universal advertising (Part II)

fhko · Post by **fhko** » Thu May 17, 2007 1:26 am

Okay...before I forget (or someone gets impatient)...I'd like to thank Alfred, Bongzillah, _owner_ and Yuri...for their participation in the footage I took this evening on and above Golgotha...(a nice world by the way)...with their contribution I was able to get some excellent shots that you will all be able to see within the next few days...in the form of clip collections 6 and 7...

fhko · Post by **fhko** » Fri May 18, 2007 10:36 pm

As promised...TU_Clip_Collection6

Sixth upload attempt seems to be the charm

...Finally after nearly 24 hours of off and on uploading...TU_Clip_Collection7

fhko · Post by **fhko** » Sun May 20, 2007 6:38 pm

Feeling tired of the usual forum sludge...flamers, noobs, spammers and the like...then I have something that might brighten your day...

TU_Trailer2_v3

Now with new music (which I stole from a couple of my other games' files

)...more recent video clips, including a new ending...a great two and a half minutes in my opinion...

and thanks again to Yuri for his well timed flight highlighted in the opening part...my video splicing is a little off it seems...there is a momentary flash of another clip in there...which didn't become visible in movie maker...

Truthfully I'm running out of new material and ideas...I desperately need your input and suggestions...

Mishka · Post by **Mishka** » Sun May 20, 2007 8:55 pm

Nice vids, I wish I could participate in one of them, especially the space part.

fhko · Post by **fhko** » Mon May 21, 2007 8:08 pm

If I see you on while I'm in the mood for taking some new footage I'll definitely ask for your help Mishka...

need your input and suggestions...

being difficult are we...maybe some prompts will help...

Ok let's start at the beginning...the first 25 seconds is taken up with my little stardrive warp intro...including my name and the 'A game by' scrolling messages...and the TU screen shot and sliding text...

Option 1: I leave the intro as is...

Option 2: I do something to shorten the warp vid like cutting out the countdown or maybe increase video and text scroll speed...(shorter intro means I can add more to the rest of video without increasing size)

Option 3: I combine the TU Name into the Warp sequence and go straight to the main body of the trailer at the end...

Option 4: Scrap the warp sequence for something else like a sunrise or some sort of action clip...(if you've seen something specific in the clip collections feel free to point in out)

Option 5: Other...(anything from rewording text to your own highly elaborate intro setup)

Alfred · Post by **Alfred** » Tue May 22, 2007 11:13 am

Nice! I like the opening, but cut the countdown out.You should also cut out the white screen part(with "Press F11 to Abort")of the landing sequence at right around 0:51.Is Chickenworld active?Other than that, I think it looks great.

fhko · Post by **fhko** » Wed May 23, 2007 10:15 am

No chikenworld is inaccessible to anyone but me...but no one viewing the trailer needs to know that

I did already cut down the landing sequence video from v2...I kept part of it so it would better highlight the 'Join player created worlds' text which is visible both before and after it fades to white...I like the affect...and it only lasts 3 or 4 seconds...after reviewing that part a couple times...I suppose I could cut two seconds off at 0:50s without too much damage to the text...

Thanks Alfred...I'm glad at least one person gives me input...

Jayecifer · Post by **Jayecifer** » Wed May 23, 2007 12:57 pm

The change in music in the middle is slightly unprofessional.

fhko · Post by **fhko** » Wed May 23, 2007 10:45 pm

Yeah...I know...I really liked that first dramatic music, but its only 23 seconds long and...

...I stole from a couple of my other games' files...

so I had no other similar sounding music to transition to...I improvised and added a completely unrelated music file right as the trailer makes the change from space to planets...I feel I could've done much worse...and if you have a music file, I'll still take it...

----------------------------------
Your wish is my command...
*Count down removed and landing sequence has been shortened*

Now for the next section of the trailer...which includes the clips during the first music file (excluding the TU title)...I include the landing sequence as part of a later section.

I already hacked out that zion flash that I pointed out earlier...

Some Possible Options:

1) I leave as is...my work is so good it would physical hurt you to see it changed

2) I chop the (3.50 second) planetary ring flyby out and lengthen one or both of the other two...or add another short, spacey clip in its place...

3) Scrap the dramatic music and simply start the other file where it does...eliminating the 'unprofessional' transition...

4) Go back to my original idea and have it open with a space fight scene instead of me following Yuri in a planetary shuttle...
it doesn't have to be the space fight I used in previous versions...I know that one was a little unexciting...as far as fights go...

5) Other...as before...rewording, your ideas, etc.

fhko · Post by **fhko** » Wed May 30, 2007 9:58 pm

TU_Clip_Collection_8 if you're interested...

Well since no one seems to care about the space section I've made my own alterations to it...as well as to a number of other sections...mostly just substituting one video in place of another...

I'm now debating if I should try and make the trailer 25MB instead of 20...which will buy me about 30 or 40 seconds more I think...but I would have to figure out what to put in and where...

-----------------------------------------
I guess its on to the next section then...Planets:

From beginning to end...Chikenworld, Drellis, Ariya, Planitia*, and Golgotha

*New video has been put in for this. (which will be part of TU.C.C. 9)

Options:

1. Let it alone

2. add more worlds like zion, zoric, etc....(would have put in zion originally but clips from it are already used in other sections so I thought it was overkill...and I wanted to 'share the wealth'...as it were)

3. Get rid of chikenworld video...its not online so doesn't really fall under 'Play on player created worlds' group...and its dishonest advertising...plus its no longer looks that way anyhow...

4. Make videos shorter...more like flashes...so I can fit several more worlds in the same time frame...

5. Your ideas...

fhko · Post by **fhko** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 4:49 pm

yeah...I understand...I will only bother you with more videos...no more digging for ideas...

speaking of which...I was wondering if anyone had/knew of a way I could upload my videos so that they didn't get youtubified and lose their shiny luster every time I publish them...

I have version 4 of my trailer done...this is probably going to be the last in a while...I'm tried of messing with the perpetual crashing of movie maker...and I'm at the end of my ideas...pending any objections to this version I'll move on to trying to publicize it...which is why I'm looking to maintain it's resolution if possible...

fhko · Post by **fhko** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 3:20 am

Alight so in concluding 2 or 3 months of work (really more like 5 hours if you take out the times in between and movie maker crashing

)

Table of Contents
Trailers:

TU_Trailer :My sad first attempt at making a trailer using mostly screenshots...and a repeating soundtrack.

TU_TrailerII :After some time spent with a video recording program I managed to piece together something a little better. Suffered from some misspelled words...still threw in the into1 sound file at the beginning and end because I like it so much...

TU_TrailerII_v2 :Not much changed since the previous version except reworking and adding some of the accompanying text.

TU_TrailerII_v3 :TU sound files are replaced with actual music to give it a more polished feel...added some newer videos from my collection...music ended up coinciding very nicely with the videos especially at a few points near the end...

TU_TrailerII_v4 :Did some cutting out of some of the less important snippets of video and instead added in an extended random video section as the background for some quotes about the game...

Clip Collections:

Clip Collection :Well its the first so it's obviously plague with shortcomings like being too dark to tell what your viewing. And it gets pixelated at times.

Clip Collection2 :I learned when to use the brightness increase function thankfully but I still hadn't figured out how to prevent pixelation which my imperial and zoric videos still highlight.

Clip Collection3 :No pixelation! Always a good thing. I tried to show off some of the game's sub-programs like the world editor and such. Ultrakricket is probably the first time it shows me interacting with someone I wasn't shooting. Although the other players are invisible.

Clip Collection4 :Quite a bit of me flying around shooting things on Iridis and Bongtrek. Is unfortunately dark because, well, the worlds are dark...brightening videos past a certain point tends to make it look funny.

Clip Collection5 :Mit informs me of the method by which to remove the world interface...I use the opportunity to try and make cinematic shots with a balloon...moving camera with mouse is a bit shaky. Spend a lot of time on Zion/Magrathea with Ultrakricket and other little things. Also show off some fast vehicles on Ariya.

Clip Collection6 :Mostly myself and some other people running around and blowing each other up. Makes good trailer material.

Clip Collection7 :All Golgotha stuff...use spectator mode for the first time to capture some other players running around.

Clip Collection8 :Running out of ideas by this point but still some good shots including a glitchy run around raceworld.

There would be 9 but youtube messed up the upload...dirty apes...

fhko · Post by **fhko** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:55 pm

Thanks to zar, the original (and better looking) .wmv of my latest trailer is now available to download. http://www.tuwr.net/upload/Fhko_Videos/TUtrail2_v4.wmv

flametard · Post by **flametard** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:45 pm

i made a cool animation , anyone is free to use it for whatever.

fhko · Post by **fhko** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:59 pm

it's nice...but it should be brighter...can't see the x-fighter till it's right over the world...and maybe crop the text box...

flametard · Post by **flametard** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 10:22 pm

i like it, its part of the art.

but i could make the transition over the planet better cause i pulled down slightly in the last frame messing up the nebula position. but its a 30 minute job at the least so ... lol it might not get redone.

flametard · Post by **flametard** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 1:29 pm

k this is the final cut of the animated planet gif. got the planet to rotate slower by taking screens every 30 seconds. before i was taking them every minute, so it was challenging with the time pressure.

fhko · Post by **fhko** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 6:22 am

It's definitely an improvement over the previous version...I assume you put the nebula in the background on purpose to help highlight the fighter...nice job...

fhko · Post by **fhko** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 11:05 am

speaking of animations...
hey Fooli, will a animated model created in gmax keep its animation after it is converted to .atm? I have a lumber mill model I created that has some logs running through it, one of which gets sawed in half...would be a shame if I lost the effect.

and Jayeceifer...might you be interested in texturing it for me?...I know you have uber-ape skill at this stuff...

Post by **Fooli** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 12:31 pm

No, not natively. You can't, at present, import an animated file into the model converter (it's possibly in theory with .x files, but mit hasn't written that stuff for the MC yet).

And so, welcome to the world of keyframe animation.

What you have to do is export individual animation frames, and then use the model converter's "build animation" tools to assemble those frames. Then save as an atm, and hey presto... you have an animated model.

This can be a process that's a) fun, b) extremely frustrating, and c) very time-consuming. It depends on the nature of the animation you're trying to export.

For example, a humanoid character might have (say) 8-frame animations for walking, running, standing, standing bored, jumping and shooting. That's 48 frames that need exporting from your modelling prog. Zzzzzz :)

However, looking at your model, it might not be such a painful process. Linear animation (one object moving in a straight line from one place to another) is relatively easy. So if you just wanted to move a log from one position on the conveyor belt to another, you'd just need to export two frames: start position, and end position.

Where it gets more tricky is with non-linear and more complex animations... say, if you wanted the log to roll as it drops onto the feeder chute thing there, move the crane arm around, have it pick things up and drop them... you're going to need a lot more frames. Knowing how many is a matter of trial and error, and experience. The more frames you have, the bigger the filesize, but the smoother the animation. If you have too few frames you'll see objects distort as they move through the animation.

Hard to advise you really except maybe try something simple and see how it goes. A couple of pointers, though:

- don't even start animating until you're absolutely sure you've finalised the uvmapping. Cos you have to export each frame separately, any change you make to the original model (fixing a mapping issue is the most likely) will mean you have to export and rebuild the entire animation again

- you need to think in terms of animation loops... so, for example, let's say a log moves from the start position to the end position. How's it get back again? The animation start and end frames must be the same, or you'll get a horrid glitch.

Sometimes this can be solved with a bit of cunning modelling, positioning and scaling. For example, log moves down the belt, gets sawn in half. If you just left it at that, when the animation looped you'd see the bits of log remerge and take a straight-line path to where they started, so the animation can play again. This usually looks shite. So a common solution might be to have the bits of sawn log drop into a box, where they effectively disappear from the player; then you add a couple more keyframes to make the log travel through the ground, or through some other part of the model, so they appear more naturally at their starting position.

- there's a fair bit of information about how to build animations in the model converter manual

- post again if you get stuck, and good luck :)
f