Random Mordhau Bullshittery - Update #2

Good evening folks. So after the last update I received a lot of thumbs up for doing a Mordhau bullshittery. Therefore I figured I'd crack on with it and get as far as I can. But I should have done this update a tad earlier, sorry.

It's editing day 9 of a scheduled 25-30 days ish. And things are going very well indeed. It's all clicking together very nicely.

Mordhau footage seems to have that nice compartmentalised quality. In that the highlights are self-contained, like CSGO, without really needing any connective tissue to clue the audience into what's happening. Two or more dudes are fighting with swords, and one of them does something silly, etc. 

Compare and contrast to something like Antistasi, which might need the odd line of text to explain what is happening.

I've decided to include as many highlights as I could, since I don't know if a part 2 is coming (the game is played infrequently by the clan) and it would be nice to include everything good. Therefore the video is roughly 15 minutes rather than the usual 10. Hence the slightly longer scheduled time.

Structurally speaking the edit is broken up into three distinct segments, each about 5 minutes long,

• An initial batch of duels between clan members on launch. Where the server instability and frequent bugs is part of the comedy.
• Fairly random highlights from the larger Frontline battles. Grouped together by map type for the sake of a consistent colour pallet.
• Back to intimate duels for the finisher. Where the clan had more experience and the servers were more stable.

Insofar as progress is concerned, I've got the first 5 minutes mostly done and will be moving onto the middle bit shortly. A screenshot of the current edit is below:

One big thing I'm having to work around is the problem of having a consistent eyeline. Which is a consideration for all bullshitteries, but here even more so. For between each cut it's a good idea to keep the viewers attention around the centre of motion. And since humans are hardwired to try and read text, having the text too far away from the action can cause mental overload.

It's for this reason that text over character heads is a very effective form of editing. It's the secret ingredient of a bullshittery, in a manner of speaking. Combining motion and text to determine where a viewers attention is.

With this particular edit, the fast cutting and the fact that there's almost always someone in the centre (especially with a duel) means that I need to be careful to not draw too much attention to the edges of the frame with non-critical vocalisations. 

I figured that keeping it simple, with a name-tag in an ivory colour and medieval-looking "Germanic Bold" font would look quite classy. I'm playing with the idea of having it burn up like parchment or something when the duelist is slain. I think I'll first need to keyframe the majority of the duels selected to see if it'll work.

So parts of this edit may appear somewhat minimalist in presentation.

Additionally, I'm finding that 'masking' out my player weapon is a frequent task, in order to maintain the illusion that the text is infront of me and in the frame. Thankfully though, swords and shields have very simple geometric shapes, meaning it's often a very quick job and is only needed on a few frames. Guns in antistasi were a comparative nightmare!

The work continues!