There is of course the basic tutorial on the wiki:
social.bioware.com/wiki/datoolset/index.php/Cutscene_tutorial
Any other good cutscene tutorials out there?
Cutscene tutorials
Débuté par
Craig Graff
, nov. 22 2009 09:39
Retour en haut
#2
Posté 03 décembre 2009 - 07:40
jdconn01
-
- Members
- 3 messages
Be great to get some more detailed tutorials, I've been searching around hoping someone might of posted something getting into cutscene creation but to no avail. I'll make sure to post anything I figure out as I start getting to making cutscenes.
#3
Posté 03 décembre 2009 - 09:27
Beerfish
-
- Members
- 23 825 messages
This project contains spreadsheets that list DA Animation files and DA fx files. They are very useful when creating your cutscene. You can search the spreadsheets by using Ctrl-F.
For instance if I am looking for walk animations I could do a search for 'walk' and it will bring up all animation file names and file descriptions that contain 'walk'
For fx's you could search for 'fire' and it will likewise filter for all file names and descriptions that contain 'fire'
social.bioware.com/project/30/
This group is called 'The Dragon Age Toolset Cutscene Creators Guild' a place to discuss and or swap ideas and such about cutscenes
social.bioware.com/group/128/
For instance if I am looking for walk animations I could do a search for 'walk' and it will bring up all animation file names and file descriptions that contain 'walk'
For fx's you could search for 'fire' and it will likewise filter for all file names and descriptions that contain 'fire'
social.bioware.com/project/30/
This group is called 'The Dragon Age Toolset Cutscene Creators Guild' a place to discuss and or swap ideas and such about cutscenes
social.bioware.com/group/128/
#4
Posté 03 décembre 2009 - 09:37
Beerfish
-
- Members
- 23 825 messages
Here are some Cutscene Tips and Tricks. I also added these to the end of the Cutscene Tutorial in the Wiki
Cutscene Tips and Tricks
Here are a few tips and tricks that might save the cutscene creator some time and perhaps hair pulling.
- Head tracking is often used to look at another actor or a visible item in the cutscene. However you can further manipulate the head of the actor by having the actor look at invisible objects. You can have the actor look from one invisible object to another or move the invisible object around in the cutscene to get the actor to look at things independent of visible actors or items.
- You may find it useful to give meaningful names to your cameras if you are using more than one or two. (You might name a camera after the actor or placeable that it follows or name one camera ‘close-up’ and another ‘wide-angle’ for example.)
- If you are panning a camera around a room following a series of actors or placeables and you find that the camera suddenly decides to rotate in the other direction you can force it to stay moving in the direction you desire by adding or subtracting 360 degrees from the position/orientation you are using to move the camera.
- Feel free to experiment with animations. Try using animations that are not normally meant for your actor type, you might find some interesting or bizarre movements for your actor.
- You can put multiple actions along one track as long as they do not overlap rather than using many different tracks.
- Pay attention to what your key frames ‘transition out’ are set to when moving your cameras. Step will jump the camera from position to position while Bezier and Linear will move the camera in a smoother motion. If you are not getting the desired effect when moving cameras check what your key frames ‘transition out’ are set to.
- If you have a longer more detailed cutscene you can keep the number of cameras you use to a reasonable number by just moving one (or more) around while another camera is the ‘active’ camera.
- For testing purposes change the length of the cutscene in the cutscenes properties to a smaller value and enlarge that number as you add on to the cutscene. In this way you won’t need to wait for a long period of time for the cutscene to end.
- After placing an animation on a track you can speed up the animation by left clicking on the small circular arrows on one end and dragging it shorter or make the animation play slower by dragging the animation longer on the track.
- You can make the content of your scene seem to change by placing invisible objects in the cutsence, using an fx to obscure the view and making the object visible while the fx is playing. (For example you might have some invisible rock debris. Use a cave in fx with clouds of dust to obscure the screen. While the fx is playing make the debris visible. When the fx is finished your debris will be in place.)
- If you find that your actor is walking across surfaces (such as water for instance) when they should be following the ground you can set ‘items follow surface’ in the area that your cutscene is based on. The actor should then walk on the ground and thus wade into the water. Conversely if you want a character or placeable to not follow the surface of the ground (for instance if you want a placeable or actor to be near or on the surface of water) move the actor or placeable higher by adjusting the Z axis of the boat or actor. (An example of using a placeable partly submerged in water might be something like a boat.)
- In a cutscene you can only activate things that are unique. As in if you plopped down three identical chests in an area, when trying to activate them all in a cutscene it will not allow this and gives you a warning message. In the example above you would have to make three different chests (though they could look the same) to be able to activate them all in the cutscene.
Cutscene Tips and Tricks
Here are a few tips and tricks that might save the cutscene creator some time and perhaps hair pulling.
- Head tracking is often used to look at another actor or a visible item in the cutscene. However you can further manipulate the head of the actor by having the actor look at invisible objects. You can have the actor look from one invisible object to another or move the invisible object around in the cutscene to get the actor to look at things independent of visible actors or items.
- You may find it useful to give meaningful names to your cameras if you are using more than one or two. (You might name a camera after the actor or placeable that it follows or name one camera ‘close-up’ and another ‘wide-angle’ for example.)
- If you are panning a camera around a room following a series of actors or placeables and you find that the camera suddenly decides to rotate in the other direction you can force it to stay moving in the direction you desire by adding or subtracting 360 degrees from the position/orientation you are using to move the camera.
- Feel free to experiment with animations. Try using animations that are not normally meant for your actor type, you might find some interesting or bizarre movements for your actor.
- You can put multiple actions along one track as long as they do not overlap rather than using many different tracks.
- Pay attention to what your key frames ‘transition out’ are set to when moving your cameras. Step will jump the camera from position to position while Bezier and Linear will move the camera in a smoother motion. If you are not getting the desired effect when moving cameras check what your key frames ‘transition out’ are set to.
- If you have a longer more detailed cutscene you can keep the number of cameras you use to a reasonable number by just moving one (or more) around while another camera is the ‘active’ camera.
- For testing purposes change the length of the cutscene in the cutscenes properties to a smaller value and enlarge that number as you add on to the cutscene. In this way you won’t need to wait for a long period of time for the cutscene to end.
- After placing an animation on a track you can speed up the animation by left clicking on the small circular arrows on one end and dragging it shorter or make the animation play slower by dragging the animation longer on the track.
- You can make the content of your scene seem to change by placing invisible objects in the cutsence, using an fx to obscure the view and making the object visible while the fx is playing. (For example you might have some invisible rock debris. Use a cave in fx with clouds of dust to obscure the screen. While the fx is playing make the debris visible. When the fx is finished your debris will be in place.)
- If you find that your actor is walking across surfaces (such as water for instance) when they should be following the ground you can set ‘items follow surface’ in the area that your cutscene is based on. The actor should then walk on the ground and thus wade into the water. Conversely if you want a character or placeable to not follow the surface of the ground (for instance if you want a placeable or actor to be near or on the surface of water) move the actor or placeable higher by adjusting the Z axis of the boat or actor. (An example of using a placeable partly submerged in water might be something like a boat.)
- In a cutscene you can only activate things that are unique. As in if you plopped down three identical chests in an area, when trying to activate them all in a cutscene it will not allow this and gives you a warning message. In the example above you would have to make three different chests (though they could look the same) to be able to activate them all in the cutscene.
#5
Posté 04 décembre 2009 - 04:16
SilentCid
-
- Members
- 338 messages
Craig Graff wrote...
There is of course the basic tutorial on the wiki:
social.bioware.com/wiki/datoolset/index.php/Cutscene_tutorial
Any other good cutscene tutorials out there?
This was one of my video tutorials that I was doing before my computer went down. Have most of the voice overs recorded for it.
#6
Posté 04 décembre 2009 - 02:21
Cromalic
-
- Members
- 114 messages
Are there any tutorials on how to use the animation blend tree editor?
#7
Posté 04 décembre 2009 - 05:29
jdconn01
-
- Members
- 3 messages
thanks beerfish for those tips! yeah this will definitely help keep the hair pulling down
#8
Posté 16 décembre 2009 - 08:27
DragonAge22
-
- Members
- 42 messages
I have recently made a couple of video tutorials, available at my video channel in my sig.
#9
Posté 17 décembre 2009 - 04:05
DistinctlyMinty
-
- Members
- 33 messages
Seen them DA22. Great help so far, thanks mate. Looking forward to seeing some animations though, as I wanna make some decent fight scenes
#10
Posté 17 décembre 2009 - 08:16
DragonAge22
-
- Members
- 42 messages
DistinctlyMinty wrote...
Seen them DA22. Great help so far, thanks mate. Looking forward to seeing some animations though, as I wanna make some decent fight scenes
Glad you liked them
. I'm currently playing around with animations at the moment, trying to get them to flow together correctly and stuff like that. Should release a tutorial on it soon hopefully.
#11
Posté 18 décembre 2009 - 10:16
DistinctlyMinty
-
- Members
- 33 messages
Keep up the good work then, man. I've got some time off for Christmas so I'll be tinkering myself. So far I've been able to get some people running in certain directions but a convincing fight scene seems pretty labourious.
#12
Posté 27 décembre 2009 - 02:08
Nattfodd
-
- Members
- 321 messages
Cromalic wrote...
Are there any tutorials on how to use the animation blend tree editor?
I'm searching for it too.
