How do I do This? - "Let's Play"
OK,
My son plays Minecraft, he's 10 years old, almost 11.
What he loves are all the "Let's Play" Videos on Youtube. In fact he's infatuated.
What he want's more than anything right now is to stop watching them and start creating them.
Yes, he wants his own "Let's Play" channel on YT.
I can't imagine why anyone would want to sit and watch someone else play a video game for hours but he does and there are lots of people who do.
In my mind, this may be the opportunity I've been looking for to switch him from being a zombie user to being a productive creator of content. He loves computers and this may be the hook needed to put him on the road to what may lead somewhere productive.
What I need is to know how to do it.
How do you play Minecraft (or any game) and record the screen play while also recording your own voice as you go?
And also, to do it cheaply or free. He wants to use his birthday money to get what he needs to do this. Hopefully I can get him up and running without him using up all of his money - Remember, He's only 10 (Turning 11 in May)
Doing this Free would be better but I don't know if this is possible.
Please share your wisdom with us.
Cheers!
My son plays Minecraft, he's 10 years old, almost 11.
What he loves are all the "Let's Play" Videos on Youtube. In fact he's infatuated.
What he want's more than anything right now is to stop watching them and start creating them.
Yes, he wants his own "Let's Play" channel on YT.
I can't imagine why anyone would want to sit and watch someone else play a video game for hours but he does and there are lots of people who do.
In my mind, this may be the opportunity I've been looking for to switch him from being a zombie user to being a productive creator of content. He loves computers and this may be the hook needed to put him on the road to what may lead somewhere productive.
What I need is to know how to do it.
How do you play Minecraft (or any game) and record the screen play while also recording your own voice as you go?
And also, to do it cheaply or free. He wants to use his birthday money to get what he needs to do this. Hopefully I can get him up and running without him using up all of his money - Remember, He's only 10 (Turning 11 in May)
Doing this Free would be better but I don't know if this is possible.
Please share your wisdom with us.
Cheers!
14 Comments
critical_dMost game recording software works the same way in that the program runs in the background while you play. Starting and stopping recording is usually done by pressing a hotkey or whatever button you specify in the options.
A lot of game recording applications offer both "free" and paid versions. The difference between free and paid versions vary but you usually have more options available to you with a paid license. I suggest using the free version as a trial so you can find which one he prefers before spending $$.
The software I am most familar with is called Fraps and is very popular. http://www.fraps.com/
Let me know if you have any questions.
UsesProzacWow, that is really cool that he's into doing that. I'd like to Sift those videos
RyjkyjEncourage, encourage, encourage!!!
mintbbbI use the free version of Bandicam atm (http://www.bandicam.com/). I have only recorded short clips and taken screenshots from SWTOR and it works great for me. The paid version of course gives you a LOT more than the free, but you can just try to free one
I do not know if it records your voice when you play, since I use it only a little, but I am sure their site will let you know more.
looks like a 1 PC license is $39, so that's a pretty good deal I think. Check them out!
berticushttp://letsplay.wikia.com/wiki/LP_guide_for_newbies
SagemindWow, so far, even this little bit is awesome. He's never going to let me sit back once he knows this info.
This is great - Thanks
gwiz665I've been live streaming a bit of Diablo 3 beta and starcraft, and I use Xsplit for it. It is vastly superior to the alternatives that I've seen. http://www.xsplit.com/ You can record offline as well.
thegrimsleeperhttp://camstudio.org/ can record the screen and audio from a microphone and is free. You also want to install xvid and make camstudio use that to encode the video so you don't end up with files that are many GBs just for a few minute long video.
BarsepsDo all of these work on PC's & laptops ONLY, or can you get them to work for consoles as well? (In my case, the PS3)
*Quality post.
siftbotAwarding Sagemind with one star point for this contribution to VideoSift - declared quality by Barseps.
alien_conceptMy son watches hours and hours, days and days worth of let's play youtube vids, usually Zelda, but he's watching Banjo-Tooey just now. I don't get it, but he geeks supreme in this household, so...
jimnmsOthers have already posted links to video recording software. I've used Xfire to record small snips of games, but I don't know if it supports Minecraft. All of the recording programs (AFIK) record raw (i.e. uncompressed) video, so they will be very large files.
If he wants to put in fancy effects and titles, the video editing is probably going to be the most expensive if you go pay software. I don't know of any free programs that can do editing like that. If you just want to put the clips together and compress them, there are some good free programs that can do that. The free programs I've used are VirtualDub and HandBrake. Grab the ffdshow codec. I believe I read somewhere that if you encode your videos using H.264, it makes things easier when uploading to YouTube since it won't have to convert it, and the ffdshow codec can do H.264. I'd start out with free stuff before spending money to make sure it's something he's going to stick with. If he sticks with it, you're going to need to buy some more hard drives to keep backups on too.
I subscribe to and watch a few Minecraft LP channels. I like to watch how other people play and what they do because it gives me ideas of things to do in my own game. One also makes up a story and role plays, which is kind of cheesy but interesting.
Porksandwich says...Try looking into twitch.tv.......you can live broadcast what you're doing and talk to people who are watching you play if you so choose.
Might be too interactive...but worth looking at.
GallowflakI use Fraps. It's like the mIRC of video capture. It's fairly inexpensive, and it's easy to pirate if you're so inclined. As jimnms mentioned, VirtualDub for editing/video compression. Bear in mind that, using a program like Fraps, the recorded video is uncompressed .AVI, and the filesizes are immense. Make sure your storage device is nice and spacious.
If your kid wants any sound design done for an intro sequence or anything, I'd be happy to whip something up. Example of something recent.
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