As you all may now, the Blizzcon (which was epic) has just ended. I was most exited for the Movie Contest, which i myself participated in, however, my movie unfortanly didnt won anything. However, i still want you guys to see my work, so ill just release it now.
The movie is called "Freebirds" and focuses on General Warfields last battle before his retirement, as he leads a marine squad against the zerg invasion on Wotan II in the Brood War. The movie is 2 minutes and 59 seconds long and while its not perfect, i think the Starcraft Fans will like it and if its just for the fact that this is probably the first SC2 machinima that makes excessive use of the HD Models.
The version you see here is the "Extended Cut", which is 18 seconds longer and a little bit more polished than the version i submited to the contest.
Well, here it is (please watch in HD):
If you want to see the original contest version, PM me.
At 0:40 when the jukebox music fades away, the change-over to the new background music is too washy - for a couple of seconds it sounds more like a mish-mash than actual music.
At 1:33 when you see Warfield, there should be some firing sounds in the background. It's silent, too silent :)
And the Hyperions guns are too silent also. They shouldn't sounds just like the average joe's gauss rifle.
At 1:45 it would be nice to have a zergling or two charge at the marines, then die like the one at 0:55. The area feels empty. A couple of supply crates or something else wouldn't be out-of-place too.
At 1:56 the marine has the green selection circle around him :) Also, he now suddenly wears a combat shield. He also doesn't fire anymore. the second marine went missing, too.
I love the scene at 2:01, this looks real epic!
At 2:08 maybe have more marines exit the dropship.
The part at 2:30 where the tank sieges up is pretty long. Maybe have a quick cut or two back to the battlefield where the zerg still try to swarm them.
When the tank fires at 2:36 the camera should shake violently (and, if you can do so, blurr out for a second) to stress how friggin large that gun is :) Same at 3:03 (but not as powerful anymore, since the camera is farther away and the battle's turned).
Well, some of that is due to my own preference I guess. But details like misplaced marines, missing animation or camera movement can really make the difference.
At 0:40 when the jukebox music fades away, the change-over to the new background music is too washy - for a couple of seconds it sounds more like a mish-mash than actual music.
At 1:33 when you see Warfield, there should be some firing sounds in the background. It's silent, too silent :)
And the Hyperions guns are too silent also. They shouldn't sounds just like the average joe's gauss rifle.
At 1:45 it would be nice to have a zergling or two charge at the marines, then die like the one at 0:55. The area feels empty. A couple of supply crates or something else wouldn't be out-of-place too.
At 1:56 the marine has the green selection circle around him :) Also, he now suddenly wears a combat shield. He also doesn't fire anymore. the second marine went missing, too.
I love the scene at 2:01, this looks real epic!
At 2:08 maybe have more marines exit the dropship.
The part at 2:30 where the tank sieges up is pretty long. Maybe have a quick cut or two back to the battlefield where the zerg still try to swarm them.
When the tank fires at 2:36 the camera should shake violently (and, if you can do so, blurr out for a second) to stress how friggin large that gun is :) Same at 3:03 (but not as powerful anymore, since the camera is farther away and the battle's turned).
Well, some of that is due to my own preference I guess. But details like misplaced marines, missing animation or camera movement can really make the difference.
@ 0:40 Thats true, but im not that good at sound design...
@ 1:33 True. However, i wanted the guns of the battlecruiser sound like that because they are SOOO far away from the camera. Also, i wanted to keep the scenes in space mostly without sound, as a little pause between all the action on the ground. Also, they is not so much sound in space, you know :P.
@ 1:45 I actually had a scene in there that showed a marine in a 1on1 battle with a zergling and where the marine dies, but i cutted it out because of time issues. Thats also why in the next scene, the one marine is missing.
@ 1:56 Nope, thats not a selection circle, its a light. Yeah, Combat Shield, im an idiot :P. And yes, the marine is missing, but as i mentioned above, in a cut sequence, he died fighting a zergling and was supposed to be out of the camera sight.
@ 2:01 Yeah, its probably my favorite shot, too.
@ 2:08 Nah, i liked the one marine and then the other one shooting. I feared that the shot would become a mess with more marines.
@ 2:30 That was intended, i wanted to show the transformation without a cut or a camera tilt. I like shots like those.
@ 2:36 I thought about doing that, but i didnt because theres a cut right after the tanks shots, and it looked very disorianting to have the camera shake so heavily just right before a cut, so i left it out.
@3:03 Yeah, thats true.
Thanks for your feedback! I learned alot while making these videos and you can be sure that you wont see any of those in my next movies!
I did not know this was possible with the editor. I thought blizzard did campaign in something else. But seeing this makes me know that doing a whole campaign is possible.
This is one of my favorite SC2 vids, but the first half is a little slow/quiet. Everything seems to move in slow motion, from the way the marines move to just combat in general. Personally I think speeding it up just a bit would make it better. They're in combat, their movements would be fast.
I'm also not fond of Warfield in this, at all, which is a shame since it focuses a lot on him. He doesn't fight, he just kinda slowly walks around. I'd have loved to see him kicking ass like he did in the campaign.
There seems to be a distressing lack of soldiers, too, I know you didn't want too many but serius has a point, having a full squad rush out of the dropship would have been better then the three or so that came out. After all it's the end of the vid, having a lot of reinforcements flood in and then having the tank come in and do that transformer-ish siege up would have been hella-cool. Also, the troops disembarking the dropship seems to suffer from that slowness I mentioned above. They just kinda stand there and shoot, and then jog off. Again, they're in combat so I'd have liked to see them just charge out, guns blazing as they reinforce their comrades.
So yeah, beyond my nitpicking it was real enjoyable, the only REAL thing is, as I have mentioned, that it all just seems to be so slow, keep up the good work, I can't wait to see more vids from you, maybe a space battle one? Hint hint :P
Well, i noticed also that its a little slow, its a mistake i dont want to make again. However, i dont think marines should move so much in a zerg vs terran bunker battle. I think the marines would focus fire the Zerg. And yeah, why didnt i let Warfield do anything? I really dont know.
Well, actually i used both the previewer and in-game.
When I say "move", I don't mean having them jump around like spaztards, it's just.. For example, in one of the scenes your marine ducks behind cover, he just moves so slowly. Or when the marine pwns that zergling at point blank range, he just stands there for a couple seconds. Their motions just doesn't convey the desperate struggle they're in. I mean look at soldiers in real life, they move as fast as humanly possible, because they don't wanna die. That marine should drop to a knee behind cover in the blink of an eye, he should immediately turn his rifle back on the lings after he downs one. That's what I mean by move, they don't need to be running back and forth, just what motions they do make need to be faster, and have a sense of urgency in them.
Makes sense. However, the scene where hes just standing there was supposed to show that the marine was "shocked" because of that near death experience, so he needed some time to find is way back into reality.
Makes sense. However, the scene where hes just standing there was supposed to show that the marine was "shocked" because of that near death experience, so he needed some time to find is way back into reality.
Unfortunately, that doesn't translate too well to SC, since all we (the audience) sees is a marine standing there instead of fighting. I have no idea how you'd convey shock, but him simply standing there doesn't do it I'm afraid.
Now it made it onto the Mainpage, which is bad, because it comes into my field of view, which results in you getting a Shotgun to the face naow!
Short Intro: Not good. It was way too small and hard to read who did what. Totally shitty for the big screen and to the crowd it would look like nothing is happening.
Sound: Overall the sound was too low and there was no music where you'd have needed it for dramatic purposes.
Cuts & Camera: Oh god.It seemed to randomly jump from position to position, like there was no real idea behind where the camera should move and what to show. Sometimes it needlessly lingered around for no reason at all (see dead Zergling for example). Speed of some scenes also didn't fit the other ones at all. Overall it lacked the correct pace for something that is supposed to be action-oriented. And even though you were inside the Terrain Editor for this, you didn't even make proper use of the capabilities behind the cameras.
Lighting: Didn't favor your scene at all. It didn't look good from the beginning and did not favor the SM models. And for some scenes it made them way too dark.
Quality: Due to the mixup of regular, ugly Terrain and SM models, the whole thing turned to look even worse. There was a clear, defined viewline between both qualities of assets used, easy to spot for everyone. I think the most horrible scene was the one with that Siege Tank.
All in all: It was bad. There is no wonder to why it didn't make it against the WoW Machinima (especially against stuff like Forsaken). Well, maybe next year! I'll try to have something for it, by starting to produce it now. Lazy Voiceactors killed off my entry for good this year.
Yeah, the "I am Forsaken" One was really good, i wonder why i didnt got the first place.
Actually, i really like the short intro. I wanted to have it longer, unfourtanly, 3 minutes is all the time i got, so its already long enough. However, it turned out pretty good. And if you cant read the text, you should really considere getting glasses.
The Cuts and Camera are exactly how i want it. Yeah, i guess the lighting could be a bit better, but overall i like it.
Also, the choice of music is also exactly how i wanted it, having no music in some parts actually makes scenes more dramatic. And the sound to "low"? Waa? I dont think so. Actually, the sound is what you could have criticized most, because im not good at sound design, but you focused rather on random hate in Cuts & Camera, which makes me wonder if you have even watched the whole thing.
And i dont get your criticism in the "quality" section.
Overall, its your opinion, but dont be mad when i dont agree with your stuff. And thanks for bumping my topic.
And next time better reload your shotgun with something worth reading.
This was a fun cinematic to watch. I'm not as particular as some people I guess (Not that it's bad to be critical, I hope that their feedback helps you win next year). Personally, my only gripe was the gunfire sound. It sounded so weak, more like a toy gun then a real one and made this much less epic than it should have been. Other than that, I really enjoyed this.
As you all may now, the Blizzcon (which was epic) has just ended. I was most exited for the Movie Contest, which i myself participated in, however, my movie unfortanly didnt won anything. However, i still want you guys to see my work, so ill just release it now.
The movie is called "Freebirds" and focuses on General Warfields last battle before his retirement, as he leads a marine squad against the zerg invasion on Wotan II in the Brood War. The movie is 2 minutes and 59 seconds long and while its not perfect, i think the Starcraft Fans will like it and if its just for the fact that this is probably the first SC2 machinima that makes excessive use of the HD Models.
The version you see here is the "Extended Cut", which is 18 seconds longer and a little bit more polished than the version i submited to the contest.
Well, here it is (please watch in HD):
If you want to see the original contest version, PM me.
Also, here is the link to my other starcraft machinima called "Rebrith of the Swarm", which will be 20-40 minutes long: http://forums.sc2mapster.com/general/general-chat/4203-starcraft-rebirth-of-the-swarm-machinima/#p15
I hope for some feedback, thanks for watching!
awesome work m8 !
This is pretty good!
And now the critique :)
At 0:40 when the jukebox music fades away, the change-over to the new background music is too washy - for a couple of seconds it sounds more like a mish-mash than actual music.
At 1:33 when you see Warfield, there should be some firing sounds in the background. It's silent, too silent :)
And the Hyperions guns are too silent also. They shouldn't sounds just like the average joe's gauss rifle.
At 1:45 it would be nice to have a zergling or two charge at the marines, then die like the one at 0:55. The area feels empty. A couple of supply crates or something else wouldn't be out-of-place too.
At 1:56 the marine has the green selection circle around him :) Also, he now suddenly wears a combat shield. He also doesn't fire anymore. the second marine went missing, too.
I love the scene at 2:01, this looks real epic!
At 2:08 maybe have more marines exit the dropship.
The part at 2:30 where the tank sieges up is pretty long. Maybe have a quick cut or two back to the battlefield where the zerg still try to swarm them.
When the tank fires at 2:36 the camera should shake violently (and, if you can do so, blurr out for a second) to stress how friggin large that gun is :) Same at 3:03 (but not as powerful anymore, since the camera is farther away and the battle's turned).
Well, some of that is due to my own preference I guess. But details like misplaced marines, missing animation or camera movement can really make the difference.
@ 0:40 Thats true, but im not that good at sound design...
@ 1:33 True. However, i wanted the guns of the battlecruiser sound like that because they are SOOO far away from the camera. Also, i wanted to keep the scenes in space mostly without sound, as a little pause between all the action on the ground. Also, they is not so much sound in space, you know :P.
@ 1:45 I actually had a scene in there that showed a marine in a 1on1 battle with a zergling and where the marine dies, but i cutted it out because of time issues. Thats also why in the next scene, the one marine is missing.
@ 1:56 Nope, thats not a selection circle, its a light. Yeah, Combat Shield, im an idiot :P. And yes, the marine is missing, but as i mentioned above, in a cut sequence, he died fighting a zergling and was supposed to be out of the camera sight.
@ 2:01 Yeah, its probably my favorite shot, too.
@ 2:08 Nah, i liked the one marine and then the other one shooting. I feared that the shot would become a mess with more marines.
@ 2:30 That was intended, i wanted to show the transformation without a cut or a camera tilt. I like shots like those.
@ 2:36 I thought about doing that, but i didnt because theres a cut right after the tanks shots, and it looked very disorianting to have the camera shake so heavily just right before a cut, so i left it out.
@3:03 Yeah, thats true.
Thanks for your feedback! I learned alot while making these videos and you can be sure that you wont see any of those in my next movies!
I did not know this was possible with the editor. I thought blizzard did campaign in something else. But seeing this makes me know that doing a whole campaign is possible.
I hope this find its way on the main page :P
This is one of my favorite SC2 vids, but the first half is a little slow/quiet. Everything seems to move in slow motion, from the way the marines move to just combat in general. Personally I think speeding it up just a bit would make it better. They're in combat, their movements would be fast.
I'm also not fond of Warfield in this, at all, which is a shame since it focuses a lot on him. He doesn't fight, he just kinda slowly walks around. I'd have loved to see him kicking ass like he did in the campaign.
There seems to be a distressing lack of soldiers, too, I know you didn't want too many but serius has a point, having a full squad rush out of the dropship would have been better then the three or so that came out. After all it's the end of the vid, having a lot of reinforcements flood in and then having the tank come in and do that transformer-ish siege up would have been hella-cool. Also, the troops disembarking the dropship seems to suffer from that slowness I mentioned above. They just kinda stand there and shoot, and then jog off. Again, they're in combat so I'd have liked to see them just charge out, guns blazing as they reinforce their comrades.
So yeah, beyond my nitpicking it was real enjoyable, the only REAL thing is, as I have mentioned, that it all just seems to be so slow, keep up the good work, I can't wait to see more vids from you, maybe a space battle one? Hint hint :P
Tank that shoots air ?? Blasphemy !!
Overall good uses of SM Models with at least a storyline. Though do you uses the preview or unit in-game ?
Not a ton of animation to uses on those models so props to you.
We will compile most entry for the contest on the news. Ought to be decent quality for people to post it on mapster :)
Well, i noticed also that its a little slow, its a mistake i dont want to make again. However, i dont think marines should move so much in a zerg vs terran bunker battle. I think the marines would focus fire the Zerg. And yeah, why didnt i let Warfield do anything? I really dont know. Well, actually i used both the previewer and in-game.
When I say "move", I don't mean having them jump around like spaztards, it's just.. For example, in one of the scenes your marine ducks behind cover, he just moves so slowly. Or when the marine pwns that zergling at point blank range, he just stands there for a couple seconds. Their motions just doesn't convey the desperate struggle they're in. I mean look at soldiers in real life, they move as fast as humanly possible, because they don't wanna die. That marine should drop to a knee behind cover in the blink of an eye, he should immediately turn his rifle back on the lings after he downs one. That's what I mean by move, they don't need to be running back and forth, just what motions they do make need to be faster, and have a sense of urgency in them.
Makes sense. However, the scene where hes just standing there was supposed to show that the marine was "shocked" because of that near death experience, so he needed some time to find is way back into reality.
Unfortunately, that doesn't translate too well to SC, since all we (the audience) sees is a marine standing there instead of fighting. I have no idea how you'd convey shock, but him simply standing there doesn't do it I'm afraid.
Mh, it may be true that i didnt come off that well. Ill see what i can do with the emotions in my next movie.
Anyway, i was bored, so i made a poster for the movie! http://s3.directupload.net/file/d/2324/mbsuosar_png.htm
Damn, i didnt got onto the news :P
Now it made it onto the Mainpage, which is bad, because it comes into my field of view, which results in you getting a Shotgun to the face naow!
Short Intro: Not good. It was way too small and hard to read who did what. Totally shitty for the big screen and to the crowd it would look like nothing is happening.
Sound: Overall the sound was too low and there was no music where you'd have needed it for dramatic purposes.
Cuts & Camera: Oh god.It seemed to randomly jump from position to position, like there was no real idea behind where the camera should move and what to show. Sometimes it needlessly lingered around for no reason at all (see dead Zergling for example). Speed of some scenes also didn't fit the other ones at all. Overall it lacked the correct pace for something that is supposed to be action-oriented. And even though you were inside the Terrain Editor for this, you didn't even make proper use of the capabilities behind the cameras.
Lighting: Didn't favor your scene at all. It didn't look good from the beginning and did not favor the SM models. And for some scenes it made them way too dark.
Quality: Due to the mixup of regular, ugly Terrain and SM models, the whole thing turned to look even worse. There was a clear, defined viewline between both qualities of assets used, easy to spot for everyone. I think the most horrible scene was the one with that Siege Tank.
All in all: It was bad. There is no wonder to why it didn't make it against the WoW Machinima (especially against stuff like Forsaken). Well, maybe next year! I'll try to have something for it, by starting to produce it now. Lazy Voiceactors killed off my entry for good this year.
Yeah, the "I am Forsaken" One was really good, i wonder why i didnt got the first place. Actually, i really like the short intro. I wanted to have it longer, unfourtanly, 3 minutes is all the time i got, so its already long enough. However, it turned out pretty good. And if you cant read the text, you should really considere getting glasses.
The Cuts and Camera are exactly how i want it. Yeah, i guess the lighting could be a bit better, but overall i like it.
Also, the choice of music is also exactly how i wanted it, having no music in some parts actually makes scenes more dramatic. And the sound to "low"? Waa? I dont think so. Actually, the sound is what you could have criticized most, because im not good at sound design, but you focused rather on random hate in Cuts & Camera, which makes me wonder if you have even watched the whole thing.
And i dont get your criticism in the "quality" section.
Overall, its your opinion, but dont be mad when i dont agree with your stuff. And thanks for bumping my topic. And next time better reload your shotgun with something worth reading.
This was a fun cinematic to watch. I'm not as particular as some people I guess (Not that it's bad to be critical, I hope that their feedback helps you win next year). Personally, my only gripe was the gunfire sound. It sounded so weak, more like a toy gun then a real one and made this much less epic than it should have been. Other than that, I really enjoyed this.
Yeah, alot of people say that the sound is weak, however, its a blizzard sound for that weapon. Maybe ill use a different sound next time.