Troy from GameTipsAndMore
New Member
I just wanted to share a cinema-style production logo I completed, dedicated to The OBS Project (free for any use):
I recently Downloaded OBS to try recording with it again - I tried OBS only for a very short time a few years ago, barely touching it; but recently thought about it again and gave it a go and see how it works for recording gameplay (what I mean herein, is Offline ("Non-Streaming") Locally-Recorded gameplay clips).
And I love it! Although it has to be 'set up' somewhat before easy operation, after that, it seems to be able to produce great quality with little impact on performance. I was just using the 'default' x264 (H.264/AVC MPEG-4 Part 10) codec that seems built-in to the program, utilizing my own x264 settings that I found worked well for local recording with x264 over the past few years (I will gladly share them if others want to know what they are). I look forward to trying a GPU-Accelerated codec in the future, in OBS (I am not a Programmer, otherwise I would contribute towards this, as well).
[Long Version 'Behind The Scenes' Story of the Logo follows:]
Creating this Logo/Ident for OBS was an idea I had, because although I had seen a couple of past Submissions of Logos for OBS here on the Forum, there were no "cinematic-style" logos done yet, that I could see - ones that could maybe be presented in a Professional Setting, perhaps at the beginning of a Streaming Event that was utilizing OBS. This is what I was 'going for' here - something that looked "professional" and then on top of that, something I personally wanted to be "Cinematic"...
I used programs I had purchased in the past few years, for the logo (mainly Corel's VideoStudio Pro x8 and CyberLink's PowerDirector 12 Ultra Edition), along with some Open Source Software [of course!] for tweaking the various elements, such as The GIMP (Graphical Image Manipulation Program [although I think they just call it "GIMP" now]) and Inkscape, Audacity (an Audio Editor) and FontForge.
It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, to create an 'only twelve second long' production... I knew what I wanted in my head [the way it looks in the end, thankfully]; but what I wanted specifically couldn't be done, with any of the Software that I had available. So, when a situation like that arrives, I like to "forge my own trail" and figure out how to make it happen, despite not being able to do so easily, with the Tools at hand.
What I mean is, is the black OBS 'disc' that comes in from the lower-left. It seems like that would be easy to do and at first I avoided Blender because I thought I could use PowerDirector to have a "circle" of some Font (Wingdings, etc) and apply the Logo to the Font face and manipulate it there – which seemed really easy in my head, five minutes work maybe.... The problem was, PowerDirector wouldn't apply the image properly onto the front face of the Font circle - it was always offset oddly. I even tried applying the Logo to a circle character in VideoStudio, but it did the same thing, the logo got applied all 'wonky'. I surmised it was the Font itself that was offset oddly for what I wanted to do (it's dimensions/metrics) and so, after searching through a ton of Fonts to find a 'simple circle', it turned out I couldn't find one and had to create a font from scratch and create a circle character inside that font, to do what I wanted...
(I realized I could have just created a circle and manipulated it in Blender, but I liked the Automation of Font manipulation that was offered in the NewBlue Titler add-ins that came with a couple of the video editing applications I purchased - I thought it would be easier ...at first)
So, I created a Font and drew out a circle. I installed the Font into Windows and tried applying the logo to the front facing of the circle – it worked! The thing is, the font came out looking 'blocky', it didn't have a nice roundness to it, it was more like an octagon. I figured it was the resolution of the Font being displayed, but that couldn't really be adjusted, so I went back into the Font itself and added nodes for the circle character I created… painstakingly making it more complex and 'round', by altering each node one-by-one, until eventually, I had a better 'circle' to use. Then, going back into the Titler, I set up the Font, applied the facing of the logo and it matched up enough, and looked like a 'circle' enough, to start manipulating it how I wanted…
A 'flipping coin until it sits flat' type of movement, although more 'monolithic' in style, is what I wanted - and it was actually built into the Titler I was using. Great. I then wanted the Text that was on the right side, desiring to emulate the logos I had seen here at the OBS Project website (the “Powered By...” ones). I settled on a Franklin-Gothic-styled font that was Royalty-Free (I do not know the Font that was actually used in the “Powered By...” logos here at the Forum I saw in the past – in fact, I can't find them here again anymore! Haha).
The “space-y” background I wanted was a free one included in PowerDirector, but I tweaked the particle generators (more particles and added custom types) and changed all of the colours and levels to how I wanted (“space travel but classy” if that makes any sense) - I thought it would give a sense of 'going out there to everyone' that was befitting OBS. I brought down the Saturation a lot, to make it match the feel of the two-tone OBS logo and also not take away too much from the logo/text reveal... [I might share an early “daily” I had, where there was waaay too much Glare and Flares going on lol].
The right-side text was finished in VideoStudio, where the Titler there allowed me to give it a nice Chrome finish (there is even a Chrome style Preset in there). The animation was also from the Titler there, tweaked slightly. [I had tried to get the Chrome style I wanted in GIMP and Inkscape, but couldn't get what I was looking for in those, for the moment, despite having used them in the past for similar 'chrome'-desired projects]. After all that, only a bit of lining things up, a bit of tweaking here and there, and it was almost done! All it needed now was an inspiring Backing Track…
Both video editing suites included an 'automated music generator' type of module within them (what a great thing, coming from always having to create my own Backing Tracks in the Old Days), and I found what I wanted in PowerDirector's version (even though Corel's offers more Tracks to choose from). Royalty-Free for Any Use, I tailored it down to a crisp, majestic-yet-hopefully-still-'classy'-and-also-cinematic 12 seconds, which was what my animation seemed to be settling on. A few more tweaks and timing line-ups later and what you see is the final result...
I have my little Identifier/Disclaimer at the end, but just cut if off by Trimming the clip to 12seconds00Frames and use it however you desire. Enjoy it! And please feel free to let me know what you all think of it and if I can further tailor it for The OBS Project (and public) usage.
Take care,
~Troy from The Game Tips And More Blog
I recently Downloaded OBS to try recording with it again - I tried OBS only for a very short time a few years ago, barely touching it; but recently thought about it again and gave it a go and see how it works for recording gameplay (what I mean herein, is Offline ("Non-Streaming") Locally-Recorded gameplay clips).
And I love it! Although it has to be 'set up' somewhat before easy operation, after that, it seems to be able to produce great quality with little impact on performance. I was just using the 'default' x264 (H.264/AVC MPEG-4 Part 10) codec that seems built-in to the program, utilizing my own x264 settings that I found worked well for local recording with x264 over the past few years (I will gladly share them if others want to know what they are). I look forward to trying a GPU-Accelerated codec in the future, in OBS (I am not a Programmer, otherwise I would contribute towards this, as well).
[Long Version 'Behind The Scenes' Story of the Logo follows:]
Creating this Logo/Ident for OBS was an idea I had, because although I had seen a couple of past Submissions of Logos for OBS here on the Forum, there were no "cinematic-style" logos done yet, that I could see - ones that could maybe be presented in a Professional Setting, perhaps at the beginning of a Streaming Event that was utilizing OBS. This is what I was 'going for' here - something that looked "professional" and then on top of that, something I personally wanted to be "Cinematic"...
I used programs I had purchased in the past few years, for the logo (mainly Corel's VideoStudio Pro x8 and CyberLink's PowerDirector 12 Ultra Edition), along with some Open Source Software [of course!] for tweaking the various elements, such as The GIMP (Graphical Image Manipulation Program [although I think they just call it "GIMP" now]) and Inkscape, Audacity (an Audio Editor) and FontForge.
It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, to create an 'only twelve second long' production... I knew what I wanted in my head [the way it looks in the end, thankfully]; but what I wanted specifically couldn't be done, with any of the Software that I had available. So, when a situation like that arrives, I like to "forge my own trail" and figure out how to make it happen, despite not being able to do so easily, with the Tools at hand.
What I mean is, is the black OBS 'disc' that comes in from the lower-left. It seems like that would be easy to do and at first I avoided Blender because I thought I could use PowerDirector to have a "circle" of some Font (Wingdings, etc) and apply the Logo to the Font face and manipulate it there – which seemed really easy in my head, five minutes work maybe.... The problem was, PowerDirector wouldn't apply the image properly onto the front face of the Font circle - it was always offset oddly. I even tried applying the Logo to a circle character in VideoStudio, but it did the same thing, the logo got applied all 'wonky'. I surmised it was the Font itself that was offset oddly for what I wanted to do (it's dimensions/metrics) and so, after searching through a ton of Fonts to find a 'simple circle', it turned out I couldn't find one and had to create a font from scratch and create a circle character inside that font, to do what I wanted...
(I realized I could have just created a circle and manipulated it in Blender, but I liked the Automation of Font manipulation that was offered in the NewBlue Titler add-ins that came with a couple of the video editing applications I purchased - I thought it would be easier ...at first)
So, I created a Font and drew out a circle. I installed the Font into Windows and tried applying the logo to the front facing of the circle – it worked! The thing is, the font came out looking 'blocky', it didn't have a nice roundness to it, it was more like an octagon. I figured it was the resolution of the Font being displayed, but that couldn't really be adjusted, so I went back into the Font itself and added nodes for the circle character I created… painstakingly making it more complex and 'round', by altering each node one-by-one, until eventually, I had a better 'circle' to use. Then, going back into the Titler, I set up the Font, applied the facing of the logo and it matched up enough, and looked like a 'circle' enough, to start manipulating it how I wanted…
A 'flipping coin until it sits flat' type of movement, although more 'monolithic' in style, is what I wanted - and it was actually built into the Titler I was using. Great. I then wanted the Text that was on the right side, desiring to emulate the logos I had seen here at the OBS Project website (the “Powered By...” ones). I settled on a Franklin-Gothic-styled font that was Royalty-Free (I do not know the Font that was actually used in the “Powered By...” logos here at the Forum I saw in the past – in fact, I can't find them here again anymore! Haha).
The “space-y” background I wanted was a free one included in PowerDirector, but I tweaked the particle generators (more particles and added custom types) and changed all of the colours and levels to how I wanted (“space travel but classy” if that makes any sense) - I thought it would give a sense of 'going out there to everyone' that was befitting OBS. I brought down the Saturation a lot, to make it match the feel of the two-tone OBS logo and also not take away too much from the logo/text reveal... [I might share an early “daily” I had, where there was waaay too much Glare and Flares going on lol].
The right-side text was finished in VideoStudio, where the Titler there allowed me to give it a nice Chrome finish (there is even a Chrome style Preset in there). The animation was also from the Titler there, tweaked slightly. [I had tried to get the Chrome style I wanted in GIMP and Inkscape, but couldn't get what I was looking for in those, for the moment, despite having used them in the past for similar 'chrome'-desired projects]. After all that, only a bit of lining things up, a bit of tweaking here and there, and it was almost done! All it needed now was an inspiring Backing Track…
Both video editing suites included an 'automated music generator' type of module within them (what a great thing, coming from always having to create my own Backing Tracks in the Old Days), and I found what I wanted in PowerDirector's version (even though Corel's offers more Tracks to choose from). Royalty-Free for Any Use, I tailored it down to a crisp, majestic-yet-hopefully-still-'classy'-and-also-cinematic 12 seconds, which was what my animation seemed to be settling on. A few more tweaks and timing line-ups later and what you see is the final result...
I have my little Identifier/Disclaimer at the end, but just cut if off by Trimming the clip to 12seconds00Frames and use it however you desire. Enjoy it! And please feel free to let me know what you all think of it and if I can further tailor it for The OBS Project (and public) usage.
Take care,
~Troy from The Game Tips And More Blog
Last edited: