[starbug]

Hey all, i have been experimenting with the cutscene sexps, trying to improve my fredding and capacity to make cutscenes. As i am wanting to include some in my Dark Origins campaign. I did post a test shot of a cutscene i did a while ago, but i have tried to be more adventurous with the camera shots, and i have to say it is pretty hard to get the hang off LOL. I had a few problems, ie for some reason when i try and use the Fade out and in sexps they don't seem to work and i am sure i have set them up correctly. Also when i instruct the camera to face a ship that's jumped in, it won't face it. It works if i place a nav buoy in the same place and instruct the camera to face the nav buoy.

Assests used Blue Planet WIH, Ancient Shivan War, i re textured the Achladia to use the Vish textures and i created a new weap system for them as i am trying to create a race that don't use beams but are equally powerfull. Aaah the effect i am trying to achieve is like the Wraith ship weapons from SG Atlantis where they fire huge barrages at the target, but i don't really know how to balance this for freespace 2.

so anyway heres a video i took, Also sorry for the jerkiness, for some reason FRAPS is just slowing my rig right down when i run it now, in fact since i updated to a newer version.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/KCIry-jYzHE

Do these forums not allow embedding?

[General Battuta]

Nice. Name of music?

[The E]

That's pretty good work there. I especially liked that spiraling shot of the Titan and that last shot, with that debris piece flying towards the Camera. Those were really epic.

As for criticism, well..... The battle in the beginning lacks context, and it seems weird to me that that Orion is so far out of position, but that's more in the realm of story than actual execution. From 0:54 to 1:00, there's a bit of dead space waiting for the Titan to warp in, which should be removed to speed things up a bit. Similarily, the shot from 1:34 to 1:47 lacks dynamics, there's just nothing going on except for a titan in the foreground sitting around charging its lasorz, which gets awesome eventually, but just isn't very interesting for quite some time.

[starbug]

The music at the beginning i gave you a while ago, Its the end credits from Darksiders. the second track is Sirens call from the EPIC score album http://www.amazon.co.uk/Epic-Score-Action-Adventure-ES011/dp/B0026H8EQW/ref=pd_sim_dmusic_a_1

[General Battuta]

The long shot down on the Titan is money.

[starbug]

As for criticism, well..... The battle in the beginning lacks context, and it seems weird to me that that Orion is so far out of position, but that's more in the realm of story than actual execution. From 0:54 to 1:00, there's a bit of dead space waiting for the Titan to warp in, which should be removed to speed things up a bit. Similarly, the shot from 1:34 to 1:47 lacks dynamics, there's just nothing going on except for a titan in the foreground sitting around charging its lasers, which gets awesome eventually, but just isn't very interesting for quite some time.

The space where the jump in for the titan is supposed to be a fade in, i timed it when the fade happens the ship appears straight away, but even though the fade ins and outs, are setup in the events they don't seem to want to work, Yeah i did have more stuff going on the the first bit, but as soon as Fraps started to record my FPS dropped to 2. Believe it or not the Orion is actually moving! or it should be as i have it doing waypoints. 1.34 - 1.47, yeah that is dull again there was meant to be a gentle fade in there but again it wouldn't work, the only fade out that worked was the one at the end lol. But with this i was more experimenting with trying to get the camera angles to work.

[starbug]

The long shot down on the Titan is money.

Not going to lie i only got that shot by chance, i was playing around with the rotation sexp and came upon that effect, and thought to myself wow lol

E what would you recommend to jazz up the intro part?

[General Battuta]

Did you remember to set fade time in MILLIseconds? ie 1 sec = 1000?

[starbug]

yeah its set to 5000 but for some reason it won't work, i think it is a bug, as i created a new map, added some stuff in and copied the sexps and it works in the new one, weird.

[Rodo]

Try resetting (or creating a new camera) before using a sexp like set-camera-target or face-target, it will then work correctly, furthermore check that your face-target sexp is always cast after the ship has already warped in, if not I guess you'll have to use a a waypoint or something.

EDIT:

yeah its set to 5000 but for some reason it won't work, i think it is a bug, as i created a new map, added some stuff in and copied the sexps and it works in the new one, weird.

Check you are not changing/moving the camera right after the fade out is triggered.

Anyways, that's a really good cutscene, not an amateurish work IMO.

[starbug]

Ok i have taken what people have said, mainly the E and made adjustments. Added a better intro, got my fade in and outs to work although the timing on them needs work, but i think the new choice of music for the zoom in on the titan, with an exploding orion, makes it more powerfull scene.

and just for Buttata

track 1 Fringe Element Trailer Series - The Resistance (David Edwards)
track 2 Fringe Element Trailer Series - Path Of The Chosen (NEW -  Eclipse  album)

new video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2L6VO1Un18

[Droid803]

The remade version doesn't have the awesome debris-flying-into-camera at  the end

[Rodo]

yeah that's a pity, debris blocking the view at the end was really cool.

[The E]

Yeah, but that was pretty random to begin with, it's not like you can plan for that.

[starbug]

I tried to get the debris bit again but problem is that debris is uncontrollable, i ran the level 5 times and each time when the ship exploded the debris would fly off in different directions.

[Droid803]

It was random, which was what made it awesome

[Rodo]

Yeah I know, that's why it was soo cool.
I'm thinking maybe you could try adding a new debris object, make it appear after the explotion and use the manipulation sexps to move it in front of the camera.