1337CaLeB's Hideout

Migrating

2011-07-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

As you might have heard, I've moved to a new YouTube account. This is due to me being under a new online alias, and this switch will avoid any online confusion for me. Sorry for the inconvenience. More details are here.

I am also switching to a new Blogspot. Follow me here.

Revising Old Videos

2011-05-17T20:08:00.001-07:00

Lately, I've been interested the revision process of decades-old movies into Blu-ray quality. It got me thinking about revising some of my own old videos, primarily my Fortress Forever videos. I still have, in possession, all of my Fortress Forever demos. At the time I made those videos, they were recorded in 4:3 resolution (1024x768). The graphics weren't at the highest, either.

Now that I have a wonderful graphics card and a 1920x1200 monitor, I'm thinking about rerecording those bits in full 1080p quality. The only trouble I'll have to go through is syncing the revised versions to their originals. It's an interesting project, really. I'm curious how well I can pull it off. I'll be starting with "Welcome To: Fortress Forever", and if I succeed with it, I might as well redo the other ones.

May 2011: Cold Facts

2011-05-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

Last month, I uploaded a short, comical Diablo 2 video titled The Poor Necromancer. Sure, it's random, but hey, you're following the guy who made the UnKnown Moments series. (In other words: I'm bound to be random.) In response, I had "fans" bitching left and right for Gmod videos. So, I gave them the middle finger. I'm getting sick of that shit; an announcement video was necessary.

The productivity I had going with video-editing last month quickly faded away. Now, once again, I lack interest in video-making. I guess all my hobbies are in some sort of cycle (the very few hobbies I have, at least). Sorry, that's the way it is. It's impossible for me to produce videos without my own will and/or motivation.

Yeah, yeah; I'm getting to UnKnown Moments 5. Here are the facts:

It will be released at some point.
The project has NO deadline(s). Period.
It's still planned to be ten minutes long (intro and credits included).
At this point in time, 4 minutes and 40 seconds are done (intro, credits, and unfinished scenes are NOT included).

I'm not a guy you should impatiently wait for. I'm unpredictable. I'm random. One year I'm making a few videos a month (see: 2006), and another year I'm only releasing a few videos a year (like: now). Few days I'm productive; most days I'm not. That's just the way I am.

April 2011: Rebound

2011-04-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

No April Fools here, guys.

Currently, in my life, I'm running very low on interesting hobbies. This usually leaves me bored as shit during my free time. Fortunately, for you guys, that means I'm beginning to spend more time video-editing in desperation.

Right now, all I'm focusing on is UnKnown Moments 5. I finished up the first mini music video for it that I deserted months ago (that only needed two more shots), and I'm currently producing another mini music video that stars Gordon Freeman with Lil Jon's music. The quality is top-notch, and it will certainly be hilarious (and somewhat badass). Beginning to use the Catmull cameras, which are useful when I'm unable to zoom in if my player model is starring in a scene.

That's all I got to say about video-making. I don't know how long this productivity is going to last...

Lack of Motivation - March 2011

2011-03-03T20:02:00.001-08:00

Not much to update about, but here I go. As I already established, video-making is strictly a hobby, not a task/job.

We, The Animals and Great Ol' Half-Life were two spontaneous urges of mine that I made back in January. (Well, the latter was actually a dead project that was started back in 2010, and I returned to it in 2011.) The former had very mixed responses, since I didn't realize that half my fans were on the Black Ops hate bandwagon. Great Ol' Half-Life made up for it, hopefully.

Although I haven't touched UnKnown Moments 5 since January, new ideas are building up. I'm trying to keep away from creating scenes that'll only end in explosions or someone getting shot. I'd like to step it up a notch... That's all I can really say about UM5. It isn't even on a deadline anymore. All I know is that it will definitely be finished and released one day, but please do yourself a favor and put it out of your mind.

The other project I've been keeping in mind, labeled "The Uprise", hasn't even taken off yet after all these months. Even though I constantly imagine the video, I can't find the urge to expand it from my thoughts. Shit, what do I feel like doing nowadays?

If only I had the motivation that I had years ago when producing videos. Perhaps video-making is a dying interest for me, and having fans impatiently demand more is speeding up the process. With that in mind, I'm actually starting to despise that particular portion of my followers. Maybe one day I will actually desert this fading hobby, come back after a couple years, and start all over again.

January 2011 Update

2011-01-12T18:20:00.000-08:00

Hopefully, none of you thought my "2011" announcement for UKM5 meant "January 2011". That wasn't my intention. I have been working on the project this past month, though. Pumped out a whole minute for a mini music video that I worked on during Christmas break. After I finish every scene for this project, the idea of UKM5 being a ten-minute video is beginning to sound closer to impossible--for my imagination, at least. Sorry, but anyone who asks for another sequel after this deserves to get slapped. I can't ever see myself making a sixth...

One of the two other projects I mentioned in the hiatus announcement video is still planned to be done. The other will probably never start because the Black Mesa mod will never come out, at this rate. Shame on me for thinking that they'd release it by 2011...

I had to remind myself recently that producing machinimas is simply a hobby of mine, not a job. This isn't a concept that I should have to reintroduce to myself constantly, but it's hard to think of it as an interest when some of my followers impatiently demand more like I'm supposed to be a supplier of their Gmod entertainment or, in other words, a tool. When I pump out something that isn't UnKnown Moments, some of those fans then disrespect my work and continue on demanding something related to UKM. That sort of crap makes me want to stop this hobby because I feel like I'm being pressured and rushed. It's why I lost interest in video-making since mid-2010.

After all these months, I'll have you know, no disrespect, that I couldn't care for my fans' demands anymore. I'm doing what I want to do. Any subscriber of mine who disagrees with that is not a fan worth having. My mistake in the past was that I gave in to those demands, because having fans was completely new to me. My "uprise" in popularity didn't leave me as an egotistic douchebag or thinking to myself that I'm hot shit. Just respect what I want to do. This shouldn't be something I need to clear up.

December Announcement

2010-12-04T09:52:00.000-08:00

December, wow. My 17th birthday passed on the 1st, and the upcoming Christmas holidays is just up ahead. Have I been doing anything related to my video hobbies? I touch upon UnKnown Moments 5 every now and then. Anything else? A bit, but they weren't much, so I released them on my secondary account. Have a look if you're bored.

For UnKnown Moments 5, I am retrieving back to my roots by including a nice bunch of mini music videos (like my Easter video), similar to what I did with the first UnKnown Moments. The purpose for this is to have a variety of humor, and it serves as a cooldown in between all the killing and explosions this next sequel will include. Currently, I still have exactly five more minutes left to complete, excluding the introduction and credits, but that's because I haven't started the music videos yet. (A couple will be at least a minute long.) Finishing this up isn't a priority for me at the moment, so I'm only producing a scene every few weeks (on average). This should speed up when I hit Christmas break, but that entirely depends on if I'm up for it.

Note that the 2011 announcement for UM5 does not mean "January 2011". It just means 2011, because I don't have a clue when I'll finish this next year. That's all I can say, because that's all I know. In other words, I'm giving this project a "when it's done" release date. In fact, most of my projects for now on will. My 2011 release date announcement was me being considerate of your impatience. Be grateful. :P

Anyway, time to build extremely unnecessary hype. Comparing this project to the prequels, UM5's quality blows the prequels out the water. Recorded in 1080p (widescreen) on the highest settings. The only thing I regret is recording scenes with 29.97 fps instead of 45. (Looks much smoother with 45 fps.) The environment in most scenes will be more fluid and active in this sequel, since I've learned a very useful strategy in combining multiple shots into one. Overall, the quality in this sequel is an obvious defeat over the predecessors.

I can't really judge the punchlines and hilarity level for myself, but I can assure you that my humor is cleverer than before. The replay value is, without a doubt, top-notch, because I find myself watching my newest scenes over and over again. The only con I can think of is, if my mini music videos don't have the humor cooldown like I hope, the killing and explosions might get a bit repetitive through those ten minutes.

October Update

2010-10-03T20:25:00.001-07:00

Well damn, it's been almost four months already since I announced my temporary hiatus from video-making. Funny thing is: I shouldn't have to announce shit like this. In fact, I can make videos whenever I want. I appreciate those who enjoy my work and are patient, but then there are others who treat me like a tool. I don't want an audience like that, so supposedly it's a good thing that those certain individuals are moving on as the months go by.

Perhaps this is not really a break; maybe it was an announcement that I'm releasing videos whenever the hell I want to, with no rush from my fans. Technically, it can't be a hiatus anyway; I've been touching upon UnKnown Moments 5 every now and then, attempting to live up to my word that it will be ten minutes long. Even though I'm only three minutes (excluding intro and credits) into this anticipating project, every scene takes at least a couple hours of recording and editing. The abundant amount of bugs in Garry's Mod makes it even more stressing while I'm setting up the scene. Sometimes, the save files won't save the ragdolls, thrusters don't want to stop thrusting, or shit generally doesn't want to cooperate (and make me feel like the game itself is against me).

But yeah, despite all this, I've been slowly adding scenes to UnKnown Moments 5. According to the current scenes/time ratio, it's going to take around thirty-five scenes or more to fill ten minutes. I've only completed eleven. Ain't that a bitch.

As for the other two projects, one of them is definitely still in mind. The other will depend if the Black Mesa team lives up to their newest "end of 2010 release" statement. But, for now, I'm only focusing on scenes for UnKnown Moments 5.

Temporary Hiatus

2010-06-18T00:38:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be honest here. Since my summer break started at the end of May, I haven't touched upon anything that's related to my video-making hobby. UnKnown Moments 5's production has been ignored for some time now, and that one main idea I want to progress with has remained in my mind. Know why? I lack motivation. It's silly to say that when I have at least 5000 fans who like/love my work. I understand I have a great portion of fans who enjoy my videos (some of it at least), and look forward to future releases. I'm grateful of that, no doubt. I think about my fans every day and how they're waiting on me to give them another video for their viewing pleasure.

But when you have 5000 subscribers on your back, you almost forget why you began making videos in the first place: it's a hobby you do for fun, and you're supposed to do it whenever you want. I remember four summers ago, I was shooting out videos onto Google Video weekly at the least, and I enjoyed every moment making them. There was no pressure, because I had a very small (if any) audience following these videos at the time. I feel bad for those YouTube stars who are basically forced to pump out videos on a regular basis because of their fans' demands.

I don't want to continue with my hobby until it actually feels like a hobby again. I would give a time of how long, but I'm too spontaneous with this hobby to give an actual accurate timescale. Don't worry; it's only on the scale of a few months maximum. I know what it feels like to wait on something for so long. Shit, I've been waiting for Black Mesa to come out since the beginning of 2006. My advice for the fans is to put your mind off of waiting and move on to something else for the meantime, because I can promise you this: when UnKnown Moments 5 and my other videos are finally released God-knows-how-long from now, you'll love them. Trust me on that one.

May Update

2010-05-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

Weeks ago, I stumbled across a song that sounds perfect for a music video in City 17, if given the right plot. Scenes collaborated in my head as I listened to the whole song, and I knew this was the next Machinima I was going to work on. I don't want to spoil the song and plot just yet. It's a video that requires dark filter work and multiple maps, so I began to experiment my own custom filters on Adobe After Effects. Yes, I finally know the basics for this complicated program.

I have the plot and scenery down, but I just don't know how I'm going to put it all together. This is why I haven't started on it yet. But no worries, my summer vacation is only four days away. Thus, I'll have plenty of time to figure it all out.

I'm also planning to do another "An UnKnown Moment" for summer sometime in June. There's an old classic character I'm thinking about using, along with some others. So look forward to these two projects in the next month.

Hibernating

2010-04-27T12:59:00.000-07:00

Supposedly, I'm unable to think of any good machinima videos to make. I guess this is one of those "writer's block" phases or however they're called. I favor making music videos, but it's hard to make a variety of them without getting too repetitive on the maps or having to learn the SDK face poser. Every now and then I have an urge to make another Half-Life music video that is simple and creative like my Good Ol' Half-Life video, but I can't think of anything.

This reminds me of 2008, when I only released one video in eight months before UnKnown Moments 3 came around. I guess this is just another one of those phases where I simply hibernate on some ideas.

Having nothing left to focus on, so what could I think about? UnKnown Moments.

Lately, I've been thinking about the future of the UnKnown Moments series. Well, the 5th sequel at least. With the urge to move on from such a continuous series, I have a feeling that UnKnown Moments 5 may be the last one for me. With that in mind, I'm planning to make this sequel about ten minutes long. You heard me: ten minutes long. The only cost is that its release may be pushed back further than the traditional August release. I'm not giving a date for its YouTube arrival because I have no clue when, and I want to take my time on it.

The next "An UnKnown Moment" will probably be a summertime one, instead of making the Mother's/Father's Day shorts.

April Update

2010-04-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

From what it seems at this point, I won't be releasing anything in April.

For one, I still don't have a clear idea to go after. I'm slowly rebuilding up ideas in my head, with visual imagery included. Unfortunately, I feel that I need to improve my editing skills, visual-wise, in order to recreate the imagery I plot up in my head. (Syncing to music is easy.) I've been trying to find tutorials that explain the filters I find in frag videos that were obviously polished up with Adobe After Effects, but apparently that's too hard for Google to find.

School is certainly going to be occupying my time this month. School projects are coming out the ass everywhere I turn. (Six are to be completed by the end of this month.) Just makes me look forward to the summer even more...

WeGame Update

2010-03-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

WeGame's new design has apparently fixed my uploading issue that prevented me from uploading new videos for several months. Now you can finally view these newer videos on WeGame on my WeGame account.

March Update

2010-03-12T20:25:00.000-08:00

I figure that it's time for a little update, since it's been a whole month.

As I promised, there will be a St. Patrick's Day short (starring characters from the UnKnown Moments series) that'll be released on the 17th. In fact, I just finished encoding it through Adobe Premiere Pro (2.0). Expect it to be just as awesome (if anything, better) as the Valentine's Day short.

You might've noticed, but I haven't been really making any new Machinimas lately. I have some ideas brewing up in my head, but these ideas aren't big enough to expand on yet. I've been having an urge to create music videos for songs that I love jamming to, but there's nothing really to go on that hasn't been done before. Academic difficulties at school are also distracting me from my hobbies, but I just finished one of the hardest classes I've ever had. Good thing I'm using these UnKnown Moments shorts as a filler for the meantime.

So yeah... Not much planned in video-making for now, besides the holiday shorts. I hope to have something going shortly after I release the Easter video in early April.

Released: "An UnKnown Moment - Valentine's Day"

2010-02-13T22:15:00.000-08:00

In case you didn't read it before, I decided to make holiday shorts featuring characters from UnKnown Moments. The first one up was Valentine's Day. Check it out on YouTube. It stars three characters who haven't been seen since the second one (first one for the other girl). This was originally an idea I was keeping in case UnKnown Moments 5 rolled around, but I figured that it could be used for this video. Yeah, I could've used Gordon and his "Dick in a Box", but hell... I could use that for Christmas or something.

Right now, I don't have any plans for other projects. If you're a huge fan of UnKnown Moments 4, you might have a chance of knowing what's coming for the St. Patrick's Day video. If not, sit back and wait for it 'til then.

Released: "Desperate"

2010-02-08T12:05:00.000-08:00

Finally, I've completed my primary project: "Desperate". I put a ridiculous amount of time and effort into this project, even though the video only turned out to be a little over two minutes long. I love the quality of the outcome, though. It was the worth the time making it, in my opinion. Check it out on YouTube. Hope you enjoy it.

I'm expecting to start working on the short UnKnown Moments project for Valentine's Day very soon. It's simply going to be a short scene (predicting about 30-40 seconds long) with "Happy Valentine's Day" at the end of it. Hey, it's not a whole sequel, but at least you'll see some new content from the series before a whole year passes by.

Status Update: "Desperate"

2010-02-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

My primary project, code-name "Desperate", is about three-fourths done and near completion. It's about 2:15 long. I have twenty seconds left to work on, with the remaining time to be a simple closing with credits. I'm currently thinking about what footage I'm going to record for the last chorus.

Since this is definitely going to be completed soon, I guess it's time to get into some details. The background song is going to be "Meteor Shower" by Owl City. Yeah, Owl City. A little too mainstream, but it's probably one of the deepest songs on his album Ocean Eyes. All the shots are set on Davebrown's City 8 maps. It's about a guy who comes home to City 8 to find everyone dead from a very recent headcrab infestation, and his girlfriend is missing. The plot isn't straight-forward in the video, but it's easy to put together.

Like I said before, most of the scenes are mixed with a trance mood. The rest has a touch of depression, to match with the guy's situation in the plot.

I'm hoping I can have it out by this weekend. It depends how motivated I am to finish it these next 3-4 days.

Quick Update: New Project

2010-01-24T10:30:00.000-08:00

The spontaneous urge to make a quickie project has hit me again! It's a small one-minute video of some good frags I did half a year back on Half-Life 2 Deathmatch. It will be up on YouTube very soon, once I complete the last few touches.

1/26/10 - "Hell Dweller" is now on YouTube.

January Update: 2 Projects in the Works

2010-01-23T16:13:00.001-08:00

Currently, I'm working on a primary project currently labeled "Desperate", with a secondary one right behind it. The first project is going to be focused on Davebrown's City 8 map(s). It will certainly turn out very nice and tranquil. I'm looking forward to finishing it. Hell, depending on how motivated I am to finish it, it might be released before the end of this month! If not during this last week, it will definitely be done and uploaded in the first week of February. I'm going to love the outcome of this one, and you will, too.

As for the second project, it will be a nice little Valentine's short with some older and newer characters from the UnKnown Moments series. I'm brewing up some ideas for it, so look forward to that, also. It sucks to only see new content from the series once a year; I know.

So those are my plans for video-making at the moment. Both will be released by the time it's mid-February.

Off topic: the other day, I tried to use footage for my primary project that was recorded using the Source Recorder method, which I haven't done in almost a year now. It was a huge reminder why I stick to registered Fraps now. On a proportion scale, Fraps wins when it comes to compression and quality. There's hardly any quality loss, and takes up at least twice as less space than Source Recorder. I only recommend SR for the highest quality videos if you're recording with 1024x768 or less, just because it doesn't take up that much space at that low of a resolution. Trust my advice; I went through many hours of agony and aggravation to realize this.

Released: The Chapel's 2009; Update

2010-01-02T00:34:00.001-08:00

After I came home from a New Years party, I recorded footage for the last month of 2009 and put the last pieces together in my project. I actually worked on it and the credits all night until sunrise just because I had nothing better to do. I took a nap while it encoded and slapped it up on YouTube in two parts. I'm still having trouble uploading to WeGame (my connection's just that awesome), but I'll upload my newest videos soon on someone else's IP to catch up. I know I said before that I wasn't going to release this project for a few weeks, but I can't just hold back videos I make. If I'm done with them, I got to show them to everyone else. It's just an urge.

To be honest, I don't have any big plans for video-making right now. So my subscribers would probably be lucky to even see one more video for January, but that's just the standpoint at this moment. I can't really predict myself when I'm so spontaneous with video-making...

I'm starting to think about doing shorts dedicated to holidays, starring characters from my UnKnown Moments series. I thought of this right before Christmas, but it was too late to make any sort of holiday video by then. I had a few good ideas for the script, too. Oh well... I don't know if I will start doing this, but it would be great to see new content from UnKnown Moments without waiting a whole 'nother year. I could probably start off with Valentine's Day if I live up to this idea later on.

Well, that's all I got for now. Peace.

December Update

2009-12-07T22:22:00.000-08:00

Looks like I need to start making new plans. The other day, the Black Mesa mod was officially delayed to 2010. Sort of surprised, but I'm sort of not. Stupid enough, I didn't have a plan B for a video release this month. Let's hope my spontaneous ideas pay off for some sort of make-up video for December.

What I've also realized is: quality, not quantity. I shouldn't be uploading these random ass videos every week or two, because they're not that great (compared to my other stuff). It's probably why I never uploaded that many videos in the past. Hopefully, I can retreat again back to quality videos in a few weeks.

My side project, The Chapel's: 2009, on the other hand, is coming along nicely. This project is composed of video footage from a community called The Monastery that has a server up on Half-Life 2 Deathmatch named "The Chapel HL2DM". It's a sequel to The Chapel's 2008. I only have to finish up one more month, with the credits behind that. Like I said before, though, I won't release that until it's a few months into 2010 for nostalgia purposes. It's going to be in HD and (hopefully only) ten minutes long in order to keep it in one part for YouTube.

Also, I will probably start putting my backup YouTube account into use by uploading video scraps. I already have two up. I don't know the future of these scraps if I have to end up moving to that account.

Some Ideas, Little Production

2009-11-23T22:19:00.000-08:00

Okay, first off, my bad on those two recent videos. I know they're not that good; the Black Mesa one wasn't even really original. Obviously by now, I've learned that Rainy Forecast was way too damn flashy, which was pretty much a reminder on where I should limit video effects. Those two videos were just random, spontaneous projects I shat out to somewhat entertain you guys. But at least it's something, you know? Last year, I only released 5-6 videos, and most of them came out during the second half that year. It's a good way to lose subscribers and some pieces of your fanbase.

I always thought about doing a professional reboot of my Cs_Office series I made so long ago (with a new original title, of course). Hell, I almost started making a new one two years back but ditched it really quick. The thing is: videos like my Cs_Office videos require more that just some video shots and music. It requires a good script and decent voice acting. Right now, I have a simple idea I could brainstorm around and develop upon for an office video, but I don't have the motivation at the moment to do all that.

Meanwhile, I continue to wait for Black Mesa's release in order to create that video I've always wanted to make. Then again, it's more like: kill time until it's released on December 31st. Arg, those jackasses...

Hopefully, before I get to that Black Mesa project, I can come up with an idea or two I can really work on in order to span it into its own video. Don't worry; if this does happen, I'll make sure they're good this time. (xD) I do have one or two floating in my head, and I hope they're possible to translate easily onto video if I'm motivated to produce them.

On top of all that, I'm slowly building up content on a project due for next year. Nothing to discuss about it, though. It's not much for the meantime...

Also, I've been working on The Chapel's: 2009 video, which is going to be just like The Chapel's: 2008, a video that shows raw footage from a fun community on Half-Life 2 Deathmatch. I'm now all the way into the August footage, using the Black Eyed Peas' Rock That Body as background music. Once the August footage is done, I'm probably going ahead with Scooter's The Sound Above My Hair as the third background track for the last four months. Even if I finish this project right when 2010 comes around, I'll wait a month or two before releasing it to give the video some sort of nostalgia feel.

Released: Black Mesa Fan-Made Video

2009-11-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

This project came out of nowhere; making this video was pretty much a spontaneous idea. I participated in this thread at the Black Mesa forums by making my own fan video with the only footage I can get my hands on (since the mod isn't out yet and all), which was the trailer. I remixed it with a new track and shuffled the footage around a bit to ensure I did not simply replace the music. The only reason I ever did this was because I felt a little impatient waiting for the whole game to release (probably this December), so I spilled a little bit of my concept onto this remixed video.

Due to hosting problems on WeGame, I have it up only on YouTube.

Released: Rainy Forecast

2009-10-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

There's been this song stuck in my head for weeks now called "Memphis Bell" by The Prodigy. When I first heard it on my mp3 player on my way home from school, I immediately had a moving picture in my head of Team Fortress 2 gameplay, with the song in the background. I was planning to make it a frag video, but I didn't have the patience of gathering up footage of nice kills. So I recorded some gameplay on TF2, recorded every decent kill, and stuck it together with this song that's been playing in my head every day. Check it out on either YouTube or WeGame.

As you can obviously see, I focused on creativity rather than showing impressive kills. I mean sure, I do kick ass in TF2, but I didn't feel like gathering up so many demos for that. It's great to use the nice slow-mo effect that I've learned from my last video. (Had to record everything at .2 speed through.) I spent hours today on making this, which turned out to be only a minute and a half long. Oh well; this video wasn't exactly an important priority.

Small Update

2009-10-23T19:44:00.001-07:00

So yeah, I've been pretty inactive when it comes to releasing videos lately. Every now and then I come up with these ideas for a video, but the ideas are not good enough to expand on their own.

The WKUK skit I was making on Gmod isn't going to be finished and probably will never be done. I haven't touched it since the first day I started making it. I don't know, I can never predict myself whenever I'll release a video. They're just random impulses.

The only project I've been working on is The Chapel's: 2009. I've now completed January through June, around five minutes in. The first track is Green Day's "Last Night On Earth", with the second track (for the summer footage) being "Rock That Body" by Black Eyed Peas.

Still waiting for the Black Mesa mod to come out, where I will immediately begin my next major project. Though, like I said before, the mod probably won't be out until late December (those bastards).

In summary, I've been touching upon The Chapel's: 2009, ditched the WKUK remake, and I am still waiting for the Black Mesa mod.

Minor Projects

2009-10-08T16:54:00.000-07:00

So it's been two weeks, and this is what's been up.

At this point, I've decided that any new videos I make will be in the HD 16:9 resolution. The only reason UnKnown Moments 4 wasn't in 16:9 resolution was because I started making it before I had a widescreen monitor. I need to take advantage of the widescreen opportunity.

I've been on and off of random video projects. Last Sunday, I was recreating a skit from the Whitest Kids U' Know that was already done by a Youtuber who goes by the name of giovi2009. If you feel like being a detective, you'll know what skit I'm talking about if you look around his profile. Yeah, I know it's not exactly original, but I'm just giving a shot at my own version just to keep the subscribers distracted while I long for the Black Mesa mod... so I can start my next major project once it releases sometime this year. I don't know when I'm going to finish it, though. It's not a primary task for me at the moment.

Just because I can, I also began working on the 2009 video of a server I frequently visit on Half-Life 2 Deathmatch, The Chapel. You've probably already seen the 2008 video, which begins quiet and slow. The next video will contain faster-paced music, since I became bored with watching the previous one after the third time. Might be a little too fast, but I'm sticking with the audio for the time being. Of course, this can't be released until 2010 rolls around, since I got to capture all the 2009 footage first...

So basically, all I've been doing is getting a head start on a few minor projects while I wait for Black Mesa to release, in order to start my next major project. Of course, it's probably going to come out in December, so I'm hoping to get the WKUK skit out there soon to keep my subscribers occupied. Unless I'm suddenly motivated to finish it all so quickly, that WKUK skit won't be out for two weeks or so.

How It All Started

2009-09-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

What can we do while I await for Black Mesa to come out? I know! Let's tell a story to pass the time!

Google Video Era (6th Grade)
My video-making hobby appeared from one random school night over three years ago, in May 2006. I was weeks away from ending my 6th grade year, which was a change for me due to Hurricane Katrina interrupting it. There was a certain mood to that school year because of it, being a nearby resident of New Orleans. But that's irrelevant.

I was playing through Half-Life 2's Ravenholm on the school night of May 8th, 2006, and thought, "Hey, I should make a video off of this!" I already had the soundtrack playing in my head: Down With The Sickness by Disturbed. So I quickly downloaded the trial version of Fraps, which I knew about beforehand from watching other (crappy) machinimas. I got a good idea of how to use it, and so I immediately went onto Half-Life 2 and started recording footage. After that, I went on Windows Movie Maker for my first time and began to learn the process of making a video, just like any young kid with unregistered Fraps. Just another noob when it came to Machinima. :P

By the end of the night, I had my two-minute video and music together. I was quite the learner, since I seem to use self-reliance when it came to new things. It was good for my first video, and I uploaded it to Google Video. I would post a link, but it was deleted many months back thanks to Google and the copyright crap. No point in re-uploading it now...

I loved my first video. Instantly, video-making was my new hobby. I had a thing for it; it was something new to me and interesting. Nearly two weeks later, I created a video doing jumps with the gravity gun glitch on HL2DM, months before it was fixed in an update. Again, I used music by Disturbed, which is why the video is now nonexistent on Google Video. Thanks for ruining my fragile history, Google. :(

My next video I made though, near the end of May 2006, was called A Day At The Yaypit. It was basically video with my irritating prepubescent voice overlapping it. The Yaypit was a server that is basically the same community that is now known as The Monastery/Chapel, which I've made future videos on. This sort of video style went on for a couple of months, with me in public servers, like Yaypit, with my voice overlapped while putting it together in Windows Movie Maker. Examples are such as: Another Day At The Yaypit (6/11/06), A Quick Day At Cs_Office (7/7/06), and the Gordon's Journey series (8/6 - 10/1/06 ). See? I was a video nooblet, too. A few of them that were somewhat worth watching (compared to the rest at least XD) were Take On Me (6/30/06, Yaypit video), my first HL2DM Frag Video (7/2/06, now unavailable), Welcome Back To Ravenholm (7/7/06, remake of 1st video), and One More Time (7/15/06, also on my YouTube).

Youtube/Google Video Era
At the beginning of August 2006, I signed up on Youtube and uploaded the best two videos I had at the time. That included the Welcome Back To Ravenholm and One More Time (both previously on Google Video). Meanwhile, I stayed with Google Video for my upcoming crappy videos and only uploaded the better videos on YouTube. In July of 2006, I created a video literally overnight (until sunrise) called Cs_Office while my best friends slept over, but I never uploaded it until August. Although I only kept this video on Google Video, I winded up uploading the rest of the series onto my YouTube account. As I continued my Gordon's Journey series on Google Video, I began moving away from narrating videos to music videos, starting with HL2DM frag videos.

My first frag video, like I said earlier, was made in July 06 on HL2DM. When it came to making my second frag video, my father introduced me to Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0. After learning my ways around this new program (somewhat, at the time), I finished up HL2DM Frag Video: Resurrected and loaded it onto Youtube. Obviously, as you can see in the video, I was loving the effects Premiere Pro 2.0 offered me. I wasn't also as good as I am now. I basically never went back to Windows Movie Maker. My next two videos were also frag videos, named Encore (8/29/06) and Destruction (9/24/06). They're also floating around on Google Video somewhere. Any video I uploaded on YouTube around this time was also on Google Video. As a month went by, I finished up my Cs_Office series with Life At Office (10/7/06) and Moving (10/22/06). Making this series gave me more familiarity with ragdoll posing and stop-motion, which were very useful for future videos to come.

From October to December, I began to learn more about the Source Recorder technique in source games, while learning more and more about Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, including making titles and such. Finally, I began to ditch the unregistered Fraps. On December 7th, 2006, I released Half-Life Teaser Trailer, which was my first video using only Source Recorder. I was impressed, my father was impressed, but around these times, I had no popularity at all on YouTube. I was lucky to get around 50 views from my videos. I don't even remember when I had gotten my first subscriber. Oh well.

As the weeks went on, I started to slow down on video-making. I wore myself out by producing so many videos from all the ideas bursting out of my head. I didn't slow down that much, just maybe 1 video a month or something like that.

2007/UnKnown Moments 1 & 2/Popularity Era
So the first January day of 2007, I had this funny little thought in my head of a guy stealing a car that turned out to have explosives as an alarm system. After seeing the uprising of random Gmod videos months earlier, I decided to make a short video on it, titled Balli- Oh Sh** (1/2/07). On Facepunch, it received some positive reviews, which was one of the motivating causes to make my future hit video a month later... Meanwhile, before that, I made a short music video called My Name Is on January 20th of 2007 (it was removed from YouTube, but it glitched so that you can still watch it embed). For the most part, it was also loved (around 15,000 views before taken down on the site).

My subscribers began to slowly grow. I was noticing my views getting into the low hundreds, but that was nothing compared to what was very soon to come. Through two weeks of effort, mostly thanks to the positive reception I received from my Balli- Oh Sh** video, I finished my video titled UnKnown Moments, which was filled with many funny ideas I had in my head. I showed my parents and brothers, and they loved it. One local older friend I knew named Kyle K. loved it, and he started passing it around everywhere he went. Since I was only in the shadows of Gmod, I didn't get many views at first, but I do know that the only viewers I got thought it was definitely great. Over the weeks, my views per day for UnKnown Moments became greater. This video was probably the first video I had that received over 1000 views. I got a handful of subscribers. I was really amazed and happy how I was actually satisfying over 1000 views on this video. I never expected my video(s) to become popular. I was just a kid in 7th grade with a hobby.

After finishing up a short video of a bar I made in Garry's Mod in March, I took a small two-month break while watching my UnKnown Moments slowly stack up in views. Eventually, after a month, it was around 10,000. My imagination needed a rest. I would get at least one subscriber every two days.

At the end of May, my summer vacation strolled in. 7th grade was over, and I was happy about it. Having so much time, I started hanging out on the Monastery/Chapel HL2DM server formerly known as The Yaypit. I also began production on UnKnown Moments 2 at the beginning of June. Thinking about the Yaypit videos I made now a year ago, I decided to whip out two videos of this server I hang out in, A Night At The Monastery (6/26/07) and A Time At The Chapel (6/28/07). In reality, though, they were both the same server. My subscribers got a few laughs, but it's not exactly what they wanted. I wasn't worried, because a sequel was coming soon.

And there it was, the last day of my summer vacation (8/11/07), that I finished and rolled out UnKnown Moments 2. This time, I got even more views in one day, and the reception was definitely positive. My family laughed even more than last time, and my friends rushed to see it at their houses. I was grateful for it all, and I still am. I have no clue how many subscribers I had a week after, but it sure was a lot during that time period for me. I would get at least 1 subscriber a day, which I was really grateful for. I couldn't believe my work was that awesome. By this time, I've completely abandoned

As months went by, I only made first-person videos, mainly focusing on the new Fortress Forever mod that was released in that September of 2007, such as Welcome To Fortress Forever (9/28/07), The MeDiC (10/30/07), The Soldier (12/23/07), and then, after a 4-month gap of silence, The Pyro (4/13/08). Yeah, I knew these videos weren't liked by everyone, but I considered them decent enough for publicity. I started to slow down a lot after The Soldier video. I only had one more video, The Pyro, the rest of my school year. Let's just say that the first half of 2008 wasn't exactly the happiest for me. I was dragging through school, wanting to get out... only because I found out most of the friends I had at my school simply backstabbed each other. But personal life is personal. Still was a pretty dark time for me. Making videos wasn't on my mind at all... I still started making segments for the upcoming UnKnown Moments 3 in February, but very slowly. I don't remember much around this time period.

UnKnown Moments 3/9th Grade Era
Finally in August 2008, after months of making segments, UnKnown Moments 3 was thrown out there onto my account while hoping for a rebound. After coming home from school that day, I came home to around 20,000 views on my video. I was stunned and so happy at the same time. Most of the views came from the news post I put up on GarrysMod.com. My subscribers were joyous, which made me happy, too. The next few days, I found out that Garry Newman liked the video himself. That made my week, hearing the creator of Garry's Mod himself say that he liked my video. I was getting thousands of views for the first few days. Every day, I found new comments and subscribers. It made me feel like I was in the old days again. Currently, UnKnown Moments 1 - 3 all have 200,000+ views.

Two months later, in October, I released two new Fortress Forever videos, one of them being a comedy machinima called Bag O' Weed, which was produced thanks to members of the FF community. I came back in December with a sequel for the hell of it.

Not wanting a repeat of the first half of 2008, I posted up two short videos in January and in February 2009 to let my subscribers know that I'm still around. As I started making scenes for UnKnown Moments 4, I started to develop new ideas for videos in March, but I came to a sudden delay that is explained in this hilarious video. I also joined WeGame around this time to spread out my UnKnown Moments series a little bit.

Once I had gotten a new, incredibly beast computer, I quickly worked up more of a creative video rather than graphics-y called Good Ol' Half-Life at the end of March 2009, exclusively on WeGame thanks to YouTube's audio bullcrap. I really liked making this video, since it wasn't UnKnown Moments (which wears me out so much). Two weeks later, I released a Portal montage called Vaulted [Place For My Head], since I was good enough with the game. My viewers loved it, and so did I. My family found it impressive, so I was satisfied. I continued on making UnKnown Moments 4.

So I released two videos (which aren't really important to discuss) by the time June rolled around. Being a part of the Monastery/Chapel community, I decided to dedicate a video to their community since I was around it since I was 10, which was now over 5 years ago. It was based on the experiences I had there in 2008.

In August 2009, I released a video of me messing around on Half-Life Source called Procrastination [It's Tricky], when I was supposed to be producing UnKnown Moments 4. It was satisfying, and it was a distraction for my subscribers as I finished up UnKnown Moments 4.

UnKnown Moments 4/10th Grade Era
So, finally, there it was at on the 22nd of August 2009: UnKnown Moments 4. Many people didn't see it coming, even though there were hints everywhere about it. Prepared, I posted up an article on GarrysMod.com that was quickly approved. Many viewers think it's the best one, and so do I. Never in my life have I laughed at my own scenes so hard throughout the whole production. I would watch all the scenes over and over again during my many months of production at least every two days.

Throughout the production of UnKnown Moments 4, I had the desire to remake my first video ever made, which was Welcome to Ravenholm. Around two weeks after UnKnown Moments 4, as soon as I had the concept all planned out, I filmed and finished up the whole 5-minute video in just two days. It was released that same day, on September 7th, 2009, named Forever At Ravenholm. I finished it up so quickly mainly because I had a huge motivation of nostalgia and because it came out fantastic. I learned how to create an atmosphere with the bloom tool on Garry's Mod and simply practiced my video-making hobby.

Now I sit here, two weeks later, thinking about how all this came to be. I'm glad I made that decision over three years ago on a school night, deciding to make my first video. If that had not happened, I wouldn't have made so many people laugh from my UnKnown Moments. I wouldn't have inspired other newcomers and such to do video-making. Someone else probably would have been that role model for the new machinimers, but I'm proud to be that motivation for whoever. I hope people come to realize that, even if you're in 7th grade, you can always pull out a good video as good as my UnKnown Moments. I was a kid with no experience in video making and managed to teach myself and master the concept of machinima throughout the years, and today I still continue to get better.

Sorry if it looks like I'm bragging anywhere in this post; I'm simply talking through thankfulness and happiness. I'm impressed if you were able to read this whole thing. Damn, I'm glad I started making videos.

Youtube Back-up Account: 1337CaLeBv2

2009-09-19T12:36:00.001-07:00

I'm starting to hear more stories about people's accounts being deleted due to the 3-strikes on the copyrighted audio bullcrap. Since I already got one strike after attempting to put my old "My Name Is" video back online awhile back, I've decided to create my back-up account for now in case shit goes down sometime in the future. Might as well subscribe to it.

http://www.youtube.com/user/1337CaLeBv2

Extras: UnKnown Moments 4

2009-09-12T14:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a few shots showing extra stuff while making UnKnown Moments 4.

"Divide" Scene -This was my first scene of UnKnown Moments 4 while using my old computer (before it went all screwy). Notice how many camera angles I have set up. See if you can match up the cameras with what you see in the official video.

"44 Magnum" Scene - Here's how I managed to only use Eli's head to replace the Metrocop's default head. I had to shrink the Metrocop's head in order to show Eli's flawlessly. After I had it set in place, I pretty much had to shrink and hide the rest of Eli where it wasn't visible in the camera angle. One mistake I made was that I forgot to hide the limbs when I changed the camera angle. So when you see Eli turning (before it zooms in), you can see a grayish area to his left. That's actually his arms. I fixed it when I did the zooming in part.

"Im A B" Scene - Me posing next to the famous B.

"My Name Is" Scene - Here's a shot of the whole thing. I winded up not using many of the camera angles for some reason.

I'll probably go back through some saves and take more pictures just to show a little more behind the scenes. :)

Released: Forever At Ravenholm

2009-09-07T17:15:00.000-07:00

My newest project, Forever At Ravenholm, has now been released onto YouTube and WeGame. Enjoy it. Once again, I predicted my release date too long. Seriously, I can never predict accurately when I'm going to release something.

During the production of this video, I've learned more of the concept of slow-motion and creating an atmosphere for a setting. And yes, the video is somewhat depressing, but that's what it's supposed to do. It's meant to represent what the town has become. Ironically, the song is called "Tearjerker" by Korn. Perfect match for this video, in my opinion. But what also made the video great is the sunny setting at the end, representing the relief and happiness.

It's a good chance that my next project will be on the Black Mesa mod, once it's out that is. With that in mind, I don't have any other videos planned to be out earlier than that (at the moment). Unless the developers delay Black Mesa (again), that's the game plan for now. But who knows; maybe I'll come up with a spontaneous idea for a video while I wait.

Status Update: "Forever At Ravenholm"

2009-09-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

After I took care of an annoying (but simple to fix) Fraps bug, I went to work on my next project today, "Forever At Ravenholm", which recreates the concept of the first video I have ever made that was titled "Welcome To Ravenholm". At the moment, it's already half-way done! ^^ Sorry about making you guys pessimistic with the release date I previously stated in my last blog. I can't seem to realize how quick I make these things once I have the idea set down!

Although it keeps the same setting and somewhat the same idea as my "Welcome to Ravenholm" (don't get confused with this one and my "Welcome Back To Ravenholm" remake), this one will start off with third-person, then switch to Gordon's first-person near the end once the whole setting is introduced to the viewer. I also recorded Ravenholm while using a whitish bloom to give Ravenholm more of a depressing, lonely atmosphere. It's going to be a great watch from start to end.

I got to be honest; this is probably going to turn out as one of my best Machinimas. (Besides my UnKnown Moments random comedy.) I hope many people get the opportunity to see it, because, so far, it's beautiful. Hopefully I'll have it out by the end of this week. (Maybe on 9/11 for the lulz.)

Idea Focus: "Forever At Ravenholm"

2009-08-29T11:08:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking, ever since around the start of producing UnKnown Moments 4, about remaking (again) my first video I ever created in May 2006, "Welcome to Ravenholm". I would show a link to the original, but Google Video blocked the video months back due to that copyright crap. (At the time, you could upload videos to Google Video.) Man, I remember those times when you didn't have to worry about what music you used in your videos. What these music companies don't realize is that you can't control copyright infringement on the Internet no matter what you do. There are techniques around it, notice how my UnKnown Moments 4 started off with a quiet scene to disguise all the copyrighted music I made throughout the video.

Anyway, two months later after the original, I made a remake of it two months later that's still on Youtube (although it's now audioswapped) titled "Welcome Back To Ravenholm". I used Disturbed's "Down With The Sickness" in both videos, which is why it got caught so quickly once the copyright bullshit came around. This video will be called, "Forever At Ravenholm", which finalizes the previous titles.

I've been looking through my music library, looking for audio that doesn't belong to such a major music company and would match Ravenholm's scary, hell-ish feel. Unless Black Mesa will come out earlier than I expect, this is probably going to be my next project. Don't expect it for a month or two, though.

Misc Information: UnKnown Moments 4

2009-08-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

Miscellaneous information for my video: UnKnown Moments 4.

Content
1. Source Engine/Audio
2. GoldSrc Audio
3. Quake Audio
4. Miscellaneous Audio

Tools
1. Garry's Mod
2. Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0
3. Source Recorder
4. Fraps
5. VirtualDub

Fun Facts
1. Every UnKnown Moments video began their first clip on the same map.

2. The introduction shows a line of characters in previous UnKnown Moments videos.

3. The "divide" scene had a long delay right after "...we have a problem", but was cut down immensely so the video in whole wasn't too quiet.

4. The "take that..." audio in the "beautiful day" scene was taken from The Whitest Kids U' Know. This scene was a spontaneous idea and quickly created on the same day of UM4's release.

5. In the "suppression field" scene, I had to mix in Valve's Half-Life 2: Episode Two with Garry's Mod. Gordon's reaction was also my reaction when I first played Episode Two.

6. The "you found me" clip also required to use two different games, this time it was Counter-Strike: Source and Garry's Mod.

7. The voice clip from the "shoot 'em in the head" part was by comedian MC Chris.

8. In the "indestructible" scene, I simply moved Francis' mouth with the face poser, because the fire in the background would've looked horrible in stop-motion.

9. The Half-Life scene was simply VOX voice clips mashed together in perverted sentences.

10. The "stole my bike" clip was an idea I came up with while playing the clip's first song on Rock Band 2 with my friend... the same friend who helped me with the first "stole my bike" scene in UnKnown Moments 2.

11. I gave up in frustration with the "boom boom boom" scene during early stages of production, but I finally came back and remade it later on since it was a great idea to use.

12. I came up with the "I'm still alive" scene while playing the song on Rock Band 2 at my friends' house. I also noticed that it's the one clip I laugh the most at.

13. Months ago, I came up with this great way to introduce the Rick James watermelon by mashing up Eminem's "My Name Is" with Dave Chapelle's voice clip. Even though I wasn't planning to bring the Rick James melon back in UnKnown Moments 4, the idea was so awesome that I had to use it.

Released: UnKnown Moments 4

2009-08-22T14:36:00.001-07:00

SNAAAP! Yup, UnKnown Moments 4 is now live and streaming at YouTube and WeGame at the moment. I'm going to be uploading it at other sites such as DailyMotion and Veoh soon. Hopefully my article that I sent to the moderators on GarrysMod.com gets approved. I don't know why it wouldn't (unless they're such fanboys of the Gmod Idiot Box series, which they keep posting about for every new episode). I put a lot of effort into it, it's funny, and it... just deserves to be up there. Too many hours I spent on that video. I'm glad it's done. Like I said before, don't expect a fifth one for a long time.

Soon, I will be posting up on YouTube a video of outtakes from the whole series. There's not that much you've missed; don't worry. It's only 3-4 short scenes that didn't make it because mainly there was no punchline or humor in it.

Welp, all I can say now is... hope you enjoy the video! Music list is in YouTube video description.

Update #2: UnKnown Moments 4

2009-08-19T18:31:00.000-07:00

Like I expected, by now, most of UnKnown Moments 4 has now been complete. I got to finish off a few more things before I encode it and haul it off to YouTube. Hopefully I can get it done over this weekend, cause right now the beginning of this sophomore year is biting me in the ass. Assignments and other things need to be done for me to be settled in this year of high school. Just like UnKnown Moments 3 last year, this fourth video will probably be released during my second week of the school year, which is next week. My prediction last week is quite accurate at the moment.

Just to get your asses a little excited for 5 minutes of hilarity (without the intro and credits), never before have I laughed so hard at my own created clips. If I'm still laughing at old clips for UnKnown Moments 4 that have been made months back, then I'm sure you'll get flips out of this until mid-fall. With all four videos combined, I'm sure a total of around 20 minutes of awesome comedy is enough. You guys are lucky I was even considerate enough to make a series from all the positive feedback of the first UnKnown Moments.

Once UnKnown Moments 4 is released, I'm planning to make a video with the mod Black Mesa... once it's out, that is. I know that project will be incredible, because I can already picture it out in my head. Now excuse me; I have to do some school work. :(

Video Release: Procrastination [It's Tricky]

2009-08-11T09:59:00.000-07:00

So last night I was messing around in Half-Life Source, spawning lots of NPCs to watch epic battles between security guards and zombies. Once I got bored of that, I decided to go around planting tripmines on NPCs and see how they die. Some of them were hilarious to watch, so I decided to record them. Unfortunately, some I couldn't just reenact their exact reaction time and their unique ragdoll physics. It's probably why the video is only a minute long.

That night, I worked on the video, got it done, and uploaded it to YouTube today. It's great to work on something that's not UnKnown Moments 4. xD If I'm dickin' around, I might as well record some of it for some sort of side-project.

What I learned from this project is to NEVER record at 16:10. It gives black lines on the side both vertically and horizontally. (Adobe has projects set for 4:3 and 16:9, but not 16:10.) Also, it's cool to record at 60 fps on Half-Life Source, just maybe not anything else. (It would've come out 29.97 through encoding anyway, but it makes it easier to play while recording.)

Status Update: UnKnown Moments 4

2009-08-09T03:21:00.001-07:00

"So," you may be asking, "what's up with that UnKnown Moments 4?" Let me tell you exactly where the hell I am. I am currently four and a half minutes in, including the intro but not the credits. If I was lazy and would like to close it up at that, I would've done so already, but no one loves a series, waits for a year for the next video, and is completely satisfied with only four and a half minutes of comedy. If you are... then damn: I have completely underestimated the awesomeness of my UnKnown Moments series.

I hope to pump out at least another 40 seconds or so (without credits included) this month in order to have it, you're finally hearing it, released during the second half of August. Maybe not a week from now, but at least two. Now fill yourself with excitement with these two pictures: [1], [2].

You might think, "But Caleb, that's only 40 more seconds you have to produce before you can close it off with credits. ONLY!" But you see, I only produce the awesome ideas that come out of my mind, which is why my series is... pretty much full of awesome. After making three videos of complete awesomeness with +60 scenes, your mind is somewhat drained. Think of it as fishing a lake only for the big pounders. After grabbing enough out of the water, you eventually only catch small fish, and this forces you to wait for them to grow. If that was too complicated: I'm running dry on good ideas. Don't worry, though. There's a good chance I will have the video done and uploaded by the end of August.

Be warned, though, it's going to be awhile before I make another. Like... it may take a year before I finally start to make a new one, but even that might not happen. I long to move on to other ideas for other games. UnKnown Moments wasn't planned to be a series, but it became one when it opened to the Gmod community and had a demand for more videos.

Once UnKnown Moments 4 is released, I'll probably release all the deleted scenes (the few that were left out) from UnKnown Moments onto Youtube, also. I might not have any deleted scenes for UnKnown Moments 4, though. (They're all that awesome!)

I hope you've been informed. Trust me, it's harder thinking up good ideas than producing them.

Here I Am...

2009-08-09T03:20:00.001-07:00

Figuring that some of my viewers would like some sort of updates on production for my videos, I decided to grab a Blogspot account. Yeah, you can thank Dasboschitt for making me find this website that I surprisingly didn't know about. And there I was thinking all these years that I would have to host a domain myself to make blogs! Sure do feel like a dumb ass.

I guess you can consider this like my... "Welcome to Blogspot" post. Now, time to type up the current status on that UnKnown Moments 4...

Misc Information: UnKnown Moments 3

2008-08-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

Miscellaneous information for my video: UnKnown Moments 3.

Content
Certain games are showed in my video. Those include Half-Life 2 content, Counter-Strike Source, Half-Life Source (with 3rd party HD Pack installed), and Garry's Mod.

Audio
Other than songs, most of the sounds came from Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike Source's GCF files found in your steamapps folder. Install GCFScape to open up the GCF files. (The songs are also credited at the end of the video.)

Recording
No, I didn't use Fraps or any third-party video-recorder. I used what was built into the source engine itself. For more information, Google up "Source Recorder".

Fun Facts
1. The first part that made it into UnKnown Moments 3 was created in late January, which was the scene with Breen with the jeep. From there, I slowly finished part by part for the video.

2. The parts are not arranged by the date they were completed. I simply stuck scenes between others using my own judgment of what might fit better where.

3. The very first part, the introduction, and the credits were all made near the end of production.

4. There are lyrical jokes in most of the parts; some may appear noticeable. For example, the very first part, the rebel says, "Somewhere we live inside." Guess where the zombie came out of? From inside his body.

5. The last part I created, aside from the credits, was the Combine Elite singing "Handlebars" by Flobots. It was also the most stressful scene for me, due to running into many problems to where I had to remake it all over again.

6. The background of the introduction shows many of the famous characters that starred in UnKnown Moments 1 & 2.

7. The subtitle of UnKnown Moments 3 was, at first, "Unforgotten". But then, I decided UnForgettable was more acceptable to me. That's the reason why I accidentally typed "Unforgotten" into this video's thread on the Facepunch Forums.

8. The very first part, with the rebel speaking, was all made in SCREENSHOTS. Yeah, it took awhile to make every little face pose for him to look like he's singing.

9. There are mistakes in the video that are hardly noticeable. For the scene that used the song "Smooth Criminal", while the guy is talking to the zombie bottom-right of the screen, mid-way he has a sudden yellow tint. This is from me accidentally throwing a bugbait at him, instead of firing the camera tool. Others include a tiny blood spot on the floor during the 'is it gay...' scene, while the Combine is making the humping motion and blood spots behind the zombie in the 'cant be touched' scene.

10. In the scene with Gordon in the jeep, when they show the two girls, you can see a Civilian from the mod "Fortress Forever" in the background.

11. In the scene with the terrorist driving the jeep, I had to drive and turn corners while recording from a different angle... it was very, VERY difficult.

12. I got mad dancing skillz.

Misc Information: UnKnown Moments 2

2007-08-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

Miscellaneous information for my video: UnKnown Moments 2.

Fun Facts
1. The very first scene has a dead combine. It's explained in a later scene.

2. For the hummer scene, I'm driving it when it only shows the vehicle. For the rest, I used thrusters to give the illusion of a driver hitting the Metrocop, which was actually me getting pushed back by the hummer's thruster force.

3. I got to admit, the scene with the two Combine at 2:02 was indeed an idea I've got off of the famous Gmod comedy "Shortbits 2". I wanted to extend the idea a little more, and so I did.

4. The S.E.X. scene at 2:18 was actually much longer, but it only led to this awkward unnecessary part of the crowd dancing using thrusters.

5. Camera is visible on the side of the black guy's head at 2:45.

6. "YAH BITCH YAHHH" Scene - Yeah, obviously I was working on this by myself. You can easily see the switch from of me as a Combine Elite to the Combine Prison Guard. Also, the next part with the Monk was me. For some reason, the NPC (Combine Prison Guard) only looked at me instead of firing the RPG. I used this to my advantage. I'm creative like that. :)

7. I felt it necessary to have another lip sync scene from Half-Life, like I did in the first UnKnown Moments.

8. Try to look at what Alyx is facing towards at 4:49. You'll understand it eventually.

Content
The content shown in this movie are from the games: Half-Life Source, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike Source, and Garry's Mod.

Misc Information: UnKnown Moments

2007-02-17T09:52:00.000-08:00

Miscellaneous information for my video: UnKnown Moments.

Fun Facts
1. The first scene I've ever made for UnKnown Moments was Gordon and the two soldiers [0:26].

2. Rave Scene [0:50] - It's stop-motion (all made out of screenshots), and it was a bitch to do. :)

3. 1:07 - Ever since I've heard that song years ago, I always imagined the scientists saying "Yah, yah". So I made a part out of it. I had to keep clicking use on them until they said something that'd fit.

4. 1:47 - This is just simple footage from Opposing Force, while fast-forwarded. It wasn't supposed to do that, but since it did I added in some metal.

5. Fat Cop Milkshakin Scene [1:53] - The camera moved like that at the beginning of the scene because I was jumping down off the stairs, hoping to record footage of him shooting on time. I didn't, but it kinda fitted in the video... Also, one of the fat cops has no hair while the other one does. You can also see my HUD (couldn't take it off!) during the part with the cop shooting at the zombie.

6. Combine Love Scene [3:12] - I took this idea from another video that I liked. (See the section "Credits".)

7. Contrary to popular belief, the blowjob scene in the credits at 4:24 was not intended for humor. I was representing the main base of mingebags in Garry's Mod (who usually make sex poses), notice the credits saying "Created On: Garry's Mod".

8. I put a date at the end of the video because I knew this was one of the best videos I was ever gonna make, so I added on a date for historical/milestone reasons.

Game Content
I filmed most of the parts using Garry's Mod, a modification of Half-Life 2 that is available on Steam for 10 bucks. I took some of the maps and their content from Counter-Strike Source and Half-Life 2 to use on Garry's Mod.

Two separate games I used without Garry's Mod were Half-Life: Source and Half-Life: Opposing Force. They are both available on Steam for you to play once paying with a credit card.

Audio Content
Some people have been asking me where I've gotten my music and sounds from. The music I used was songs I've already owned on my computer. WAVs were used from the game content of Half-Life 2 Counter-Strike Source, and possibly more, and some were just found after being downloaded off of servers.