WIP Director Movie/Camera addon

[Aeneas2020 10]

oh dont worry ill make a complete list when i have time :D

[An Fiach 10]

If you adjust the fade too far it can be a bit of a jolt as things start to fade then suddenly silence and black screen then it explodes into action again. I was fortunate to be able to find just the right spot where it would get enough preload to avoid ugly LODs and not have it activate fully, it can be abusive to the senses, not sure if you can do much about it but some folks will find it problematic. I really enjoyed fiddling with it. Great fun to play with.

[Grizzle 0]

If you adjust the fade too far it can be a bit of a jolt as things start to fade then suddenly silence and black screen then it explodes into action again. I was fortunate to be able to find just the right spot where it would get enough preload to avoid ugly LODs and not have it activate fully, it can be abusive to the senses, not sure if you can do much about it but some folks will find it problematic. I really enjoyed fiddling with it. Great fun to play with.

I've found that to get a better experience, I fire it up and skip-key through differents scenes letting each scene load all the LODS before moving on. This forces textures and models into the cache. After a minute or two of doing this I restart the mission and kick it off again and the LOD popping and performance is much better.

I'm not 100% clear on your description but it sounds like something I've run into and thought I had solved. If you get a moment, can you PM me with a better description?

I'm off to do some gaming and a little more work on the mod.

[dmarkwick 261]

jezza - Yes I have given some thought to being able to create intro/outro scenes and will put it on the list.

Myke - Due to the random nature of things there will be shots (especially of fast moving vehicles) that don't work out so well. It does currently take velocity into account, but I can probably tweak that a bit more. Orbit works best for objects that aren't moving though it does still impart camera movement when viewing moving objects. Currently the best 'scenes' for fast vehicles are Follow, Fly By and First Person. Stationary pan is one I don't use much myself unless I'm interested in a more scenic view with the *possibility* of seeing some action. Will definitely put the check in for MP as it really isn't designed for MP to being with, but I may be able to add that capability in subsequent versions.

As noted in the original post, I appreciate any and all feedback and as this is as much for the community as it was for me, suggestions are always welcome.

As far as suggestions goes, for an extended version after the initial release, how about a folder that camera scripts can be dropped into, that the addon will randomly choose from? I'm thinking about specific camera movements here - cinematic camera rise where the camera starts at say 3m and pulls back and up to 10m or so, or movements like the famously Jaws-esque reverse tracking zoom etc.

In fact, zoomed shots from distance are a good idea anyway.

Anyway - off to try the beta :)

[An Fiach 10]

I've found that to get a better experience, I fire it up and skip-key through differents scenes letting each scene load all the LODS before moving on. This forces textures and models into the cache. After a minute or two of doing this I restart the mission and kick it off again and the LOD popping and performance is much better.

I'm not 100% clear on your description but it sounds like something I've run into and thought I had solved. If you get a moment, can you PM me with a better description?

I'm off to do some gaming and a little more work on the mod.

PM sent

[Grizzle 0]

As far as suggestions goes, for an extended version after the initial release, how about a folder that camera scripts can be dropped into, that the addon will randomly choose from? I'm thinking about specific camera movements here - cinematic camera rise where the camera starts at say 3m and pulls back and up to 10m or so, or movements like the famously Jaws-esque reverse tracking zoom etc.

In fact, zoomed shots from distance are a good idea anyway.

Anyway - off to try the beta :)

It's a good suggestion and one that I had considered. I also thought about having a mode that allows the user to set all of the various variables and save it out as a custom script that would play into your suggestion. This way people not familiar with cam scripts can essentially create their own through point and click.

There's still a lot more to do so I'll have to start prioritizing features based on demand.

Thanks for the feedback.

[voodoonice 0]

Good evening,

Bug when you switch the interface of Director to return to first person view of our players. By cons it is very easy to revert to the interface of Director. Random bug that occurs after a certain time of use.

This addon and thank you very nice, I look forward to the next version ;)

[Grizzle 0]

^^ Very strange. I've never had that happen before. When you say "when you switch the interface of Director to return to first person view of our players" do you mean by using the CUT! button?

Update: I have some real tasty stuff in store for you guys :D

- Updated Orbit scene to revolve around moving vehicles (more on this later)

- Fixed a bug with preload

- Fixed a dialog bug

- Fixed min distance to objects so no more terrible closeups (I love finding simple commands I overlooked a million times)

- Currently working on the Intro/Outro creation piece and will post a video demo of it shortly. It's basically another 'scene' called "Create" that shows a different dialog that allows you to set all of the camera variables to set up a scene. You can save the settings, change them and save again repeatedly creating a 'movie' that you can play back (think tweening.) It gets added to the scene listbox on the main dialog so you can pick it like all the other scenes. I have it recording and playing back, but still need to add some functionality.

I have to build an external module to allow saving the movie data to a file that will operate as a standalone intro/outro for missions. Unless someone knows of a better way to save data to a file without using diag_log, I intend to use the clipboard and a stand alone application to pull data from the clipboard and output it to a script file.

Edited March 1, 2010 by Grizzle

[Guest]

This looks like a great piece of work Grizzle, nearly missed it.

Release frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

Director v0.1 beta

[bushlurker 45]

Fantastic stuff Grizzle!

I've been playing with this endlessly! Great fun! Delighted to hear about the "orbit" and moving target refinements - it's mostly aircraft I've been fooling with and it was a little closeup... The Intro/Outro creation idea would just totally be the icing on the cake!

great work!! and the best fun I've had all week!

B

[cobra5000 0]

Do you know how i make mission cutscense with Director addon?

[Grizzle 0]

Do you know how i make mission cutscense with Director addon?

That feature is currently being worked on. Keep checking back for updates.

[Watter 10]

Great addon, keep up the good work

[jpinard 10]

Wow this tool is incredible!

[jeza 5415]

That feature is currently being worked on. Keep checking back for updates.

Fantastic matey, really glad that will be inccorporated into an update, really annoying after several years of doing it the manuel way. Hope all is going well.

[Grizzle 0]

Fantastic matey, really glad that will be inccorporated into an update, really annoying after several years of doing it the manuel way. Hope all is going well.

It's moving along. Lots of work involved. Creating dialogs is just as much work as creating the actual functionality. I've struggled with a few things like commands that flatly don't work and this has hindered development somewhat, but I'm trying to get the mechanics and framework down so I can improve upon it using suggestions from users. Which brings me to my next request.

I'm not completely familiar with making intros/outros though I have seen some examples. I'd like to know what sorts of things those of you that make intros/outros would require to make it simpler for you. Right now, one will be able to set camera locations and targets in series and have them played back. This assumes that units and whatnot have already been placed by the user using the editor - so the app really just focuses on the filming of the scene. The app will be able to output a formatted script that will replay the camera moves recorded and can be used as a stand-alone script for missions with intro/ outro scenes. There are some issues with filiming certain types of scenes, but you'll all get a chance to see what I mean very soon.

Having never created a script for intro/outro (or even viewed many of them in missions) I'm at a slight loss for what would be most effective so I'm hoping when I release the next beta that people who have or do create intro/outro scenes will chime in with many suggestions.

Stay tuned - I'm gonna drop a teaser video soon (I know I said that before, but real life sometimes gets in the way.) Patience!

Edited March 7, 2010 by Grizzle

[voodoonice 0]

No problem, I am patient ;):D

[Grizzle 0]

New video of soon-to-be-released Beta 0.2 is available in the first post. Check it out!

[Gnome_AS 10]

Holy freaking sweet! I suck at such things so this will be a very welcome tool indeed. Wish I had something more worthwhile to add, but yeah, like you I've only seen a few and don't know my way around intros/outros very well.

Great video btw, like that kind or preview ;)

Gnome

[Watter 10]

Very nice, cant wait.

[EricM 0]

Very nice mate.

Is it possible to create your shots at different points in time or only on the first frame ? For instance, you set a first shot, then let the simulation go on with the AI doing their stuff, pause the game, find a nice spot and create a new shot, play again, pause, create, etc... or not ?

I understand the game doesn't let you "rewind" on the action, but even as a forward only option this could be very neat. Maybe using mission time clock as an absolute reference to work out the timing and duration of the shots... (if that's even possible).

Anyway this is already a wonderful tool !

Thanks

Edited March 22, 2010 by EricM

[Grizzle 0]

Very nice mate.

Is it possible to create your shots at different points in time or only on the first frame ? For instance, you set a first shot, then let the simulation go on with the AI doing their stuff, pause the game, find a nice spot and create a new shot, play again, pause, create, etc... or not ?

I understand the game doesn't let you "rewind" on the action, but even as a forward only option this could be very neat. Maybe using mission time clock as an absolute reference to work out the timing and duration of the shots... (if that's even possible).

Anyway this is already a wonderful tool !

Thanks

It is difficult to "script" the action, but there is an option to execute a script for each "scene". So technically if you setup the scene and write scripts to cause actions to occur at specific times, you can assign that script to the camera scene using the tool. The text box above the smooth and cuts button is where one would enter the name of the script to execute.

I will be releasing the beta 0.2 version in a day or two.

[Stuntman 0]

This is something I'm defiantly going to use to help me in moviemaking, looking very much forward to 0.2! A must have tool indeed for all ArmA 2 moviemakers :cool:

Keep it up!!:D

[VirusLIVED 10]

I can't wait much longer! I am pulling my hair out...

[Grizzle 0]

I can't wait much longer! I am pulling my hair out...

LOL - I'm sorry. Sometimes, the time I think I'll have to work on it doesn't pan out. I'm going to be snowed in tomorrow so I promise I'll release it by the end of the day. Hang tight!