Tips for video tutorials?
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So I thinking about maybe starting to do some simple video tutorials for the Next-Gen Hard Surface forums. It would be mostly basic stuff, such as how to cut holes into meshes, and would serve as a way for me to not only nail down my workflow, but also to get critique on it.
Anyway, in an effort to avoid making a complete ass out of myself with my first video, I would like to hear any tips you guys would have on making video tutorials. What do you like to see in them? What annoys the hell out of you?
Edit: Definitely meant to post this in General Discussion, but I guess this works too.
Anyway, in an effort to avoid making a complete ass out of myself with my first video, I would like to hear any tips you guys would have on making video tutorials. What do you like to see in them? What annoys the hell out of you?
Edit: Definitely meant to post this in General Discussion, but I guess this works too.
Replies
It's searchable so when people need to come back and dig up that one nugget or that setting their missing, they can do it easily.
People can skim it faster without accidentally missing a nugget of info. If its written and formatted properly it can get the same info across quicker than a video can.
You can include short videos along with longer text explanations and not be constrained to the 2sec its takes to feverishly click a series of buttons.
Outside of that, prepare and plan, write up what you're going to say and try to make it as clear and clean as possible, which normally means write a text tutorial first.
Record the video, edit it down getting rid of the "oh wait no its this setting... no no its this one?" "Oh I forget to mention this in the beginning". Then do the voice over work. It's hard enough to remember the steps and record them flawlessly you don't need to worry about your voice acting at the same time.
here's my process for tutorial making:
1. researchresearchresearchresearchresearch. make sure you ABSOLUTELY KNOW YOU ARE DOING IT RIGHT. most of my videos are garbage now because i didn't know how to do things properly.
2. write an outline. just a little step by step on a piece of paper or something so you don't forget where to go next.
3. record video. i always record video separate from audio because screen recorders are terribly unreliable, and you can focus more on doing the work than trying to do the work AND talk about it. camstudio is by far the best screen recorder, but even with its stability i still record in parts. make sure you are recording to a good lossless codec too, like lagarith or huffyuv. in addition, make sure you shut off any IM clients or anything that can potentially pop up during the recording process.
4. edit your video. cut down as much as you can while still leaving time for you to explain what you are doing later. remove any errors and try to get it as compact as possible.
5. render your video (to something lossless) then encode it to the format you'll be using for the web. this can and likely will take a long time. since it's a screen recording you can get away with starving the framerate for a much lower filesize. i usually use 15fps.
6. bring your video in to your audio editing program (i like audition for this specific purpose) and record audio. have your mic gain low, rehearse what you're going to say, and SPEAK LOUD AND POWERFULLY.
i record line by line to reduce the amount of uhhs etc. uhhs and ums are way too common in those crappy youtube tutorials, so always try to cut them out whenever possible. sometimes they will merge with words though and create "uhands" etc, so when that happens i just re-record that section instead of trying to edit it out.
other than that BE HUMAN! nobody likes a robot! i have a text document open while i am recording the audio so i can write out what i am going to say next
7. master the audio. learn how to use the limiter, compressor, and eq. the limiter will ensure that nothing goes over 0db, and will allow you to apply upward compression to bring low points up. the compressor will allow you to ensure a consistent volume level throughout the entire recording, and the eq will let you boost and cut different frequencies for clarity and troubleshooting. generally my basic chain goes: compressor > eq > limiter.
listen to your final audio on every pair of speakers and headphones you can find to ensure consistency. you want it to sound the same on every device possible.
after that just encode the audio to the required format, mux it and upload.
just keep in mind that most people here don't like videos, but they can be more helpful for those doing things the first time around.
Bad audio can sometimes ruin a good video, racer's ak tutorial is an example, great video but i always think of cookies when it comes to mind
And i most be diffrent but i have always liked video tutorials, i think i just find the voice and such a bit less boring.
Altough a realy good written one proves better at times when it comes to getting the right info, being easier to edit if something is wrong and easier to search for infortmation
I just threw one together on how to cut holes into meshes, and I would like some feedback on the layout and the way I put it together before I add more sections on to it, such as how to cut holes into curved surfaces.
I'm a big fan of these short, yet very useful tutorials, especially in an image form like this.
It makes it so much easier for me to save it and store it on something like an external HDD, instead of having to save links/bookmarks, having to deal with expired links etc.
Looking forward to seeing the tuts you come up with.
This is coming from the perspective of a beginner/intermediate user, by the way.
EDIT:
Just kind of a pet peeve, but i'd prefer a font without serifs
Here is the tutorial with the final result and a sans-serif font.
So true, I have seen a TON of tutorials where its obvious the people dont really know what there doing too well or think way to highly of there work. Most likely stems from beginners/amateurs sad they cant find enough tutorials so once they figure out how to do something once they make a tutorial on it. Then others see it, think its right and its a snowball of bad all over the place.
Also sans-serif font? more like fail-serif if you ask me. Ditch those dumb little extra bits on the letters, they aren't needed and just clutter up text even more.
I'd go for a lighter grey background and slightly darker font, something like Polycount's colors right now.
Also get rid of the shadow on the text, it's doing nothing but making it even worse on the readers' eyes :P
Edit - Also, the image doesn't need to be THAT big. The Polycount's resized version is big enough I think.
Edit 2 - Oh, and as the first reply said, I would rather do it in text so people can search through it. Setting it up is easier and if you got something wrong you can edit it out faster.
one comment i would have about the method you outline is its not so good for curved surfaces. the dramatic contrasts in polygon area will cause pinching when its bent/ deformed. Might be worth pointing that out.
Autocon - I changed the text in the second iteration of the tutorial, but forgot to do it for the numbers above each image. Completely missed that. If the new text is still too hard to read, I can certainly find a new one.
Mik2121 - I agree that the colors could use some work, and I really should do away with the shadow. I admit that I have an unhealthy love for a good ol' drop shadow.
r_fletch_r - I had that in mind when making the tutorial, as I wanted to start posting these on my wordpress blog. You're right that this method wouldn't deform very well, and I'll be sure to make a note of it on the next iteration. When I get time I'd like to do another tutorial on cutting into curved surfaces.
Thanks again for the comments guys. I know it's a really simple tutorial, but I want to make sure I have the process down before moving on to making more. I'll make the changes you all mentioned after work.