Camera Basics- ManyCam and Picture-in-Picture

So you want to be able to show your room both your front and your back at the same time. Do you have access to two cameras? If so, you can use this program called ManyCam. 

But, a lot of you probably don't know much about how to fiddle with settings and such. Never fear! Here's a guide for you. 

First, pro's and con's:

Con's

1. Manycam is pernicious. It is really hard to uninstall it once you've installed it. Almost as bad as getting rid of a virus. So make sure you really do want it on your computer before you go installing it.

2. Manycam is a resource hog. This means that it uses a ton of your ram and cpu power. Even when you're not using it, it could be running in the background taking up your resources. I can show you how to fix that. In fact, that's the first thing I'll show you how to do.

Pro's

1. You can show multiple cameras at once to the same site.
2. You can show your camera feed on multiple sites at once.
3. You can do fun stuff with the camera feed, like make it look like you're on fire, or make it look like the camera is under water.

Three pro's, and two cons, one of which you probably never have to worry about and the other of which I'll be telling you how to fix. Pretty good choice, eh?

So you got manycam, and now you want it to quit hogging your computer's power while you play candycrush after your show is over. Or before your show even started. Here's how to do it. In this tutorial, any purple ovals and letters are my addition, everything else is a screen shot.

Turning Off ManyCam

At the bottom right of your screen, next to your clock, there is a little arrow. Click that, and you should see what is pictured below.

The only two things to concern you are A and B. A is the manycams icon, B is the logitech icon. Right-click (that's the other click, not the normal one) on the manycams icon. You should now see the picture below.

First, the "Run On Startup". Make sure there isn't a checkmark next to this. If there is one, uncheck it by clicking on the checkmark. That will keep manycams from running before you tell it to. Next, the big red X for the exit button. Don't click on that until you're ready for manycams to stop running. This is what you want to click when you're done with camming, logged off the site and all. If you do click on it, don't worry. It'll come back on when you use the desktop icon. You can also shut down the logitech software through here, but it doesn't use much and letting it run allows the toolbar to pop up automatically when you use it.

Using Manycam

Next, left-click on the same icon. Or, if you shut it down, find it on your desktop. I'm sure all of you know how to do this, but since I have a visual mind and can find something easier if I know exactly what it look like, here's what the manycams desktop icon looks like:

So, one left-click on the toolbar icon, or double-click the desktop icon, or click on the desktop icon and press enter, or whatever your favorite way of opening a program using a desktop icon is. The manycam window will pop up, and you can play around with settings (I'll do a settings post on the actual logitech settings, and then the manycams settings, later). First thing to do is not select the proper camera, but get rid of that pesky icon in the bottom of your feed. Refer to the picture below (Please forgive my expression, I did these while cooling off from a workout).

So, there's an "effects" and a "sources" tab. Click on "effects", then click on "text over video". I've circled both in the picture above. You should get a window that looks like the picture below.

Uncheck the box next to the bit I've circled on that picture for you. Next I'll show you how to do two pictures at once on your feed, called "picture in picture". Back at the top, click "Sources", then click "Cameras", circled below. Select the camera that you want for your main one. Fix settings now, and exit Manycams all the way (even exiting with the start-bar icon like I showed you). This makes sure that your settings get saved for next time. Reenter, and find your way back to the picture below.

Right below the feed, there are three buttons. The leftmost one is normal, that should be highlighted. Click the middle one. A little black square should pop up.

Now, select the camera you want as the little one. It will show up in the black box, and your main camera is intact, like so:

You can move the little one! With your mouse over the picture, hold the mouse-button down and drag the picture. You can even put it off-screen a little!

Want to show off your desktop? Click that desktop button that you see. There will be a bunch of buttons visible under the P-i-P button. Like so:

The first one is "Capture Entire Desktop". Mine has a drop-down because I have two monitors, so I can choose to show both, the external monitor, or the laptop monitor. The second one captures the area around the cursor. This is useful for youtube video tutorials, but if you do it on camera you will probably accidentally show something you don't want to. The third one is what I use most often, "capture custom desktop area". This lets you select an area to show. You will see a preview of the area that will be shown as you select it. If you mess up, you click on it again and restart. The last one is "capture area of application". If you already have up the window that you want them to be able to see, you click on this and then click on the window you want to show. It will continue to show that area even after you minimize, so be careful what you have up under the area.

Making ManyCams the Camera being Streamed

I only really cam on two sites, and only one of them, MFC, do I use the software. The other, Streamate, I use the Adobe Encoder, so I can't show you using that one. But this is the same on every site, it's specific to the adobe flash program the camsites use to stream our cams. So, I'll use MFC. Since I'm not sure how much screen-shot I can give you to keep from getting in trouble, I've cut everything except enough for you to be able to tell that it really is MFC. Like so:

Before you start, make sure that manycams is running and your main camera is selected properly. Then log into your account. On MFC, I suggest going into preview mode to mess with the settings before you start actually streaming. Adobe might already have a window about the verification. If so, skip to that part. If not, you need to get the adobe settings up. First, right-click (that's the other one) anywhere in where your picture feed will be. I'm already set up, which is why my feed is showing, but you might have a blank feed, or the wrong camera up. You should see a menu like below. Click on settings, which I've circled.

Before you allow or deny, you need to tell it which camera to use. Otherwise, it might be trying to access the camera that manycams is using. but you will be going back to this screen, it's the second tab at the bottom. Click the right-most tab, that looks like a camera.

If ManyCam Virtual Webcam is not the camera it's showing, then you need to select it. Click on the circled triangle to see the drop-down menu, and click on ManyCam Virtual Webcam. If it is the one selected, you can skip down to the last part.

 Go back to the first window. Remember, it's the second tab at the bottom. Click "Allow" and check "remember my answer". Then click "close".

 And now, you're ready to cam!

Put Text On Any Desktop Background!

I use this for affirmations, but you could use it for any text you want! Here's how to prepare the text to go over any picture for your desktop background. ^_^

First you have to make your text ready.

Step 1: open your favorite word-type editor. (If you need a free one, I recommend KingSoft Office for this project. It's a lot like Microsoft word from just before they changed to the tabs. LibreOffice is also free, and it's more like word was back in 1998.)

Step 2: type out the text you want.

Step 3: (optional, good if you have a wide-screen and want just the text) go to file, page setup, and make your paper be landscape.

Step 4: go to format text, and make your text big, bold, and "outline" or "border". Choose whatever font you want, just make sure you can read it. The important thing here is that you want your text to be white with a black border around it. Why? Because that way you can put it over any background you want, and it will still be readable. Some colors, dark text won't be readable. No problem, your text is white! But some backgrounds, white will fade into the background, no problem, your text has a black border! This lets you do the work on the text once, without having to change it for every background, unless you want to change the text itself.

Step 5: take a screen shot, or use microsoft's snipping tool to get a screen shot of the text you wish to use. Save as PNG. (this will prevent paint from warping the picture.)

Then, you need to do a bit of editing of the text. This bit is really tedious, but it's important. If you wish, I can do this and the putting it on the background for you. I just ask for a $10 amazon gift-card, or $10 on Streamate, or 100 tokens on MFC. Send the money with a note like "please help with desktop text!" then send the picture of the text and the desktop background you wish to use to eve_matteo@hotmail.com. Make sure you put in the subject of the email "to LadyLuna for backgrounds", and in the body of the email you include the name you sent the money under and how you sent it. Or, you can continue following the instructions:

Step 1: Open it in paint.

Step 2: using the spill paint tool, spill any color that isn't white or black onto the background. The letters should stay white. If they do, skip step 3.

Step 3: zoom in on any letter that is no longer white. Use the pencil tool with black to fix the border, then spill-paint white in the letter to make it white again. Repeat until all letters are white, and don't change when you spill-paint in the background anymore.

Step 4: next, make all the holes in the letters the color you made the background. This will help you identify which bits to delete later. This will also make sure those borders are good. (by holes in the letters, I mean in the a's, e's, o's, b's, d's, g's, and so on.)

Step 5: save your work.

Congrats, your lettering is now ready for the next bit!

Next, make the text ready to copy-paste over the background. 

Step 1: open the picture of the text file with Gimp.

Step 2: use the "select by color" tool, and select the background of the picture.

Step 3: press delete with the background still highlighted. You should see a gray-and-darker-gray checkered pattern. This means that those bits are now invisible, so they will show whatever you put the current picture over.

Step 4: save AS A GIMP FILE. This will preserve the invisible bits so you don't have to redo it every time you wish to put it over a picture.

One last step!

In gimp, open what will be the background of your desktop, the file you want to put your letters over. I recommend having a few different ones, to help your mood. I use a rainbow set (one for each color) which you can download in a zip from my google docs. I like to add pictures next to the text, if you wish some ideas for what to do beyond the standard. If you want to add pictures, you can do that in the paint stage, before you take it to gimp.

Copy the text bit, and paste it over the background bit. Export it as a png or jpg (give it a new name, so you have the original). Voila! You have your background. Repeat this last step with a different background whenever you want to change. Since you saved your work as a gimp file, you won't have to do anything but this last step, unless you decide to change your text (or lose the gimp file). Two years later, you want to change your background but still like the text, you still don't have to do all the work again!

If you sent me the stuff to make it for you, I will send both the background and the text image. Later, if you send me another background for the same text, along with the gimp pic of the text that I originally sent you, then I'll do it for free.

How to View a Streamate Picture Album

Streamate's Picture Album system is kinda complicated. So here's how you use it.

When you go to the model's profile, you'll see a few pictures with dates beneath them. The date is when the album was uploaded. The picture is just to give you an idea of which album you're looking at. Click on the picture of the album you want to view.

You'll have a large version of that first pic in front of you now, assuming you didn't have pop-ups blocked. If you did, unblock them then click it again. Once that large version is in front of you, move your mouse over the right side of the picture. You should see an arrow appear. Click on that arrow to get to the next picture, and again and again until you're all the way through the pics. Hovering over the left side of the picture gets you to the previous picture.

That Pesky Break After Shows

Recent question from someone who frequents my streamate room:

"I am curious. why do you have a long break after every prv?"

On streamate, after every private, exclusive, or gold show, I use the break button to start a 10 minute counter to do whatever and start streaming again. If I don't make it back in 10 minutes, it kicks me off. However, I discovered that if I double click the return to public chat button, I get a new 10 minutes. So, sometimes I do that. Only once though. Using this method, my breaks can take anywhere from 5 to 19 minutes (if I double-click at 30 seconds left, that 9.5 mins, and then another 9.5 mins before I come back.). But note- I've used the double-click with 1.5 mins left and then come back only 3 mins later (so 11.5 min break). So when I say anywhere, I mean anywhere.

But what exactly do I do during that break? Well, any number of things, really.


Things I might be doing during that long break:

-finishing myself off and cleaning up
-getting dressed (it actually took me 7 minutes once just to find my underwear, let alone untagle it. I'm still not quite sure how it got behind the bookshelves...)
-doing something to relax because of stress from the private (this one was that, because he took so long and was so demanding, then took me for a 2 minute private... just a wtf...)
-taking care of stuff that has to be done offline (housework, bathroom stuff, checking mail, saying hi to my partner)
-working on a large project because it's better if it's a little at a time
-teasing myself to get horny again, either with phsyically touching myself or with writing erotic fiction
-getting food or drink, cause both are important to keep energy up
-exercising (pushups, situps, dancing, or some such)
-letting the room cool down

I might just do one of those things. I usually do at least two or three, and quite often will do four or five of them, all at once. Sometimes finishing myself off is part of relaxing myself. I always have to clean up if there was any nude play, and I always have to get dressed again if my clothes came off. Using the restroom is a must if any pussy play happened.

Now, I'm only speaking for myself here. I have no idea what other models do or don't do during that break.

BTW, things that I might do to relax:

-read a book

-write (erotic fiction to share, or personal fantasies that will never be shared)

-read amber's forum

-play a video game

-meditate

Things I might do that falls in "offline" or "large project"

-dishes

-putting away laundry

-minor cleanup

-paying bills

-working on my website (not live yet)

-working on my forum (live, you can find the link on my camming blog though it isn't always available)

-cross stitching

-pixel pictures

-chain mail

-write my novel

-any of the sewing or crafting projects I have going on

-draw with colored pencils

-go through music and put the music for camming to the relevant flash drive

-file sorting

Money Matters

How much money do you make?

When other camgirls, or people looking to be camgirls, ask this question, they are wanting to know how much they can expect to make, or how much they should be making. The problem with this, is that every girl is different. For some girls, they are lucky to make $100 in a night, and usually aim for something like $50. For some girls, $500 a night is normal, and for others, $1000 or even $2000 a night is their usual take.

What about an average?

An average is a useless number. All the average is meant to do is let you compare yourself to the rest of the world. That's all it was ever meant to do. It was never meant to be a benchmark. It was never meant to be an aspiration. It was simply meant to say "50% of the camgirls make more than this, 50% of the camgirls make less than this." It does not tell you about the outliers, the girls who make $10,000 a night, or the girls who make $2 a night.


Now, when a member asks how much a girl makes, sometimes it's just curiosity. Often, it's a troll, wanting to then ridicule her for not "making enough", or a freeloader wanting to feel better about not tipping or taking her for a show.

Here's the problem with that: every girl has different expenses. In some parts of the US, a girl only needs about $600 a month to live on her own (after taxes), while in others, anything less than $2000 a month will leave her trying to figure out which bill goes unpaid. Some girls are supporting others, either a significant other who is going to school, or a family that has fallen on hard times. Some girls are using it to pay for college. In the UK, they just need a few thousand a year for that. In the US, most colleges cost more than $15,000 a year, BEFORE room and board. Those who graduated and then found camming probably have a lot of debt (Mine's at about $30,000 for college alone, and I'm not currently making enough for even minimum payments on it).

So you can't judge how much extra money a girl has by asking how much she makes. Now the kicker- in the US, money is a taboo subject. We are taught not to ask about how much a person makes, and to not tell others how much we make. So when you ask how much a US girl makes, she sees you as being rude. I'm very open about things, I'll tell you that when I work all 7 days, I have two days that I make $30, two days that I make $50, two days that I make $70, and one day that I make $120. So.. $420 a week, if I work all 7 days.

Usually, I can't work all 7 days, but I do make up for it by working extra hours on a couple days. So instead, it goes:

$30 + $65 + $75 + $120 + $35 = $325 a week. Of course, one or two weeks a month, I can't work all those days. If red week is on a single week and takes Sat-Wed, I usually make $200 between Thurs, Fri, and Sat afternoon (paycheck closes around 8pm Saturdays for me). If red week is a single week and takes Tue-Sat, I usually make about $70, because I wasn't expecting it and usually take Sat night and Sun off. If it's straddling a week, say Thurs-Tues, then the first week I make about $120, and the second week I make about $250.

So, I might have:

$325 x 3 + $200 = $1175 for the month
$325 x 3 + $70 = $1045 for the month
$325 x 2 + $120 + $250 = $1020 for the month

When I first started camming, my first month I made $1,500, and my second one I made $2,100 . That was Nov 2009 and Dec 2009. In June 2010, I made a whole $325 for the entire month. (that was my birthday month, and yes, it did hurt)

OH, and those are before taxes, so take out 20% for taxes and that's what I have left to spend.



What do you spend your money on?

It's invariably the members who ask this one. I don't know what answer they're expecting to get, but, here's the priorities:

1. our needs, and the needs of those dependant on us
2. a small thing for ourselves if we can
(if we have any debts, those go here)
3. stuff for our camming if we can
4. this will be a mix of saving and spending money, depending on the girl

We need to spend a little bit on ourselves. If all we spend on is things we need and things for camming, we start to wonder if there's any point in camming when we can't get anything for it. So a little thing for ourselves is important. It keeps our mood up, and since mood is important to our earnings, it counts as putting back into the business. Any business will tell you that you need to put money into the product. Our product is ourselves. Of course, that's the bit we can't take out of our taxes.

Then comes things for our business. If you've ever owned a business you'll know that you need to put money back into it in order to get money out of it. Thus, we put money into our camming.

And lastly comes everything left after needs have been addressed. Some girls will save most of this. Some girls will spend most of it. Some girls will have a whole $2 left, say "fuck it", and head over to Taco Bell.

I only really make enough for 1 and occasionally 2. But that's me, not every girl.