A Complete Guide to Counter-Strike:GO Moviemaking

There are some very good fragmovies on Youtube (really good) which makes you think 'How to do that?'. We are not the top dog video animator, so after a lot of researching and trying all the softwares and methods on my own, I have written this simple easy-to-understand and exhaustive guide to help all those fellow MGs who want to start making CS:GO fragmovies.

Introduction

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation and Hidden Path Entertainment. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series and was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on August 21, 2012, while the Linux version was released in 2014. It has seen popularity in the initial years and is still played by millions in the world. It also has a global professional eSports scene. Tournaments are organised by third-party organisations every year, sponsored by Valve and other companies and are referred to as Majors. These competitions gave birth to content creators who made movies showing the best plays of the teams and players, edited to make them a visual treat.

A fragmovie is a sequence of short clips recorded on a computer or console displaying frags (kills) that are fun to watch often edited together to fit with some music for added viewing pleasure. Fragmovies are also known as montages.
There comes a time in every gamer's life when he wants to flaunt those AWP flicks or ace clutches. They see a YouTube video by some creator and want to make their own. Obviously, not all of us can do high-end editing and animation using Adobe After Effects. It would be a feat for some to even install such a software on their system.
Therefore, here is a comprehensive and understandable-by-all guide which is aimed at anyone who plays Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and wants to showcase their ultimate skills. I have used the softwares which are light and can do the job best without diving deep into animation and professional editing.

What You Need

Here is a list of all the things and softwares that you would be needing to make a rocking fragmovie.

1. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, obviously. You are a human whose smartness is out of bounds if you don't have the game installed.

2. HLAE (Half-Life Advanced Effects): HLAE is an engine based movie making program mainly use for making cinematics, but it can be used for much more. We will be using it for making changes in our recording screen as per the requirements. You can get HLAE from HLAE Download[www.advancedfx.org]. Download the zip file and extract or the setup.

3. A Recording Software: The recording software we will be using is Open Broadcasting Software (OBS). OBS is the recommended recording app, and it also offers direct online streaming. You can download it from OBS Download[obsproject.com].
After been informed about low FPS and lags during recording with OBS on low-end PCs, OBS have moved down a bit in my eyes. For all those who don't have gaming beasts, use Bandicam. Very easy to use and good recording app. Download it from BandicamDownload[getintopcv.com].

4. Editing Software: This will be used after we have our raw video file to process and add effects. The most time-consuming and important part. We will be using Wondershare Filmora[getintopcv.com] to edit the videos. Alternative is Adobe After Effects.

Step 1: Preparation

The most onerous task is this one. Read carefully and follow the steps. Let's begin.

• First, close your game and exit Steam.
  
• Go to your HLAE folder and run hlae.exe file.
  
• Go along the toolbar to Tools and then click Developer →Custom Loader.
  
• Click on browse for HookDLL and select the “AfxHookSource.dll” which is in the HLAE extracted folder.
  
• For the Program path, select csgo.exe, locate it in the folder where you have your game installed. Don’t modify the command line and press OK.
  
• You will see the FATAL ERROR! Start Steam and then launch CS:GO from HLAE.
  
• This will launch the game in insecure mode. A warning will appear in the game. If no such notification appears, follow the steps again.

Note: HLAE is meant for moviemaking only and do not try to join an online game in that insecure mode. That may get you soft banned. You should watch downloaded demos only.

Adjust Video Settings
Before recording, you have to ensure that the playback will be performed using the best video quality your system can afford: launch CS: GO if you haven’t already and go to OPTIONS > Video Settings. From there, set the following:
Maximum video/effects quality: shadow quality, texture detail, effects detail, etc. should be all set to High.
The adequate resolution, such as 1920×1080, assuming you want a Full HD video.


HLAE Basics

Go to your saved games and open a downloaded match. A downloaded game is also called a demo. Start the game or round which you want to record. Press Shift+F2 to open the DemoUI (HLAE). The DemoUI allows you to change the speed of the demo. You can also pause and play the demo as well as skipping to different rounds.
We have to make changes to our screen before recording. The way we play is not very good to our eyes as the screen is decorated with HUD, radar, the weapon and ammo count, player count and the curses that your teammates throw at you for being carried for free. So we will remove all that stuff to make it look cleaner and also to save your face.

Run these commands in the console (copy them!):
net_graph 0
cl_draw_only_deathnotices 1
host_framerate 180

Here are some other useful console commands in a text file I created[pastebin.com]. You can use it as your config file and execute all at once.

Here’s a brief explanation of what these magic spells do:

net_graph 0: hides the net graph, which is the small HUD panel showing our network connection’s details. We wouldn’t want to show it in the movie unless you want to brag about your newly-purchased graphic card which lets you play with a 400+ framerate.
cl_draw_only_deathnotices 1: hides map, life indicator, team-related info and all HUD indicators except the crosshair and the death notices. It’s the most used display mode for CS: GO videos.
host_framerate 180: sets the replay playback framerate to 180 frames per second. That number is the right balance between the recording size and the smoothness of the outcome result: a higher number will increase both and vice-versa. My suggestion here is to stick to 180 for your first attempt, then try to increase or decrease depending on your results; be sure to pick a number which is a multiple of the resulting video target FPS, which will be 30 or 60 fps depending on your choice. That means that 120, 180, 240 or 300 will all be good. Don’t be over smart and use 30 or 60 because it may be laggy or slow when we render the video. Though you can use any multiple, see what works for you. NOTE:Try without this command first. You can skip this command if you are using Bandicam and everything turns out to be fine without it.

If you want only your kills to be shown in the right upper corner (OPTIONAL):

Let’s assume you want only to show kills by a player named PlayerName:

• Use command mirv_deathmsg debug 1 and wait until PlayerName makes a kill, then write down the attackerUid (or wait until he gets killed and write down the victimUid) from the console.
  
• Now if you want to block everything except kills by that player use the uid number you just noted down: mirv_deathmsg block !uid *
  
• Or if you want to see him getting killed too, then enter this instead: mirv_deathmsg block !uid !uid
  
• If you want to clear all blocks again enter: mirv_deathmsg block clear
  
• Setting death notice display time: This is used if you killed three or more enemies in a short period. All the notices will appear one after the other without disappearing. Use the command mirv_deathmsg cfg noticeLifeTime f where f is a floating-point value in seconds, i.e. 100 or 7.5.
• To restore the default behaviour enter: mirv_deathmsg cfg noticeLifeTime -1

All the above used commands and some other secondary commands (not covered in this guide) are in the file. Download it from the link above.
Phew. I know, too much work but now we are ready to capture our frags.

Step 2: Recording

Recording the movie is easy as compared to other steps. Your application will do the most work.

Open Broadcasting Software:

• Open OBS.
  
• Click on the “Settings” tab and Set audio and video value from there to the recommended setting. Check that the base canvas setting in the video settings is the same as the game resolution in CS:GO.
  
• After configuring audio and video setting, go to “Output Settings” tab and select the desired output folder on your PC.
  
• Select “Scene Box”, from the list on the box, click the “Add” button and enter the name of your choosing to be saved later.
  
• After choosing the name, draw the cursor again to “Source Box,” and select “Add” from there. Next, go to the “Game Capture” tab that opens up windows after you click “OK.”
  
• After that, click on “Start Recording” icon and your gameplay will start recording immediately after a pop-up window appears.
  
• To stop the gameplay recording, directly hit the “Stop Recording” button and you are done with a fully recorded gameplay saved to the destination folder.
  
• You can play the output video from the folder that you assigned earlier.
  
• If game capture doesn’t work or you have some problem, try starting the game in Windowed mode and use “window capture” in OBS.

Bandicam:

• Open Bandicam.
  
• Choose the 'Game Recording' mode.
  
• It's better to use 'Game Recording' mode to get a high quality video file.
  
• Start Counter-Strike game to record.
  
• Note: For stable operation, Bandicam needs to be run before Counter-Strike game
  
• While running a game in 'Game Recording' mode, you can see the green number on the screen. That's the recoridng FPS.
  
• You can control the FPS (Frames per second) under the 'FPS' tab of Bandicam. If you can't see the green number, check the settings in Bandicam.
  
• Press the 'F12' function key (or the 'Record' button in Bandicam) to start recording and stop recording without minimizing the game.
  
• During recording, the green number in the left upper corner (FPS) will change to red.
  
• To stop recording, press the 'F12' function key (or the 'Record' button in Bandicam) again.
  
• Go to 'Home -> Video' to play, edit or upload the captured videos.

Step 3: Editing

The editing software is the most massive software that we will be using in our moviemaking. So we will try to get the lightest application for this purpose. It may not have the professional tools and animation options, but we have to cut down on something to get something.

If you want to do some high-end editing and make a movie that blows the viewer’s mind with effects, get Adobe After Effects[www.adobe.com]. After Effects is the industry-standard animation and creative compositing app lets you design and deliver professional motion graphics and visual effects. I have used the software, and it consumes all of your RAM and time.
If you know nothing about video editing and don’t even want to make a movie without using many parts of your brain, go for Filmora. If you’re going to do a bit better and come up with a good-looking film, go for the other one.

How to edit?

Open the editing software. Whichever software you are using, most of the applications have a similar user interface. Here is a quick tutorial for basics —
• What you can do with the software mentioned above: trim, crop, split, rotate, combine, aspect ratio, hue, brightness, speed, saturation, contrast, as well as fantastic effects: filters, overlays, motion graphics, transitions, titles, PIP, face-off, etc.
  
• Firstly, import video files or the folder which contains your recordings into the software. Click the “Import” button on the top of the software to reveal the drop-down list > select the source from where you’ll import media files.
  
• You can arrange the files according to the Name, Duration, Date Created, Ascending or Descending.
  
• Click and drag your video files after importing to the timeline. The timeline is located at the bottom.
  
• Below the Video Timeline, you can see the audio line. Place your audio files there.
  
• You can drag the files back and forth with your mouse. Arrange the clips in the order you want.
  
• There will be tools to cut, trim, and combine the clips. Use the scissors, crop tool, and other essential means to cut unwanted parts of the clips and combine them.
  
• Adjust the contrast, saturation etc. from the menu. Also add transitions effects, subtitles etc.

This is not a full guide to edit. You will get to know the software better with usage.

After rendering your video, you will have a 1080p/60fps beautiful piece of your gameplay garnished with high-beat tunes.

Feel free to ask any questions in the comments. Good Game!

[raaaaaa]

+rep not scammer
+rep good player :)
+rep awesome guy :D
+rep pro gammer
+rep pro player
+rep good teammate :)

+rep awp king
+rep amazing skill!
+rep nice leader :)
+rep insane kills
+rep the best player with m4a4 :P
+rep the best guy with ak :D
+rep best of the best :P

+rep legit buyer
+rep nice trader :)
+rep great, highly recommended :)
+rep not scammer
+rep trusted
+rep fair trade :P
+rep can trust him
+rep one of the best traders i have worked with
+rep nice artwork

[didinside]

Guide for movies without any movie. LOL

[PAPA]

this is best guide. If u dont believe then check killer tomato csgo on youtube.

[Kotori Fried Chicken]

:0

[八方来财]

bro idk man...