Budding Machinima-Makers, Please Stop Wasting Your Time With Watermarks!

 
Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

One of my biggest pet peeves when I'm browsing new Second Life machinima on YouTube (or any gaming footage in general) is just how many potentially interesting videos have been ruined with watermarks from free or trial versions of recording software. I get it, if you're just getting your beak wet with something like machinima you may not want to commit to buying a piece of software to do so. But it doesn't have to be this way, it really doesn't. You don't need to settle for watermarks all over your recordings.

There is a free alternative, one that works on both Mac and Windows, that allows you to combine game sound and mic input, that gives you an easy way to position multiple windows and overlays, and that most importantly doesn't leave your finished videos with any big glaring watermarks. I should know, because I've been using this particular program every week for just about a year now.

OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) was originally intended to be a free alternative to the often expensive streaming software that allows people to broadcast live on sites like Twitch, UStream etc. OBS isn't just useful for streamers, though. It allows you to make a local recording without broadcasting anything and, although it was initially Windows-only, there's now a Mac version available as well as a planned Linux release in the works. It's pretty simple to get a handle on, and gives you a lot more control than you might expect from a piece of free software.

So that's my little PSA; ditch the watermarking trials and demos and give OBS a shot. Your viewers will thank you.

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Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart on Twitter, Iris Ophelia in Second Life) has been writing about virtual worlds and video games for nearly a decade, and has had her work featured on Paste, Kotaku, Jezebel and The Mary Sue.

Comments

[Dave]

Just wanted to say thanks for posting this! I had no idea this was out there.

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

Oh thanks, I'll look forward to the Linux release since video capture on Linux is rather fiddly. I found that command line ffmpeg with the x11grab option did the best job, but it was/is difficult to get all the options working right.

Thank goodness streaming/capture on the PS4 is integrated into the thing.

[UCMO]

Thanks for the tip, I had not heard of this software before. Can't wait for the Linux version!

I will say that on a Mac you really do not need any additional software to make a motion screen capture - just use QuickTime - launch QuickTime Player, then select under the File menu "New Screen Recording" Click the red record button that pops up. Then you can drag a bounding box, and resize it as desired, or capture the entire screen. To stop recording, look to the top menu bar, right side for the "stop recording" button. You can select microphone input as well.

[Adeon Writer]

My recommendation for recording is MSI Afterburner. It records with minimal FPS slowdown and produces no watermark, and it's free and frequently updated. Despite the name you don't need MSI to use it.

[Paul]

Can you recommend software to record Second Life video? Enjoy your posts. Thanks

[Paul]

Thought OBS was just for streaming video recording. If select game rerecording in drop down box it works for SL. I don't think of SL as a game, so that threw me off little. Thanks for recommendation in your post.

[jjccc coronet]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-8kNnukcEY
Ive added a water mark once because it was artistically relevant

and Paul i use Fraps to record second life
red giant looks to make it look cool
video copilot for lense flare
after effects to stabilize and remove the lag
premiere to edit video
and use an xbox 360 controller for smooth pans