Since the release of StarCraft II, I had wanted to recreate SC1 lore in SC2 engine.
One of the key points I want to achieve is using SC2 assets to recreate the Mission Briefing Room of SC1. So I need to use Render-To-Texture to render portrait character models on 3 big TV screens.
But at that time, RTT feature is limited to Blizzard maps only. So I felt futile, and cease to do that.
Now in 2.0.4, blizzard finnally lifted the restrictions on RTT feature. So we can use it in our own maps. But there are already too many sc1 campaign remake project created by others. So I feel no need to duplication works.
So I decide only to remake the Briefing Room of SC1.
And here is it, a 1- minute cutscene about mission briefing. I made it in 2 days, using only the Cutscene Editor (without any after-effects or triggers)
The mission I chose is the "New Gettysburg" of SC1. In which mission, Kerrigan was abandoned by Mengsk. It is a crucial turning point in the whole SC lore.
(Please see it in Full Screen, High Quality to see the subtitles)
Again, I can't access y2b in China. I asked my friend to help me uploaded them. So please tell me if these videos not display properly.
You can compare the old briefing room in SC1 and the "new" briefing room I created in the scene:
I used RTT feature to display the charactors on the briefing screens, so they are not pre-rendered movie files. I place the charactor models in other places of the scene, and used 3 camera to capture them on the fly, and project them onto the TV screens.
Firstly, cool video :) nice to see someone use that unused ready room set from the files. Though I am curious how you did the lip syncing?
Concerning Raynor, well in the cinematic 'Ghosts of the Past' when Raynor briefly appears on a screen on Mengsk's ship he seems to have the shaven head (not bald - even in SC1 as you can see the 'shadow' even there)
Concerning the artwork, well I wouldn't necessarily take it to be a hard retcon as it may not have been originally drawn to represent the SC1 evacuation of Mar Sara and may be representing the evacuation in SC2.
Edit: Ok just saw the Sons of Korhal logo on the dropship... ignore the above paragraph ><
Alternatively the artist may not have been given reference for Raynor's SC1 look if it WAS comissioned for that specific purpose. This happens quite often, though another Blizz example would be one of the WarCraft Manga stories which is set before Draenor exploded but which shows floating islands and Wyverns (a species from Azeroth who had not even been discovered at this point) in the background, presumably because the artist was given ref of modern Draenor AKA Outland.
So my long-winded point is, don't take one pic as proof positive of a retcon, especially when said retcon is contradicted in SC2 itself ^_^
Well, in SC2. Ghost of Past.CG Raynor displayed on a very little screen, and he was wearing helm. So it would be a little hard to make out if he indeed have hairs.
But at least, he is not bald. Even in offical novel: Libty's crusade, he do have hairs.
Of course he can shave it himself. But the concepts shows he doen't shave it every day, at least. And it keeps grow back.
But really, I don't take it very serious hard - that's why I put it under 'Trivial'
If he shave his head every day or not, it doesn't hurt the lore. I think the blizzard artists just want to make their leading character more cool, so they feel add more hair is good.
I think the bright blue inactive screens are more distracting than they should be though, so if there is a way to change them to a darker color/animation that would spike the quality of the whole scene even more in my opinion!
Also I don't think the camera shot from an angle behind Raynor is optimal, as far as I know the human eye/brain focuses instinctively more on things that are in the top left corner of your field of view opposed to the right side. So if you want to go for that camera shot (00:35 into the YT video) I would just mirror it from the other side, right now the thing that should be the focus (the TV screen with Mengsk and Raynor in front of it) get really distracted by the bright blue screens on the left side of the screen.
So I think there could be a lot of small things to polish, but that's to be expected if you worked only a couple of days on it, and I know 100% that I wouldn't be able to make something like this with the Cutscene Editor (and I'm not really into making films, although I have to admit it is quite tempting to learn more about it :))
Since the release of StarCraft II, I had wanted to recreate SC1 lore in SC2 engine.
One of the key points I want to achieve is using SC2 assets to recreate the Mission Briefing Room of SC1. So I need to use Render-To-Texture to render portrait character models on 3 big TV screens.
But at that time, RTT feature is limited to Blizzard maps only. So I felt futile, and cease to do that.
Now in 2.0.4, blizzard finnally lifted the restrictions on RTT feature. So we can use it in our own maps. But there are already too many sc1 campaign remake project created by others. So I feel no need to duplication works.
So I decide only to remake the Briefing Room of SC1.
And here is it, a 1- minute cutscene about mission briefing. I made it in 2 days, using only the Cutscene Editor (without any after-effects or triggers)
The mission I chose is the "New Gettysburg" of SC1. In which mission, Kerrigan was abandoned by Mengsk. It is a crucial turning point in the whole SC lore.
(Please see it in Full Screen, High Quality to see the subtitles)
Again, I can't access y2b in China. I asked my friend to help me uploaded them. So please tell me if these videos not display properly.
You can compare the old briefing room in SC1 and the "new" briefing room I created in the scene:
I used RTT feature to display the charactors on the briefing screens, so they are not pre-rendered movie files. I place the charactor models in other places of the scene, and used 3 camera to capture them on the fly, and project them onto the TV screens.
Trivial:
Raynor supposed to be bald at that time?
Well, in SC1 it seems that Raynor is bald. But in the 'Story So Far - A New Era' video in SC2
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/media/videos/?keywords=&view#/story-new-era
There is a artwork shows 'Raynor evacuates Mar Sara' (by Wei Wang , 2009):
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/media/artwork/?keywords=&view#/artwork-starcraft02
In this artwork, it seems he do have hairs at that time, so I think it's a ret-con. I chose the new concept art.
I also prepared a hair-shaved verion model XD (Unused):
One pic is more canon than an entire game? Ok....
But really that's my only issue, your briefing room is amazing and I'm sure everyone incl. me would appreciate a tutorial when you have the time.
Anmazing! Tutorial or map please! :D
Well, not just One pic actually. There are many other new artworks shows Raynor-in-2499-with-hairs, and they are created after SC1's launch
Blizzard dynamicly change their lore concepts, so I think they really changed Jim's hair.
Plus you can see my hair-shaved raynor model in #2. In the end the model don' fit well in the scene when I tested it. XD
Basicly, now I will need to write tutorial for CN map maker community first.
So I think I will end up write a English verion, just can't guarantee the time....
Firstly, cool video :) nice to see someone use that unused ready room set from the files. Though I am curious how you did the lip syncing?
Concerning Raynor, well in the cinematic 'Ghosts of the Past' when Raynor briefly appears on a screen on Mengsk's ship he seems to have the shaven head (not bald - even in SC1 as you can see the 'shadow' even there)
Concerning the artwork, well I wouldn't necessarily take it to be a hard retcon as it may not have been originally drawn to represent the SC1 evacuation of Mar Sara and may be representing the evacuation in SC2.
Edit: Ok just saw the Sons of Korhal logo on the dropship... ignore the above paragraph ><
Alternatively the artist may not have been given reference for Raynor's SC1 look if it WAS comissioned for that specific purpose. This happens quite often, though another Blizz example would be one of the WarCraft Manga stories which is set before Draenor exploded but which shows floating islands and Wyverns (a species from Azeroth who had not even been discovered at this point) in the background, presumably because the artist was given ref of modern Draenor AKA Outland. So my long-winded point is, don't take one pic as proof positive of a retcon, especially when said retcon is contradicted in SC2 itself ^_^
Well, in SC2. Ghost of Past.CG Raynor displayed on a very little screen, and he was wearing helm. So it would be a little hard to make out if he indeed have hairs.
But at least, he is not bald. Even in offical novel: Libty's crusade, he do have hairs.
Of course he can shave it himself. But the concepts shows he doen't shave it every day, at least. And it keeps grow back.
But really, I don't take it very serious hard - that's why I put it under 'Trivial'
If he shave his head every day or not, it doesn't hurt the lore. I think the blizzard artists just want to make their leading character more cool, so they feel add more hair is good.
Just want to say, this is a pretty awesome concept. I'm wondering what Zerg and Protoss briefings would look like...
- karlprojektorinski AKA Jones
Yea, I was thinking about it too.
Amazing work!
I think the bright blue inactive screens are more distracting than they should be though, so if there is a way to change them to a darker color/animation that would spike the quality of the whole scene even more in my opinion!
Also I don't think the camera shot from an angle behind Raynor is optimal, as far as I know the human eye/brain focuses instinctively more on things that are in the top left corner of your field of view opposed to the right side. So if you want to go for that camera shot (00:35 into the YT video) I would just mirror it from the other side, right now the thing that should be the focus (the TV screen with Mengsk and Raynor in front of it) get really distracted by the bright blue screens on the left side of the screen.
So I think there could be a lot of small things to polish, but that's to be expected if you worked only a couple of days on it, and I know 100% that I wouldn't be able to make something like this with the Cutscene Editor (and I'm not really into making films, although I have to admit it is quite tempting to learn more about it :))
Thanks for sharing.