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Author Topic: Novastar and Caine's Saber Combat System "NCSCS" (1st COMPLETE System!)  (Read 61905 times)

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Offline Lucien Kane

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Re: Novastar and Caine's Staged Combat System (1st Complete System!)
« Reply #90 on: March 08, 2011, 01:46:05 PM »
These days, online tutorials can help bridge the gap between what you can and cannot do... but are willing to RESEARCH, TRAIN, STUDY and PREPARE yourself for.

I don't want to "over de-rail" this topic, but I'll just say--I recommend (for a SINGULAR example out of many)... "Epic"'s tutorials (Kyle Mendoza)... for both tricking and free-running actions.

Also--just to help perpetuate general clarity of terminology on physical arts here:

* Parkour is the art of traversing paths & obstacles in the most efficient way (it was actually present in the world as early as the 1920's)
* Free-running is the art of SELF-EXPRESSION via traversing paths & obstacles in any way the practitioner sees fit.  It often includes acrobatic motions that would otherwise be deemed "superfluous" or inefficient when looking at things from a Parkour mindset.  In my own research, it is ambiguous as to where the TRUE "first" free-running concepts originated.  Although I have my opinions...

Also in my opinion and interpretation: Free-running is to Tricking as Parkour is to "real-time" combat martial arts.

Anyhow.  This thread is about the combat DVDs, so I'd best refrain from de-railing so much!!  But still... I hold enough appreciation for all the arts mentioned here... that I want anyone who is reading the thread to have a general understanding of the differences they see out there.  Especially because I often see people:

* Confusing parkour with free-running... or "interchangeably" making the two "one"--which is incorrect.
* Bashing one over the other... sometimes because they are indeed ignorant of the differences.
* Confusing Tricking with being all about techniques to punch or kick someone "in a real fight".  Which is--of course--a stupid argument from the beginning... but it shows ignorance when people watch (for example) a HyperHook and then say "That's lame, you could never hit me with that."

Alright.  Enough of shouting from the soap box... :_

While off topic, that was really informative Nova, thank you for that. It actually helped me out a bit... with respect to research and such... So thank the Force for you and your soap box! lol.
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Offline Darth Inferis

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Re: Novastar and Caine's Staged Combat System (1st Complete System!)
« Reply #91 on: March 08, 2011, 06:41:13 PM »
Hey Nova, really sorry to hear about the camera. What's the situation with the tapes now? I worked with mini DV tapes as part of my video editing course & I'd be happy to offer some advice if it's needed. There's more than one way to skin a gundark after all.  ;)
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Offline Caine

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Re: Novastar and Caine's Staged Combat System (1st Complete System!)
« Reply #92 on: March 09, 2011, 01:06:56 PM »
Looks like we are upgrading to HD, after mine and Nova's conversation yesterday.  ;D

Offline Novastar

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Re: Novastar and Caine's Staged Combat System (1st Complete System!)
« Reply #93 on: March 09, 2011, 01:58:59 PM »
Hey Nova, really sorry to hear about the camera. What's the situation with the tapes now? I worked with mini DV tapes as part of my video editing course & I'd be happy to offer some advice if it's needed. There's more than one way to skin a gundark after all.  ;)
If you have any good thinking on how to buy an (inexpensive) device that can simply PLAY the DV tapes and "act" as a camcorder so that I can import footage from said DV tapes onto my machine... I'm all ears.  :)

Thus far, I've found that they are almost as complicated as getting some el cheapo DV cam... and uploading from there.

MOSTLY, this will not affect the combat DVDs... as I have most of the footage on my machine already.  Thing is... I have a throng of DV tapes from OTHER events / things / goings ons that are just sitting around waiting to be uploaded, edited, and all that.  For example, believe it or not but I still have a junkload of LoopKicks 2009 camp footage that I never got to editing.  Never enough time.  Not to mention all the artwork / paintings and lots of other stuff from France @ The Louvre, etc. ...

So... yah--maybe PM me with that, it couldn't hurt!!  :D  Much oblige in advance!!!
* Former creator and owner of SaberCombat
* CUSTOM SOUND FONT LIST --->
Click here for Nova's 100+ custom sound fonts!
* PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS ---> Click here for Nova's saber performance work...
* DIAMOND DRAGONS ---> Diamond Dragons: A feature-length screenplay being developed by Matthew 'Novastar' Carauddo

I don't post often on forums anymore.  If you want to e-mail me: novastar1138@gmail.com, or visit me on Facebook:

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Offline COUNT DOOKU

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Re: Novastar and Caine's Staged Combat System (1st Complete System!)
« Reply #94 on: March 09, 2011, 04:17:28 PM »
There is no current *cheap* wat to import Mini DV footage to a PC without a camcorder/deck (just a s expensive as a camcorder...

However.

Many camera stores will rent out camcorders for as low as $20 a day. You might want to chack that route....

Pass on what you have learned. Strength. Mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is. We are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters. ~Master Yoda~

Offline Novastar

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Re: Novastar and Caine's Staged Combat System (1st Complete System!)
« Reply #95 on: March 10, 2011, 01:27:25 AM »
<--- has been testing new editing software in preparation for whatever it is I end up with regarding an HD cam...

Which means no more OLD SCHOOL Windows Movie Maker editing.  Yay!  Although it's not as if it didn't "do the job" for my simple purposes in the past... especially when the highest I could film in was 640 x 480 or 720 x 480 anyhow.  So really... what difference would it have made other than extra filters and such with the video in other software?  :)

So far, I'm liking what I see though!!  :)
* Former creator and owner of SaberCombat
* CUSTOM SOUND FONT LIST --->
Click here for Nova's 100+ custom sound fonts!
* PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS ---> Click here for Nova's saber performance work...
* DIAMOND DRAGONS ---> Diamond Dragons: A feature-length screenplay being developed by Matthew 'Novastar' Carauddo

I don't post often on forums anymore.  If you want to e-mail me: novastar1138@gmail.com, or visit me on Facebook:

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Offline Novastar

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Re: Novastar and Caine's Staged Combat System (1st Complete System!)
« Reply #96 on: March 14, 2011, 01:42:39 AM »
Sorry for the double-post, but I figured this would be a good question to pose to the general folks out there...

What video STANDARD DEF FILE format would you most prefer to see?  .AVI ... .MPG ... .WMV ... .something_else?

I can't be certain or not at this point if we'll have the ability, space and organization & structure to support things in *multiple formats*... that may actually be out of our scope.

And it gives rise to an additional concern, which is: in order to make this "most accessible" to people out there, we're aiming to AVOID making this a "DVD that you stick in your DVD player attached to your TV".  We would prefer to do it as a DVD you pop into your COMPUTER... and then you can access each individual file / tutorial as you see fit, and not have to slog through a clumsy DVD menu.

Anyhow, I'm thinking H.264 standard all the way (double rainbow... all dah way!!)  lol... what do you guys think?

* Former creator and owner of SaberCombat
* CUSTOM SOUND FONT LIST --->
Click here for Nova's 100+ custom sound fonts!
* PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS ---> Click here for Nova's saber performance work...
* DIAMOND DRAGONS ---> Diamond Dragons: A feature-length screenplay being developed by Matthew 'Novastar' Carauddo

I don't post often on forums anymore.  If you want to e-mail me: novastar1138@gmail.com, or visit me on Facebook:

Click here.

Offline Drazhar

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Re: Novastar and Caine's Staged Combat System (1st Complete System!)
« Reply #97 on: March 14, 2011, 02:17:12 AM »
.mp4 or .mkv please.

/techgeek

Offline COUNT DOOKU

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Re: Novastar and Caine's Staged Combat System (1st Complete System!)
« Reply #98 on: March 14, 2011, 09:41:28 AM »
Sorry for the double-post, but I figured this would be a good question to pose to the general folks out there...

What video STANDARD DEF FILE format would you most prefer to see?  .AVI ... .MPG ... .WMV ... .something_else?

I can't be certain or not at this point if we'll have the ability, space and organization & structure to support things in *multiple formats*... that may actually be out of our scope.

And it gives rise to an additional concern, which is: in order to make this "most accessible" to people out there, we're aiming to AVOID making this a "DVD that you stick in your DVD player attached to your TV".  We would prefer to do it as a DVD you pop into your COMPUTER... and then you can access each individual file / tutorial as you see fit, and not have to slog through a clumsy DVD menu.

Anyhow, I'm thinking H.264 standard all the way (double rainbow... all dah way!!)  lol... what do you guys think?



A computer route sounds  fine. There are many freeware converter programs available so if one wan't a ffferent format they can simply convert it.

Pass on what you have learned. Strength. Mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is. We are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters. ~Master Yoda~

Offline Kental

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Re: Novastar and Caine's Staged Combat System (1st Complete System!)
« Reply #99 on: March 14, 2011, 03:39:27 PM »
MPEG would be best for quality and the easiest for someone to make into a TV DVD  a lot of DVD player will even play that format. I would not use the windows format .wmv as some people use other operating systems like LINUX and those files can be a pain to play on the other systems. AVI would be my second choice as there are many free converters out there to create a movie DVD from the AVI files. be sure not to use an uncommon compression format as it would also make some systems unstable.

Just some of my experience from finding fanfic movies and converting them to DVD's to watch. I learned that MPEG was the highest quality to make movie DVD's out of as long as there was not heavy compression on the files. Compression will destroy the quality of the picture so don't go real heavy on the compression.

Also don't use the Ipod format (MP4 i think) as its sound compression will not decompress into a DVD with the free converters I've found and the movies will become silent films

Using open standards would also be a good idea as using patented or proprietary  will also limit the system that can play the files.

Offline Caine

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Re: Novastar and Caine's Staged Combat System (1st Complete System!)
« Reply #100 on: March 15, 2011, 12:00:02 PM »
We should just include a DL link to the free online AVS video converter. That is what I did with my 7 Forms of Combat DVD. The default files I used were .wmv, and in some cases .avi.

Offline Novastar

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Re: Novastar and Caine's Staged Combat System (1st Complete System!)
« Reply #101 on: March 15, 2011, 04:12:35 PM »
Good point about the converter link, Caine.  After all... it's not like we have the ability to include EVERY format for every system...

@Kentai... I think you're right that mpeg is a pretty good format, but I was going a bit deeper and saying that I was thinking of using the "H.264" codec, primarily because it is now fairly standard in the industry.  Additionally, I'll want to use the "AVC" type of H.264 Mpeg codec, which stands for "advanced video compression", and is simply a better/improved version of the original H.264 codec.

As to what you're saying about compression--it is unavoidable.  However... the entire point of the H.264-AVC codec SEEMS to be that you can get similar video qualities to most of the other codecs out there... but at bitrates that are much lower (say by 45% lower)... and therefore the filesize can remain lower while still not sacrificing too much quality.

In addition to THAT... our cams did not / do not produce super HQ video anyhow--although I would easily say that Caine's cam was definitely better than mine, as his was newer (and was all digital--sd cards), whereas mine was from 2006/2007... and all about mini-DV tapes.

Finally, I'll use the fairly standard and common audio format of MP3... and again, mpeg codec on that one.

.
.
.

At least... that's the PLAN... which came of some decent research (albeit research I DIDN'T want to do, lol)
...unless enough people scream at me and tell me how horrible & bad of a mistake that would be, heheh... :)

.... ...."You're doing it wrong..."  hahahahahahahah lol
* Former creator and owner of SaberCombat
* CUSTOM SOUND FONT LIST --->
Click here for Nova's 100+ custom sound fonts!
* PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS ---> Click here for Nova's saber performance work...
* DIAMOND DRAGONS ---> Diamond Dragons: A feature-length screenplay being developed by Matthew 'Novastar' Carauddo

I don't post often on forums anymore.  If you want to e-mail me: novastar1138@gmail.com, or visit me on Facebook:

Click here.

Offline Drazhar

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Re: Novastar and Caine's Staged Combat System (1st Complete System!)
« Reply #102 on: March 15, 2011, 09:16:04 PM »
I strongly agree with the choice of H.264, it's in common use for HD anime fansubs and is easy to play with very little overhead on most systems.

Offline Novastar

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Re: Novastar and Caine's Staged Combat System (1st Complete System!)
« Reply #103 on: March 16, 2011, 12:35:43 AM »
Thanks, Drazhar!  It's good to get a little verification of such things... especially because I am *NOT* a bigshot movie editor guy.  But I do what I can with what I have... and (of late) have been trying to learn more and work with BETTER tools than the super-basic Windows Movie Maker.  Which I'm glad about... I think I found the right software (for ME) that is in-between professional and "Bob wants to do a slideshow"... :)

WHICH brings me to an announcement of sorts...

TENTATIVELY, Caine and I will do our very very best to release NCSCS DVD#1 on 5/4/2011!   ;D

We don't know what the price will be yet...
We don't know exactly where & how it will be released yet...
We don't know if it will start off as "a DVD in a sleeve with L-Scribing" or actually be in a box with cover art...

...but it's COMIN'.  Basically... I don't want the project to "fall behind" any longer than it needs to.

That's all for now, except I'll re-iterate:

* SABER BASICS: Spin examplers, numbering system, drills, staff examplers and actions as well!
* COMBAT ACTIONS: Explanation of notation for writing choreo..., footwork, jumping attacks, inverted attacks, etc.
* MARTIAL ARTS BASICS: Kicks, Punches... and even ways to apply those in choreography correctly for viewers
* TRICKING BASICS: B-Kick, Pop Cres, etc.
* COMBAT FORMS (including "Form 0", which is a saber spin form)
* SPECIAL EXTRAS: Mythbusting, Sparring Drills, and also "written work" that helps you with the notation of forms we've already written, and should help YOU to write your own forms / choreography as well!

Hopefully, when the entire set can get out there, folks will fully understand what we're trying to do with this project, too.  :)

* Former creator and owner of SaberCombat
* CUSTOM SOUND FONT LIST --->
Click here for Nova's 100+ custom sound fonts!
* PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS ---> Click here for Nova's saber performance work...
* DIAMOND DRAGONS ---> Diamond Dragons: A feature-length screenplay being developed by Matthew 'Novastar' Carauddo

I don't post often on forums anymore.  If you want to e-mail me: novastar1138@gmail.com, or visit me on Facebook:

Click here.

Offline Drazhar

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Re: Novastar and Caine's Staged Combat System (1st Complete System!)
« Reply #104 on: March 16, 2011, 12:43:38 AM »
Happy to be of service Novastar!

I'm a bit of a tech buff and I LOVE streaming HD, even Blu-Ray rips are done in H.264 at this point, making it a FINE choice.

I won't get into the legality of any such matters though.

 

retrousse