Long tracks

Rafael wrote: The difference is comparable to the difference between movies and books.

And there, I think, is where our ideas clash. I usually see virtually no difference between books and movies, except for the way the story is told. In fact, I often read a book as if I were actually watching a movie of it in my head.

Apparently tracks tell stories.. I wasn't aware of this.
I'm with CC.

if you let your imagination free everything tells a story wizzy including linerider tracks

Scenery tracks? Absolutely. Naked tracks? Not so sure about that

Yeah bare tracks I personally am not fond of bc it's just no fun to watch for me. My imagination doesn't work for bare tracks like it does for scenery tracks

Wizzy wrote:Scenery tracks? Absolutely. Naked tracks? Not so sure about that

It's the most artistic part of trackmaking.
IMO

Bare tracks tell a story that isn't defined. so instead of a story like "Jane went to the grocery store and found the cashier handsome." you get a hinting at emotions through the song and movements, similar to ballet or even instrumental music.

SPL4SHZ0N3 wrote:Bare tracks tell a story that isn't defined. so instead of a story like "Jane went to the grocery store and found the cashier handsome." you get a hinting at emotions through the song and movements, similar to ballet or even instrumental music.

I think most bare tracks that tell a story comes mostly from music choice. For example, Cheetah doesn't tell a story for me, but No One Dreams Anyways does. I think if NODA had some generic dnb song synced to it instead, it wouldn't get the same feeling

Songs definitely have a big impact, but there are a lot of tracks with potential "story music" that people have ruined. Splash has a good definition too.

I think the music is what tells the story and the track is what helps convey what the music and lyrics are saying. If you take away the music completely, you're left with.. a track and not much of anything else (assuming there's no scenery.)

A pantomime is a good example. It has no words, no music, no talking, or narrating (as far as I know?) yet it still portrays characters and tells a story.. because.. it's a play The same cannot be said about Line Rider. If you don't have music nor scenery, there isn't much to be said story-wise. You just have a penguin riding lines. And that's why I think it's so brilliant, is because it's such a simple notion but your creativity is limitless.

I see everything of a Line Rider video as part of the Line Rider track. I guess that's different from you.

Does that explain your overly dramatic intros?

I'm almost with Kram on this one. I usually start my tracks off aiming for some sort of feel to them, and build off of that. Then the music falls into place, just because there's really no other music that would fit the type of track I went for. Likewise, if someone else makes a track, I'll get a different feeling when watching it. It may not in itself tell a story, but certainly sets the mood for one to be created.

10 seconds is long for me.

Wizzy wrote:Does that explain your overly dramatic intros?

You mean the fact I put effort in my intros? Yes

All of these argument points are incredibly valid, and can be used as great reasons for making a long track. (I actually skimmed over most of these, so don't yell at me if i say something already said)

I believe the track has to be not only engaging to the viewer, but to the creator himself. I've noticed that tracks with a lot of "emotion" tend to get apreasal from their own creators, IE they enjoyed making it, watching it, etc. This is the way that I felt about Sandy's City. having an over 2 minute track is pretty long, but what kept me going was that I was engaged with the track itself, I enjoyed watching it over and over knowing how much effort I was putting in. When i felt ready to work on another part, iwas really excited to get back on it.

Another key point I believe is presentation. This kind of goes hand in hand with an engaging track I believe. You've got to make the track look cool to actually enjoy it, right? It doesn't necesarily have to be a gimmick like syncing or limiting yourself to only using red lines, it just has to feel unique to the viewer. Most everyone here knows that I see tracks as the same, but the tracks that do stand out the most to me are ones that tried to put on a show, rather than demonstrate skill. Long tracks are no exceptions. Blue Champion is a great example. It didn't necesarily sync with One and timed frame by frame, the over all speed and flow of the track ran with the emotion of the song, which is probably why Blue Champion is so highly regarded.

kevan, I couldn't have worded it any better. I completely agree with you.

I draw black things on a white background.

^Dammit Votale, I wanted to be "that guy" who ruins the discussion with an oversimplified answer that disregards all the emotion/syncing BS.



lool

This topic is really interesting!
I can bring you a old point of view.
But before, I need to see the tracks you used in example .
Can someone send me the links please?

Edit : I've just seen Noda and Blue Champion.
In my opinion, it's not the lenght of the track that make it good or bad. There are bad long tracks and there are awesome short tracks. When I stoped LR few years ago, the french players used to make 2 minutes long tracks and they uploaded their video on YT with the colored bare track and some credits. So most of the final outcome lasted more than 3 minutes. But we don't care , the most important question is " Why a track is good or not ?" .

In order to answer this question, we need to make 2 different parts :
1-The track which tell a story or a journey ( Noda, Cross Mountain , Jagged Peak Adventure ,Transcendental, Journey to Antarctica, etc )
2-The track only based on the skills of the player ( ZNF's tracks, OmniverseII, and all the awesome bare tracks you know better than me )

A track which tell a story needs to have a good scenery, and in fact , a good scenery is not always an ultrarealistic one but a coherent one ! This is the case in Unconed video from example, the tricks are almost inexistant and the scenery very simple but the atmosphere he created is very interesting. And that's why his videos have milions of views. The track can be short or long , the most important thing is the coherence between all the element drawn by the scener.
It's hard to find concrete example since there are a lot of exceptions. For example MMX(-Treme) , in Sorvius' track, we can see different kind of scenery style. Between the beginning and the end of MMX, we can count at less 5 different kind of rocks. It's not a story but a travel .

Now , a track only based on the skills of the player lets the viewer fascinated by the works of the tricker. "How he can do that ? " This is a typic reaction I had when I saw for the first time Omniverse II. It's technically perfect !
This is unfortunately one of the reasons of why people who discover LR prefer scened track . But it's a other question :p .

After that, one of the most important things in a track is the adequation between the video and the sound. The music choice is for me as important as the tricks or the scenery.
Example : Jam, the music rythms the track, and the outcome is amazing. Moreover, I think that adding extra sounds like the grinds noise in Transcendental is a real improvement.