Cinematic production snapshots

Overview

This page contains a number of snapshots of a cinematic from it's early stages of production through to completion...

Concept Mockups

I started by creating some mockups of various scenes that would appear in the cinematic:

I originally intended to use existing videos from the game and elsewhere and simply overlay captions on them, however after a few hours messing around with them I realised they were just too low quality to work with. It's at that point that I decided to base the video on in-game footage:

As you can see, I'd already decided to use a Scanlines effect because I wanted to make the cinematic appear to be from the perspective of a hovering "observation droid" somewhere on the battlefield.

Version 1

In this version, the text overlays and satellite views are very basic and chunky. Also, there are very few audio effects added.

In particular, note the complete lack of Spatial Expansion in the scavenger base and transport landing scenes.

Version 2

In this version some of the text overlays have been improved to make them look less chunky and more dynamic. Also, Spatial Expansion has been added to the end of the scavenger base scene and the entire transport landing scene.

Version 3

This version completes the clean up of text overlays and adds spatial expansion to the whole scavenger base scene.

Version 4

This version adds a completely revamped satellite map in the briefing scene. It was created using a static satellite image of the USA with zooms and tilts to make it more dynamic. Also, sound effects are now added such as gun fire and additional unit sound effects (such as the hover sound when a hovercraft moves).

In addition, two new scenes are added after the transport landing scene. The "We need more oil" scene includes an action replay of the landing approach scene - this was achieved by adding a small video with "bleached colours" to make it look more like a playback of a recorded video clip compared to the "live drone cam" used in the rest of the cinematic (see Camera Concepts for more notes on that). The scene in which the hovercraft passes the scavenger base also has an action replay video using the same techniques.

Version 5

This version adds lots of little refinements, such as power generator spark audio effects, along with a new satellite view of the Sk-Startup map (thanks to Mysteryem for that image!) and improved audio in the scenes where the hovercraft approaches the oil resource and builds the derrick on it.

Version 6

In this version I started experimenting with some free TV Static effects I found at Rec Room.

Version 7

In this version I moved most of the TV Static effects above the scanlines layer which gave an overall improvement in quality.

Version 8

I'll post here once it's done! Still a long way to go on this cinematic!