Sony Vegas: How to create a multi-screen channel trailer?

Recently a friend asked me to create a trailer for his Let's Play Gaming Channel. So I got the idea to create a wall of TVs where each screen shows a different game he is playing with the camera moving around from one screen to another...

Even though I'm quite familiar with Sony Vegas, I haven't done something like that before. That's why the whole process was so interesting and the result so satisfying. That's how the final version looks like:

Not too bad, right? So let's go step by step explaining on how to make such a trailer.

1) Creating a TV wall

For doing that you either look for a fitting image online or create your own one. Make sure you can it has about as many screens as video clips you want to use. Once you've chosen a picture you put at the bottom of your project. 2) Put the clips on the screens

I downloaded like 12 videos of different games from my friend's channel. Then I started one by one, putting a video file above the TV wall template and minimized them by clicking on the icon at the edge of the clip in the timeline to open a window. Then you can accurately adapt the size of the clip and move it around to match on one of the TVs of your template.

That step you do with every clip until your TV wall is finished. That wall full of screen may looks like this.

3) Rendering the TV wall video
Following that I rendered like a 30 second clip of that wall. This new file I copied into my project.

4) Let the "virtual camera" run Now you work with your newly created TV wall clip in your project. Click again on the small icon at the bottom of your clip (see first screenshot in Step 1).

At the bottom of that menu you see a timeline where you can set time markers. Now you can decide where to place the "F" window at each second.

You can zoom in, zoom out. Experiment a bit which works the best for you. In my case it worked best not to leave the gaps too big as moved the "F" window slowly from right to left to show the channel logo at the end.

And that way you can create this kind of trailer video. For music I chose to use a fitting track in the YouTube Audio Library.

I hope I could help or inspire you to create a nice channel trailer.

Btw. I also made a tutorial video about it, if you wanna see a deeper explanation:

Tokyo Game Show 2018 - Jump Force, One Piece World Seeker...

This weekend I went for the Tokyo Game Show for the first time and I got the chance to test a few of the new games which caught my interest.

Knowing there would be a long queue I still arrived a bit late which made me wait for almost 2 hours to get in.

But the wait was worth it. Many big halls and so many different stands. After running around for getting a general impression of the event I stopped at Bandai Namco, because one game got me really interested:

It's Jump Force. A game which puts several characters from JUMP magazine together, including Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto and more! The trailer itself gave me this "I wanna play" feeling with showing great stages like Namek, Himeji Castle or New York's Times Square. After a wait for around 30-40 minutes in the queue I got to play a 3 vs 3 battle. I selected Frieza, Luffy and Vegeta to fight on Namek. The demo was for two rounds until the first fighter was knocked out. The game is fun to play and the graphics are running stunning to see. I couldn't get deep into special moves or combos - at the end I just found out how to switch characters during the fight. It generally left a great impression and as there seems to be a story with a few from Akira Toriyama exclusively created characters makes the entire game even more interesting...

Following that I stopped by at the racing game area and some nostalgia put me into the line to test another game: V-Rally 4! Back in PS1 and PS2 days I liked the series. Especially I spent many years in the career of V-Rally 3 in the mid-2000s. I wasn't aware that finally a sequel is coming! The demo was one stage with a GoPro-sponsored car with a big rear wing. I clearly underestimated the cars reaction in the corners causing me a few crashes at the beginning. Plus: Manual shifting was activated! However at the end of the stage everything went more smoothly and I slowly got ready for more. It certainly brought back some nostalgia!

So... Since I was in the area - time for the next racing game: MotoGP 18! To be honest: I haven't played a lot of MotoGP games in the last decade, but there were times of the old MotoGP3 and 4 which I got to play a lot. Therefore, as expected it didn't take me long to get into the flow. Unfortunately the riding helps were activated and the difficulty quite easy. Meaning that despite a crash in lap 1 out of 3 and some general starting difficulties I was able to reach P10 at the end with Valentino Rossi! Was really fun to play again!

As it was getting afternoon, there was one more game I had to try out! Back to the Bandai Namco area and this time in the One Piece World Seeker queue! The game trailers were already promising showing an game-exclusive storyline with many major characters like Aokiji, Fujitora or Lucci involved. Ahead of the demo you get a manual to memorize the important controls. Once you get started you are playing Luffy running up a hill punching some marines. You get used to the attacks, especially the Red Hawk is quite powerful. The whole graphic of the landscape is quite impressive! After a fight with Kuma you are confronted with Sakazuki alias Aka Inu. The fight is a bit more difficult than the previous one, but still no problem. But Sabo comes to help Luffy as the demo ends. At the end you also get some stickers from the characters of the game, nice!

As the time was running out I soon left the place. It was quite interesting how much is offered there to see and play! A fun and inspiring day came to an end. Of course there was so much more to see like many other franchises I'm not that involved in, but I'm sure everyone would have found something interesting! Until another time!

Why is the PlayStation confirmation button O in Japan?

If you have ever played a PlayStation game in Japanese you may have noticed that the O and X buttons are used the other way around. But what is the reason behind it?

Back in the day when I installed tools like the file manager ULaunchELF on my PS2 and while testing the Japanese versions of 'Dragon Ball' games (which has another music score and that made me interested in changing it myself...) I was for the first time confronted with the difference in the function of the controller buttons. 

For some time I didn't question the reason behind it, but there's more to it which is quite interesting.

It's generally a cultural thing: As in western countries we are used to have an X to confirm something like marking the right answer in a quiz for example.

'X' means 'wrong' - not just at the Japanese PlayStation

In Japan they have a different association: The X is used for an incorrect answer in a test. It's meaning is ばつ (batsu) and has a general meaning for something negative like giving up and 'wrong'. So for in Japan it would be wrong to use it as a confirmation button.

The circle on the other hand the circle with the meaning まる (maru) has the meaning of 'correct' since the correct answer in a test is marked in a circle.

These can even be shown in gestures with arms or hands. Or in right-or-wrong games like 'batsumaru'.

This difference in terms of school tests corrections is actually a topic in the Detective Conan episodes 779 & 880 where a Japanese teacher who lived in America got it wrong after returning to Japan...

Looking at it from this perspective the different usage of the buttons makes totally sense.

No chance for Xbox in Japan!

I've been to Japan a few times now and it's every time really impressive how much support their own consoles get in comparison to US rivals from Microsoft...

The numbers speak for themselves: More than 5 million sold PS4 in Japan and only around 80.000 XboxOne! I somewhere read a statistic that even more PS3 are sold than XboxOne's during one of the recent months.

Old games and consoles from their own brands are also still popular and sold in Japan. You see so many stores with still lots of PS1 and PS2 games! Or even older Sega and Nintendo consoles + games. One example of a store in Akihabara in Tokyo is a great example of the situation: Just one shelf with Xbox360, XboxOne and Xbox games and multiple shelves just for old PS1 or PS2 games.

The situation for Microsoft is tough in country of videogames and that shows really how tough it really is!

One Piece: Grand Cruise - My first VR experience!

This new One Piece game is planned to be released in 2018. But if you are in Tokyo and go to the Tokyo Tower you can already play a trial version...

In the Tokyo Tower are a few floors dedicated to One Piece which is why this theme park is called 'Tokyo One Piece Tower'. It has so many attractions related to the anime and it's a must for every fan. Interestingly they also offer visitors to play a trial of the new PS4 Virtual Reality game 'Grand Cruise'.

Once you got the VR glasses and the controller you are told only to use one certain button which is enough to go through the trial. Other players doing the same with you as several seats were prepared. I think there were always eight players at once.

At the beginning you sit on the Thousand Sunny a DenDen Mushi is talking to you before Luffy appears just in front of you. It felt so real.

Then you can select to go in either the kitchen where Chopper and Sanji were or.... in the bed room of Nami and Nico Robin. For some reason Nami approaches you way too close.. ;)

Following that the crew gets attacked by a marine ship. It's yours and the other players job to shoot down all the canons coming from the other ship. You aim with your controller and push the button to shoot - at best early enough.


Luffy and Sanji also show their attacks to block the canons from the opponents easily afterwards. There was also a competition among the players which were divided in teams to check how scored the most.

It was really fun - I actually went there actually twice. Could be an interesting game next year once its full version is released.

But anyway, if you are in Tokyo the next time, you should check it out, not only because of the VR, also for the whole theme park itself.

Are split-screen games a thing of the past?

In the past few years the split-screen options in video games began gradually to disappear. And now it went that far that even racing games do no longer have an offline 2P mode.

Let's start with an example: The F1 racing games which are released by Codemasters every year. In F1 2011 you could even do a whole season with 2 local players against each other. In the 2012 version split-screen was still possible, but just single races - same as in 2014. But in F1 2015 and in the current 2016 version the split-screen disappeared completely.

So just multiplayer online racing? Or bringing your own console to a friend and at best with your own TV? That makes it even more complicated. Especially at times where the TV screens are getting bigger which would make 2P racing even more exciting. Are the gaming companies expecting that with faster Internet connection the people don't meet anymore? It rather forces the people to stay at home playing with friends also being at home.

Of course adding a split-screen needs extra resources and so on. Ok. But for me F1 2015 was a wake-up call in terms the direction they're going. I already know a few people who didn't buy it - same as F1 2016 - because they found it that there's no split-screen.

Same with with the current generation of Dragon Ball fighting games, where I already gave some thoughts in another article. In Xenoverse the local 2P mode is quite limited and not even split-screen. That's why I still have my PlayStation 2 with Budokai Tenkaichi 3. A real fun game, especially with split-screen!

As far as I know with Nintendo they're still doing it right. Imagine they would remove the split-screen from Mario Kart. Can't think of that. At Nintendo they know that people still meet and play against each other. It's part of their concept and their success. Are the Xbox One or PS4 players rather the ones who prefer to play at home alone? Of course there are many games which are made to play as a single player. But still, at the point where a Formula One racing game no longer has a split-screen, something goes really wrong.

Obviously the protests are not big enough, the producers are getting through with it. It's still sold, but it could be sold more often. But maybe not copies enough to compensate the effort adding a split-screen? I can't repeat myself often enough: It's going in the wrong direction. It has a bad impact on the peoples social lifes. More isolation. And so on.

You can find petitions against it, but are they working? Surely not enough. But you still find lots of people being frustrated about it like me. Or is it just the older generation growing up with split-screen video games now missing it? And the younger generation won't care? I do really hope there's a change in the future, hopefully already for games like F1 2017, but I doubt it.

Give it some thoughts, feel free to comment.