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Mana Spirits - Camera Rig

Blogs > Chill
Post a Reply
Chill
Profile Blog Joined January 2005
Calgary25980 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-08-29 12:10:32
August 28 2016 15:38 GMT
#1
What have you been doing?
I’m not very good at multitasking in my personal life. From March to July I was focused on (unsuccessfully) trying to buy a house. We’re still looking. These days, despite oil still being so low, I’m crazy busy at work – working 12 hours per day and weekends.

Is Mana Spirits Dead?
Nope, not at all. Since my last blog (a long, long time ago) I’ve printed two new revisions of the cards. I’ve polished the rules, and played probably ~50 hours of play testing.

Next Steps
1. Make a “How to play” video.
2. Make a “Play through” video.
3. Short-term promotion.
4. Kickstarter launch.

State of the Game
Since the last time I’ve posted, minor changes have been made to the cards and rules. The biggest change was added a second way to win by starting your turn at the highest Hero level. The other way to win is still to eliminate all other players. This is something I suggested to my play testers about 18 months ago but they rejected it. Still, I’m trusting my gut. I think it’s important to have this other way to win because it offers a way for passive, defensive players to win. It also puts a kind of maximum clock on 5 or 6 player games, because they can tend to drag on. The game seems like it’s in a good place.

”How to Play” Video
I can’t explain why this took me so long, it just did. It’s the perfect storm of skills that I have no experience with: writing a script, filming, and video post-production. Working solo on something you have no clue on is a good way to ensure it never gets done, and that’s what happened. Finally, I managed to get the script written and the raw footage filmed last weekend.

The idea of the video is filming a top-down view of a table with fake situations while I narrate how to play. Simple enough I guess, but as I said, I have zero experience filming anything of quality. I borrowed a DSLR from my sister in law, and then started looking at how to film overhead shots.

It seems like there are two major ways: A tripod with an extending arm or a copy stand. Copy stands looked to generally be for close-ups, so it wouldn’t work for my set-up. I don’t own a tripod and I’m cheap, so the idea of using an extending arm for this one project seemed dumb. So I set out to make my own.

I stole my ideas from:
This Youtube Video
This Blog

Here's the plan. I resketched it up quickly to try to show what the plan was.

[image loading]
Original sketch. This is largely what we ended up making.

[image loading]
Cleaner version of what we bought.


I needed it to be tall, that’s why it’s so big. If you don’t need a 6 foot vertical, scale everything way down. I chose 2” PVC because it was solid and came with a lot of options for fittings. Guides online suggest 1” or ¾” Pex. It’s more expensive than PVC and more flexible, so we stuck with PVC. I needed the filming arm (black pipe) to be moveable. If I didn’t, I would have installed another small pipe tee and omitted the large pipe entirely.

The idea was to buy “large pipe” so the black tee could be slid up and down to change the filming distance. It was to be secured with a bolt and a nut. I considered drilling holes in the vertical pipe at various elevations to thread the bolt through.

In the end, we found there are two standards of PVC. One looked to be for vacuums, and another for plumbing? The pipes are both 2”, but for some reason the inner diameter of the plumbing pipe (black) is slightly larger than the outer diameter of the vacuum pipe (white). I don’t know why, but it worked out. The only 2” plumping caps we found were these orange test caps. They were extremely weak and caused a lot of problems for this project. If I was to do this again, I would buy another tee and use it to push the screw through.

[image loading]
All the stuff we bought. I guess PVC tees have flow directions? Today I learned… oil & gas tees definitely don’t…


It was about $30, and it definitely could have been $20 if I planned better. I already had a hand saw and vice grips. Note: This ended up being way too wide and I shaved the 24” down to something like 13” so this beast would fit in our tiny condo living room

[image loading]
Dry run of the fitting. It goes together super easily.


[image loading]
The vice grips to hold the arm in place. There are probably 50 better ways to do this


[image loading]
Here’s the cap assembly. You can see it’s super flimsy.

[image loading]
Here’s the assembly threaded on. This is not my camera, so I was extra nervous to do this with it.


If you make this, don’t use these kind of caps. Use another tee (as shown in the Blog I linked to). I thought a cap would be more appropriate, and maybe they are if you can find a more solid one than I could. But I'd recommend you just use a tee and you will save so many problems.

[image loading]
[image loading]
First test fit.


There are two problems:
1. The long runs of pipe with a heavy camera on the end make the assembly flimsy. If I had any sort of space for tools, I would have cut a 45 degree support to tie the arm back to the vertical pipe. Instead we ended up just jamming another piece of vertical pipe. This stopped and movement from bouncing and wind.
2. The cap is so flimsy that the weight of the camera pulls the screw down, angling the camera back towards the vertical stand. At this point I was just looking for quick fixes, so we used a paint stick to hold it back at the proper angle. Unfortunately, this fixed the angle in one plane, but twisted it two other ones.

Eventually we ripped that out and used a level and shoe laces to more or less center the angle of camera.

[image loading]
[image loading]
The Frankenstein creation that resulted. It actually worked pretty well


Here you can see everything is ready to go. You can also see the camera is very slightly angled forward. We were aware of it, but couldn’t fix it because tightening the shoe laces pulled the camera off-plane in two other directions. I doubt it will be noticeable.

[image loading]
All done.


Here’s the final shot after 2 hours of recording in my hacked together studio (aka condo living room).

[image loading]
Raw Screenshot from the output video


Improvements

If I was to redo this, I would:
  • Use 2" PVC. It's sturdy and cheap and has a lot of fittings.
  • Build the size I actually needed, and not try to maximum the size for the materials I bought.
  • Consider if absolute flexibility in filming height is a requirement. If not, I would just install a few tees up the vertical support rather than have vice grips.
  • If flexible height is a must, build a 45 support to stabilize the arm.
  • Use a tee or more solid fitting for the camera thread. If not, reinforce the area behind the cap with wood, at a minimum.

Overall I think it was worth it. Sometimes you finish a project and it worked so poorly you think "I should have just paid to get the professional version" but I don't think that's the case here.

****
Moderator
Randomaccount#77123
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States5003 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-08-28 19:28:36
August 28 2016 19:25 GMT
#2
--- Nuked ---
Danglars
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States12133 Posts
August 29 2016 02:55 GMT
#3
The final shot looks great!

Funny drinks section too.
Great armies come from happy zealots, and happy zealots come from California!
TL+ Member
Espers
Profile Joined August 2009
United Kingdom606 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-08-29 10:25:19
August 29 2016 10:24 GMT
#4
12 hours a day 7 days a week working in Oil and Gas?

I picked chem eng thinking it'd be decent hours for decent money zzz.
fabiano
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
Brazil4644 Posts
August 29 2016 21:23 GMT
#5
You used inches in your measurements... I thought Canada was on the right side of the force :T

But seriously, it only came to me how gigantic this monster of gambiarra¹ was in the 4th picture lol

The result is pretty neat though, I wonder if I can make myself one for recording my drawings.

+ Show Spoiler [¹ Definition of gambiarra] +
Gambiarra is a Brazilian definition for the informal deviation of technical knowledge. It is a widespread cultural practice, consisting of all kinds of improvised solutions for everyday problems with any available material.
"When the geyser died, a probe came out" - SirJolt
Danglars
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States12133 Posts
August 30 2016 00:08 GMT
#6
On August 30 2016 06:23 fabiano wrote:
You used inches in your measurements... I thought Canada was on the right side of the force :T

But seriously, it only came to me how gigantic this monster of gambiarra¹ was in the 4th picture lol

The result is pretty neat though, I wonder if I can make myself one for recording my drawings.

+ Show Spoiler [¹ Definition of gambiarra] +
Gambiarra is a Brazilian definition for the informal deviation of technical knowledge. It is a widespread cultural practice, consisting of all kinds of improvised solutions for everyday problems with any available material.

I didn't even notice the units ... but something felt so amazingly right about the diagram, and now I know why
Great armies come from happy zealots, and happy zealots come from California!
TL+ Member
Chill
Profile Blog Joined January 2005
Calgary25980 Posts
August 30 2016 03:21 GMT
#7
On August 29 2016 04:25 Barrin wrote:
Good to hear from you again!

I have to question the cost/benefit of an instruction video, especially since it's not something you're familiar with. For those who would prefer a video over a rulebook, I imagine a promotional play-through video would really be ideal for introducing them to the game.

For one, if the game is fairly complicated then an instruction video risks being dull and a poor first impression. This isn't so much of an issue if it is easy to explain all of it (sounds like it isn't). And if it is easy to explain, then surely learning by example through a more entertaining play-through video should suffice. I don't think it would even be a problem to explain the more complicated interactions in a promotional play-through, as long as it/they are interesting.

Furthermore, I think there is some value in having everyone reference rules from a single source (not that there would be any inconsistencies). For clarity's sake, it's probably a good thing to literally be on the same page when questions arise.

It might even be a good idea to make multiple play-throughs and only put the best ones on official outlets. Especially if it takes multiple play-throughs to cover all the rules. Or at least maybe hold off on an instructional video until you have more resources -- you'd really want to make such an information-rich thing as entertaining as possible, which could also help with pacing.

Disclaimer: I am a highly visual learner and a rather poor auditory learner.

Thanks for the thoughts. I don't necessarily agree completely, but it did push me to release both videos at the same time. I'll use the "how to play video" to teach people how to play during the "playthrough" video to see if it actually works.

Question for you: I have a DSLR and another low quality camera. For the playthrough video, do you think the DSLR should be top-down showing cards, or head-on showing people's interactions?

Thanks!
Moderator
Chill
Profile Blog Joined January 2005
Calgary25980 Posts
August 30 2016 03:22 GMT
#8
On August 30 2016 06:23 fabiano wrote:
You used inches in your measurements... I thought Canada was on the right side of the force :T

But seriously, it only came to me how gigantic this monster of gambiarra¹ was in the 4th picture lol

The result is pretty neat though, I wonder if I can make myself one for recording my drawings.

+ Show Spoiler [¹ Definition of gambiarra] +
Gambiarra is a Brazilian definition for the informal deviation of technical knowledge. It is a widespread cultural practice, consisting of all kinds of improvised solutions for everyday problems with any available material.

Lol It's weird, I think in short distances in feet and inches. But anything bigger than 10 feet I think in meters. Temperature is C, but water temperature is F. I guess that's the American influence...
Moderator
nanaoei
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
3358 Posts
August 31 2016 11:20 GMT
#9
DUDE lolll the rig
whatever works man, good luck!
*@boesthius' FF7 nostalgia stream bomb* "we should work on a 'Final Progamer' fangame»whitera can be a protagonist---lastlie: "we save world and then defense it"
quirinus
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
Croatia2489 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-08-31 13:48:31
August 31 2016 13:41 GMT
#10
Yeah, that setup seems like it would be kinda unstable, but it's fine if it gets the job done. It's not like you're going to be using it a lot.

It would probably be a good idea to watch how other board/card games on kickstarter did the videos (angles, script, lighting, etc.) and adapt that to your needs - unless you already checked that.

I've seen a few good how to play videos and reviews, cant remember the names though.

Nice to see it's going well!
All candles lit within him, and there was purity. | First auto-promoted BW LP editor.
Nyovne
Profile Joined March 2006
Netherlands19135 Posts
August 31 2016 21:37 GMT
#11
Good stuff :D. Was looking forward to an update!
ModeratorFor remember, that in the end, some are born to live, others born to die. I belong to those last, born to burn, born to cry. For I shall remain alone... forsaken.
Psyonic_Reaver
Profile Blog Joined June 2007
United States4336 Posts
September 02 2016 03:25 GMT
#12
Awesome stuff Chill. I'm glad you're still hard at this.
So wait? I'm bad? =(
fluidrone
Profile Blog Joined January 2015
France1478 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-09-02 13:17:31
September 02 2016 13:12 GMT
#13
Building camera rigs is awesome fun (I'm working with bambou and working on making them accomplish curvy shots
so much fun).
"not enough rights"
Snet *
Profile Blog Joined September 2006
United States3573 Posts
September 05 2016 00:08 GMT
#14
This is fantastic lol. Good work
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