So what happens after a live stream is completed? The VOD is cleaned up, polished, and prepared for upload to YouTube.
Archived live streams are only kept as active links on Twitch for up to two weeks after the stream. After that, the videos are no longer available to the public or to the account holder.
To allow viewers to watch an archived stream past the two weeks on Twitch, the stream will need to be uploaded to YouTube, which for the most part keeps videos online for an indefinite period of time.
We will go over the process of downloading an archived stream from Twitch, editing the file and cleaning it up in a non-linear editing program, and uploading the new file to the "Potsdam Esports" YouTube channel.
If you do not already have the login credentials for the SUNY Potsdam Esports Twitch account, get them from either Dr. Betrus or an approved E-Board member before continuing.
After you have logged into Twitch, click on the icon in the upper right hand corner that resembles a person inside a solid color circle. From there, click on Video Producer.
A list of recent streams will appear, including those that are about to expire due to the two-week time limit. Decide which stream you want to download and click on the corresponding three-dot icon. Select "Download" from the drop-down that appears and a message will appear that Twitch is preparing the file for download. When it's ready, a window will pop up and you will select where to download the MP4 file and what to name it. The download time will vary, depending on your connection speed.
Before editing, go to the SUNY Potsdam Esports Google Drive and Esports, then download the contents of the Animation folder. These are the opening and closing elements to attach to the start and end of the video in the timeline.
For this demonstration, we are using Final Cut Pro X, but the lessons can be applied to most non-linear editing programs including iMovie, Adobe Premiere, Avid Media Composer, Sony Vegas Pro, and Camtasia.
Import the animated files and the VOD file into your project. The 10-second animated open should be the first item in your timeline. The raw stream file will start where the original stream started, so the in and out points will need to be changed before the video is moved to the timeline.
Set your "In" point to the first frame of video, right where you want your video to start. Skim ahead to where you want your video to end and set your "Out" point. Once your in and out points are confirmed, send your video to the timeline.
You can now add an animated transition to go from the open to the stream. In Final Cut, we've been using the Zoom-and-Pan transition with a duration of 1 second.
The next step is to go through the archived stream and listen to the audio track. Make sure that the audio peaks between minus-8 and zero dB. When listening to the audio, remove any profanity or inappropriate language. In Final Cut, we use the razor blade tool and slice the start and end points where the audio needs to be removed, and we lower the audio level down to minus infinity dB. Repeat this procedure for all occurrences of questionable language or bad manners towards the opposing team.
If you need to remove a section of video to improve pacing, be sure to place a transition between the clips. For example, we have been using the Radial transition for 1 second in Final Cut Pro. It has a look similar to the Zoom-and-Pan transition and sends the message of time passing by. Leaving in a jump cut is a lazy way to edit video and it does not look very clean to a viewer. Plus, seeing one makes most professional video editors cringe.
Once the project is completed, you will need to export the video file into a format that YouTube will be able to recognize. MOV or MP4 files are the current standards. The file size will be large, so make sure your system has enough available hard drive space before beginning your final render and export. In Final Cut, we will select the "Faster Encode" export setting to keep the file size down. "Better Quality" might double or even triple the file size and that's before YouTube does its own encoding.
When your file is exported to where it needs to go, log in to the "Potsdam Esports" YouTube account using the same credentials you used for the Google Drive account. Remember, Google owns YouTube so the same login information is used for both platforms.
While the file uploads, be sure to change the name of the video as it will appear to viewers, usually the name of the game, SUNY Potsdam and who they are playing, and the date in a six-digit format. After that, enter a description, usually SUNY Potsdam Esports taking on another school in an ECAC matchup of whatever game is being played. Remember to add this VOD to a playlist, in this case we will add this VOD to the "Fortnite" playlist, enter the name of the game in Advanced Settings under the Gaming genre, and confirm that the video's primary language is English.
When you are finished, click Publish and wait for the upload to complete.
Once the file is uploaded and processed, the video is available for viewing on YouTube!
One last thing, copy the URL provided by YouTube for the video and add it to the "Schedule/Results" section of the website and post the link to Twitter.
Highlights are a good way to provide content to viewers and followers of the Twitch and YouTube channels.
To create a highlight in Twitch, log in to the SUNY Potsdam Esports account and go to Video Manager.
Each archived stream contains a button with the word "Highlight" on the right side. Click it and Twitch will take you to a highlight creation page, where you can go through the entire archived stream and select "In" and "Out" points for each highlight.
When you have finished compiling your highlights, click Publish Highlights. You can name the highlights whatever you want, but it is highly encouraged to keep the title as close to the name of the original stream as possible so viewers will know from what match this highlight came from. In the description box, say what people are watching.
When you're done, click Save and Next. If you have more than one highlight, you will repeat the process of naming the highlight and adding a description. After your last highlight, you will return to the Video Producer page and your highlights will be ready for viewers once they have finished processing.
To create highlights in YouTube, you will use your video editing software. In this case, we have created a new project in Final Cut Pro with the same "Video on Demand" opening animation and the original raw file.
Using this method, you will cut down the raw video of the stream into short segments and place them together into one timeline. They will come one after another. You can add a transition in between the clips, but jump cuts in this situation would be acceptable.
After you have finished compiling your highlights and editing your project, export the file using the same settings used to export the VOD and repeat the process of uploading the video to YouTube, emphasizing to viewers that what they are watching is a highlight package, not a full length VOD.