The Cinematic Editor.
Modro
Join Date: 2013-04-23 Member: 184954Members
Join Date: 2013-04-23 Member: 184954Members
So i´ve picked up NS2 again, and this time i´ve managed to get really attached to it. Its become the game im mainly playing every day, its tons of fun.
As im playing the game, im getting random ideas of machinima videos i could have created in this game, if only there was a platform outside of the game i could use to make videos with.
You can imagine my positive surprise once i discovered the Cinematic Editor that comes with the game, and for those who have attempted to try this program out, you can imagine that sad feeling once you discover that basicly nobody has any idea how this program works, or are not very interested in sharing their knowledge. All i´ve been able to find are 2 youtube videos of the hard basics.
Vid1:
Vid2:
Although these video´s were very helpful in getting into the basics of the UI and how to set things up, i still have not managed to figure out how to actually make things move around. I can enable animations and have them played, but i cant make a running marine...actually run. I figured it was all about enabling recording mode and moving things around while they played the animation to pickup on the movement, but nope.
I couldnt find anything to setup a set path for marines to automove to, and i couldnt find a way to jump into a marine actor to manually act the movement.
If anyone knows the answer to this i would be really thankful. With this i would be able to make the basic video´s i want to make.
As im playing the game, im getting random ideas of machinima videos i could have created in this game, if only there was a platform outside of the game i could use to make videos with.
You can imagine my positive surprise once i discovered the Cinematic Editor that comes with the game, and for those who have attempted to try this program out, you can imagine that sad feeling once you discover that basicly nobody has any idea how this program works, or are not very interested in sharing their knowledge. All i´ve been able to find are 2 youtube videos of the hard basics.
Vid1:
Vid2:
Although these video´s were very helpful in getting into the basics of the UI and how to set things up, i still have not managed to figure out how to actually make things move around. I can enable animations and have them played, but i cant make a running marine...actually run. I figured it was all about enabling recording mode and moving things around while they played the animation to pickup on the movement, but nope.
I couldnt find anything to setup a set path for marines to automove to, and i couldnt find a way to jump into a marine actor to manually act the movement.
If anyone knows the answer to this i would be really thankful. With this i would be able to make the basic video´s i want to make.
Comments
Even for still shots it is hard to use and buggy, so if you want to add some animation, it is a nightmare.
Basically, you can't tell your models to run from there to there. What you have to do is animate by hand everything. You have to take your marine model, and keyframe its translation by hand on the timeline... and try to get the right speed to match with the run or walk animation of your model AND key the different models animation by hand!
Yep it does not work like the like you think it would be (legitimately), and I hope we will be able to use like a commander would ask its units to move, animating automatically. Or even act in a FPS view and record the action and edit everything by hand after the recording (similar to Source Filmmaker).
Don't hesitate if you have others questions, even if I don't know everything about it, I tried several times to use the cinematic editor and stopped after some tests because it was a nightmare to make anything with it.
My idea for a simple first little sequence was some nice camera fly-throughs through a map, showing the main locations & "hotspots".
I remember back in the days when I used a tool called "keygrip" to create some basic action sequences. I am a bit (actually a lot, but I can understand the reasons) disappointed by to total lack of documentation, tutorials and i guess also fuctionality/usability.
I was under the impression that the Teaser Trailer (Onos breaking through the door), the Exo Reveal (another Onos breaking through a door... I think I see a theme here), etc. were all done with the cinematic editor.
What I'd really like is a step-by-step tutorial how to recreate exactly those videos. That'd really help...
Hopefully we will get some news on the current status of the Editor and its progress, if no work is being done because of financial reasons, i suggest putting up a kickstarter project to cover the cost, as having a good platform for machinima video´s would give the community a way to help advertise the game themselves. There isnt even a forum area meant for those who choose to create with the Editor, so nobody even knows its there. Dont underestimate the creative market, you see what happened with Minecraft, and Half Life, and Team Fortress.
And really, there isnt much work left to be done for the editor to be usable, just give us the option to make things move and prevent the program from crashing ever 5 minutes.
As a brief history, I am responsible for handling the cinematic editor in the Gorge Belly Slide Teaser, the Lerk Reveal, the Fade Reveal, and the Exo-vs-Onos Trailer as well as a couple of shots here and there. All of the non-gameplay videos where rendered in the cinematic editor. Our early process started using very rough and experimental methods with a much more underdeveloped version of the tool. Since then our process evolved, the tool improved and overall we were able to make really cool things with the tool. Granted it was a lot of work and was almost never as easy as it should have been.
You've inspired me to maybe write a blog post as well as make some better tutorials for it. For now I encourage you to re-watch the lerk reveal and the gorge belly slide video because those were all done without using custom animations. The fade reveal and the official trailer were 90% custom animations done in 3ds max.
My suggestion for basic tutorials would be:
1.) Setting up a static scene (explain what parts of a scene are made in the Editor, the Modeller and what parts are actually made in the editor).
2.) Animating the camera (use the static scene we created to have a camera fly through it.)
3.) Simple object animation (have an ARC "drive" through the scene. have the camera fly by it while keeping focus on the ARC, etc.)
4.) Cool Stuff[tm] (showing off some of the neat stuff the tool can do)
The first video above shows how easily you can setup infestation decals anywhere and everywhere you could want, but no matter how many times i attempt to create this, the infestation simply wont show up anywhere!
This is my order of action: Create Decal - White box appears - Name it Infestation - Set Material to "Materials/Infestation/Infestation.decal.material" - Drag white box to the ground. In my understanding, this is how you would create infestation decals, with the option of changing the size later on. But i cant get the infestation to show up on any surface anywhere.
What am i doing wrong here?
Also on a side note, the editor is SO close to being just fine, all it really needs is the ability to "jump into" actor models so acting out the movement of characters can be done quickly and easily without the need to setup very complex Y,X,Z placement configs that take AGES TO GET RIGHT, literally ages! I have to spend hours acting out good movement when i could have done it in a matter of seconds, its a real pain.
On the bright side, the editor is much more simple and easy to learn than most other editors, i dont need the ability to adjust individual parts of models or anything, just please make it easier to move actors.
Also is it me or can you not adjust the times of events in the little bar area. I try but it won't let me/does weird things. It would be so nice if it worked. Would be nice if jetpack marine was one model that was easy to animate like the other ones (shotgun, rifle, flamethrower etc...)
I´ve also experienced some problems with the Onos bar, so i simply avoid the area completely, wich is a shame because its the most obvious area to use for comedic purposes :P
Yeah I was actually impressed how well the infestation turned out, makes it look better too, not just flat.