Holding Out For A Hero (Witcher 3 Hero Version)
8Note: This originally appeared on my personal youTube channel. I uploaded it to NVidia Shield Zone because I figured my subscribers might find it interesting.
The song Holding Out For A Hero has been used for many videos containing footage of heroes and villians spanning video games, film and television. I was blown away by The Avengers video created by Captain Paul Highwind and always knew someday - when I loved something enough - I would make one of these videos too.
Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt was that inspiration. It has been nearly 20 years since I've truly "felt" something for a video game and this medium feels like the right way to repay the 200+ hours I've had of joy with this title.
To ensure the greatest amount of play and sharing possible, I have kept this cut of the video rated "PG-13". Some may feel this is safe for work, others may not. I recommend your first viewing to be private (and with the sound up very loud).
Technical Specifications (because someone will ask)
All video was captured using NVidia's GeForce 980 GPU on a modest i5-4460 CPU via the GeForce Experience.
Editing was done on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 using Corel's VideoStudio X9.
The final output video was done at 1080p in 59.94 frames per second at a bitrate of 45,000kbps using H.264 video encoding. The audio was encoded as AAC at 48000Hz at 256kbps.
The music bed is the 2004 version of Holding Out For A Hero by the original artist, Bonnie Tyler. This version was selected over the original due to the more upbeat nature of the remake and the fact it is actually a bit shorter and more dynamic; much more suited for this cut of Witcher 3.
The final product represents hundreds of hours of gameplay, editing and rendering. Work was started on February 9th, 2016 and was completed May 22nd, 2016.
Some will ask why I included the "hud" during game play captures. I felt artistically it was important for people to see this not as just a collection of "cut scenes" but rather a full body of work representing not just the story videos but also the incredible gameplay elements as well.
Special Thanks (aka "the boring stuff")
As with all great art, this work represents the efforts of many people. CD Red Projekt created this amazing game and directed the original scenes I had to cut, snip, speed up, slow down, zoom and otherwise manipulate.
The original creator of the Witcher fantasy world, Andrzej Sapkowski deserves a big chunk of credit as well.
Bonnie Tyler's tune was originally featured (in a cut down version) on the 1984 film Footloose - a great movie with an amazing soundtrack. While her vocals brought it life, I have to thank Jim Steinman for writing it in the first place.
Finally, to the few friends (especially Chris Hentschel) I solicited ideas and bounced rough cuts and renderings to - I give my thanks. Your excitement and thoughts kept me charged up - even when this started to feel like work instead of art.
Still Reading?
There is an easter egg in the video ... Can you find it?
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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Statistics For NVidia Shield Zone
There are 18,725 views in 4 videos for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The game makes up 1 hour of published video on his channel, roughly 2.01% of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt content that NVidia Shield Zone has uploaded to YouTube.