Minecraft First Blood! (Live Action)

Pre-Production

We did a lot of research on the characters costumes. Searched on YouTube for DIY Minecraft Costumes. And came a cross a lady making Minecraft costumes for her kids.

Here is a short video of us working on the costumes (a bit shaky)


Most gear she made was built from foam-board. The equipment we were making were two guns. One AK47 and an MP5. We found out that foam-board would not be strong enough to act with these guns so we decided to choose for wood.

We got some gun pictures from Google and hotoshopped it to be printed later.

AK-47

AK-47 Gun from Google

Using the Pixelate effect in Photoshop

M4 Assault Rifle

M4-Assault Rifle from Google

Using the Pixelate effect in Photoshop

After printing the guns we cut it out and outlined it on a piece of wood. We saw the wood and glued the paper print on it. This is the result:

On the Set

We've had a great time on the set. Although it was very hot outside it was fun. The location we filmed is Bourtange an old village in The Netherlands. A great place for our film.  We had a famous dutch Youtuber named  DusDavidGames working with us. It was a nice collab and there will folow more collabs anytime soon.

Post-Production

Time for some Post-Production! We start with spotting the footage. Selecting only the usable stuff.
Next we make a Task List and decide wich tasks will be best for each person. Most of the time Camera Tracking is the first one on our list followed by Rotoscoping. Then the 3D modeling and animation begins.

Using some basic models to block out the scene.

After the modeling and animation the rendering begins. We use our own Renderfarm for this. There will be a post about our Renderfarm soon. Finally we throw everything in the Compositing program and put all the renders and footage together.

Before and After:

If you have any questions leave them in the comments below!

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DayZ Surviving the Virus

DayZ Action Teaser by CFXSquad

Official DayZ Gameplay Trailer

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Joining a YouTube Network

Should CFX Squad join a Network

At this moment our channel is growing nicely. We gained a few 1000 subs the last weeks.
That's when we get interesting for some YouTube Networks. There are a lot of opinions
on joining a network. Some recommend you to join a network, others absolutely don't. It's very
confusing.  We've done a lot of research to this subject. In the early days of YouTube there
were not that many networks and not everyone could join it. Nowadays the numbers of networks keep
growing fast and they try to get as much users to join. Some got contracts for 2 or 3 years wich for us
is way to long.

Some interested networks 

RPM (part of Maker Studios)

BroadbandTV

Mediakraft

CPM (Cost Per Mille)

A very important factor for the serious youtubers are the CPM (Cost Per Mille). For example $2,- 

for 1000 views. And how much will the network get from it. We've seen some 50/50 or 60/40 numbers 

coming by. The networks promise you Premium Ads (they pay the best if we may believe the networks). 

YouTube Adsense CPM

Some people say that YouTube Adsense (wich is what you get when you are a YouTube partner) has a good CPM and you should not join a network because they pay less since they take the 50/50 split. Very confusing.

What can a Network offer the YouTuber  

We are still not sure about this. They say they get you more views and help you grow your channel. 

If you have experience with some networks than we would like to hear from you. You can leave a 

comment or contact us about this subject. If we have more information we will post a new blog.

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Call of Duty: Ghosts Fan Teaser

Call of Duty: Ghosts by CFX Squad

We are big fans of the Call of Duty games. And were inspired by the official COD: Ghosts teaser.
Our goal was to give it a dark/mysterious feeling. Showing parts of the Ghosts Character.

The Original Teaser

Official Call of Duty: Ghosts Teaser 

Raw Footage Shots

We did a lot of experiments with the lighting. At first we chose for a multiple light setup but that showed to much of the background. So we picked one spot-light and lit parts of the character with it.

Ronald showing his acting skills!

Cocking the Glock 17

Airsoft M4 assault-rifle

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CFX Squad Giveaway Challenge

Time for a giveaway

Our youtube channel is growing thanks to you guys! Entertaining you is our goal. And seeing that you like our videos really gives us a power boost to keep going on and keep improving our productions. 

We are doing this giveaway to thank you for watching but most importantly to let you decide what you would like to see in the future. Listening to our viewers is very important for us and our channel. 

The Challenge

We have the four prices to giveaway provided by City Interactive. 3 Ghost Warrior Games (Xbox360,PS3 and PC) and the number One price a LED 24inch Special Ghost Warrior Edition Gaming Monitor. The only thing you have to do is Post a your best idea for a next video in the comment section below this video: CFX Squad Giveaway Video

24 inch LED Gaming Monitor

Ghost Warrior 2 PC, PS3, Xbox360

Keep posting Ideas

There are already a lot of great ideas posted in the comments section and it keeps growing. We read every comment and talk about it at the studio. Keep posting!

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City Interactive Ghost Warrior 2

Ghost Warrior Video

A few months ago we created a fan video for the game Ghost Warrior 2 and Sniper Elite V2. It was a fun project and one of our first game related videos. It did not score a lot of views but it scored a right viewer.

CFX Squad and City Interactive

City Interactive contacted us after watching our fan video on Youtube. They were very excited about the video. They contacted us a few months before their new game released. They wanted a sequel but with a different ending. After some negotiation we got to a deal and the next week we began to shoot.

City Interactive

City Interactive is a Polish game studio located in Warsaw. They are the creators of the Ghost Warrior games. They create games for consoles and pc. ....

Shooting Day - Behind The Scenes

Check out our great film day!

Final Video - Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 Live Action 

The final result of our production.

Presents

City Interactive was so excited about the new video we created for them that they wanted to give us something extra. And a day later we received this in the mail.

Conclusion

It was a very fun project to work. We learned a lot of new things on the set like planning, set dressing and to stay calm. Also it was a great experience to work with a Game Studio.  We hope you enjoy the video!

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Darth Vadering - A new hype or not?

The "Hype" called Vadering

We follow internet hypes as much as possible. The term "Vadering" caught our eye. A term derived from the Star Wars films. Darth Vader used his force to choke enemies. The term Vadering showed up on twitter and blog sites more and more. There is a hype preceded named hadokening. It is a photo hype and there were no video versions of it yet. This is where we started our idea.

Twitter Photo

Another popular Photo

Brainstorming and Scheduling

We wanted to be the first with a Vadering-video in the internet so we gave ourselves a tight deadline. We did one day of brainstorming and one day of filming. To achieve this we had to keep the set dressing / props and techniques as simple as possible.

Storyboard - Vadering

Randy and Maarten doing research on the internet

Shooting Day

We needed four people to be on the set. We found two guys who wanted to help us. The video was shot within 2 hours. The rest of the day we had to do the editing and visual effects.

Guy in action with his phone

The establishment shot

Post Production - Greenscreen and the Force

The floating part of the actor we have done through greenscreen. We key the actor out and place him on a different background.

Full Shot of the actor

Close Up of the actor

In order to convince the viewers of the power of Darth Vader we must emphasize the Force. With only the sound it is not convincing enough. There had to be some energy effects created. We took some sci fi movies as reference.

The Force Effect

So will Vadering be the new hype? Time will tell...

Update: It did not! 

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