Tweet
I don't know about anyone else here but I've experimented with a wide array of ideas and techniques in hopes of achieving truly "smooth" camera movement during the recording process and have consistently fallen short of the standard I'm striving to achieve.
Perhaps someone out there can enlighten me as to how they manage the best possible results.
Alternatively, I'd really like to maintain this thread as an on-going discussion of everyone's techniques / theories / ideas, etc. because I know I'm not the only one who aspires to a high level of quality.
Also, I wanted to detail some of the approaches I've used for a simple left-to-right or right-to-left panning shot (and the reasons why these approaches tend to fall short).
1. Mouse. We all know what this entails: steady hand movement and a gentle drag from left-to-right or vice-versa. The technique is clumsy at best and hardly ever comes close to yielding quality results.
2. Mouse + Slow-Motion Playback. Same as above but with the demo playback slowed to 5% (via the Q-Rose) and the resultant footage sped up afterwards in post-production. I've actually managed fairly good results with this technique:
http://www.picapic.net/media/3GP2RBP84Q8GV4
However ... it's still clumsy, time-consuming, and the smoothness of the camera panning remains imperfect.
3. Joystick. Smoother panning thanks to the variable speed (unlike a mouse, where the cursor speed is determined purely by hand) but I don't know how it's possible in the Control Options to switch from mouse movement to joystick. Perhaps someone can explain how that's done, because I only know how to substitute the WASD keys with the joystick axes, and that allows for tracking shots along two axes but not panning. Enter the next option:
4. Joystick + 'Joy2Mouse3' . For those who have never heard of it, Joy2Mouse3 is a excellent little program that basically allows you to use a joystick in place of a mouse, thereby solving the problem outlined above. Here's the site:
http://atzitznet.no-ip.org/Joy2Mouse3/index.html
I came across the site about four and a half months ago and was really excited, except ... the resultant camera movement is still not perfect. You can achieve relatively smooth panning thanks to the joystick's ability to accelerate / decelerate the mouse cursor but truly smooth camera movement is still difficult to achieve. Well, it has been for me, anyway! I'll concede there are plenty of experiments still to be done, it's just that so far I've not had much luck.
5. 'Live' Filming From Within a Helo. One sure-fire method for smoothness of movement is to make the simple modification that eliminates player nametags:
http://www.totalbf2.com/forums/showt...light=nametags
... and to then film within the game itself (as a helo pilot) with the HUD switched off. As with every other technique, this one isn't without its problems -- needless to say, it seriously complicates the recording process -- but the camera movement is as smooth as it gets.
The main reason I started this thread, though, is because none of those techniques are good enough. They're laborious and inconsistent and I want something that is simple and works every time without fail. Preferably a "movie-making mod" of some kind with special emphasis on fluid camera movement.
More than anything, I just want to hear everyone else's ideas and opinions and get an in-depth discussion going ...
Perhaps someone out there can enlighten me as to how they manage the best possible results.
Alternatively, I'd really like to maintain this thread as an on-going discussion of everyone's techniques / theories / ideas, etc. because I know I'm not the only one who aspires to a high level of quality.
Also, I wanted to detail some of the approaches I've used for a simple left-to-right or right-to-left panning shot (and the reasons why these approaches tend to fall short).
1. Mouse. We all know what this entails: steady hand movement and a gentle drag from left-to-right or vice-versa. The technique is clumsy at best and hardly ever comes close to yielding quality results.
2. Mouse + Slow-Motion Playback. Same as above but with the demo playback slowed to 5% (via the Q-Rose) and the resultant footage sped up afterwards in post-production. I've actually managed fairly good results with this technique:
http://www.picapic.net/media/3GP2RBP84Q8GV4
However ... it's still clumsy, time-consuming, and the smoothness of the camera panning remains imperfect.
3. Joystick. Smoother panning thanks to the variable speed (unlike a mouse, where the cursor speed is determined purely by hand) but I don't know how it's possible in the Control Options to switch from mouse movement to joystick. Perhaps someone can explain how that's done, because I only know how to substitute the WASD keys with the joystick axes, and that allows for tracking shots along two axes but not panning. Enter the next option:
4. Joystick + 'Joy2Mouse3' . For those who have never heard of it, Joy2Mouse3 is a excellent little program that basically allows you to use a joystick in place of a mouse, thereby solving the problem outlined above. Here's the site:
http://atzitznet.no-ip.org/Joy2Mouse3/index.html
I came across the site about four and a half months ago and was really excited, except ... the resultant camera movement is still not perfect. You can achieve relatively smooth panning thanks to the joystick's ability to accelerate / decelerate the mouse cursor but truly smooth camera movement is still difficult to achieve. Well, it has been for me, anyway! I'll concede there are plenty of experiments still to be done, it's just that so far I've not had much luck.
5. 'Live' Filming From Within a Helo. One sure-fire method for smoothness of movement is to make the simple modification that eliminates player nametags:
http://www.totalbf2.com/forums/showt...light=nametags
... and to then film within the game itself (as a helo pilot) with the HUD switched off. As with every other technique, this one isn't without its problems -- needless to say, it seriously complicates the recording process -- but the camera movement is as smooth as it gets.
The main reason I started this thread, though, is because none of those techniques are good enough. They're laborious and inconsistent and I want something that is simple and works every time without fail. Preferably a "movie-making mod" of some kind with special emphasis on fluid camera movement.
More than anything, I just want to hear everyone else's ideas and opinions and get an in-depth discussion going ...
Comment