Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2019 12:20 pm Post subject:
Idea: Tiberian Dawn-style Live Action Cutscenes
Hello everyone,
after a long time of silence, I've returned with an idea.
But first of all, let me congratulate you on the release of Version 0.8.
This is probably the most polished version of TI yet and the tweaks to the campaigns, especially the early GDI campaign, help fleshing out the story further.
Well done.
There's something else with which TI can set itself apart further from other mods. Something only "The Forgotten" has done before:
Tiberian Dawn-style Live Action Cutscenes.
With greenscreens and cameras becoming more affordable than ever before and the release of Blender 2.8, I think the time is right.
In fact I've produced a little (not quite perfect) test video based on Nod Mission 1's text briefing as a proof of concept.
https://youtu.be/iN9Qe3WoE9E
I used a Nikon D3300 in conjunction with an Elgato Cam Link to film the greenscreen footage. The greenscreen itself is a portable one.
The control room has been built in Blender 2.8
Compositing was done in Adobe After Effects.
So what do you think of this idea?
Nod_control_room_WIP_1.png
Description:
The control room I built in Blender for the video.
Awesome. I had no idea a file of the original background existed without any actors.
Thank you very much.
If there's interest in having live action FMVs in TI, I'm certainly going to upgrade my background to be a bit closer to the original. And buy a black military beret like Seth's and wear something completely black for the next take. QUICK_EDIT
You need several actors in order to success for a Game or a Mod, hmm... Imagine if TI's mod leader joined the herd as a Nod black hand commander _________________ If you are a MetalHead (Heavy Metal Fan) and don't want to be a metalhead, Just remove your metal ball from your head. �:p .
QUICK_EDIT
You need several actors in order to success for a Game or a Mod, hmm... Imagine if TI's mod leader joined the herd as a Nod black hand commander
Well, it depends.
If we keep it on Tiberian Dawn's scope, we don't need that many actors.
We'd only need to cast one for the GDI briefings, one for the Nod briefings and perhabs a news reporter.
If we wanted to do it more like Red Alert 1, we would've definitely needed more actors and more dialogue. Not to mention real sets if we wanted to go the Tiberian Sun/Red Alert 2 route.
So I think doing it like in Tiberian Dawn keeps the scope limited enough for live action cutscenes in TI to be feasible.
This is also how the Tiberium Wars mod "The Forgotten" handled the live action cutscenes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7lZKxDsLMA
I don't think we need professional actors either.
In Tiberian Dawn, none of the actors except Joe Kucan were professionals. Yet their performance was not bad at all.
Costumes would be another point.
Fortunately, in Tiberian Dawn, Nod Officers usually wear black clothes with a black beret, which should be easy to do.
For GDI officers, surplus military uniforms could be bought at any military store.
And if some smaller props are needed, these can easily be 3d-printed these days.
But yes, Aro as Black Hand Commander or as Colonel Owen would indeed be awesome.
@Aro:
You wouldn't happen to have a greenscreen and a camera lying around, would you? QUICK_EDIT
You would definitely want a deeper depth of field because it's very odd that your hand is out of focus but the background isn't. You could blur the background, but it'd have to be so much it'd look like the player needs glasses. QUICK_EDIT
You would definitely want a deeper depth of field because it's very odd that your hand is out of focus but the background isn't. You could blur the background, but it'd have to be so much it'd look like the player needs glasses.
Indeed.
When I do these videos properly if there's enough interest, I'll make sure to close the aperture a bit. QUICK_EDIT
You also have other mods related to C&C such as Project Phantom (this will also encourage the developer to release it earlier than later) and Mental Omega (the #1 mod for RA2 and YR with no live action cutscenes). _________________ If you are a MetalHead (Heavy Metal Fan) and don't want to be a metalhead, Just remove your metal ball from your head. �:p .
QUICK_EDIT
You also have other mods related to C&C such as Project Phantom (this will also encourage the developer to release it earlier than later) and Mental Omega (the #1 mod for RA2 and YR with no live action cutscenes).
Lots of good stuff indeed.
Are there any other opinions on having Live Action FMVs in TI?
Shall I go ahead, redo the test video properly, encode it as VQA and upload it here? QUICK_EDIT
It's awesome to see such dedication from fans. Thank you for your effort so far My only criticism is your voice, it's too gentle for a commanding Nod officer. Try to lower your voice and act more confident. Also, it would be neat to have some subtle animations on the background, stuff like blinking lights on the buttons and spotlights moving past the glass panels.
I'm interested to see the "refined" version. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
It's awesome to see such dedication from fans. Thank you for your effort so far My only criticism is your voice, it's too gentle for a commanding Nod officer. Try to lower your voice and act more confident. Also, it would be neat to have some subtle animations on the background, stuff like blinking lights on the buttons and spotlights moving past the glass panels.
I'm interested to see the "refined" version.
Thank you very much.
Based on your feedback and the background image shared by tomsons26lv, I managed to overhaul the control center so it is much closer to the original.
It even features some subtile blinking lights.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmrMf9PUnuA
For the time being, I've switched over to Blender Eevee as it renders much faster than Blender Cycles. But the former seems to have some issues with transparency, so I had to remove the glass windows.
It could take a while to reshoot the "Nod Commander" as I currently have... insufficient funds to buy myself a military beret.
Once I have it, I'll make sure to improve my acting for the reshoot.
Talking about acting:
I think I'd feel more comfortable if I improvised my lines while still being close to the original text briefings. Would that be ok for you or shall I stick with the original text? QUICK_EDIT
Based on your feedback and the background image shared by tomsons26lv, I managed to overhaul the control center so it is much closer to the original.
It even features some subtile blinking lights.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmrMf9PUnuA
That looks very good, nice work
FekLeyrTarg wrote:
I think I'd feel more comfortable if I improvised my lines while still being close to the original text briefings. Would that be ok for you
Of course, do as you wish. The Twisted Dawn campaign isn't meant to follow the TD campaign 1:1 anyway. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Of course, do as you wish. The Twisted Dawn campaign isn't meant to follow the TD campaign 1:1 anyway.
I'll do my best.
For now however, I'll focus on the Nod briefings for the TI campaign.
A little side question: Wouldn't it make sense to reuse the original FMVs from Tiberian Dawn for the Twisted Dawn campaigns?
Anyways, I decided to buy that beret as I'm about to start a job and still have enough money till the end of the month. I've also bought a turtleneck pullover like the ones the Nod Officers wore in Tiberian Sun.
I'm also looking into 3d-printing the TD-era Nod logo to pin it on the turtleneck collar.
With these new items in place, I spontaneously decided to record another test video. There are still a few issues to address, including lighting, the voice recording (I was too lazy to setup an external mic) and my acting skills. On the other hand, this video shows some significant improvements since the last one, especially the animation and the SFX portion.
By the way, i want to tell you your video was shown in my recommendations _________________ If you are a MetalHead (Heavy Metal Fan) and don't want to be a metalhead, Just remove your metal ball from your head. �:p .
QUICK_EDIT
By the way, i want to tell you your video was shown in my recommendations
Nice.
While I'm waiting for the final pieces of my Nod Uniform, I'm playing around with my 3D modelling and animation skills to create some CG-cutscenes.
Here's a little teaser of what I'm working on.
shiny... so pretty... must touch... *becomes Visceroid* _________________ One and only developer of the Command & Conquer Dune "C&C D" mod.
m7 wrote:
I tend to release things I create so that assets are never lost to hard drive problems, accidental deletion, or me having to pretend to care about rippers taking things from my project when it is done.
There's some kind of grain/pixelisation in the rendered part. Is this part of the image compression or the render?
Otherwise the lighting and perspective looks spot on.
The crystal pods however could be a tad more non-uniform. Some deeper in ground, others sticking out higher. They could be also tilted a bit and point in random directions.
e.g.
i guess the very grey stone-like color of the pods can be ignored here, since in other FMVs they appeared muddy brown like you have it.
the pods could be also a bit more rounded in your case. Looks like you used 2 tubes/rings/cylinders with different diameters and just a strong bump/displacement map on them. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
Thank you very much.
I just saw your post a few minutes ago. My apologies that I couldn't include your suggestions because of that. But perhabs I'll revisit the animation and include your suggestions at some point as I think they are good ones.
Also, the noise is caused by using a low amount of samples on the render. For the final animation, I've used a much higher amount. Blender Cycles is like Maya Arnold: The higher the amount of samples, the less grainy the image, the longer the render time.
And here's the (for now) final version of my Tiberium Field animation:
the video is great as it is already. fantastic job.
it really captures the old TD style of FMVs just in HD.
In case you touch it again, something that may be nice is a dead half mutated tree in the back, close to the tree line.
It's cool that the foremost trees are already without leaves and look half dead while the trees in the far back show healthy green.
To blend in better, it would be also cool if you could change the ground and make it look dead, muddy. Especially behind the crystals where you see the bigger field of green grass. So you have a transition from the rendered muddy ground on which the crystals stand to the grass in the back.
The top of the blossom tree could be also a bit more detailed. The pointed top looks like an unfinished model that just ends in a single vertex.
Something mouth or blossom shaped that closes and opens would be surely better. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
The cutscene of yourself talking needs its levels and contrast adjusted. Are you using AfterEffects for composition? If not, It should be your goto for producing this sort of content. QUICK_EDIT
You know, it would be much better if you replace the Tiberium Tree regeneration sound with the Bugbait warhead sound because it really fits (the warhead sound that plays when the projectile is thrown to an enemy with Antlions available, not the sound that plays when thrown onto a terrain) yes i know those are from HL2 but trust me, HL2 and TF2 have one of the coolest sound effects _________________ If you are a MetalHead (Heavy Metal Fan) and don't want to be a metalhead, Just remove your metal ball from your head. �:p .
QUICK_EDIT
the video is great as it is already. fantastic job.
it really captures the old TD style of FMVs just in HD.
In case you touch it again, something that may be nice is a dead half mutated tree in the back, close to the tree line.
It's cool that the foremost trees are already without leaves and look half dead while the trees in the far back show healthy green.
To blend in better, it would be also cool if you could change the ground and make it look dead, muddy. Especially behind the crystals where you see the bigger field of green grass. So you have a transition from the rendered muddy ground on which the crystals stand to the grass in the back.
The top of the blossom tree could be also a bit more detailed. The pointed top looks like an unfinished model that just ends in a single vertex.
Something mouth or blossom shaped that closes and opens would be surely better.
Thanks.
I'll keep your suggestions in mind for the next (potential) revision.
^Rampastein wrote:
That's amazing. Really looks like something that WW could do if they made C&C now.
Thank you.
CCHyper wrote:
The cutscene of yourself talking needs its levels and contrast adjusted. Are you using AfterEffects for composition? If not, It should be your goto for producing this sort of content.
Yes, I am using After Effects. It is an amazing VFX program.
For the "proper" video, I'll make sure lighting and coloring blend in better with the background.
PussyPus wrote:
You know, it would be much better if you replace the Tiberium Tree regeneration sound with the Bugbait warhead sound because it really fits (the warhead sound that plays when the projectile is thrown to an enemy with Antlions available, not the sound that plays when thrown onto a terrain) Wink yes i know those are from HL2 but trust me, HL2 and TF2 have one of the coolest sound effects
Thanks for the tip.
I'll look into it.
By the way:
Does anyone know where I can find clean versions of the sound effects I used? I simply lifted them from the cutscene of TD with the Tiberium Field on the graveyard but having clean versions would let me have more control over sound mixing. QUICK_EDIT
There are still a few flaws, which I intend to adress in the next version.
For however, enjoy version 1 of the video briefing of Nod mission 1. QUICK_EDIT
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Idea: Tiberian Dawn-style Live Action Cutscenes
