Today I shot a little fly through of a trip around “Information Island” (Teleport Now - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/124/189/48 ) using Second Life’s built in video capture feature. (See complete instructions below.)

The video capture feature is pretty tricky to use, because it doesn’t save the file it generates under the filename you enter. Instead, it saves to the same file every time (called “SLm”).

I devised a simple work around for generating hi-resolution clips which can then be imported into a video editing program, such as iMovie, for editing and the addition of a soundtrack.

Step One: Using the “Start/Stop Movie to Disk” feature

From your “File” menu, select “Start/Stop Movie to Disk” (or Command-Shift-A)

Step Two: Selecting a directory to save the “SLm” file that is generated

The first time you select “File” and pull down to “Start/Stop Movie to Disk,” it will bring up a dialogue box letting you place and name the movie you’re going to generate. But after that first time, you won’t always get a chance to pick your directory. The program only seems to ask you this once per Second Life session.

Although the dialogue box appears to let you name your file whatever you wish, the program is actually going to save your movie as a file named “SLm.” (I would try to name the file “name.mov,” just in case it works for you, but it’s never done so for me.)

Step Three: Choosing compression for the “SLm” file that is generated

The next dialog box will let you choose a compression codec. However, I recommend choosing the hi-res “video” option, so you can record a hi-res quicktime source file that you can import into an editing program. This way, you save the compression step until after you’ve done all your editing.

Step Four: When you’re done recording, hold down cmnd-shift-A again to stop shooting.

Second Life doesn’t really save the file under the file name you type in, although it will be in the directory you’ve selected in Step Two. Go to the directory you’ve chosen and select the “SLm” file. Then duplicate it and rename it as “yourname.mov.” (It is a Quicktime file, even though it doesn’t have a recognizable file extension.)

Step Five: Import the .mov file into the editor of your choice.

Step Six: Import a soundtrack

The video capture won’t record any audio, so I recommend adding a soundtrack. I used another of my remixes from CC Mixter.

Let me know if you have any questions at lisa@lisarein.comSee more in:secondlife, tutorials, videobloggingweek2007

This entry was posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2007 at 9:37 am and is filed under VideobloggingWeek2007, Second Life, Second Life Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.