Hey all,
Just a quick teaser for my TF2 Machinima, hope you enjoy.
(And yes it’s still getting worked on)
Archive for the ‘Machinima’ Category
Just thought I would post a random in-production shot from yet another project that I’m working on.
Will it ever be released?.. who knows.
Segment #2 is coming along nicely, I’ve recorded all the footage I can without extra help (AKA Mr. Hirearch)…
One draw back I’ve found with recording demos in HL2 is all voice talk is recorded in the demo, and hence when I try to edit the footage nearly all the audio is overwritten by the ‘actors’ and me talking.. pretty annoying as now I have to drop the sound and manually insert all the SFX (and sync everything).
Just a few extra scenes I need to do for segment 2 (mainly just a reminder for myself)
- Have a short sequence of Red Team looking around AFTER spy vanishes
- Some scenes showing blue side empty
- Pyro and Heavy from behind looking down sewer
- Engineer saying, that engineer is a spy (maybe)
- Have closeup of engi idle (whacking wrench on hand), put thumping sound there to show time passing(while waiting
- Pyro, Heavy, Engi looking at each other when spy first vanishes while running across bridge
- Echo through Tunnel
LAST UPDATE 15/Jan/2008
Yay, Segment one is recorded, edited and sound mixed.
All done!
I’m ready to start recording segment #2 I just need to find 4 people to control the characters.. hopefully tomorrow or on the weekend.
This entry will be used to describe the movement of the spy and what he has has to do.
Again a lot of the shots may be scrapped/or new shots added depending on how they look when we start recording.
Spy shot #1
The spy will uncloak on the opposite side of the bridge to Red, equipped with gun.
Spy shot #2
This will be recorded from multiple angles and spliced together, the spy will start to run across and before half way he will cloak and vanish. He must cloak before the turret begins to fire at him.
Spy shot #3
Spy will run out of fort disguised as Engineer and sit on the opposite side of the turret.
Spy engineer will use the good job emote ‘nice job partner’
Real engineer responds with the thanks emote.
Spy saps turrets and runs back inside.
Spy shot #4
The Camera will track the spy as he runs past, then return to track the red team following him.
Once the spy enters the sewer entry room he will hide behind the corner to the right.
**MORE INFO COMING
I’m pretty happy with my first segment plan although filming and cutting it will be interesting.. Either way time to start planning Segment #2.
To start with a list of everything that must happen in this segment, ordered.
- Spy appears on opposite side of bridge to red (centered)
- Red spots him
- Spy vanishes while running towards/across bridge
- Red Team looks around, puzzled.
- Spy(As Engineer) runs out and sits next to turret (opposite side to where current engy is sitting)
- Spy says ‘Good work’, Engineer ‘Thanks’
- Spy saps turrets and runs inside fort while ‘evil laughing’
- Heavy and Pyro chase while Engineer removes sap.
- Spy heads to the left inside fort towards sewer
- Pyro and Heavy chase him down the ramp but when they get to the sewer they can’t see him
- Spy as Engineer again turns up behind them, they look at each other puzzled
- Pyro and Heavy face/look towards to sewer again (spy stands slightly behind them)
- Real engineer turns up.
- Spy and Engineer look at each other
- Engineer goes to grab pistol (using taunt)
- Spy quickly stabs him
- Pyro heavy, don’t notice.
- Spy is shown loading him, aiming at heavy head(from behind) (gulp)
- Heavy is shown looking sad
- Spy quickly shoots both
End of segment.
Another blog entry on Segment #1.. Explaining what must happen on the red side.
Red = Pyro
Green = Heavy
Yellow = Engineer
Shot #1
The opening shot for the red side will show them in a huddle in the Red Briefing room. All will use the ‘cheer’ emote at the same time, then run out of the room Pyro first, Heavy, then engineer last.
There will be minimal camera movement in this shot, just a slight wobble to add an observer feel.
Shot #2
This shot will show the Pyro running to camera left and down the ramp, while the Heavy and Engineer go camera right out onto the fort.
No camera movement on this shot.
Shot #3 - 4
The opening camera position will be on level with the 2nd floor of the fort and will track the engineers movement to his final position where the camera will rest.
The Heavy will stop at the top right of the fort, while the engineer runs across to the other side and jumps off. Once on the ground he will start building a turret.
5 seconds after placing the turret the pyro will run out from the doorway behind the engineer and run to camera right(leaving the shot).
Shot #5-6
The final two shots will be just used to give the viewers the final placement of the Red Team.
Extra Information
Equipment
- Engineer will have wrench in hand
- Pyro flamethrower
- Heavy mini-cannon
While the Turret is building the engineer will be hitting it with his wrench.
Engineer will also be on the turrets right side (ready for the next segment).
And now the hardness begins, planning shots and shot ordering…
*Update;
After trying to plan the opening I realised they it may not be worth the effort to plan it, as this segment will have an insane amount of cuts with what being used purely depending on how ‘cool’ it and thus it will be nearly impossible to set what has to shown without shafting the segment (hope that made sense).
Instead for this segment I will be just listing the ‘must have’ shots and leaving the rest for the editing process.
Blu side
- The following shots will all be rapidly shown spliced with the red team getting ready
- Spy reloading gun - dollying in (di) - slow motion
- Spy flourishing gun (di)
- Spy holding knife (di)
- Spy flourishing knife (di)
- Spy holding sapper (di)
- Spy holding cig case (di)
- Spy flourishing cig case (di)
- Camera dollying in across the prep room towards spy (slowly)
- Spy passing knife from one hand to another (slow motion)
Red Side
- Red team in a huddle in their prep room
- Red team running out of prep room
- Shot from outside the fort of Red Team setting up
- Engineer building turret beside bridge (camera float down from heavy on top of fort)
- Also in same shot, pyro running out of fort and standing beside bridge
*Edit #2
It just occurred to me that I could reduce the amount of rapid shots by overlaying the shots using mattes(which I spent many hours learning to use in one of my previous video projects).
I’ve spent most of morning experimenting with the TF2 engine and recording tools, after multiple attempts at recording a demo then exporting it to individual TGA files (and compiling in virtual dub) I found it a lot more efficient to do the dirty and export straight to AVI using the inbuilt tools.
In case anyone is wondering how to export demos to AVI from Team Fortress 2;
1. Start the demo
2. Bring down the console (~)
3. Type ’startmovie <NAME> AVI’
4. Close the console
5. When you want to stop recording, bring up the console and type ‘endmovie’
Although there is still a few things to be wary about when recording AVI demos using the TF2 engine, firstly be sure to run TF2 in a windowed mode as you need to be able view/edit the AVI settings popup. Secondly it’s a good idea to have either a Windows media codec pack or Divx encoding pack installed to get a good render.
Lastly audio, if you want to record the audio you’ll have to add more parameters after the ’startmovie’ command, you can find out what the parameters are by just typing in ’startmovie’ in the console.
This is still more of an idea of where the project is heading rather then a finished plan, anything is up to change.
The Title: License to Stab
The Map: 2Fort
2Fort was chosen because the winning objective is the simplest, and for continuity I wouldn’t have to worry about capture points.
Also it allows for an ultimate goal of protecting/capturing the intel.
The Characters
I decided on only using 4 characters, this will keep the amount of extra help needed limited and allow for a bit of character development.
- Blu Team - Spy
- The Spy will be an aggressive character with a dark sense of humor; he always keeps the other team on the defensive(this is also why the Spy was set on team Blu (on capture maps in TF2 Red is automatically the defending team))
- Red Team - Engineer, Heavy, Pyro
- The Pyro is prone to panic
- The Heavy leads the charges and is the most aggressive member of Red Team
- The Engineer has no unique traits
- Misc - Camera Man
The Plot
Extremely simplistic plot which is nearly no plot, it’s just a bunch of mini skits tied together as the red team slowly fall backs through the fort as they get killed by the spy.
They will start defending at the bridge, and their final defense will be at the intel.
The Scenes
This is only a very vague outline, so I have an idea on where I am going. Each scene will be expanded upon in other blog entries.
#1 - Will show the Red Team getting a defense up on the outside of their fort
#2 - This scene will be setting up the spy to look as ‘awesome’ as possible, lots of rapid cuts will be used while it shows him getting ready. It will be recorded inside the prep room. (Think Rambo getting equipped for an idea of what this scene will be like)
#3 - Cut back to the Red Team waiting, camera flies across the bridge and shows the spy waiting on the other side. (They start firing, spy starts running across the bridge and vanishes).
#4 - Cut back to Red Team, puzzled
#5 -
….. More coming
Edit, Instead of writing scene I’m going to split it into outline of segments. Each segment will be expanded upon in individual blog posts. The list here is just what happens (not all is sequenced).
- Segment #1 Prepare -
- Red team preparing defence
- Heavy camps upper part of fort
- Pyro jumps down from top and guards bridge
- Engineer also jumps down and goes to the side of the bridge and builds a turret
- Spy getting ready for attack
- Red team preparing defence
- Segment #2 First Assault -
- Red team is shown waiting for assault
- Spy is shown appearing on opposite side of bridge
- Red team notices
- Spy starts running across bridge
- Red open fires
- Spy vanishes
- Red attacks randomly but ends up looking around confused
- Lots of voice effects
- Engineers goes back to sitting next to his turret
- After a few moments another engineer runs out of lower fort and crouches next to turret with the other engineer
- Spy engineer uses the voice sfx(vsfx) ‘Well done’
- Real engineer vsfx ‘Thanks’
- Spy saps turret and runs back into the fort using the vsfx ‘Evil laugh’
- Entire Red Team Chases after him
- Spy runs to the left (down the stairs towards to the sewer pipe)
- Reds follow him but get the to pipe opening and can’t see him
- Another Heavy(spy) turns up behind the group of reds.
- Red notice an extra heavy
- Spy quickly shoots everyone
- Then does Evil laugh
- Segment #3 - Second Assault (based around upper part of the fort)
- Segment #4 - Final Assault (based around the intel room)
More details coming…