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[CTN]

Hello everyone! I will be starting a DA machinima project soon but I'm not familiar with the Toolset yet. I'm learning but I'm also writing the script at the same time so I lose as less time possible. So, what I ask of you is to tell me if my ideas in writing can be done in the Toolset. There's no point in writing the whole script only to find out half of the scenes are beyond the Tollsets capabilities.

I have been watching the Warden's Fall series to get an idea of what can be done but I still have a few questions. A simple yes or no answer will be enough for the moment, I will be dealing with "how to do" questions when I'm close to production.

1. I saw that you can cut off an NPC's head. Could you cut off a hand or a foot and at specific places like elbow or shoulder?

2. Can an NPC pick up and hold a cut off head or limb?

3. Can a cut off head be animated so it could roll on the ground?

4. Can I use tears? Can I make a tear drop?

5. Can I have dripping blood?

6. Are there animations for taking off and putting on armor or clothing?

7. Are there baby NPCs?

That's it for now. I'll post more questions as I go along. Thanks!

[John Epler]

Beerfish wrote...

CTN wrote...

@Beerfish
I know I can use camera work to hide what can't be done with animations but this is a compromise I'll make only if it's my last chance.

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I updated all of my lists not all that long ago.  As far as I know I included all of the stock animations in the game.  To get ones not in that list you will most likely have to make custome animations.  (Something I have not dabbled with.)

In some cases you will have to use camera tricks to cover up things you just can't do but that is really no different than real film making.  Regarding holding a head by the hair, that one I see as being very tricky, they don't really have good hair physics so to speak in the game.

It's also no different from what we do here. Certainly, we have access to more resources than the community (mostly because we have significantly larger budgets/teams), but 'more' doesn't mean infinite. There are many, many things in-game that we had to hide because we simply didn't have the animation support we wanted. And beyond that, of course, lies the fact that the engine has limitations. You have to keep those in mind when you're working with it, which is certainly not a bad thing.

If there's ever a toolset released for DA2, I recommend looking at some of the more in-depth cutscenes and seeing just how much of what's done is hacked together by necessity. Sure, you can avoid hiding things with camera cuts and the like, but if doing so produces a better result, visually - why avoid it? If you want to do one big, lengthy shot, that's a valid filmmaking technique, but it's a lot harder to do in the digital realm.

In the end, of course, it's your call, but your ultimate goal as a filmmaker should be to use visual language in combination with dialogue to tell a story, or evoke an experience. If this requires understanding and accepting the limitations of your chosen canvas, then why shy away from it?