I'm uploading my first episode of my minecraft let's play. Would love to hear critiques before I start recording the next episode
Sound levels were definitely something I was wondering about, so thanks for clearing that up. I uploaded in 720p, and I just checked it, so it should be available by now . I didn't catch the transition hoohaw, thanks for catching that detail, I'll pay closer attention to those next time.
As for the music, I believe it is royalty free. I put the credit in the description, is it not clear enough or should I add text into the intro/outro? I also don't want my videos taken down
@ZuppZ: great job tweaking the intro, it's much better now!
@P_Town: just saw part of your posted video, and i've seen some of your other episodes. All of them are really good, smooth transitions and clean audio, it's hard to critique. Methinks you deserve more subs :3
If anyone's got time, I'm uploading my first episode of my minecraft let's play. Would love to hear critiques before I start recording the next episode
I have a bit of advise for the long run. If you feel that a part(like mining) is boring edit it out.
@ZuppZ: I agree with what Banandys said, the intro feels a lot snappier and gets us to the good stuff quick! I like it.
In general it's a significant improvement since the last episode. I think you could still do more to enhance your audio quality, like talking louder in general and applying some compression and noise removal via audacity. There's still a fairly loud humming present from a fan or something.
Also, don't forget to relate what your doing to the continuity of the series as a whole. How does what you're doing this episode relate to what you've done so far, and what you're planning in the future?
Everyone should check out X's video "The Art of the Let's Play", he gives a lot of good tips there in how to balance audio from various sources using a few different techniques that make for a really professional video. There's so much to learn there.
@Banandys: First, just to address a pet peeve of mine, I think you have oversampling or resampling enabled (can't remember exactly what it's called). It causes a kind of blurring effect whenever you move the camera, so you might want to disable that when you go to render the video.
I like that you give a plan for the season right up front. I don't like how much you talk yourself down in the beginning! Put a more positive spin on things. You're the boss of this channel and the series, so take the lead and don't apologize! If you start out saying things like "I'm not too good at this and that" your audience will be turned off. We enjoy watching confident people, even if they suck at the game. Suck with confidence! That sounds weird. Point is, you don't have to be the best to be entertaining.
And this is just personal preference, but consider going beyond just beating the bosses as your primary objective. Most of your viewers have probably already done that ourselves, so try to find something unique as an objective. It could be as simple as an odd twist to the boss fights, or something more complex. Just something that makes it yours and makes you stand out from the rest.
One last thing, and it's actually pretty hard: when you're building, see if you can talk over your building with another topic instead giving us the play by play of what you're doing. This gives the viewer one more thing to pay attention to in addition to what you're doing on screen, which will keep the audience interested and engaged. If you're explaining something complex that you're building then that's fine, but if it's something we can understand at a glance, then it can be redundant to hear you give the play-by-play of what we already see.
I'll look into the sampling, to fix the blurring (that would be in the video editing software, not the screen capturing software, right?) and I'll work on the sucking with confidence part haha. The last thing is something I do want to work on though, I'm horrible at multi-tasking so it's difficult for me to comment while playing, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to start doing this, but thanks for the input! It helps tremendously
@Banandys: Believe me, I know what you mean about multi-tasking. It's one of the hardest things about let's playing in my opinion. Even some of the "pros" have a hard time with it too.
@MinecraftXD101: You're mic is positioned directly in front of your mouth (I'm guessing), so anytime you laugh or breath out quickly it we hear a really loud noise. Try adjusting the mic position to avoid this.
I couldn't understand you right at the beginning when you said your name. Pommy?
When you're doing a map like this, it would be nice to hear a bit about the map right up front. Things like where you found it, how you found it, what type of map it is, etc. Most of this is made obvious by the playthrough or answered later, but giving the audience a little background info prepares us for what we're about to see, which most viewers appreciate.
You mentioned putting music in the background of the video, which I think would've been a good idea for this map.
And I think what I told Banandys about being confident on camera applies to you too (and to everyone, really).
Not much wrong with your video at all!
It has decent visual presentation and your voice came across as genuine.
The level difference between your voice and the background sounds is fine, but the overall sound volume is far too low.
You should attempt to deal with your plosives, either technically or by vocal techniques, as the distortion distracts from the overall quality of your presentation.
Oh, and it looks like you've forgotten to put the texture pack link in your description
@Banandys: Believe me, I know what you mean about multi-tasking. It's one of the hardest things about let's playing in my opinion. Even some of the "pros" have a hard time with it too.
@MinecraftXD101: You're mic is positioned directly in front of your mouth (I'm guessing), so anytime you laugh or breath out quickly it we hear a really loud noise. Try adjusting the mic position to avoid this.
I couldn't understand you right at the beginning when you said your name. Pommy?
When you're doing a map like this, it would be nice to hear a bit about the map right up front. Things like where you found it, how you found it, what type of map it is, etc. Most of this is made obvious by the playthrough or answered later, but giving the audience a little background info prepares us for what we're about to see, which most viewers appreciate.
You mentioned putting music in the background of the video, which I think would've been a good idea for this map.
And I think what I told Banandys about being confident on camera applies to you too (and to everyone, really).
Thanks for the feedback guys i really appreciate it! I am looking into upgrading my mic soon. I had a better one but it broke and i was told my friends over skype this one sounded good, but not the best.
@CreeperCraft37: So right off the bat, the video is too long. Unless you've developed a very loyal audience, most people will skip right over a video from someone they don't know if it's too much longer than 10 minutes.
You never introduced yourself, which you should always do, especially at the start of a series.
I think part of the reason the video is so long is because of inefficient use of time. You take a couple minutes to explain what hardcore is (which we probably already know) without really doing anything. Talky times are a great time to do something that doesn't involve a lot of brainpower, like putting together your basic tools.
The majority of your commentary is narrating what you're doing while you're doing it, which is really boring. You also have an awful lot of dead space in your commentary.
As a new youtuber, it's on you to give the viewers a reason to watch your videos instead of watching someone else's. So what reason is that? What's your contribution to the genre?
@elfgamer98: I'm not super familiar with the game mode, looks like standard pvp blah blah blah so take a minute to explain what's going on, what makes this game different and interesting, and once again WHY we should watch you instead of something else. You've chosen to record a genre that a lot of kids are already into, that a lot of people record, and that doesn't offer much room for interesting commentary since basically all you do is chase someone and click on them until they die. All of this makes for a pretty boring viewing experience.
Think about this: is there anything the viewer gains by watching you win or lose? Most of your viewers really won't care if you win or lose, so ask yourself why anybody would want to watch this kind of stuff.
This is something for everyone to consider: There are hundreds if not thousands of people who are recording and uploading content very similar to yours. Minecraft has been out of alpha for a long time and it is no longer enough to just record the game and upload straight old gameplay, especially if you're playing one of these minigames that the kids are really into. Everyone is doing that, so do something unique and interesting.
Also, ask yourself why you are recording and uploading. I'd love to hear your reasons for getting into youtube.
Correct! I am the same Espie23, haha. I mentioned it earlier in the thread, but I was messing around with Youtube's enhancements and had no idea what the +1 contrast did to the cave portions of the video. It should be fixed for future uploads
You should also experiment with adding music to these videos. Music can enhance the mood, create the atmosphere you want the audience to feel, and fill empty audio space. For starters, youtube offers a bunch of music that doesn't have any sort of commercial license and is available to use for free with no copyright worries, I highly recommend checking it out.
Your intro is cool, but a little long, about 20 seconds. If you doubled the speed I think it would be perfect. Some of the text with gradients is a bit hard to read, and looks sort of dated as well. Try to sound a bit more interested in what you're saying. For the most part you sound either really tired, or bored. Get excited! If you're not excited about what you're saying, chances are the audience isn't either.
@Gravyc: First, your buddies level is waaaay below yours. Either adjust this in editing or do a little test record first to see if all the levels are ok. So this is a hardcore series, with a death counter? Hardcore means once you die, your done. Just sayin'. But no health regen is kind of hardcore I guess.
What is that little cat thing in the corner?
The episode feels a bit unfocused. The plan is to get to the End and beat the dragon, right? (not the most original goal) So why are you setting up a base first thing? Let the viewers know what you're doing and why you're doing it. Do you even really need a base for this?
15 lives is waaay too many for this challenge. Maybe that's why it seems like you're trying to die sometimes, or at least not trying too hard not to die.
To be completely honest, I don't think that people really want to watch people blunder about the game. In an era where a lot of people have seen and played UHC themselves, I think they expect a certain level of skill when watching other people play. So if you are going to play like 2011 yogscast, it needs to be at least funny.
@ZuppZ: great job tweaking the intro, it's much better now!
@P_Town: just saw part of your posted video, and i've seen some of your other episodes. All of them are really good, smooth transitions and clean audio, it's hard to critique. Methinks you deserve more subs :3
If anyone's got time, I'm uploading my first episode of my minecraft let's play. Would love to hear critiques before I start recording the next episode
Sound levels were definitely something I was wondering about, so thanks for clearing that up. I uploaded in 720p, and I just checked it, so it should be available by now
As for the music, I believe it is royalty free. I put the credit in the description, is it not clear enough or should I add text into the intro/outro? I also don't want my videos taken down
Thanks a lot for the critique! It helps a LOT
I have a bit of advise for the long run. If you feel that a part(like mining) is boring edit it out.
In general it's a significant improvement since the last episode. I think you could still do more to enhance your audio quality, like talking louder in general and applying some compression and noise removal via audacity. There's still a fairly loud humming present from a fan or something.
Also, don't forget to relate what your doing to the continuity of the series as a whole. How does what you're doing this episode relate to what you've done so far, and what you're planning in the future?
Everyone should check out X's video "The Art of the Let's Play", he gives a lot of good tips there in how to balance audio from various sources using a few different techniques that make for a really professional video. There's so much to learn there.
@Banandys: First, just to address a pet peeve of mine, I think you have oversampling or resampling enabled (can't remember exactly what it's called). It causes a kind of blurring effect whenever you move the camera, so you might want to disable that when you go to render the video.
I like that you give a plan for the season right up front. I don't like how much you talk yourself down in the beginning! Put a more positive spin on things. You're the boss of this channel and the series, so take the lead and don't apologize! If you start out saying things like "I'm not too good at this and that" your audience will be turned off. We enjoy watching confident people, even if they suck at the game. Suck with confidence! That sounds weird. Point is, you don't have to be the best to be entertaining.
And this is just personal preference, but consider going beyond just beating the bosses as your primary objective. Most of your viewers have probably already done that ourselves, so try to find something unique as an objective. It could be as simple as an odd twist to the boss fights, or something more complex. Just something that makes it yours and makes you stand out from the rest.
One last thing, and it's actually pretty hard: when you're building, see if you can talk over your building with another topic instead giving us the play by play of what you're doing. This gives the viewer one more thing to pay attention to in addition to what you're doing on screen, which will keep the audience interested and engaged. If you're explaining something complex that you're building then that's fine, but if it's something we can understand at a glance, then it can be redundant to hear you give the play-by-play of what we already see.
I'll look into the sampling, to fix the blurring (that would be in the video editing software, not the screen capturing software, right?) and I'll work on the sucking with confidence part haha. The last thing is something I do want to work on though, I'm horrible at multi-tasking so it's difficult for me to comment while playing, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to start doing this, but thanks for the input! It helps tremendously
@MinecraftXD101: You're mic is positioned directly in front of your mouth (I'm guessing), so anytime you laugh or breath out quickly it we hear a really loud noise. Try adjusting the mic position to avoid this.
I couldn't understand you right at the beginning when you said your name. Pommy?
When you're doing a map like this, it would be nice to hear a bit about the map right up front. Things like where you found it, how you found it, what type of map it is, etc. Most of this is made obvious by the playthrough or answered later, but giving the audience a little background info prepares us for what we're about to see, which most viewers appreciate.
You mentioned putting music in the background of the video, which I think would've been a good idea for this map.
And I think what I told Banandys about being confident on camera applies to you too (and to everyone, really).
Thanks for the feedback guys i really appreciate it! I am looking into upgrading my mic soon. I had a better one but it broke and i was told my friends over skype this one sounded good, but not the best.
You never introduced yourself, which you should always do, especially at the start of a series.
I think part of the reason the video is so long is because of inefficient use of time. You take a couple minutes to explain what hardcore is (which we probably already know) without really doing anything. Talky times are a great time to do something that doesn't involve a lot of brainpower, like putting together your basic tools.
The majority of your commentary is narrating what you're doing while you're doing it, which is really boring. You also have an awful lot of dead space in your commentary.
As a new youtuber, it's on you to give the viewers a reason to watch your videos instead of watching someone else's. So what reason is that? What's your contribution to the genre?
@elfgamer98: I'm not super familiar with the game mode, looks like standard pvp blah blah blah so take a minute to explain what's going on, what makes this game different and interesting, and once again WHY we should watch you instead of something else. You've chosen to record a genre that a lot of kids are already into, that a lot of people record, and that doesn't offer much room for interesting commentary since basically all you do is chase someone and click on them until they die. All of this makes for a pretty boring viewing experience.
Think about this: is there anything the viewer gains by watching you win or lose? Most of your viewers really won't care if you win or lose, so ask yourself why anybody would want to watch this kind of stuff.
This is something for everyone to consider: There are hundreds if not thousands of people who are recording and uploading content very similar to yours. Minecraft has been out of alpha for a long time and it is no longer enough to just record the game and upload straight old gameplay, especially if you're playing one of these minigames that the kids are really into. Everyone is doing that, so do something unique and interesting.
Also, ask yourself why you are recording and uploading. I'd love to hear your reasons for getting into youtube.
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Curse Premium1. I don't ever say my name
2.Sometimes I don't get enough done in my videos
3.I go off topic too much and don't explain really what I'm going to do that episode!
4.I'm not unique at all!
(My channel is in my signature along with my latest video)
Hello Beautiful Human
