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Afro-Ninja
I've got a lot of work ahead of me...

Shawn Tanner @Afro-Ninja

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Joined on 3/2/02

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How to be a Guitar Hero; Video submissions on NG

Posted by Afro-Ninja - December 10th, 2007


I just submitted my new video to the portal, How to be a Guitar Hero. Which brings up an important question. What do you guys think of video submissions on Newgrounds? Do they fit in at all? Should they be removed? Should their be a separate section for them?

As we know, Newgrounds is a flash only site. There's audio too of course, but meant to be used with the flash. The reason we can submit video is because flash supports embedded video. Flash, however, is not a video editor. And unlike youtube, there are some problems with this. First is the size limit. Video takes up a lot more space than vector graphics, obviously. The youtube file limit is 100MB, which is pretty excessive in my opinion, but allows for more freedom. The NG file limit is 10 MB, which is almost excessive for standard games and movies, but is barely enough for video. I had to compress my video at 130 kbps, 270 kbps less than 'normal' quality. But my video is also over eight minutes long, not exactly the norm.

Also an issue is the sound synchronization. Flash has always had issues with this, and video is no surprise. The reason it works on youtube is because the files are streamed from the server. When you submit content, you submit any kind of video file you have, youtube converts it to .flv, and streams it in the flash player. If you want to submit it as an .swf to newgrounds though, you have to embed the entire file into the .swf, which flash itself recommends against, resulting in issues like sound sync. There's probably a trick I don't know about yet, but even the classic 'stream looped silence in the background' trick didn't work this time, heh.

Anyway, there is a large pro to this- not anyone can submit a video. That's why you don't see the portal flooded with random pointless videos like you see at youtube- shit people film in a couple minutes and call it entertainment, or the mundane 'video blog' submissions from random people we probably don't care about. The extra step of converting and compressing is a turn off. If NG had a video section though I would hope that people would be strict in their blamming/saving. IE, entertainment videos are great but 'v-blog' type stuff would get blammed quick.

Is video a step in the next direction for NG? Maybe. It's a step in the next direction for me. Making games has always been my thing, with a little bit of animation thrown in there too. But I just want to entertain people, that doesn't mean it has to be with a flash game. Video is fun to make, it's more engaging than sitting in front of the computer all day and typing lines of code. Just enough to be a nice break in between making your next game or animation. I think other developers could agree :)

How to be a Guitar Hero; Video submissions on NG


Comments

Is that Dragonforce?

First comment.

yup

fffsdfff

Yeah, got a little chuckle out of it. I liked how u...eh...^^^|^^^ did that. very nice, very nice.

((i voted 5))

Personally I hope that video submissions don't become the next step for NG. The occasional video submission is fine (as long as it's something made with effort, and worth seeing- like your most recent one), but I'm pretty sure if video submissions became common, then about 90% of them would suck hard, and besides that- it would attract unwanted attention to Newgrounds from those youtube-esque people you mentioned.

Very few people could make good videos (though you hit it) and also NG will begin to get random porn etc. so I believe videos should be alowed but only to flash artists who have earned it.
If that is what it alredy does then thats good :)
BTW - you rock on the guitar :)

aclaro, no vi tu video (no me gustan los videos)

no me gustaria ver a NG convertido en otro youtube, muchos videos al pedo sin nada interesante y que solo sirven para que los vean unos pocos (tus familiares, amigos, algunos boludos que le gustan ver culos, etc), es por eso que no me gustaria que NG admitiera videos, si, por otro lado, videos fusionados con flash, al mejor estilo de My New Grounds de Allen Awesome, una idea original y entretenida.

en resumen, prefiero que NG siga solo admitiendo animaciones flash (suficiente tenemos con el SPAM del portal, al menos, la KK se mato haicendo una buena intro en sus videos), el portal esta joya asi como esta, los videos, dejenselos a youtube y las demas paginas que lo imitan.

NOW THE ENGLISH VERSION (sorry for my english, i hope you understand me):

first to all, i dont see your video (i dont like videos)

i dont like to see NG become in another Youtube, that page have a lot of unfunnies pointless videos and another one who just see a few persons (videos from birthdays partys, night with friends, idiots who follows girls with tigh jeans, etc), that why i dont accept videos on NG, eccept of course, videos fusioned with flash, like My New Grounds from Allen Awesome, an original and funny idea.

Making short the thing", i preffer that NG just admit flash movies (enough we have with the portal spam, almost, the KK make a good intro for his crappy movies), leave the movies for youtube and his clone pages.

That's why we got youtube!

If you want to make a live action vid, without cutting the file size to 10mb, then go to youtube, Google, or MyspaceTV.

That's why I stopped.

The file size is really the only problem for me

Live video is always something you look forward to on Newgrounds, because only someone who works hard enough to fix all the ridiculous issues with it has something good to show.

I don't think Newgrounds should move beyond the Flash medium for the meantime. I think our current standard and voting system of Flash-only works well, and causes less judging confusion. But again, if someone really wants to show something in video, they at least have a way if they work their ass off.

-J

Holy shit, a Persuader t-shirt. You rock, man!

This is Power METAL

I don't like videos on NG and I definitely thing YouTube is for that. I once submitted a video based on a flash movie hoping that it would do good since it's based on flash movie but no luck. I got criticized by comments like "this is not youtube", "this belongs to youtube". Well, I agree. Although it had a good score I removed it.

However, I definitely think that we should have an option to embed youtube videos in news posts because I'd like to see videos of flash artists, not in the portal but instead here. There. I'm gonna be honest now by saying I'm gonna downvote your movie and say that this is not youtube :) Since you have a huge following you shouldn't have a problem getting a good score on this.

Awesome video btw. Very funny.

The funny thing is, Newgrounds once had a video section, years ago... The original purpose of NG was to be pure entertainment, not really confined to any one medium, but I became such a cheerleader for Flash that I brushed everything else aside.

Currently, I think video is ok if it is from someone who is active in the community... It makes me sad when active NG contributors leave because we no longer offer the right place for their work - and this is happening more and more as artists start to animate with other tools and choose to submit their final works to YouTube and not Newgrounds.

Eventually we might create a category for video, but under the current restrictions of video in .swf format... And ultimately, we still consider a video portal on a regular basis, but it would probably be invite-only for specific artists who qualify. We've always wanted a video portal - since long before YouTube existed - but we never made one for exactly what sucks about YouTube... The endless video spam (and legal issues). I would never want all the hard work on NG to be overshadowed by shit like some 15 year old girl's video blog. People get insulted enough when their hard work gets beat by sprite movies. :)

Too true- some of the most subscribed authors on youtube are chicks that pump out shit videos all day long and have hordes of guys watching their every move

Sweet, another addition of legit flash to cleanse the filth on newgrounds.

You rock my socks.

Oh I get it now. Afro ninja. You have a afro.

Stunning.

Indeed. I presume you're made of rubber?

you can make your own band!

Did you really smash your guitar?

yep

I really dont see anything wrong with video, as long as it's done well.
Your video was cool, but at first i thought you were really that good at guitar hero. It was a bit of a disappointment for me when i found out the guitar hero footage was from another guy. But it was still edited well and i enjoyed watching it!

I think that video submissions are not bad. Theres just so many crappy ones out there people stereotype them as being horrible and automatically vote it down.

Overall, Video submissions can be win if they are done right and have a purpose.

I don't have a problem with video submissions. Most are quite nice, eg. Awesome Video Games and some Press Start stuff. Anyway... What bugs me is when something like, a guy works 8 months on an animation only for it to be beaten by something some kid did up in his garage with a video camera in 3 hours.
Video submissions would have to be voted on differently then flash, they're too different. Combining flash elements and live action is another thing though. Having animated characters run around in a real enviroment is always interesting. I experimented with it in my last 'toon.
But yeah, bottum line for me. Video submissions are fine but we really should at least encourage users to vote differently on 'em and get 'em their own collection page.

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