[Eiyoko]

I. Introduction
II. Requirements
III. Before recording
IV. Recording the Footage
V. Piecing your footage together
VI. Finishing touches
I. Introduction
Those of you that have cared have seen my videos and told me that they rock for some odd reason, so I'm making this guide to show everyone how I do things.
...that should do for an intro.

II. Requirements
First and foremost, you need a good computer. Nothing uber, but something that won't lag too much in certain weather conditions (ingame or not). You'll also need a reliable internet connection (really, disconnecting will end in disaster no matter how hard you try) and a recording program.
I highly recommend Fraps. The trial version will do you in really easy in most situations if you're recording non-cutscene footage, so buy the full version. It's not too terribly expensive. The video files it records are very large in size, but I doubt you'll be keeping all of that footage afterward anyway. You can always compress it later, too.
Beyond all that, you'll want a video editing program. Normally, one has access to Windows Movie Maker, but that program is pretty unstable if you're not careful (and really really nice to it), so if you use it, be sure to save as often as possible. Some video editing programs cost a rather large sum of money, but tend to be worth it.

III. Before recording
So you've got your recording machine and you're all set up to record some awesomeness. You're pumped and ready to go, eager to get started.
Not so fast. There are certain things you may want to be doing beforehand. If the quality of your graphics is absolute crap, then chances no one will want to watch your video compared to if they were alright.
First of all, make sure your main FFXI settings are the way you want them. Recording your videos full-screen is recommended no matter what resolution. Turn on Fraps, then go in-game and set yourself to /away if you're recording a cutscene so you don't get tells. A search comment should help too. /Anon also helps if you don't want to /away. Turning /names off is highly recommended for good quality. It can be pretty anticlimatic to see a bunch of names floating around in certain cutscenes.
If you really want to beef up the visuals (which I tend to want to do) Go to Config in the Main Menu when you're about to begin and change some options:
Sound Effects Volume: All the way up.
Music Volume: All the way down (unless you want to record the raw cutscene)
Chat Filters: Turn on as many as you can
Effects Filters: As needed per person. Make sure you can see what you'll need to be filming, and then turn off all the rest if you can.
Window: Shortest delay, smallest window size, minimum number of lines at zero
Shadows: High
Weather Effects: On
Clipping Plane: Max
Footstep Effects: On
Animation Frame Rate: Max

IV. Recording the Footage
When recording your footage, make sure no one is talking to you (unless you have plans to letterbox your movie) and you have as small of a size of a chatlog as possible. If a conquest update interrupts you, you'll probably want to start over unless you plan on a way to get around that since it spams the chat lot.. Give the readers enough time to read the chatlog and what's going on, but whenever possible try to keep the chatlog non-existent, or at least as small as possible.
Avoid any interruption/throw-off if possible. If you're in the middle of the climax of a scene, having a sheep walk through your character or something would definitely kill the moment.
Record at many angles, and try to keep certain things consistent. If it's raining at night one second and clear skies in the afternoon the next, it may confuse your audience. In that case just turn weather effects off, simple enough.
(more coming soon)

V. Piecing your footage together
(coming soon)

VI. Finishing touches
(coming soon)

[Taskmage]

As you finish this, could you add a section on compression? I'm trying to figure out how to ... I've downloaded Dr Divx and VirtualDub but I can't seem to get it to work ..

[Rain_Blade]

Nice guide! This will come in handy. ^^

[Eiyoko]

Originally Posted by Taskmage

As you finish this, could you add a section on compression? I'm trying to figure out how to ... I've downloaded Dr Divx and VirtualDub but I can't seem to get it to work ..

I'll mention compression in section V. I'll note right now that compression is NOT necessary when making a video, as sometimes it lowers the footage quality. What you need to do is keep the raw footage, toy with it in a movie editing program, and when you export the movie from your editing program you'll have no need of compression in most cases.