cutscene / in-game cinematic

Hi all,

I've been learning Unity for the last month and a half (about) and since one week I've been doing very short cut-scenes with the engine. I'm having a lot of fun and wanted to share these with the community.

The first one I did was a single camera shot on a dark and stormy night. (It lasts about 1 minute)
http://ianicmathieu.com/church/WebPlayer.html


The second has a bit more action but still just one camera, I was creating and Island and improvised a bit.
http://ianicmathieu.com/island/WebPlayer.html


Two nights ago I did a 1940 black and white passing train scene, this one has more cameras!
http://ianicmathieu.com/noir/WebPlayer.html


Today, I'm working on new one. there is still much to do, so let's call it a work in progress
http://ianicmathieu.com/desert/WebPlayer.html


I'm interested in feedback.. ..since I'm just starting with the cut scenes

Note*
I did not model all the assets and textures in these clips. They are all royalty free items took on various sites.
I did not create any of the sound effects. They are all royalty free items took on various sites.( Exempt of course that Hall and Oats tune in the first clip )

**All the rest is done by me and unity.

***I have unity basic/free/no shadows or post effects :/

 

very nice work. i like the animation and camera work in the last one especially. The cloth was pretty cool and i like how you made the player widescreen.

 

Nice scenes all of them!
Just a few notes, first and second is a bit to long i think, both ends don't add anything new, otherwise very good.
Loved the black and white style of the 3d one, this cut scene had something to catch the viewer all time, very cinematic.
Also the last one was very nice even though its still wip, cloth looks great : D

 

Ya can't lose with Hall Oates!




Nice work,..inspiring!


I wonder,..is it worth pre-rendering this all out and playing back as a movie in the player instead of loading the geo,.etc.,.

I understand that only the Pro has that capability though,..but if you did have it,..would it be worth doing in the end?

/cheers

 

Pretty nice !

I would add a little fog on the 1st one to mask then emptyness of the background though, and maybe wont focus on the car doing nothing for a few minutes.

I really like the ambiance !
And the spider on the shoe is kinda magical

 

@Laserchalk : Thanks. these are my first Cloth tests..It really helps sell a scene!

@Virror: I agree with you about the endings of the two first ones...without a nice payoff..it's well...quite long...
I will perhaps continue on the Black and White theme..It was really fun to do.

Welby: Maybe you're right. I never thought about making a movie file instead of using the webplayer...I'll have a look into that...Concerning the Unity pro, I would really love to have real time shadows....I think in the last desert scene, this is where we can really feel shadows would help..

menico: Thanks for the feedback. The shoe/spider is my favorite idea so far.. glad you enjoyed it...I have to come up with more of those..

Presently working on the desert scene..Better sounds, camel walk animations...etc!

 

Great work man!!! Love it.
I was a film editor for many years, your timing and pacing is right on.

Key, let the first shot of any new scene to play a bit longer, so viewer has context before going to closeup.

Sure wish you had Pro, would be fantastic to see these with shadows and Image efx.

 

(thought I replied already... )

Thanks 24pfilms. I'll definitly keep that in minf in my next cutscene. Thanks.

 

These are great, could you give a very brief overview of how these are done? I would like to create a short 20 seconds cut scene to introduce my game and would love some pointers.

Also could you let me know how you achieved that sand/dust storm effect in the last one? I really liked that.

 

Yes Amuse a how to video, would be really appreciated on how you were able to so smoothly control the camera moves.

 

Ok, here is a brief overview of the Black and White car scene.

The scene is prepared with 5 Cameras - Only the Main Camera is active.


For the animation of the camera in this scene I kept is very simple. Mostly just a simple translation. To create an animation :
- Select the Camera you want to animate - Make it active (so you can see the results)
- Open the Animation Window.
- Press the RED dot button - You will be asked to name the animation file that will be saved in your asset folder.
- move the camera to your start point
- more your timeline cursor to another location
- move your camera to your end point

Scroll the time line and you should see your animation. If you want to control the start and end motion to slow down, covert the keys to Flat, it will give you handles to work with on your keys. In the scene, I mostly cut to the camera while in motion and cut away while it was still in motion.



Last part The camera switching part. For this I tried tons of code myself with trigger boxes etc and finally found my piece of mind using PlayMaker to do the camera switch. I basically have the FSM on the Main Camera and use the Wait Action node and CutScene Action node. fun and trouble free


The Desert scene was a bit more work

 

That's great, I cant believe I missed the animation window in Unity - I'll definitely have a play with that later!

Oh also could you let me know how you achieved that sand/dust storm effect in the desert scene? That would go great in my current project

 

Very appreciated. Great work!!!! Now go buy Pro

Merci!!!

 

this kind of statement should definitely come with a credit card number

Miloco - I'll answer you in private to keep this thread more about cutscene/cinematic then particle simulations.

 

Making a statement about how your looking for positive feedback will not help you get better since your claiming yourself as a noob. You should be asking for serious critique so you can improve, not just feel good about yourself.

 

I guess people get the point..it's not really a place for serious critique, but more get/give feedback on work in progress at a really basic level of cut scene / cinematic work.

Good luck with your further inputs on other thread...
It's all in the phrasing don't you think? You even made "feeling good about yourself" sound as a bad thing.

 

These are wonderful. The best part, what you were trying to show off and what most commenters here are missing is the direction. The camera angles and moves selected are wonderful. The 1940's animation creates so much emotion with a very simple scene. The desert animation feels epic. Upon watching it I had so many ideas for a game made around it. This is all to spite using rolaty free assets. It's incredibly good directing. Better than seen in many AAA titles.

Additionally the sound needs to be pointed out. Your sound editing and design skills are impressive. Compounded even further by the fact it's without creating sounds for it. Nothing stirs up feelings and emotion like impactful sound editing.

Bravo all around! Would use you as a cutscene / cinematic director any day. Ignore the haters, they just don't understand what you were showing off.

 

Yes +2 pro -1 Haters.

I also would hire you for blocking out scenes. You Montreal guys are so damn creative. No wonder Softimage, Discreet and the origins of Motion Builder came out of de norte.

 

Your ability to quickly grasp the interface is impressive. You have a great start and should feel good about it. This is what it's all about. A performer longs for an applause or a cheer from his/her audience.

 

EnigmaFactory: Let's hope some AAA titles producers are reading this on their job hunting weekends

24pfilms &glom1envisage0: Thanks...I'm not exactly a noob to 3d, worked many years in the field, but was away from it for the last 4 years...Now just getting back into it and decided to learn unity..

My next task was to take a cut scene and integrate it between 2 simple game scenes. I choose the Film Noir cut scene, made it a bit shorter, added some interaction in the first and last scene. (interaction is still very much work in progress..the important part is the integration with the cut scene )

Let's also open the door to more serious critique this time concerning this Scene to CutScene to Scene integration.

http://ianicmathieu.com/sleuth/WebPlayer.html

*Again, just added some models and music I took off the internet( I did model the office furniture and the hat ) to focus on what I am learning presently.

 

Added screen shots

 

For this new cut scene, I decide to work more on camera and animation synchronization and also explore dutch style angles for most of the shots. For this I prepared a small German town set in winter of the 40s then improvised on the actions and camera angles.

http://ianicmathieu.com/passing/WebPlayer.html



Feedback welcome!

 

Nice work. Is it possible for you to share with the community how you accomplished that dust storm effect?

 

Really love your black and white demo. It was very good, even if it was simple albeit. Saw your tutorial on animation... that's a brilliant way to do that... kudos to you, of course. Now I need to work on my own in-game cut scenes! ha ha.

 

Ok, by popular demand: Particle dust information

Here are exactly the setting I am using. ( done with Unity 3.4 )


Things I did :
- Kept the particles color very close if not the same as the ground texture
- used the Particle.Package to be able to use the Smoke Trail Shader
- The particle zone is a small one, it covers only the area where I need it so I can easy manage them without too much of them filling up the place.

the rest is really sitting back and tweaking until you are happy with the results.

SevenBits : Thanks for the feedback! The black and white demo is really the first time I try implementing my own game play ideas in Unity. I'm happy you enjoyed it. I'd love to see the results of your cut scenes when you are ready to share them.

 

Thanks for the info on the particle effect. Looking forward to more of your scenes on how to bring games to life.

Keep it coming!

 

Would love to, but not anytime soon. I'll probably have one ready for the next alpha release of my FPS you can find in my signature. But maybe I'll post to YouTube as well...

I try to blend the end of the cut scene into the start of game play for a neat effect.

 

Not worth it. Video files are usually massive.

 

Alright, had a bit of time today and decided to create a short cut scene. I friend of mine composed the music ( a few days ago) and the spaceships models are from here ( http://www.solcommand.com/ ).

Most of the work has been put on particles and animation. The Space environment is with a skybox ( cyan ) Dust cloud particles ( pink ), stars particles ( white dots ), 4 engine particles, air displacement particle effect and 3 lens flares.


watch it here :
http://ianicmathieu.com/cargo/WebPlayer.html

as always. comments welcome

 

I felt like continuing with the smaller space ship and bringing him into a city. I guess now I'm in between creating environments, light and mood scene and back to the one camera cut-scene. Just enjoying creating the ambiances of the scenes so much.


http://ianicmathieu.com/cityscape/WebPlayer.html

 

Looks great. Will check it out as soon as I have access to a computer with web-player. On a blocked machine currently.

 

i played this demo and it reminded me of LA Noire

 

Let's say a reduce black and white inspired demo. It's also a bit inspired by the web game Sleuth.

 

The scenes look very great. I'm kind of a perfectionist so my trouble with the spaceship/shuttle in the city didn't look very aerodynamic so in my view it doesn't work with physics. Other than that I think everything in all your scenes was just magnificent.

 

your cutscenes inspire me to work with my limitations i know i cant to pre-renderd content so i have to keep in game cut scenes to a minimal