How to make a video?

[dunebugmi]

I see a lot of cool KSP-in-action videos posted in these forums.  Could someone give me some pointers on how to make a video like that?  I'm specifically interested in recording my attempt at one of the KSP challenges.

 

Thanks!

[LukasKerman]

Hi, I'm not sure what you mean by "KSP-in-action" but the first step to make a pleasing KSP video is to remove the UI by pressing F2. Then holding the middle mouse button you can shift arround your view and by holding Alt + Scrolling you can change the camera lens focal length. A wide focal length is cool fo fisheye effects (good for some action shots) and a very narrow angle is good if you want to blow the background up in size. 

To then actually record something you need a screen recorder. A good free one is for example "Open Broadcaster Studio" but it has a little learning curve. it's not like most other where you just press a button and go. It is once you set it up though.

If you have all the footage you need comes the video editing where the true magic happens. I personally would suggest to avoid you to spin the camera view around in the video. Rotary motions can be used as a tool sometimes but get quickly too much. You can switch between different camera angles while recording and in video editing simply cut the parts out where the camera rotates. 

If you want to really dive into video making I can highly suggest to try the freeware Blender. It's a very powerful tool to create all sorts of animations you can use to complement your videos. However, it takes a while to get the hang of it but it does not take as long as one thinks when starting out. 

It's probably not the kind of video you are looking for but here is one of mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc5uUfe1lds

edit: I forgot, if you want to get back to your standard camera stup double press the middle mouse button. Another cool thing: Enabling the "advanced tweakables" in the settings you can actually lock your camera to a certain part. Just rightclick a part and press on "set camera" or something like that. Normally KSP focuses the center of mass of a craft which can be weird for making videos from time to time. You can also lock the camera to a part which is not on your current craft. This means you can control your craft and use a secondary one as a "camera car" lol. if you put the camera car on plane wheels it will simply roll in a direction while you perform some action with another around it. 

 

Edited March 16, 2017 by LukasKerman