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Just a couple of weeks late. 😉
Or one week late if we go by last year’s attempted “each update is for the week before” system.
Speaking of that attempted system, I don’t think I’ll be counting the weeks this year. If I’d actually remembered to update every single week it would’ve been fine, but there were enough delays due to procrastination and plain ol’ forgetfulness that it became entirely too cumbersome to keep track of which number week I was updating for, and this time I’m hedging on the chance that I’ll have the same problem by deciding in advance that I simply can’t make myself care.
Knowing me, if for any reason I change my mind, it’ll probably be late enough in the year that it just won’t be worth the effort to correct.
But meanwhile I do have more specific plans moving forward. Case in point, I’m going to add some of the Wii Fit fitness games to the ranks of “unrecordable” gameplay.
Oh, I won’t stop including it in my channel (when it comes up on the randomizer or monthly test), but I want to start doing weekly fitness tests instead of just the uploaded monthly, as well as doing a few of the activities and difficulty levels I’ve already hit 4 stars in.
I’m mentioning it here, despite the lack of those uploads, for two simple reasons: one is to warn you in advance that there will inevitably be inconsistent details from one video to the next (’tis why I’d only do the games that I’ve already hit 4 stars for but I have far less control over the fitness tests).
The other is to point out that this plan has less to do with exercise and more to do with experimenting my lighting options–I’m hoping my color-change LED won’t make me look as washed out as whatever I had installed in the ceiling before but I’m still suffering from standing almost directly underneath it… at least so far as the Wii’s own built-in camera is concerned. Plus I’ve also tossed a stand-alone light under my desk to avoid leaving my lower body in too much shadow for the workouts. Using the Wii more often gives me an easy way to try out different colors and brightness until I find something that I think works without spamming videos that may not be as upload-worthy as I’d like.
In fact, I first tried the light-under-the-desk option while taking my first “before” photos for the year:
These photos came, not from my phone as did last year’s, but from my new GoPro, and I can already see changes I may want to make to the process.
One such change I knew about before taking the photos: I’d like to dig out my GoPro remote and get it connected, as well as invest in the flip-up display so I can see that the camera is aimed where I want it to be. (I used the phone app plus burst mode to compensate for both issues, but tapping and then quickly moving into the proper position was awkward at best; I suspect setting a timer would be the same way.) I want the display for other types of videos as well–pretty much for any reason I might need the camera pointed at me–but I’m trying not to spend a lot of money for a while yet….
Another change, though, is to see what resolution et cetera settings are available when taking photos in this manner… for consistency’s sake, I’d just as soon not have to crop the photos like I did here each time after I take them, so I need to look for a setting that lets me focus on that narrow strip in the middle of my room the way my phone does. (On the plus side, the curtain makes for a really good “crop to this point” dividing line… even if the slant does make it hard to crop in exactly the same spot each time.)
But as to the light under the desk, hard to say how much it contributed to a better view of my legs and how much was the fact that I wasn’t wearing dark full-body pajamas for these photos, but I think I’m going to continue this method for now.
I’m also trying to decide on a more regular upload schedule. From my side of things, my work schedule means I’d still only make videos one or two days a week, but the change from the 360 to the Hero 9-as-webcam means I don’t have to wait nearly as long for everything to render so I could record a whole lot more in one day while still getting things edited faster. And scheduling when I upload based on what fitness device I’m using may make things more predictable for any viewers who are only interested in specific gameplay options.
While my biggest problem with committing to a schedule is, well, commitment, I’m kind of leaning towards doing all of my devices in those one or two days but uploading different days according to which device I used. E.g. if I’m starting the week’s workouts with Ring Fit Adventure’s Adventure Mode, that should be my “Monday” upload, then I pick (and keep) a specific order in which I play the other devices the rest of the day while using my randomizer to pick the specific workout, uploading each of those videos in the pre-selected order Tues through Thurs, and finish off with uploading insert-VR-campaign-mode-here on Friday. Obviously this depends on me actually doing multiple workouts as planned and remembering to edit and upload in a timely manner.
Finally (for now), there is the matter of how to actually record the VR gameplay. Wii Fit and Ring Fit both go to my computer via a capture card, the Stealth Board supports wireless screen mirroring direct from my phone… but my only options for VR are the completely soundless cast-to-browser or streaming through the likes of a Chromecast.
So at some point I’m going to try connecting my Chromecast to that capture card, see if that actually works the way I want it to. Of course, when I originally decided I’d try this I’d completely overlooked the fact that the HDMI on the Chromecast and capture card are both male ends… so I had to remember to buy a cheap HDMI coupler just to find out if this would even work. (I’m not fond of the “plug in even more things” approach, so it’s too bad there’s no easy way to use my computer as a Chromecast receiver without needing the actual physical device. Supposedly there is, or was a few years ago, some official Google-owned app for the Chrome browser but I keep getting a whole lot of “page not found” results now that I’d actually have a use for it.)
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Side Quest Publications 