It's pretty good! I dunno how you got the SM models to work.
As for things that could use improvement. The color grading could use quite a bit of work. The over exposed effect with the highlights made the image way too blown out at parts. One thing that could have been improved on is to give everything a nice blue saturation to make it fit the mood of the script a bit more. The lens flares where a bit much and really didn't add to the piece at all. If you are going for anamorphic lens flares, then you also have to with a 2:35.1 ratio for it to make sense. And besides it being accurate, that ratio is a nice way to "force" a cinematic look out of something, seeing as that is what you where going for.
As for the voice acting, I think it was sub par. It's wasn't expressive enough and the actual voice timbre didn't really match the characters...combined with the recording quality being somewhat low.
As for the audio, it was almost really good. Keep in mind that when people are speaking in a non studio environment that their voice reverberates off of the surrounding objects. A good trick is to add a very light reverb with a mid/short decay, then add a delay with like 30+ms and make the L/R channels slightly offset, it helps a ton. And don't forget the art of compression can do wonders. There also needs to be more environmental sounds.
If you feel that I'm over criticizing your work, its a good thing! It means that there is a ton of potential. Good work man. It means that I'm not one of the only ones making good SC2 machinima.
With the success of our first infomercial, its time to make another one! This one is centering around the Colossus.
The dynamic lighting system in SC2 is a blessing and a curse. I love that it does not have to be calculated in the same way as static lighting. But I hate it for that same reason because this scene is killing my PC. Looks pretty decent. Good amount of dynamic movement. I wish I could add even more detail, but this is fine for the time being.
From an artistic perspective I used some smoke to help pull the Colossus in the foreground and keep the focus mostly it, same thing with using spotlights to help it pop.
Previous Infomercial
That's all for now. Thanks for viewing and watching, I'd love to know your thoughts. And if there is any 3d modelers out there I'd love to work with you! I like custom models and assets a lot. Using the stock stuff gets old.
my god, looks amazing, good work. is there any chance you could post a comparison between UDK and SC2?
Thanks for the compliment! :D Unfortunately I cannot, because recreating it would take forever. But I can tell you why it looks the way it does. A lot of it is because UDK is designed to have static lighting systems on top of dynamic ones. SC2 engine uses all dynamic lights (and does does damn good job at it) but it can't be as good looking as static lighting that needs to be calculated. UE3 can calculate the bouncing light and such to make things look very realistic. You can control the quality and type of shadows, shadow color, all kinds of very important subtle things you cant in SC2. But SC2's global lighting system is still nice with its 3 point lighting deal. Again, its designed for a specific purpose and is a BITCH for what I want to do.
UDK also makes those light shafts super easy with a checkbox in the lighting properties for just that.
Also if you have ever worked with the fog properties in SC2 Cutscene editor you'll notice that its VERY limiting. It's designed for a specific purpose and you can't do anything to get around that fact. UDK has a height fog like sc2, but you can also have fog volumes that will only cast fog in the static mesh specified for the volumes shape. So in that image its a combo of both. White heightfog and a brown fog volume. Using the fog gives atmosphere but I also can get away with less work by obscuring objects in the distance.
Now lets talk about the engines efficiency. One thing that makes me rage is when I look at things from a less top down perspective. The engine just shits the bed. I have a 670 FTW edition and a AMD Phenom II 1055T (3.4Ghz) with 20GB of RAM. From a simple change of perspective I can go from 60+fps to like 14FPS. For whatever reason Blizz made the decision to only use 2 CPU cores. >.> So when I go to record the machinima with fraps it makes it even worse. Whereas UDK this is a non issue. I can have considerably more complex scenes with really no issues. Partially because its not out to murder my CPU.
And the workflow of Galaxy Editor is just so bad (minus the cutscene editor). Needlessly complex and even Pre UDK (Unreal 3) editor can do everything Galaxy Editor can. Easier, quicker, more intuitively. I cant wait for Unreal Engine 4. The work flow is just phenominal!!! And UDK can do even more (cause its a nearly full engine), especially for my purposes. I can go on, but it gets kinda' ranty.
Didn't know that you can't import the high poly models. I've checked that. In max 2012 (probably also 2011) if you only check: Import Mesh, Import Vertex Normals, Import materials, Create Skin and Import Bones
then everything will be fine with the import. The model I was importing was \Work\Assets\StoryModeCharacters\Terran\SM_Marine01\SM_Marine01.m3 You have to unpack all the textures for this fella and I'd recommend converting the materials into max's native materials. By hand but that shouldn't be of a problem (right click on the sc2material -> select my material -> select the objects which use given material and just apply new, standard material with the same textures).
I can send you the model but I think it'd be better if you check if it's working for you or not. In future you could be self-sufficient :)
Main reason is because I cannot get the high poly model to import properly into 3ds max 2011. Then getting into UDK is another tough task. I actually am having trouble importing any model with bones into my 3d program. :/ I know you are quite knowledgeable on the subject, if you are willing to give me a hand.
Another update, got a good amount of the second set done where he gets ambushed.
But .ogv files can be used as animated textures for models ingame and also used as cutscenes.
Maybe it was just the lighting you were using because the marine did not look as detailed as usual.
But that defeats the purpose. The whole point is to get away from Blizzards editor. The cut scenes are for machinima filmmaking not for any arcade games.
Why would I want to put it back into SC2? The point is that I'm not using SC2 to make it. I'm trying to rid myself of the SC2 engine because I hate working with it and UDK is way better for film and animation.
His head has a bone that allows it to rotate. Although its not perfect, I was using it to try to make the animations more expressive. But I have mixed feelings. I am using a normal and specular map.
Hello to everyone here at mapster! I'm a machinima (not the youtube channel) filmmaker. I used to do a lot of live action stuff, but where I live sucks for film and makes it pretty much impossible for the time being. I love video games and film, so why not combine them?
You may have already seen my other thread, but I felt that this one deserved its own thread because of it being in UDK and not the Blizzard editor. The whole reasoning behind the idea of using UDK is to working with a strictly better engine. For machinima I can do so much more in UDK, so I'm converting models and stuff as I need over into UDK. The biggest problem is that I don't know how to make bones and stuff like that work so I can use skeletal meshes. If anyone knows how...please help. ;P
The marine is just a static mesh and nothing more. If I can get actors like this to work, then I'm good to go an making machinima. I even have the in game motion blur and don't have to do it all in most.
Blizzard Hellbat Infomercial
Again, anyone that knows UDK would be awesome. But thoughts on how things look for my first attempt?
0
Just a quick update on progress.
0
It's pretty good! I dunno how you got the SM models to work.
As for things that could use improvement. The color grading could use quite a bit of work. The over exposed effect with the highlights made the image way too blown out at parts. One thing that could have been improved on is to give everything a nice blue saturation to make it fit the mood of the script a bit more. The lens flares where a bit much and really didn't add to the piece at all. If you are going for anamorphic lens flares, then you also have to with a 2:35.1 ratio for it to make sense. And besides it being accurate, that ratio is a nice way to "force" a cinematic look out of something, seeing as that is what you where going for.
As for the voice acting, I think it was sub par. It's wasn't expressive enough and the actual voice timbre didn't really match the characters...combined with the recording quality being somewhat low.
As for the audio, it was almost really good. Keep in mind that when people are speaking in a non studio environment that their voice reverberates off of the surrounding objects. A good trick is to add a very light reverb with a mid/short decay, then add a delay with like 30+ms and make the L/R channels slightly offset, it helps a ton. And don't forget the art of compression can do wonders. There also needs to be more environmental sounds.
If you feel that I'm over criticizing your work, its a good thing! It means that there is a ton of potential. Good work man. It means that I'm not one of the only ones making good SC2 machinima.
0
With the success of our first infomercial, its time to make another one! This one is centering around the Colossus.
The dynamic lighting system in SC2 is a blessing and a curse. I love that it does not have to be calculated in the same way as static lighting. But I hate it for that same reason because this scene is killing my PC. Looks pretty decent. Good amount of dynamic movement. I wish I could add even more detail, but this is fine for the time being.
From an artistic perspective I used some smoke to help pull the Colossus in the foreground and keep the focus mostly it, same thing with using spotlights to help it pop.
Previous Infomercial
That's all for now. Thanks for viewing and watching, I'd love to know your thoughts. And if there is any 3d modelers out there I'd love to work with you! I like custom models and assets a lot. Using the stock stuff gets old.
0
Thanks for the compliment! :D Unfortunately I cannot, because recreating it would take forever. But I can tell you why it looks the way it does. A lot of it is because UDK is designed to have static lighting systems on top of dynamic ones. SC2 engine uses all dynamic lights (and does does damn good job at it) but it can't be as good looking as static lighting that needs to be calculated. UE3 can calculate the bouncing light and such to make things look very realistic. You can control the quality and type of shadows, shadow color, all kinds of very important subtle things you cant in SC2. But SC2's global lighting system is still nice with its 3 point lighting deal. Again, its designed for a specific purpose and is a BITCH for what I want to do.
UDK also makes those light shafts super easy with a checkbox in the lighting properties for just that.
Also if you have ever worked with the fog properties in SC2 Cutscene editor you'll notice that its VERY limiting. It's designed for a specific purpose and you can't do anything to get around that fact. UDK has a height fog like sc2, but you can also have fog volumes that will only cast fog in the static mesh specified for the volumes shape. So in that image its a combo of both. White heightfog and a brown fog volume. Using the fog gives atmosphere but I also can get away with less work by obscuring objects in the distance.
Now lets talk about the engines efficiency. One thing that makes me rage is when I look at things from a less top down perspective. The engine just shits the bed. I have a 670 FTW edition and a AMD Phenom II 1055T (3.4Ghz) with 20GB of RAM. From a simple change of perspective I can go from 60+fps to like 14FPS. For whatever reason Blizz made the decision to only use 2 CPU cores. >.> So when I go to record the machinima with fraps it makes it even worse. Whereas UDK this is a non issue. I can have considerably more complex scenes with really no issues. Partially because its not out to murder my CPU.
And the workflow of Galaxy Editor is just so bad (minus the cutscene editor). Needlessly complex and even Pre UDK (Unreal 3) editor can do everything Galaxy Editor can. Easier, quicker, more intuitively. I cant wait for Unreal Engine 4. The work flow is just phenominal!!! And UDK can do even more (cause its a nearly full engine), especially for my purposes. I can go on, but it gets kinda' ranty.
0
Got some more done! I'm really happy with the lighting thus far...minus the completely black medivac. :/ Not sure what is up with that.
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I got that part. It's actually on the UDK end. :(
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Here is a cutscene from my old series I used to do. It is only just the skeleton framework, so everything else is done in video/audio software.
http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/hasucraft-ep-6-map-file-film-ser/
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@Leruster: Go
Main reason is because I cannot get the high poly model to import properly into 3ds max 2011. Then getting into UDK is another tough task. I actually am having trouble importing any model with bones into my 3d program. :/ I know you are quite knowledgeable on the subject, if you are willing to give me a hand.
Another update, got a good amount of the second set done where he gets ambushed.
0
But that defeats the purpose. The whole point is to get away from Blizzards editor. The cut scenes are for machinima filmmaking not for any arcade games.
0
@DEFILERRULEZ: Go
As cool as it'd be. It's just for machinima purposes. I don't think Blizz would be too happy about us making a game or product like that with it.
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@DrSuperEvil: Go
Why would I want to put it back into SC2? The point is that I'm not using SC2 to make it. I'm trying to rid myself of the SC2 engine because I hate working with it and UDK is way better for film and animation.
His head has a bone that allows it to rotate. Although its not perfect, I was using it to try to make the animations more expressive. But I have mixed feelings. I am using a normal and specular map.
0
Got my first video example up.
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Hello to everyone here at mapster! I'm a machinima (not the youtube channel) filmmaker. I used to do a lot of live action stuff, but where I live sucks for film and makes it pretty much impossible for the time being. I love video games and film, so why not combine them?
You may have already seen my other thread, but I felt that this one deserved its own thread because of it being in UDK and not the Blizzard editor. The whole reasoning behind the idea of using UDK is to working with a strictly better engine. For machinima I can do so much more in UDK, so I'm converting models and stuff as I need over into UDK. The biggest problem is that I don't know how to make bones and stuff like that work so I can use skeletal meshes. If anyone knows how...please help. ;P
The marine is just a static mesh and nothing more. If I can get actors like this to work, then I'm good to go an making machinima. I even have the in game motion blur and don't have to do it all in most.
Blizzard Hellbat Infomercial
Again, anyone that knows UDK would be awesome. But thoughts on how things look for my first attempt?
0
0
The video is done! Grubby posted it on his twitter. :o