Schmitz’s Editing Endeavors
Since its release in 2015, the video game “Rocket League,” developed by the company Psyonix, has gained 75 million players. In the game, which can be compared to virtual soccer with cars, players compete in teams of rocket-powered vehicles to score more goals than the other side before the five-minute time limit is up. Among these players is senior Tyler Schmitz, who has created a career from two of his hobbies: video editing and gaming. He operates under the name “Lumin” online and edits the videos of creator Wayton Pilkin, a “Rocket League” YouTuber who currently has 416,000 subscribers.
“Rocket League” is the first video game Schmitz ever thoroughly enjoyed. After seeing other people in the gaming community create montages using gameplay clips backed by music to promote teams and celebrate significant achievements, Schmitz reached out to some of these montage editors and began learning their techniques and processes, which he practiced by creating his own gameplay clips and creating videos of his own. Schmitz then made friends in the editing community and began editing for the YouTube channels of the “Rocket League” teams Nixus, SwiFT and FreeZ. In December of 2019, Pilkin reached out and offered Schmitz a position as an editor for his videos after watching his edits on YouTube, which Schmitz accepted; He left his teams to fully focus on editing for Pilkin in January of 2020. Schmitz’s friend, former Peninsula student Lucas Arden, admires how Schmitz created a job stemming from his passion.
“Ever since [I have] known Tyler, [he has] had a passion for editing,” Arden said. “When I found out that he had found a job under a creator that I [was familiar with], I was both proud and impressed. I definitely support his decision to follow his dreams, as [I have] seen the things he creates and he [has not] failed to impress me.”
In addition to his experience playing “Rocket League”, Schmitz’s interest in technology and music also helps him advance his editing career. He uses two softwares for efficiency–basic work in Adobe Premiere Pro and more complex processes in Adobe After Effects. The first step in Schmitz’s editing process before uploading footage is choosing the music, which determines the mood and style of the video. After selecting a piece he thinks suits the project, Schmitz uses tools like ReShade, Simple Replay Editor and BakkesMod to record and change the appearance of gameplay footage. Then, he combines the footage and music, as well as other effects that improve the appearance of the video, in Adobe After Effects. Schmitz’s mother, Kris Bernhardt, believes that editing “Rocket League” videos provides Schmitz with a creative outlet to combine his various passions.
“I [did not] know that [the creative aspect of ‘Rocket League’] was something he was interested in,” Bernhardt said. “He was playing [the game] and was interested in music from a young age, but watching him put that together and seeing his excitement [is] fun to watch. I [am] thrilled that he [has] a creative outlet that he [enjoys].”
As this is not enough to make a living, Schmitz considers his editing as more of a hobby than an actual career. Additionally, Schmitz plans to stop editing for Pilkin’s channel when he enters college; he has discovered that having an editing job is a time commitment that makes it difficult to balance school and work, and he wants to fully commit to his education. Schmitz believes that though it is tiring at times, being able to spend time bettering his craft through his hobby is an enjoyable experience.
“While [editing videos] is fun to share with people and get positive feedback, it is more about personal improvement,” Schmitz said. “It is nice when people enjoy it, but [it is] just a way for me to let out my creativity. I stay motivated because I want to make something better that I can feel happy with once [I am finished creating it].”
