Welcome to Create Maplestory 2 Videos Guides. As per the request of many, We will be explaining how We go about making Our guides! A sort of guide section! We intend to cover everything about Our strategies for building a guide, from its conception all the way to export. Here thanks Maplestory 2 Videos Team Give some suggestion. U4GM has always paid attention to MapleStory 2, providing the latest information, professional guides, etc. Here we mainly sell MapleStory 2 Mesos.

Coming Up with an Idea
The first thing that needs to be done for any good guide is planning what the guide is going to be about! For this, We first like to question Our viewers and take a look through suggestions in the comments and Our stream. If there are good suggestions or outcry for a particular topic to be covered, We will line that up to be done first! Otherwise, We will look at other ideas that We have thought of, and flesh them out to ensure that they cover enough valuable information to warrant a guide. We also like to try and make the guides as patch independent as possible, meaning that they will be useful for as long as m exists or until there is a significant overhaul to the guide's topic. Although, due to the high demand for build guides, this has sort of broken this rule!

Now once We have the guiding idea in hand, it is time to start writing the script! 

Writing the Script
Since We like to ensure that We do Our best not to miss anything, repeat yourself or make obvious mistakes free-form speaking, We want to have Our guide entirely written out so that We can read from it for Our voice over. This also makes for a handy resource for people that are interested in coming back to the video or want to go through the guide at their own pace. So for this, We merely make use of Google Documents for the easy editing and sharing of these scripts.

As for actually writing the script, We will generally do what most people do when writing something like a report:

Outline all of the main sections. Sections are usually determined by steps, breaking points or change of topic. This helps me map out and break down what information We need to fill in and cover.

Fill in the sections! Depending on the guide, this can involve different levels of research and sourcing, while others like this guide are just a simple dialogue. We will generally write most sections out in one go, dumping all of Our thoughts out at once.

Finally, We will go back over the script. This is when We iteratively edit and cut out repetitive or useless information and ensure that the proper grammar and structure is used. Of course, this is generally never the final edit, and We will usually come back to add or remove items while working on other parts of the guide.

Now that the writing is done, for now, we will need to set up our project files for the video creation!

Project Files & Organization
We like to keep all of Our work organized and modular, such that We can quickly progress and take from work guides that We have done recently, so We are not always reinventing the wheel. As such, We keep an organized folder of all of Our projects. In this folder, We have also compiled a Default skeleton project folder that We use as a base for all of Our projects. This includes After Effects, Photoshop, and Premiere files with proper settings, layers, and styles that We commonly use, as well as a generic folder structure.

Aside from the default projects, We also make use of a shared animations folder. This saves space, removing the need to copy animations for every project. In this folder, We will place popular After Effects files that contain editable text layers that can be imported into Premiere, and generic animation videos, such as the dark black background squares.

Finally, after We have completed a project, We will offload the entire folder to Our NAS to keep as a backup. Also because the video files take up an excessive amount of space.

With the project files set, we can now start getting together our visuals!

Gathering B-Roll & Imagery
Here is where we get to play the game! In a reasonably restricted state. Each guide will require its footage and example gameplay, so there are a bunch of different ways in the game that We will go about getting the footage. But from a technical standpoint, We make use of Nvidia Geforce's Shadowplay to capture Our in-game footage. This software is excellent, as it can be used while Our system is under load, such as when We are streaming, and still capture high frame and bit rates without adding any more stress. OBS can also be used, but it will cause a more massive system load, due to software encoding.

Aside from video, We will also gather in-game or external images. For this, the main tools that We make use of are ShareX and Adobe Photoshop. ShareX allows me to capture full screenshots or particular regions of Our screen. Region capture is useful for images. We don't want or need to make use of Photoshop for, such as taking pictures of item nameplates on the Maplestory 2 Wiki. For more complicated images that need cropping or manipulation, We pull them into Photoshop.

In Photoshop, We will perform simple edits, such as cropping, resizing and adding layer styles to imagery. We will then frame the image where We want it to appear in the final cut (roughly), or center it and save the entire frame as a .png image to preserve the alpha layer. Such as here, where We grab in-game stills of Our rare items, crop them, add layer styles and export them as .pngs. Initially, We also made use of Photoshop to set up and frame all of Our video slides, including text, images, and backgrounds. We would then directly import these Photoshop files into Adobe Premiere where We would re-layer them, adding simple animations or crossfades. However, We have changed Our workflow to incorporate Adobe After Effects in the middle of these two, where We now do all of Our text and animation work.

So We will then take the exported .png images and import them into After Effects to begin Our final framing and animations!

Animations
Here is where the more complicated work comes in. After Effects is a potent tool, and We by no means making full use of it. We will generally make use of simple 2D & 3D movement, along with masking, scaling and acceleration adjustments. This makes for nice smooth transitions with excellent grain control of placement.

Let's take a look at creating a generic example for the sake of this video. Say we want to have the classic slide background, a title and animate in some text and image layers. This is quite simple! We will create a composition, copy over some primary text layers and add in the background layer for framing reference. We can then size the text appropriately, frame it in the correct position and then add keyframes to animate it. We can then change the keyframes into ease frames and adjust their speed graphs to smoothen out their acceleration. For our text, we will have it move in and then scale up to the top so we can have our images enter. We will then have simple descriptor text images below it. For demonstrations, we can also make the images fade and scale to bring the Resolute Technique keystone to focus. After this, we only have all of the layers animate out. Finally, we turn off the background and render this composition from the final masked structure such that the text and images do not appear outside of the black background when layering in Premiere. 

Now to add the title and background animations and watch it in full.

As you can see, the animation happens way faster than We could speak over it. This is actually what we want, as we can make .png stills of the still portions of the animation later in Premiere to fit the length of Our voice over once We complete it. This allows me to ignore aligning audio to animation renders as well as keeping the animation render size small. So now that our animations are complete, we can export them as .mov files to preserve the alpha layer.

Voice Over
Now that We have completed almost all of the visual work, We can safely begin Our voice over, knowing that We have fully edited the script during all of Our video and animation work. For this, We directly record Our sound in Audacity, since We do not require any supreme special effects for the devilishly sexy voice. However, even with this beautiful voice, We will continually scuff and trip over Our own words. So We will do one long take, continuing over Our lines until We get it right. After this, We will go back and clean up the errors, dead space, extraneous noises as well as perform a final normalization.
With B-Roll, Animations, and Voice Over complete, we can now move onto the final Editing to layer all of these together.

Editing & Layering
We perform Our final layering and editing within Adobe Premiere. Here We will import all of the B-Roll, Animations, Music and Voice Overs that We have created into appropriate folders. We will then take the following steps to complete the video:

Stage out the Table of Contents animations based on the Voice Over
Place Core Animations in their appropriate locations based on the Voice Over
With each animation:
Scrub through it and take .png images at each still (for the alpha layer)
Ensure there are no other background layers active/visible. This can also be done in another empty sequence.
Cut animation at each still
Place transition portions of animations in locations based on the Voice Over
Fill in space created with the animation still images
Surround placed animations with the Background & Title Animation (if required)
Titles are produced from an Editable After Effects animation that is imported into Premiere
Perform the same image still steps for the title animation to fill space created
Add in appropriate Example B-Roll in areas not supplied by the animations
Add simple effects, such as blurs and crossfades, to ease transitions
Finally, add music, balance levels, and the end screen!

Final Check & Export
Of course, before We perform the final export, We rewatch the video all the way through to check consistencies in animation, transitions, effects and, to the best of Our ability, spelling errors. Of course, since I'm one person, and many of these projects grow to be hundreds of layers, We tend to miss some simple things that people love to let me know about. But for the most part, We catch most glaring issues and make sure to fix them before We export.

Once that is all done, We merely export the video, make a lovely description and thumbnail and upload it for you guys to enjoy!

Conclusion
I hope that this guide of guides has given you some insight into how much goes into making one of Our guides, as well as possibly giving you some inspiration to create your own! We are still learning new techniques and revisiting old methods We haven't used in years to create more exciting and complex guides, so only expect the quality to improve! We would again, like to thank all of you for your support and comments. You guys make creating these guides a lot of fun for me! As always, thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next one Maplestory 2.