night hal 1

The aspiration of a role model is always a noble goal, just be sure to never lose sight of who you were, are, and will be. If you're really serious about getting into the Youtube game and making a name for yourself, I'd recommend really trying to get yourself out there. When someone finds your channel and compliments you on it, be sure to ask them why and maybe even where they usually browse. They may not always spread the word to their friends, but at least you have some sort of idea of what is developing as your target audience (just make sure not to take your first subscriber for granted as your overall audience). Another thing I'd suggest is either finding a partner or group to help promote or get to promote you. There's always other rising stars that could use an extra pair of legs just as much as you could. For groups, try to find one that suits you the most, but here are some other examples anyways: NormalBoots, RoosterTeeth, Polaris, Yogcast, Sleepycabin, Funhaus, and even the old Machinima (just not the new one heaven forbid). People like crossovers and seeing their favorite youtubers in another's series or stream. Why do you think the Avengers is so popular? Just remember to always trust yourself when it comes to your style and humor. It's impossible to appeal to everyone, so take comfort in the fact that there's at least one other person out there that laughs at the same, incredibly stupid joke as you. Good luck, and may the force be with you.

Talk about the game and your opinions of it. Talk about what you're doing at that particular moment and why. You really shouldn't have any more than 6 seconds of dead-air in a let's play unless you're staying quiet for a cutscene (and even then that's optional.) People go to youtuber's channels and watch their let's plays because they want to learn about them and see if that person feels the same way they do. If they do, congrats, you probably nailed yourself a subscriber. If they don't, they're probably going to leave a comment explaining how you're "wrong". And even then, you could still learn from them by seeing how they see things. Put your opinions and thoughts and experiences out there, that's what youtube's for. Otherwise, let's plays just become a very bad walkthrough with someone's annoying voice coming through periodically. Just make sure not to give away any personal information on purpose OR by accident, because it does happen. And this should go without saying, but don't "use" your gender. I know it's tempting because it does always work, but it will be unhealthy for you and your channel in the long run. That's about it when it comes to basics. The rest you have to figure out yourself while learning and rolling with your own particular style. Every let's play channel's different, because every person is different.

Unfortunately, I think your voice is a little too sweet for the inner monologue of a borderline-psychotic, cynical, stubborn character. I'll take that as a compliment. XP That's an interesting theory though! That's what I intended it to be, even though it carried a different message. Could I give you some advice on your let's plays (if you were actually planning to continue doing them)?

If I need to, I can definitely spin it.

Wow, thanks a lot for this. Unfortunately, I think your voice is a little too sweet for the inner monologue of a borderline-psychotic, cynical, stubborn character. Your voice sounds REALLY good, and you'd probably be able to enhance the quality with my help, but I'm setting the bar quite high and you're just too nice sounding (and you've got a bit of an accent). I know beggars can't be choosers, but I'd rather try with my first choice. Thanks again, and if things don't pan out you'll be the first I come to!

Of course, much appreciated.

Thanks, but I'd rather keep it as simple to follow as possible. I can see multiple ways of using a masculine voice as her conscious, or even use a filter on my own voice to make it appear more feminine, but I've decided against it. Like I said in the OP, I'm looking to emulate a combination of Ross's and CyhAnide's style and humor (while still giving it a unique flavor) and having anything but a REAL, cynical, tangy chick as the voice of a mind puts that notion to challenge. Not only does it take the experience out of the realm of the Half-Life universe (something Ross expertly avoided), to be quite honest, and this is going to sound a bit low; female voices and roles typically tend to draw a larger crowd when they are advertised as such. I've already got my eye on a specific, but I want to wait until I have an episode laid out before I ask anything of her. HOWEVER, if you do know anyone who has a friend of a friend who's looking for voice work, just go ahead and see if you can send them my way. I can't guarantee them a part, but having options is always nice if my original pick for the voice doesn't work out.

Thanks, man. I wish you could see the old video since it showcased some cool things like the logo and the frameblending that I use. I took it down because it had the voice of the actress that dropped out, and I didn't want anyone to associate her as the final voice like I said she would be. I'll probably redo it once I find someone else. But thanks again, I'll probably get back on track with it soon.

There's a very fine line with this. As the creator of an upcoming "Mind" series, I've noticed a lot of things about the production that most people (including me) would overlook. There's a point where the show stops becoming about your character's thoughts on its situations and surroundings and becomes about the situations and surroundings themselves. That's why I'm afraid of continuing my series into Portal 2. Whereas the original Portal usually has one line of dialogue at the start and end of every chamber and plenty of dead air to fill in between, Portal 2 has A LOT more of its own dialogue to fill that dead air. While I'm not saying it'd be an issue that would be brought up with using the update version, it is something to consider with Half-Life 2 in general. There are actual CHARACTERS, and storylines to follow, which makes it a lot different of a process when coming up with jokes and inner-dialogue. I'm sorry, what were we talking about? Upcoming "mind" series? Tell me more! "Yet another" Chell's Mind interpretation. I have a whole thread dedicated to it in the Machinima sub-forum. I'm focusing on quality, which is why I'm not currently working on it. I don't want to force myself to create something I don't have any current interest in because it would reflect that attitude in the writing. Ross admitted he uses the same thing. He used to take so long to make videos because he would just lose interest after a while and come back to it in a month or two. It's still happening, don't worry.

This. The guy's just supposed to be funny. He brings up a couple decent points, but overall I'm sure he still enjoyed playing the game.

There's a very fine line with this. As the creator of an upcoming "Mind" series, I've noticed a lot of things about the production that most people (including me) would overlook. There's a point where the show stops becoming about your character's thoughts on its situations and surroundings and becomes about the situations and surroundings themselves. That's why I'm afraid of continuing my series into Portal 2. Whereas the original Portal usually has one line of dialogue at the start and end of every chamber and plenty of dead air to fill in between, Portal 2 has A LOT more of its own dialogue to fill that dead air. While I'm not saying it'd be an issue that would be brought up with using the update version, it is something to consider with Half-Life 2 in general. There are actual CHARACTERS, and storylines to follow, which makes it a lot different of a process when coming up with jokes and inner-dialogue. I'm sorry, what were we talking about? I'm fairly certain that Ross has said he thinks Half-Life 2 would be easier to write for. Probably because of said characters, but that part I'm just guessing. But first, HE HAS TO MAKE THE MOVIE! Like I said, it may not necessarily be any more difficult, but it certainly is very different. Try to think of a Mind series in Half-Life as compared to, I don't know, Bulletstorm.

There's a very fine line with this. As the creator of an upcoming "Mind" series, I've noticed a lot of things about the production that most people (including me) would overlook. There's a point where the show stops becoming about your character's thoughts on its situations and surroundings and becomes about the situations and surroundings themselves. That's why I'm afraid of continuing my series into Portal 2. Whereas the original Portal usually has one line of dialogue at the start and end of every chamber and plenty of dead air to fill in between, Portal 2 has A LOT more of its own dialogue to fill that dead air. While I'm not saying it'd be an issue that would be brought up with using the update version, it is something to consider with Half-Life 2 in general. There are actual CHARACTERS, and storylines to follow, which makes it a lot different of a process when coming up with jokes and inner-dialogue. I'm sorry, what were we talking about?

I have some bad news. My previous voice actress has just informed me that she has dropped from the project. This is especially aggravating, since we already recorded lines for the first episode. This will delay the beginning of the series at LEAST a couple months. I know it could less time to find a suitable replacement voice-actress, but in all honestly I'd rather take a break from production for some time. I was beginning to get a little burned out for Chell's Mind, and this was the last little push I needed to put the whole thing on hold. I don't want to work on something I don't have passion for at the moment. It would end up bad, or even worse, worse. This does NOT mean I'm giving up the project all together. Hell no. I've made a commitment to somebody close to me that I would finish at least the first "Season". I will get back on the horse sometime probably around April. I'm sorry I don't have anything for you guys. I'll be back.

Just a quick update video before I start working on the actual first episode. This IS the final voice for Chell, but do take the quality of the recording with a grain of salt. I had less than 30 minutes to get all of these lines from her. bnXj404ahUs

Hey, sorry I don't have an answer for you, but could you possibly lead me in the direction of those voice files? I'm working on a Mind series and would like to know the level of audio quality I should be striving for.

Holy crap, does frameblending make a difference. IT LOOKS SO GOOD. Thank you based Ross!

Hey, thanks for the input. As long as you're not using a Source engine game, you probably won't run into the same recording difficulties that I have. I say "difficulties" because it's not impossible using the game's built in recording plugin, but it is very daunting to see how much space it eats up for just a single episode. Anyways, for an all-around recording software I would recommend Fraps (of course), and Shadowplay. Shadowplay actually gives you a lot of feedback as to the quality of what you're recording while you're playing. I've recorded quite a bit of other failed experiments with it. Good luck with your own series and your graduation!

Hi. I'm a fan of Freeman's Mind, probably like you. I was excited and disappointed to see Ross's epic Machinima series come to an end. To know that there wouldn't be any new episodes for up to a year stinged a little bit. I tried watching other "Mind" series, but none of them really did the trick other than "Barney's Mind" and "Shepard's Mind". There was a third one that I watched and loved centering around Chell from the Portal franchise, made by Youtuber CyhAnide. Unfortunately, although she says she is still working on it, the last episode released from her was over 4 years ago. While I remained hopeful to see a return, I had secretly begun working on a baseline to create my own rendition of Chell's psychological journey in case she announced that she would stop working on it altogether. But with the end of the first season of Freeman's Mind, the completion of all other Half-Life based Mind machinimas, and the indefinite hiatus that surrounds CyhAnide's series, I felt like it was the right time to at least give it a shot. Please note that this is NOT the final product and is only a test of my recording, writing, editing, and my previous voice actress's skills. Much will change before the first episode of the show is released on Youtube, so take this demonstration video with a grain of salt. With that in mind (heh), please enjoy the Pilot to my take on Chell's Mind. FBwm8Ph5sLQ IN THIS VIDEO: No "Chell's Mind" Logo No Cinematic Intro Random Perpetual Testing Initiative chamber 720p video quality 30 FPS N/A frameblending Airy, snide, and overall annoying personality of Chell Inexperienced voice actress (just a nearby friend) Uploaded on my personal Youtube Channel IN THE INITIAL SERIES: A full vector "Chell's Mind" logo Unique Intro Cinematics for every few chambers A following of Chell from the beginning to the end of Portal 1 720p video quality 30 FPS 4x frameblending (actual motion blur) Astute, sarcastic, and tenacious personality for Chell EXPERIENCED actress's voice acting (a college peer) Uploads on a separate "studio" Youtube channel The most important thing to take note of is THIS IS NOT THE FINAL VOICE OF CHELL! I can not stress this enough. I realize how important the voice of a Mind series is. This was a friend's input for the test video while I looked for the actress I could proudly cast as Chell. Needless to say, I have found a very nice replacement that is extremely pleasant to listen to and who I think really fits the personality I have assigned to this character. I should have a video showcasing the change in actresses up sometime around next week on my same personal channel. With that out of the way, I'd like to address a few other important things. To get some idea on what I was going to be getting myself into, I contacted Scott. I pretty much got the response that I was expecting. This show is going to KICK. MY. ASS. While I knew this from the beginning, I had no idea the amount of work that went into the actual quality of the video and how much space it eats up on a standard hard-drive. Think of it this way: If my hard-drive represents Earth, and all of my programs used in the creation of the show and other necessities are about the size of Canada; the amount of space required to record, edit, and render one episode would be around the size of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean COMBINED. And this is just for my planned quality for the actual first episode. If I wanted to bump the quality up to 1080p, 60fps, 4x motion blur (and I really want to), that would take up around the size of EVERY MOLECULE OF WATER ON EARTH. While I could cave in on the quality on the account of my limited hard-drive space and use something like Fraps, I'm not going to. I'm sticking with the in-engine recording software to ensure video purity, even if that means ditching archives of past episodes and project files. There are too many "Mind" series' out there that could have been much more, and I intend to make mine the best it can possibly be. All I'm asking is for a little mercy when it comes to things like video quality and the frequency of episode releases. Well they're not actually going to be called "episodes", but "chapters". Which brings me to my NEXT point. My commitment to the completion of the first season of Chell's Mind is NON-NEGOTIABLE. I WILL be finishing this series hopefully before the end of 2015, thanks to the limited number of levels in the original Portal's campaign. The schedule for the releases of each "Chapter" however, is completely up in the air. I was HOPING I could make a deadline of two weeks for each chapter, but it all honestly comes down to how much work I can get done in the 2 HOURS that I have with my voice actress. Yup, that's right. A machinima series that takes around half a week of work to complete the editing of all comes down to the intrusion of a dance-rehearsal. I'm both embarrassed and humored to say that the date of each chapter's release all depends on if Sarah makes a wrong step and the entire cast has to retry the whole scene again. There's nothing I can do to control this, but hopefully I should have the first chapter up sometime during March, preferably near the beginning. In the end my main concern is quality, and if that means it takes a month to get a single chapter up, then so be it. My end goal is to give Freeman's Mind fans like you guys something similar to follow and watch, while still providing a fresh take on the genre. I will be taking some inspiration from CyhAnide's rendition, but hopefully I can refrain from taking any actual jokes or lines straight from it. The hardest part is the writing of Chell. Whereas Freeman, Barney, and Shepard all have semi-detailed histories to work with, all poor Chell has got to her name is a human body and a reference of stubbornness from a schizophrenic. That and a love for potato science. Alright, I think I'm done. If you have any questions or feedback, don't hesitate to ask. If not, thanks for watching and I'll see you guys next Friday!