Starcraft: Survivors Cinematic

[GnaReffotsirk]

[youtube=425,350]QZhjIv2o-cI[/youtube]

A Cinematic for Starcraft: Survivors

[IskatuMesk]

Your fps is a-chuggin bro, should get someone with beefier hardware to record it for you. That pretty much kills the entire thing for me. Otherwise it's quite decent.

lol @ the star wars-esque Carrier jump. Maybe make a wormhole like they used in SC1?

Sc2's models sure look ugly up close. Here's to hoping for the briefing ones to have suitable animations and for there to be enough of them for use in something like this.

A+

[Ricky_Honejasi]

A very decent cinematic. Actually surprised to see something like this.

[AA7Dragoon]

Someone needs to get this guy a CC Staff tag.

I think this is looking great so far!  You've really jumped to a whole new level since your last video.  The visual imagery is excellent.  I liked the Zealot slashing through the Zerg as Immortals and Zealots charged behind him.  The mass interceptors and mutalisk shots were awesome.

Good choice of music!  You didn't go for the Requiem of a Dream track so I know you've got potential lol. 

To me, this video proves that the Campaign Creations community can also create whole cinematic stories without the campaigns.  Cinematics were successful for both WCIII and WoW.  It looks like SC2 can continue that legacy.  I know Mesk was critical of the models looking ugly up close; however, considering how close you are zooming on these units, I am amazed by the level of detail a single zealot has, or the face of an Overlord.  These units are obviously meant to be created and destroyed, but you've been able to tastefully show they can be used for dramatic emphasis in a cinematic.

I agree with Mesk about the Carriers.  There are some graphics you could use to warp in those Carriers instead of the Star Wars warp jump.  In SC1, we used to throw a bunch of Arbiters in a corner and have them cast multiple Recalls to create that warp effect.

Your FPS is a bit choppy.  Is it your computer hardware or the recording software that you are using?  Some kind of upgrade will help these previews really shine.

What else do you have in store for us to see?

[omega20]

A very decent cinematic. Actually surprised to see something like this.

A show of the almost unlimited capability of the GalaxyEditor. I wouldn't get surprised to see more of this once SC2 is out.

By the way, good luck with your project, Gna. Your cinematic looks good so far, but as Mesk said you should get a better hardware to record it.

I really hope to see more from you soon bro! You really have potential, never ever allow it to be wasted.

[thebrowncloud]

Oh...... my god. I'm at a loss for words to describe how awesome that was..... +1 pie for sure. I can't wait to see how this is going to turn out!

I agree that the warp jumping carriers looks rough, but I don't think you even need the warp in. It would make the interceptors coming on screen look kinda weird, IMO. I don't know where in the timeline this campaign is occuring, but having smaller vessels come in before the carriers (scouts and corsairs if closer to SC1, VRs and phoenixes if closer to SC2) so that you preserve the fast-paced action with the music so you don't have it depending on the carriers and risk making them look potentially awkward. If going the scouts/corsairs route, you're gonna have to wait for release for the full editor, unfortunately.....

I demand more. Much more. 

[Legion]

[youtube=425,350]QZhjIv2o-cI[/youtube]

A Cinematic for Starcraft: Survivors

wow. this is amazing. then to think i've only managed to slap down some basic terrain and a protoss archon. :/

[Krazy]

Nice stuff. 

Questions:
-How long did it take?
-Where'd you get the music?
-Did you use any programs to edit it other than Galaxy Edit and something to capture the video?

[GnaReffotsirk]

I just used the editor for everything, record with fraps, then virtual dub to append the segments and compress with fddshow. The music is from two steps from hell, it's entitled "Starvation". Had to cut the middle part to shorten the clip.

It took me about 5 days to figure things out, had more ambitious plans and script but... Anyway, I'm certain it will become easier the more playing around done. More assets, perhaps customized ones even, can help a project out a ton.

I'm using an Asus K5n (or is that k590?) laptop. I hear the engine has problems with shots like the ones taken, so I didn't bother solving what's beyond my reach back there.

Looking forward to the release version of the editor and hopefully that time there'll be more broodwar/pre-broodwar models with associated animation sequences that are useful.

It should be easy, Krazy, it's really fun to make stuff like this too.

[IskatuMesk]

Playing sc2 on a laptop? Why do people do this to themselves? Masochists.

I'm curious how well it'd perform on a real system, though. Those huge horizontal shots absolutely murder wc3 no matter what you're running on. Makes me curious... and a curious Mesk is a dangerous Mesk. Well, more dangerous than usual.

Too bad there's no hardpoint editors.

Hey, which album is that track from?

[GnaReffotsirk]

I have no idea what album that is from, Mesk. I just found it some time ago when I was planning to give aniboom a chance. Two months is a decade for the Gna.

Yeah, I'm hoping it would be possible to extract the models, edit them somewhere with all animation stuff and add them in later. If not, maybe some other software best suited for actual machinimas can help out. But I have no idea of what fish might be inside this wrapping.

The laptop is actually a savior, since my desktop PC quit its job a few months ago. But yeah, imagine what can be accomplished with a PC suited for such things. Even so, I have doubts the editor will actually be equipped enough to handle every possible creative idea we can come up with, and I have yet to risk buying another PC only to find that SC2's engine is the one limited.

You guys should give it a shot. You know, with 10,000 doodads on a 256x256 map, and everything else. Some kind of stress-test on everything, every shot angle, FoV and what not.

[IskatuMesk]

There is already an m3 importer/exporter that supports anims and is getting regularly updated. It is, of course, for 3ds max.

HKS and I stress tessed the game (without the editor) by spamming roaches (mass particles underground, close to 400 roaches moving, only a little bit of lag), huge amounts of zerglings and such squirming around each around - pathing engine performed brilliantly. I even grabbed an asston of drones with minerals in their hands and had them squirm around each other, too, and it still performed really well (that's dynamic lighting).

One thing the game does seem to have problems with is its current suicide AI. HKS tried to make a map that spawned an insane number of units to suicide into your own. Well, they never suicided. Instead after a while they began to totally cripple his computer, leaving mine unaffected.

Believe me, if it ever comes to me doing something in sc2 I'll be pushing the limits as hard as I can. I've been toying with the idea of trying to bring the Gahennas Battlecruiser into sc2, but I don't know of a hardpoint editor. I'd need to update the model a bit to fit the new specs, but it fires missiles. A lot of missiles. Missiles that split into other missiles.

[imgwh 640x512]http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2009/ ... tuMesk.jpg[/imgwh]

I've been long desiring to do a CGI of when the Gahennas fleet first appears and a singe Battlecruiser obliterates most of a Terran and Protoss fleet (they are around 80km in length). The things I've wanted to do would surely only be doable in 3ds max, but I am curious just how much the engine itself could pull off.

/edit

Found your track in one of my compilations I downloaded but doesn't claim to be from TSFH nor does it tell me what album it's from.

[GnaReffotsirk]

Nice.

I'm always interested in your work man. And love reading your findings and suggestions as well. Is that BC lore?

[WB]

Ok, wow. I don't think i was expecting something this fucking awesome. Seriously, excellant choice of music, that song is totally new to me which makes it have such a greater impact.

Again. Holy shit, that was amazing. Keep up the incredible work. The effort put into this has set a bar for the rest of your work. I hope you are able to match that standard throughout your project.

Edit:
This is the kind of content that wins. That sells itself. There isn't a goddamn thing in there thats new, its all very clever use of what you have.

The shot with the zealot slashing the ling/hydra is fucking awesome, and again, very clever use of what you have to work. This is what I LOVE to see.

Edit 2:
Seriously, the Zealot's face has a normal map. The graphics are fucking amazing in this game.

[IskatuMesk]

Is that BC lore?

Dunno what you mean by this. :\

WB > Games have had normal maps for years. They still look ugly up close, which is kind of amusing considering how big sc2's textures are in comparison to other games.