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totalysharky Regular Shmoe

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#1 Feb 01, 2013 at 02:57 UTC - 0 likes

Greetings SC2 Mapster Cinematic community! I was wondering if anyone could give me some pointers on a cutscene I want to make for my girlfriend for Valentines Day this year. I have not started it yet but I know exactly what I want to do for it. So would anyone be able to help me if needed?

My idea is to have a marine standing in the open just dancing. I want to have the camera (I actually know how to do camera set ups just fine) start with a straight shot on the marine. Then after the second dance animation I want the camera to zoom out slowly (other than setting up several cameras and having the editor jump from camera to camera I'm not sure how to get a zoom out). When it's out far enough I want to have a circle of zerglings unburrow and kill the marine. After that I want either text or something to show up saying "you have swarmed my heart." I don't care how cheesy it sounds I know she'll find it cute. Lol. So yeah, anyone think they could help me put this little thing together with just general pointers?

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#2 Feb 01, 2013 at 14:58 UTC - 0 likes

The easiest way to zoom out is just to create a first camera, then zoom out with your mouse scroll and create a second one. In the triggers, apply the first camera with 0 seconds, then apply the second camera with x seconds (x being the duration of your zoom).

Just place some burrowed zerglings around the marine, set them to allied with the player of the marine, then set them to enemies when you want them to attack him (make sure to start campaign AI for the Zerg, or they'll stay burrowed).

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totalysharky Regular Shmoe

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#3 Feb 01, 2013 at 20:33 UTC - 0 likes

@EivindL: Go

Thanks for the tips! So I'm guessing I need to add the campaign dependencies?

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#4 Feb 01, 2013 at 23:49 UTC - 0 likes

No, not necessarily. That's if you want units and stuff not found in multiplayer. Considering you're only using a marine and zergling, you can skip it. Though for anything else, it might be a benefit, yes.

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#5 Feb 02, 2013 at 00:10 UTC - 0 likes

So do you want to do it with triggers or cutscenes?

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totalysharky Regular Shmoe

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#6 Feb 03, 2013 at 03:29 UTC - 0 likes

@Spoolofwhool: Go

I want to do it all in the cutscene. I'm just not completely sure how to do it.

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#7 Feb 04, 2013 at 02:07 UTC - 0 likes

Ahh making a cutscene is more difficult than I thought it would be.

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#8 Feb 04, 2013 at 02:59 UTC - 0 likes

How far have you gotten and are you having problems with anything? I might be able to help.

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#9 Feb 04, 2013 at 05:13 UTC - 0 likes

Quote from totalysharky: Go
Ahh making a cutscene is more difficult than I thought it would be.

Okay, here's the deal. You can make a cutscene in two different ways- Triggers, or the cutscene editor. Triggers were how cutscenes were made before the cutscene editor was released a few months ago. The cutscene editor is much more powerful but it's also a lot more complicated. And as strange as it might sound, I'm actually going to recommend triggers for this one because they'll be easier with attacking & unburrowing. Here's the gist of what you'll want to do:

First, open the terrain editor (F4 is the shortcut, I think). Press the U key to open the units tab, select the marine, and put it down. Then select a burrowed zergling, and place those down in the circle you wanted (and make sure to set the player to 2 for those so they'll attack the marine). Next, press the C key to open the cameras panel. Hold down the control key and use right mouse to change the camera angle until you get one you like, then press "create camera". You're going to want to create all the cameras you may need. So just make a zoomed in one and a zoomed out one

Next, open the trigger editor (F5 is the shortcut, I believe). On the left side you'll see a trigger called "Melee Initialization". Select that, and then in the right panel, delete all the things underneath the "actions catagory" (leave the event called 'Melee Initilization'). Now, whichever actions you put in the actions section will happen as soon as the map starts. Here's what you may want to do.

Enable/Disable Cinematic mode for player (1) // This turns on the cinimatic mode, hiding the UI and turning off player control. It has to be on. 
Apply Camera Object (Your 1st camera) for player (1) over (0) seconds //We want to leave the time here as 0 so it starts the cutscene here. You can apply camera shots over a few seconds if you want to move to a camera slowly instead of jumping instantly

// Now you can use "Issue order to Unit" to make the zerglings unburrow or attack, or move the marine around
//"Send Actor Message to unit" is what you're going to want to make the marine dance. It's a little tricky and I dont have time to explain all of it right now, but you want to order the marine to 'Play Animation' and then set the animation to 'Dance'. If you have trouble, let me know, and I'll send you a screenshot later

//You can use "Pick each unit" to order ALL your zerglings at once. Here's how you'll use it. 
Pick each unit in unit group (Units (zerglings) in region (entire map) matching conditions(none) and do actions
{
Issue order to unit (picked unit) to (whatever order you want)
}

Hopefully that can at least get you started- I'm writing this real quick before I go to bed so I don't have time to make screenshots or anything :P Feel free to send me a PM if you have any specific problems and I'll do my best to help.

Send me a PM with any questions or comments.
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totalysharky Regular Shmoe

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#10 Feb 04, 2013 at 17:11 UTC - 0 likes

Quote from zeldarules28: Go
@totalysharky: Go

Okay, here's the deal. You can make a cutscene in two different ways- Triggers, or the cutscene editor. Triggers were how cutscenes were made before the cutscene editor was released a few months ago. The cutscene editor is much more powerful but it's also a lot more complicated. And as strange as it might sound, I'm actually going to recommend triggers for this one because they'll be easier with attacking unburrowing. Here's the gist of what you'll want to do:

First, open the terrain editor (F4 is the shortcut, I think). Press the U key to open the units tab, select the marine, and put it down. Then select a burrowed zergling, and place those down in the circle you wanted (and make sure to set the player to 2 for those so they'll attack the marine). Next, press the C key to open the cameras panel. Hold down the control key and use right mouse to change the camera angle until you get one you like, then press "create camera". You're going to want to create all the cameras you may need. So just make a zoomed in one and a zoomed out one

Next, open the trigger editor (F5 is the shortcut, I believe). On the left side you'll see a trigger called "Melee Initialization". Select that, and then in the right panel, delete all the things underneath the "actions catagory" (leave the event called 'Melee Initilization'). Now, whichever actions you put in the actions section will happen as soon as the map starts. Here's what you may want to do.
Enable/Disable Cinematic mode for player (1) // This turns on the cinimatic mode, hiding the UI and turning off player control. It has to be on. 
Apply Camera Object (Your 1st camera) for player (1) over (0) seconds //We want to leave the time here as 0 so it starts the cutscene here. You can apply camera shots over a few seconds if you want to move to a camera slowly instead of jumping instantly

// Now you can use "Issue order to Unit" to make the zerglings unburrow or attack, or move the marine around
//"Send Actor Message to unit" is what you're going to want to make the marine dance. It's a little tricky and I dont have time to explain all of it right now, but you want to order the marine to 'Play Animation' and then set the animation to 'Dance'. If you have trouble, let me know, and I'll send you a screenshot later

//You can use "Pick each unit" to order ALL your zerglings at once. Here's how you'll use it. 
Pick each unit in unit group (Units (zerglings) in region (entire map) matching conditions(none) and do actions
{
Issue order to unit (picked unit) to (whatever order you want)
}
Hopefully that can at least get you started- I'm writing this real quick before I go to bed so I don't have time to make screenshots or anything :P Feel free to send me a PM if you have any specific problems and I'll do my best to help.

You're probably right. Triggers would be easier. i have made a short scene with triggers before so I guess I will just try doing that again instead. I was just so excited that it had a cutscene editor. I figured it would be a lot easier to do but apparently not.

Quote from Spoolofwhool: Go
How far have you gotten and are you having problems with anything? I might be able to help.

Honestly I haven't gotten very far into it. I followed this simple tutorial I found on here. http://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/development/cinematics/37869-cutscene-editor-tutorial/

I actually can't even get that one to probably play inside of SC2 anyway. That is probably a bad sign. If you'd still like to give me a hand I would appreciate it actually. I would still love to figure out how to use the cutscene editor but I don't think I'll have enough time to get what I want to do up and running before Valentine's day.

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#11 Feb 05, 2013 at 05:37 UTC - 1 like

If you want to use the cutscene editor, I made a tutorial here. That might help teach you the basics of animating models and handling cameras.

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#12 Feb 05, 2013 at 11:40 UTC - 1 like

This was ridiculously easy to make. Not sure it is exactly how you want it, but it is how you described it. I'm used to triggers, so I went with that. It's a lot easier.

First, you place a marine for player 1 and some burrowed zergling for player 2.
Then, create a camera.
Zoom out with your mouse wheel, and create another camera.
Go to player properties. Make player 2 a computer.
Go to dependencies and load the liberty campaign. I'm not sure this is necessary, though it only takes a second.
Make the following triggers:

The map is attached below. I used the HOTS editor, but it should open in WOL too, I think.

Last edited Feb 05, 2013 by EivindL

Name	Size	MD5
Valentine_s_Day.SC2Map	18.4 KiB	979b56c279d3...

totalysharky Regular Shmoe

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#13 Feb 05, 2013 at 22:33 UTC - 0 likes

Quote from EivindL: Go
This was ridiculously easy to make. Not sure it is exactly how you want it, but it is how you described it. I'm used to triggers, so I went with that. It's a lot easier. First, you place a marine for player 1 and some burrowed zergling for player 2. Then, create a camera. Zoom out with your mouse wheel, and create another camera. Go to player properties. Make player 2 a computer. Go to dependencies and load the liberty campaign. I'm not sure this is necessary, though it only takes a second. Make the following triggers:

The map is attached below. I used the HOTS editor, but it should open in WOL too, I think.

Wow! Thank you very much. That was above and beyond what I was asking for lol. I am going to give this a look over a little later when I have some extra time. Thank you so much.

Quote from zeldarules28: Go
If you want to use the cutscene editor, I made a tutorial here. That might help teach you the basics of animating models and handling cameras.

Yeah your tutorial is one of the ones I found while looking for tutorials. Unfortunately I wanted to get this thing going as soon as possible but I am definitely going to look through your tutorial when I have more free time. Thank you very much :-)

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#14 Feb 06, 2013 at 18:16 UTC - 0 likes

Hey I have another question about this. I was wondering something. How would I get the camera to rotate around before the zerglings unburrow on the map. I'll send you a screenshot of what I have now showing camera placements so you have a better idea of what I mean.

I have no triggers applied yet just setting it up. I am just not 100% sure how I would switch between all these cameras (if they are even completely necessary to have there) without multiple regions set on the map.

Any insight you can provide me with on how to get the camera to rotate around and go into an aerial view, preferably with less cameras involved would be greatly appreciated.

Last edited Feb 06, 2013 by totalysharky

Name	Description	Size	MD5
Special_2.SC2Map	Here's the map so far in case ...	38.3 KiB	1ba07b2409ac...

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