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Author Topic: Tips for a YouTube newb?  (Read 706 times)

papercan

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Tips for a YouTube newb?
« on: January 19, 2013, 08:46:26 pm »

When I first started playing Dwarf Fortress I relied heavily on youtube tutorials and let's plays to learn the basics. I was inspired to make my own Dwarf Fortress tutorials and have so far made 8 videos over the course of two months. My problem is that I'm not sure if they're any good. I've received minimal views/comments and I'm wondering how I can improve them or if anyone else has any other tips for a youtube newb :)

Check me out and let me know!: https://www.youtube.com/user/thepapercan
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Blargityblarg

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Re: Tips for a YouTube newb?
« Reply #1 on: January 19, 2013, 10:38:01 pm »

The most effective way of making yourself better known is simply to keep making good videos. A good kickstart, though, might be making a thread up in DF Dwarf Mode discussion.

Onto the actual quality of your videos; I've not watched much, just the first couple of minutes of number 7, but here are my impressions:
-Your voice isn't hard/annoying to listen to, there's a kind of echoiness in the audio but it's not a huge issue. SOmetimes, an otherwise great series is ruined by someone's commentary being painfully low-quality. If you do get at all big, I'd recommend buying a dedicated mic, but that's a ways off for now.

- Minor thing, but it might look rather more professional (and possibly save you some privacy headaches) if you crop out the taskbar and the bar at the top of your screen; they're mostly distractions from the actual content.

-Last thing, probably the biggest but hardest to do anything about, is learning to keep up a continuous stream of commentary without umms and ahs (or just silence) dominating. You're reasonable at this already, but still have occasional points that bring the watching experience to a halt. In general, try to have an idea of what you're doing next. If you have to pause recording and think about it offscreen every few minutes of video, that's perfectly normal and could be very helpful.

Good luck, mate.
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ed boy

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Re: Tips for a YouTube newb?
« Reply #2 on: January 19, 2013, 10:59:03 pm »

My biggest complaint is about your screen resolution. It's a very large screen resolution, and you're recording the entire thing. My screen resolution is not as large as yours, and even when I full-screen the video with maximum streaming resolution, I still find it extremely hard to read the text, as hit has to be squashed down. If I have it as anything less than full screen, I simply cannot make out the individual characters. Although I already know what the symbols mean and thus know what things are, someone who's new to DF (and thus would be the target of your tutorials) would really want to make out what the symbols are, and this may cause them problems.
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LordBucket

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Re: Tips for a YouTube newb?
« Reply #3 on: January 20, 2013, 05:14:18 pm »

I started with the top one of the list, episode #7. And for this first couple minutes this is what I saw:



This isn't a tutorial. Three minutes of staring at this while you talk about what dwarves you have isn't likely to help anyone. This looks more like a very slow paced Let's Play at a screen resolution I can't see.

What are you trying to accomplish? If you want to make tutorials then I'd suggest picking topics and showing people how to do those things.

Neonivek

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Re: Tips for a YouTube newb?
« Reply #4 on: January 20, 2013, 05:27:55 pm »

Well LordBucket there are in my mind two kinds of Tutorials you can make

Starters Guide will go through with what someone will immediately need to know to play the game and will usually go in the order of what is immediately important.

Then there are Subject guides which you basically stated.
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papercan

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Re: Tips for a YouTube newb?
« Reply #5 on: January 20, 2013, 08:05:54 pm »

Some really good advice/critique here so far, just want to say thanks everyone!
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HavingPhun

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Re: Tips for a YouTube newb?
« Reply #6 on: January 21, 2013, 10:47:31 am »

I dont upload any youtube videos, but are'nt you supposed to put tags at the end of your description to help people search for you? If you already did this sorry i cant check im on a slow connection.
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