User:GrampaSwood/Demonstrations

This is a short guide for other people (and also me, in case I take a long break between demonstrations) on how I do demonstrations, from editing, to recording, stuff to check, etc. I use Adobe Premiere Pro for editing and OBS for recording.

File setup

Before starting up the game, I recommend renaming your autoexec.cfg to something slightly different such as auto_exec.cfg. Renaming your custom folder to something such as custom_ or costum will prevent any custom stuff from actually applying (useful for non-config custom content). Creating a separate custom file for the demonstration-related content, then renaming it once you're done with recording (I prefer to rename it to costum_demonstration).

Recording

Before recording, remember to turn off anything that messes with the recording. For example, going on Do Not Disturb mode on Steam, Discord, and IRC (if your client supports it. Otherwise, just mute volume) to prevent notifications. Turning off Steam's built-in FPS counter. Remember to turn off GeForce Experience's record feature.

Some commands you have to manually put into the console still:

cl_yawspeed 120;
bind "rightarrow" "+left";
mat_picmip -10;
volume 0.25;
tf_dingaling_volume 0;
tf_dingaling_lasthit_volume 0;
bind "w" "+forward";
bind "a" "+moveleft";
bind "s" "+back";
bind "d" "+moveright";
bind "q" "lastinv";
bind "g" "+taunt";

The reason for the movement binds are because mastercomfig has a popular addon for "null-cancelling movement" which rebinds the movement keys to a custom alias. If you do not have this, feel free to skip these commands. Binding q to "lastinv" means the "press <button> to cancel" on the taunt menu actually shows up as "q" rather than "not assigned". By default, g gets bound to "taunt" rather than "+taunt". Useful for weapon demonstrations, not useful for taunt demonstrations.

For people with a lower-end computer, make sure to perform certain actions first such as shooting (all weapon slots, especially an explosive such as the Rocket Launcher). For Demoman specifically, the Stickybomb Launcher HUD element may display % instead of a number.

The volume amount is based on the Windows volume being set to 100%. I also don't record demonstrations with my headphones on because I would prefer to keep my hearing past the age of 30.

Editing

For editing, I use Adobe Premiere, but whatever program works.

Volume/music

For the video footage, I apply -10 dB before starting to cut up the footage (note that this only really works for 100% Windows volume and 0.5 in-game volume). For the music, I always use the Badlands or Gravel Pit audio; for the Badlands music I apply -15 dB while for Gravel Pit I apply -25 dB. For the reel-ending noise, I usually apply the same decrease in volume as the music. The music has no fade-in but does fade out half a second into the reel-ending noise.

I generally only use the first reel-ending noise provided, but if it sounds rather awkward with the music's timing I use the second one, though I try to make the first one work.

Cutting up footage

At the start, I include half a second of fade-in time.

Between clips, I use half a second of a clip fading out laid over the next clip fading in (also over half a second).

At the end of the video, I fade it out over one second, rather than half a second. This makes it fit better with the first ending sound.

Other useful stuff

Make a Spy disguise

bot_selectweaponslot 3; bot_mimic 1; wait 1000; impulse 221; wait 100; bot_mimic 0