For higher quality I use OBS and then encode with ffmpeg (which isn’t user-friendly at all, but quite powerful).
Many I know use nVidia Shadowplay and then use Adobe Premiere , Adobe After effects or Davinci Resolve for cutting. If you use Adobe CC, be sure to encode using their own extra encoder, the build-in in AE and PP are bad.
For better quality upload, use vimeo. Youtube compresses really aggressively if there is bunch going on on the same spot.
For critique on the effect:
-
Work on timing
In my opinion, nothing communicates force. This could be because the mostly because all motion looks linear. It doesn’t feel like something is sucking in the air at the beginning and bursting it out in the end. Suggestion on the suck-in: make it a bit quicker and add some stretched billboard sprites (short lines) to better indicate the sucking direction and it also maz emphasis the strenght of it.
Suggestion on the burst: I see you are doing some anticipation, but I would exaggerate it more. (possibly an “easeInElastic” motion) For explosions a rule of thumb: high velocity + high drag. -
Think about the world surrounding the effect
When I am doing an effect in a void (no game context) I try and imagine the context and the area this could be in. This helps me with some of the artistic vision. In the suck-in, I can see different kinds of clouds. I have the feeling these should come from different directions. like, some are “ground dust” and other “air from above”. For example the chunky clouds could only get come in from above (you could use a wide cone for this) This could help with the next point. -
Play with form
at the moment, everything is roundish and symmetrical. Try to break it a bit with the first half of the effect (the actual “active” looks fine and the burst out makes sense in how it looks), this could indicate the “active” state better and also makes it more exciting to look at.
Disclaimer: this can totally be an artistic decision and work within the game just being roundish. CrossCode has almost all their effects based on circles and it still looks and feels great.
That being said, the is a lot I like what you have done. I am excited to see how it turns out! 