I wanted to know if anyone had any footage from any of the scrimmages available. If you do links would be much appreciated.
179’s Swamp Classic Scrimmage
Teaser:
http://funtimenetwork.com/scrimmage.wmv
Round 1:
http://www.marsbot.org/files/Scrimmage_Round_1.wmv
Round 2:
http://www.marsbot.org/files/Scrimmage_Round_2.wmv
Thanks for the footage!
This shows even more so that strategy will win more than one particularly good robot on one alliance. Even exceptionally weak machines can contribute by merely being a hindrance to other teams. That small blue and yellow bot could have easily bumped shooters while shooting and caused missed shots. There are so many ways to affect scoring; you can block shots or robots, you can feed balls to a better shooter, you can forgo the 10pt bonus in auto to be assured that you have ten balls to shoot under more controlled conditions in the remaining periods–there’s a plethora of strategies. I think this is one of the most level playing fields yet (pun intended).
I have posted a few videos from the UTC Scrimmage in this thread (search before you post).
Tonight I will be uploading about 20 more videos to the site for everyone.
Thanks, though I am a bit confused. Why are all the vids around 1:20. 10+40+40+40=2:10. Why are these so short?
We were not playing full rounds, we only had 5 robots.
Hehe, Ted, no need to get you all in a fuss. I wanted to create a thread where all these videos can be pooled.
MarsBOtkid, our team’s driver, is correct. The UTC Scrimmage looks much better organized and actually thought out (hint hint swamp dudes). We did not have the goals setup to switch sides, and only five robots, so we simply ran around and shot for minute long games most of the time. Toward the end we moved toward 2 minute games, but still without switching sides or autonomous periods.
Not great for working on strategy 
I suppose we could get serious with these things but along with seriousness comes agressive contact. I’ve never wanted to beat up our machine before ship. We should figure out a way to add realism though, I agree. Tech Tigers want to get a pre ship scrimm together also, so maybe next year we can all figure out an actual competition format and get a full field etc… on the to do list 
Oh well it’s still exciting to see everyones creations and just to get together.
Nice Video. I was wondering what software you used to edit the video and how did you transfer it to your computer?
I agree 100%, sorry if I came off as unappreciative! We do not have enough space at JHS to even leave a goal and carpet setup so trust me, we are very grateful to use whatever we can get. Probably my personal favorite thing of the build season is the scrimmage and getting to see other team’s bots.
The only problem is that more than half of us have no idea what the deal is with this whole switching sides stuff (should of read the rule book :rolleyes: ). This year it was unrealistic to even turn off goal lights so it would not of worked. Looking back, that’s probably one of the reasons that S.P.A.M. (180) didn’t show up, in that their turret design requires a proper target to stay locked on to.
Anyway, back to working on team shirts :yikes:
I used a digital camcorder (Canon GL1 - old, still just as expensive {if not more} 
) when filming the event, so getting the video to the computer is easy. Just start up your editing program of choice and click capture. The small video in the corners of the screen, however, were captured with a small Olympus digital camera. I used a program called River Past Video Cleaner to convert the videos to AVI-DV format (there are loads of converters out there, just happens to be the one I like; Premiere is a pain and doesnt like the MP4 files that the camera spits out, that’s the only reason I convert in the first place).
My editing program of choice is Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 (they now have version 2.0 with HD). The music is from Freeplaymusic.com, the same place that FIRST gets music for the kickoff animations.
No, I do not have any affiliation with the above products, I just reccomend them as I have found them to meet my needs very well. Links are just because I love google. Hopefully that answers your questions?
Thanks. That was really helpful. I want to create a DVD slide show with music, some video clips, and pictures. I have ArcSoft ShowBiz DVD as my editing software, but it really is not convenient as I would like it to be, and it can’t put clips and pics together. Can your Adobe program do the job? And what is the name of the song FIRST uses in the kickoff animations?
Thanks, and sorry for all the questions (I just got inspired by you teaser video. It was AWESOME 
)
maybe if you guys came up to FHS in orlando, we had the full feild, playing the full game, no score, and no corner ramps, but we had like 10 teams there, it was fun, maybe we can combine the classic scrimmage at the swamp with robot ruckus and have like 15-20 teams at a scrimmage down heree in FL. make it look more like the UTC scrimmage. (great job by the people who orginized that scrimmage, we only had wood center goals and wood ramps, nothing fancy like you guys, but it worked).
Thanks for the compliments, but, well… Adobe Premiere (link is to student purchase site) is a ‘prosumer’ product. It doesn’t come on the cheap (all though premere elements may do just the job) and has a pretty high learning curve. It is great software to know how to use though, and integrates well with other Adobe products.
I have never used ArcSoft products, but I know you can put together images and video (very basic though - rather limiting) with the freely available Microsoft Movie Maker. My friends have used it with some basic projects and the results are very good for a free program. It includes some basic transitions and effects, but again, it is limiting. The Premiere Elements program I mentioned earlier may be the same way, I have never tried it. CNet gave it a 7.8/10 (“Pros: Imports video from different devices; improved interface; better DVD-menu options; Dolby-audio support” “Cons: Sluggish performance; can’t import HDV or export to MPEG-4; sub par support”). I would suggest giving Windows Movie Maker a try before you buy anything. A brief guide for it is on Microsoft.com’s expert section. I would recommend using the DVD software you already have and know how to use for the DVD burning part (after you edit with WMM).
With the kickoff music, as Andrew Blair says, its Canned Heat.
Good luck with your film productions! The main thing I have learned with making movies is to always try to do something better with more features, in a shorter amount of time. Adding transitions to menus, for instance, the first time took me 3 weeks to figure out and design (using photoshop and premiere - school interruptions included). Don’t give up and don’t release crappy work that you will regret being under your name later (but don’t let that hold you back from starting in the first place)!
EDIT: You can also do some very simple DVDs with Nero 7. (Great for stuff you don’t want to spend too much time on presentation before the actual feature - such as showing the scrimamge video above to other members of our robotics team)
Thanks for everything Is the free play website legal?
Thanks
Yes, Freeplay music is free and legal depending on your use of it. I think FIRST would be considered "Educational, Non-Commercial use (limited to student use on school grounds and classroom - non broadcast) " under their terms of service. But then again you may be considered “Non-Profit (most)” and in that case you need licensing. The division between the two may be a little blurry depending on your use. Now I know why I am not a lawyer. http://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/46.gif
Koko ed, i am getting an error trying to open up the Rochester rally. is it just my computer? thanks for your help.
never mind, it started working. sorry for the waste of a post.