This is going to flesh out the script and mechanics for what I project as the opening cinematic in the campaign that I will be spearheading as soon as SC2 comes out. The storyline has already been revealed, so no spoilers here, but I do want to put some of the behind-the-scenes techniques out on the table for all to see. For this, I assume that the SC2 editor will have all of the functionality of the Warcraft III editor. This may be a big assumption, but I think it is reasonable to expect that the SC2 editor will be capable of at least what was possible with the WC3 editor, especially given what Blizzard has already said. So, what I'm saying is stuff that could be done in the SC3 editor, in principle. SCENE: deep space, entering the Galorndin asteroid field near the edge of the Koprulu sector. MUSIC: simmering orchestral music, perlude to a glorious unveiling of sorts - Camera pans around overhead, making use of the deep sky as the plane of the asteroid field comes into view. - Chatter over terran com system begins "Comin' up on echo, charlie niner, this is Javelin, we're all clear in the flight zone." "Roger, Javelin. Transmit sensor reads for de-comp. Commander wants the computer cores earning their keep." "Nevada, this is Seminole. Major interference on vector five-oh-seven, probable asteroid collision. Lotsa pebbles, steer clear." - Two wraiths on reconnaissance fly in from behind the camera heading into the asteroid field as the roar of their engines overwhelms the next line of comm traffic. "Roger, Seminole. Vector on ten-oh-niner, let's get a good look around those rocks." - Nice pan of the fleet as orchestral music surges. This is going to be particularly nice because with no terrain there really won't be many models on the screen, so the computer should have a fairly easy time rendering. - Battlecruisers (about ten) are set to very large sizes, so that the wraiths and BCs are practically scaled to one another. The way this can be accomplished is first to recognize that the models themselves will be quite detailed, and then improve things by making custom BC models drawing on custom textures. We scale up the BC texture images (probably from 256 x 256 to 512 x 512, or even to 1024 x 1024) to help us add more detail to the texture without adding more polies to the model. Then, we make a few simple box-like shape models and bury them strageically in the battlecruisers, with additional textures, to add a little more complexity to the cruisers. The other models are pretty much the same, although we will have to make some supply ships--I suggest things based on drop ships with large tanks or cargo containers attached to their undersides--again, it wouldn't be too hard to come up with some octagonal container models and texture them reasonably. CAMERA SWITCH: Du Gaulle's office aboard the Alexsander, now commanded by Sidiq Almajid - Commander Almajid and his XO discuss the threat of infested terran sleeper agents. - The XO sides with Du Gaulle and wants to avoid extensive searching, saying that Zerg infestation is quite manifest and citing UED research. Almajid disagrees, citing the case of Duran. - The XO favors instead more speed to ensure that the Zerg cannot overtake the fleet should Kerrigan attempt it CAMERA SWITCH: the wraiths again - More chatter, nothing out of the ordinary - Another nice fly-by now weaving smoothly through some asteroids CAMERA SWITCH: the wraiths, now seen as color-enhanced models as if they were in X-ray vision - Multiple models, with varying degrees of transparency, will be used following closely behind one another to give the impression that this type of sight perceives things as a human would something moving very fast. - Deep breathing and grunting sounds, swallowing and hissing CAMERA SWITCH: the wraiths round a large asteroid - Seminole is immediatly whacked with defiler acid - His cloak fails, and Javelin veers right, transmitting wildly "They're here, they're here! Zerg flyers, hundreds of the f*ckers!" - The first waves of what is implied to be a much larger force start to emerge from behind the asteroid - Seminole turns tail to try and make it back to the fleet - Camera follows wraiths as they fly fast back to the fleet, dodging fire coming from behind the camera - Javelin is hit, spins out of control and is destroyed (small starburst explosion) Starburst explosions will be handled by a simple integration of Newton's laws of motion, starting with the unit, them overlaying a nice explosion (or three or four in succession) followed by removal of the model and a starburst of pieces flying out from where it used to be, with thick smoke or haze behind the pieces if at all possible. The pieces may be extractable from the model inventory, judging by the way even flying units leave debris pieces that fall individually to the ground. (If we have to make the separate models, it can't be hard to make junk with textures reminiscent of a terran mechanized unit.) Each model will spin at a randomized rate as it flies away from its point of origin, again according to Newton's laws of motion in zero gravity. CAMERA SWITCH: - The Alexsander control room is abuzz with activity, red alert sounded, as Almajid and his XO return to the bridge. - Almajid orders contingency plan beta-1 (detailed in The Last Ones Standing) CAMERA SWITCH: fleet entering the asteroid field with Zerg bearing down on its flank - Seminole flies right under Battlecruiser Nevada just before it takes a hard pounding of defiler, and guardian fire, numerous scourges, and is beset by a hoard of mutalisks. Again, the Zerg will be small compared to the cruiser--this is intentional. - Kappa squadron receives comm orders and vectors on the incoming Zerg forces - Nevada explodes in several massive starburst explosions - Kappa squadron unleashes a volley of rockets while taking Zerg acid and glave wurms. - Overlords enter the fray and begin grappling a crippled battlecruiser to board with ground forces CAMERA SWITCH: inside a battlecruiser causeway, with Zerg now entering the ship - Several loud thumps, screams muffled by bulkheads, sounds of decompression - Marines stand at the ready for Zerg to emerge through a bulkhead - The door lurches, buckles, and then gives way - Zerglings and hydralisks pour out, marines start gunning them down but are eventually overwhelmed - Automated cannon site is shown with hydralisks and humans this time in false color on a different scheme (a series of filters with readable text and a target crosshairs will convey the sense that this is an automated system the viewer is now seeing through, and first-person shooter effects will be replicated by setting off special effect sparks very close to the camera as hydralisks recoil from bullet strikes to give the sense that this is an autogun gun firing). - Eventually the marines all die and the autogun takes a direct hit, causing its camera to transmit white noise CAMERA SWITCH: Alexsander's bridge, now in chaos after rupture plasma conduits have taken out several of the tactical stations - Lurch of the camera and shudder of units - "Massive explosions on port quarter--E-section's gone!" - Kerrigan comes over the ship's radio: "Do you feel shame, Admiral?" CAMERA SWITCH: more pounding of the UED fleet as Kerrigan pronounces a short and haughty victory speech CAMERA PAN: three battlecruisers are being protected from the bulk of the Zerg onslaught. A handful of supply ships are starting to converge on their positions CAMERA SWITCH: Nuclear missle site, again done with a series of filters - Puff of smoke to mimic missile launch - Camera pans to a crippled battlecruiser and accelerates steadily towards it - More of Kerrigan's mockery: "Oh, answer me--do you feel shame?" - Camera slams into battlecruiser as filters on the missile site read "ARMED" FADE TO WHITE, NUCLEAR THUNDERCLAP CAMERA SWITCH: three battlecruisers accelerate rapidly away from the rest of the fleet with supply ships and wraiths under their wings, intense light fills the screen CAMERA SWITCH: Zerg die in rapid succession as nuclear blast radiates outward SILENCE, FADE TO BLACK - Woman in labored breathing, gasping, overcome with surprise - Sound gradually builds back to audible, comprehensible volume - Kerrigan: "Admiral, I didn't think you had it in you..." TITLE CARD: < Title of campaign ot be determined at a later date > - Other major credits - Fade in from black to star field, pan down on remnant of UED fleet alone, alive, in deep space
Oh, obviously I won't be able to use the standard nuclear detonation mushroom cloud for an effect in deep space. But, there will be plenty of other ways to make that effect, especially in deep space where the geometry is much simpler (round, fireball, very hot, very bright, give the impression that a nearly invisible cloud of hot gas is expanding rapidly by destroying units and other things in successive layers starting at the point(s) of origin). In fact, in WC3 a fairly convincing giant explosion was made by simply taking a wisp model and exapnding it to something like size 10000%. Similar techniques, though with more complex effects occuring at scripted locations in sequence, could be used here.
I like all of this. We can discuss it in more detail at a later date and closer to a possible evaluation. However, I do think we should aim to complete parts of the beginning cinematic to draw interest to the project BEFORE SC2 is released. Possibly during Winter...
Yes, we've got the time to do that, especially during winter. I could possibly drum up something in the WC3 editor, just to demonstrate that it's possible to make those starbursts and to do the things where the camera follows units really closely, proof of concept...
Well it's not so much that it CAN be done as it's easier to recruit someone when they've watched your preview They'll want to work on a project because it seems more real already.
Here's an example of what I'm thinking of when one sees the "Missile Point of View." Note that the filte image itself is 51kb, so it wouldn't be too hard to include a few of those in a map at all. However, to get animations in these images, we may have to inlcude a fair number of copies. I think it may be possible, though I'm not certain, to tile this so that multiple images are appearing simultaneously in front of the camera, all with transparency so that the resulting output can be produced with far fewer (and smaller) filter image files. That would be ideal.
I was thinking more of the red radar look on the missile approach. Use a red/green filter over the image and just include a trigonal lock symbol, like a fighter jet does. It's green with the lock symbol following its progress, and then as it gets closer the screen switches to red. But this is great, we're getting visuals which enhances my ability to see what you want. Is this the final quality type of what you would be looking for? Because I was thinking we were aiming more for the cinematic quality of the SC1 cinematics. Question, do your cinematics originate in the map editor engine? So you're writing code within the graphics engine? That would make all the cinematics have the same graphics qualities as the game...
Oh, goodness! That would be nigh impossible for our talents! The cinematics all originate in the map editor, of course, so they are all rendered. The only reason to use an enhanced control system as I am making is to ensure that the unit movement is tightly controlled so we can have the action take place with precise timing. In WC3 the cinematic system was ALMOST (but not quite) good enough to have individual units sparring clashing swords, and so forth. I made one scene where the heroine of Norj'Hal II catches an arrow flying at her. The cinematics we're making are more related to the in-game action that took place during cut-scenes in particular maps. The scene in Brood War Zerg campaign level 2, where Mengsk and Raynor are offloading Kerrigan and her minions in shuttlecraft, or the scenes beginning the UED siege of Augustgrad are examples that spring to mind. Of course, in WC3 our ability to control the cinematics and create effects became much enhanced, and with SC2 it will be even greater. WC3 expanded the cinematics to have "interludes," entire maps devoted just to telling a cinematic story. We'll be making some of those, but also complex cinematics that occur inside a playable map. If you've got WC3, download Norj'Hal I (upgrade to patch 1.20e or whatever the latest is) and play thorugh that on God mode--you'll see that my terrain and cinematic cut scenes are all more complex that Blizzard's were. I was counting on higher-end computers in 2006 and also going for a more complex story rather than a commercial blockbuster. The cinematic movies (.mpgs) that take place between levels in SC1 and WC3 (and, I assume, WC2) were rendered, yes, but with incredibly specialized models (you probably realize this) that we don't have access to. Each frame of those cinematics takes quite a bit of computer time to render, so they're all put together one-by-one into an .mpg format. Our stuff will be rendered in real-time. But, this is getting towards the level of detail I'd like to see in the filters. The first thing is to make something that gets the point across and looks convincing, the second is to do it simply enough that the file sizes don't get too big. That's why I'm really hoping Blizzard will give us the ability to paste multiple images on top of one another directly in front of the camera (multiple filters, whereas WC3 only allowed 1 IIRC). Use of multiple filters would allow us to make more complex effects with combinations, while keeping file sizes small.
Okay. This is starting to become comprehensible to me. I'm understanding little by little exactly what you're trying to achieve. So where do the models come in? I create a 3D model in Maya that's based on polygons, but can you even use that type of model?
Oh, you bet. I used all sorts of custom models in the parts of Norj'Hal II I did complete--just look at the Frost Wolf Riders (thanks General Frank!) and the furnishings inside the Barracks. Most all of those are custom models, some of which I even re-textured myself. So, if you can make a model, the best thing is probably to map it first to a Blizzard texture. Do you have the existing image processing tools for .blp images? WC3 Image Extractor II and WC3Viewer? Both of those will convert between .tga and .blp. GIMP or GIMPshop, as discussed in another forum, are also free and very nice to have--they're as powerful as Photoshop in most respects. I will continue to make a few more filters as I develop another little scene for this opening cinematic in my head. I think it may be possible to show--for edge-of-your-seat excitement--a marine's helmet view. One of the marines in Pulaski's patrol, perhaps, tasked to fight hydralisks as they board the ship. He'll have stats for his team, some of them down and transmitting white noise, one of them on his back with his helmet cam showing a picture from behind them or something. Again, if I can use multiple filters simultaneously it shouldn't be too much trouble to make a "mini movie" in something like 96 x 96 resolution to depict a few seconds of footage, and it probably won't be hard to render in real-time either. Looking forward to seeing your Maya work!
