Recording and editing video on a Macintosh

Creating a World of Warcraft movie is, at a minimum, a 2 step process. The video must first be captured and then encoded.

Prior to the 2.2.0 release of World of Warcraft, two commercial software programs allowed screen video capture in game: iShowU and SnapzProX. The default recording path of files for the World of Warcraft video recorder is by default World of Warcraft/Movies. This folder can be changed by adding SET MovieRecordingPath "/Volumes/SomeDisk" in the World of Warcraft/WTF/config.wtf file.

World of Warcraft Video Recorder Options

This recorder is supported by Blizzard Entertainment, so assistance can be found at the World of Warcraft Macintosh Forums.

The recorder has many options which can be accessed from the Mac Options submenu of the Game Menu. These Options are as follows:

• Record the User Interface: the video records with the interface shown.
• Record the Cursor: records the position of the cursor. Requires the User Interface to be recorded as well.
• Record Sound: adds an audio track to the video, playing game sounds such as casting and emote speech. (unconfirmed does not record in-game chat)
• Show Recording Icon: shows a recording icon on the minimap when recording.
• Compress at Log In: compresses recorded video only after logging in. For optimum encoding speed, it is suggested that the framerate of the game when run in the background be set to a low value (2) by typing “/console maxfpsbk 2” into chat.
• Compress after Recording: after stopping the recording, the video will be compressed. You can not record a new video while the old video is compressing.
• Resolution: The maximum resolution is set by the “Video” menu and the maximum raw video recording abilities of your Macintosh. For input into most video editing applications (such as iMovie), a 4:3 ratio is recommended, such as 640x480 (VGA). Large values will slow system and game performance.
• Framerate: The maximum speed of in-game action captured by the recorder. Values higher than the in-game frame rate are effectively reduced to the in-game frame rate. Most video editing applications will want to use 29.97 (NTSC) or 23.98 (PAL). Large values will slow system and game performance.
• Compression: reduces the size of the video file by removing redundant data and slight detail.
  • Motion JPEG: a very common codec used by consumer digital still cameras when recording video. Records individual frames therefore making extremely large files. Choose this codec for minimum loss of data when editing on a program that does not support Apple Intermediate files (such as an editor that runs on Windows or Linux).
  • H.264: a powerful compression codec suitable to create video suitable for sharing with others over the internet. Choose this codec for the typically smallest compressed video file.
  • Apple Intermediate: a faster codec suitable for editing. Creates large files, but compresses better than Motion JPEG. Choose this codec if editing of your video will be done on your Macintosh with a program that supports Quicktime.
  • MPEG-4: another powerful compression codec that makes files larger than H.264 but is directly supported in iMovie. Use this codec for fast iMovie additions (such as an audio track or some overlay text).
  • Quality: quality of compression. Set to a low value to decrease video compression time, set to a high value for a sharper final video.
• Display iTunes remote feedback: records the on-screen information created by iTunes remote.
• Display all iTunes track changes: records the on-screen track changes from iTunes.

Encoding Recommendation

Typical videos (since most Macintoshes come with a version of iLife/iMovie) should be at a resolution of 640x480@23.97 framerate, encoded with MPEG-4.

For entry-level HD encoding using a 2.8 GHz iMac with 4 GB RAM or a superior system, record at 1344x840 @23.97 framerate, and compress with H.264 for smaller files and virtually the same quality as MPEG-4. Set Quality to High.

External Audio Recording and Editing

Audio recording of sounds not made by the World of Warcraft game can be recorded by two programs: Soundflower (freeware) and Audio Hijack Pro (commercial). Audio editing can be done with the GPL-licensed program Audacity.

Macintosh Movie Editing

The following iMovie example was done in iMovie HD 6.0.3. Source video was MPEG-4, 640x480@23.97 fps.

iMovie

1. Start up iMovie and select “Create a New Project”.
2. In the next window, type in a project name and click the triangle next to “Video Format” (which is above the create button).
3. Select MPEG-4 in the Video Format pull-down menu and click create.
4. Drag your World of Warcraft video into the project window as well as your audio track.
5. At this point, play with the program until the video is satisfactory.
6. When finished, type the shortcut key to export the video: Shift+Command()+E.
7. Click the Quicktime button and select “Expert Settings” from the drop-down menu. Then click “Share”
8. Name your movie and choose “Movie to Quicktime Movie" in the Export drop-down menu and choose “Default Settings” in the Use drop-down menu.

Final Cut Pro (FCP) and Final Cut Express (FCE)

These programs are complex and are not included with most Apple Computers, so a 10 step tutorial is ommitted. FCP and FCE require specific qualities of files when importing.

Aralesh on Bloodhoof-US had this to say: "FinalCut (Express or Studio) won't open files with anything other then [sic] PCM (Uncompressed) or Apple Lossless audio. And make sure your frame rate is at 29.97. "

Unfortunately for the newbie to FCE, there's nothing that will let you know that your Sequence Settings is one of the most important variables in determining the final quality and resolution of your finished video. The following is from p202 of the FCE User's Manual:

Sequence preset Image dimensions Frame rate Codec

DV NTSC 720 x 480 29.97 fps DV/DVCPRO NTSC

DV PAL 720 x 576 25 fps DV PAL

HDV 1080i60 1440 x 1080 29.97 fps Apple Intermediate Codec

HDV 1080i50 1440 x 1080 25 fps Apple Intermediate Codec

HDV 720p30 1280 x 720 29.97 fps Apple Intermediate Codec - Recommended for producing entry-level HD video at a reasonable filesize, but keep in mind that you need to capture at this quality or above to take full advantage of it.

Direct Editing/Transcoding of Video

Many different programs allow transcoding video into different formats and splitting the audio and video into different files. These programs do not allow manual editing of frames.

• MPEG Streamclip (freeware)
• FFMpegX (freeware with GPL components)
• Quicktime Player Pro (commercial)
• Avidemux (GPL)
• VideoLAN Client (GPLv2)

Transcoding can also be done using VLC, further info on Tombfury.com Forums

Multiplexing using Avidemux

This example takes an audio file and adds it to a video file such that the audio plays when the video plays.

Prerequisite: Xvid Quicktime Component (May also be beneficial to have Xiph Quicktime Component as well. They get installed to the same place: <Macintosh HD>/Library/Components)

1. Run Avidemux and open the video file that you recorded in WoW. Avidemux can open MPEG-4 and h.264 files, it can not open Motion JPEG or Apple Intermediate.
2. By the word Video on the project window, select “MPEG-4 ASP (Xvid4)” on the drop-down menu.
3. Click Audio -> Main Track on the menu bar, then from the “Audio Source:” drop-down menu choose “External MP3.”
4. Click Open next to “External file:” and choose an mp3 to play while watching the movie. Then click OK.
5. By the word Audio on the project window, select “Copy”
6. By the word Format on the project window, select “AVI”
7. Click File -> Save -> Save Video... on the menu bar, then choose where you would like to save the file. You need to add the .avi extension to the file name yourself.

• Note: h.264 source video causes the last frame to wrap around to the first frame when re-encoding.

Editing for YouTube

YouTube supports uploading of multiple formats. YouTube will lower the resolution to approximately 320x240 and to an average bitrate of about 380 kbps.

Guide to getting your video into FCE/FCP using Quicktime Pro

WHY: The video that is compressed by the WoW client is not importable into Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express, the two most commonly used video editing programs on Mac OS.

Advantage: Using Quicktime Pro over iMovie just to get audio AND video into FCE seems to be a relatively simple process.

1. record video/audio in wow and compress using wow

2. open up in QTP, hit Command-I to see a little more hidden info about your clip.

[2.5:] For HD Editing use Quicktime Pro to make initial cuts, it goes a lot faster than doing it all in FCE. You will run into problems with wanting to restore things you cut, but this can be worked around by saving the edited file under a new file name. With a little work and some caution I've found that I can be reasonably sure most of the time that I don't want a huge bloated file full of un-needed video in FCE. Much easier to do the initial editing in QTPro.

3. Command-E to export, decide where to save it. (Command is the funky weird Apple button, equivalent of the Windows button on PCs). Export: Movie to QuickTime Movie - unclear if this makes a difference for FCE.

4. Options button. Enable both Video and Audio.

• Video Size: current
• Deinterlace Source Video doesn't appear to be needed, I hardly understand the stuff on wikipedia that I found about it anyway.
• Video Filter - no need to mess with this afaik.
• Video Settings: H.264, frame rate 29.97 - needed by FCE afaik. UPDATE: MPEG-4 and High quality may give better quality at equal filesize. If you're struggling with HD moviemaking it's worth your time to explore, since WoW-to-QTP-to-FCE is in effect a two-stage degradation process.
• Key Frames Automatic (I actually understand that concept - but no clue how to make that knowledge work to my advantage).
• Data Rate Automatic, optimized for download.
• Compressor Quality High since visual quality is very marginally affected at the expense of a huge jump in file size (by ~3x).
• Encoding Single-pass since it doesn't seem to make much difference if you set it to Multipass and takes much longer.

Sound settings: Format Apple Lossless (PCM may work too, but I just don't really know much about this, ok? ok.) Rate 44.100 since that's what came from WOW afaik. Render settings Faster - dunno if this affects audio much, but I'm not much into audio quality in pvp/pve videos, there'll be music to cover it anyways. Preview button seems to work ok if you're in doubt.

5. Leave unchecked the box 'Prepare for Internet Streaming' - I can't stand WoW videos on Youtube and like, the visual quality is just too bad. Anything I write about will be HD, or close to it.

6. hit OK.

7. hit SAVE.

8. now you'll get a little window pop-up that'll have a floating bar showing exporting progress. with luck your average 1min pvp clip of about 1min footage = `70-100mb filesize will now be compressed into roughly 50-60% of that.

9. Now you're ready to import this into FCE. You can either open FCE and then import, or right-click the file and choose 'Open With'.

10. This entire process, once you've messed with the QTP settings, doesn't take all that long, since the export settings are saved. Open file from wow, stop video playback, Command-E, Enter and DONE.

According to a poster in good standing on the Mac FCE forums:

Try this free third party app: http://www.squared5.com/

You have to decide which format you want to work with in FCE and use that Easy Setup. Read the details when you are at the Easy Setup window, each are different to suit incoming audio and video. Then use Streamclip to convert your original footage to conform to your chosen Easy Setup, audio rate and video size.

References

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=1371474767&sid=1 WoW Movie Recording Thread, messy but full of info if you read through it all.

http://vimeo.com/help/hd has some Mac-specific guidelines for how to finalize HD video