|
|
 |
 |  | | | | |  | |||
 | ||||||
          |  |  | ||||
|
GDC 2003: How to Build a Better Cutscene Step 3: OptimizePrevisualization allows you the opportunity to see ahead enough to know what you're up against in terms of production effort. With that knowledge, the first question that should be asked is, "Do we have the resources to do this? Have we got the hardware, software, the talent and the time to accomplish what we have envisioned?" If the answer is no, then you might want to consider contracting a studio that specializes in doing cutscenes to create yours. If the answer is yes, the next step is to make sure that the efforts of your production team end up making an impact onscreen. Be smart about how you use the resources you have. Don't waste time working on things that don't matter. The third step in producing better cutscenes is to make the most of your production team's efforts by finding ways to optimize your shots. In-Game vs. Prerendered Cutscenes There are two kinds of cutscenes, in-game and prerendered. Most of the optimization strategies that I'll talk about apply to prerendered cutscenes. But I'd like to take a moment to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of both. In-game cutscenes take place in real time in the game engine. The actions of the characters and camera are scripted so that the player watches them like a movie, but the footage is not prerecorded. With in-game cutscenes, set design will be determined by the dictates of gameplay and the level of detail will be limited by the power of the game engine. One advantage of an in-game cutscene, from a game-efficiency point of view, is that it can start up instantly, avoiding the load time required when playing a prerendered cutscene. Another is that you can use the low poly, in-game characters and sets, as well as in-game lighting and effects , saving production time. Even the low-poly look can be an advantage at times. For cutscenes that pop up in the middle of gameplay, there is something to be said for maintaining a consistent look rather than jumping to higher resolution images. in-game cutscenes are generally easier to make because of the reuse of in-game resources, and the fact that there is no post-production processing or effects rendering required. One disadvantage of in-game cutscenes is that the level designers will have to be done constructing their levels before layout can start. This can put a serious crimp in your production schedule. Another disadvantage of in-game cutscenes is that they require complex scripting tools and a sizable programming effort to get them working in the game. And then you have the inevitable technical problems and bug fixes. Don't underestimate the time it will take to get in-game cutscenes working in your game. Prerendered cutscenes are little movies, and they exist as individual frames that are created outside of the game engine. If your cutscene is prerendered and the set is being designed and built specifically for the cutscene, then it makes sense to create a mockup set first. By creating mockups of the sets and staging the scenes there first, you can use the layout process to tell you what parts of the set will be on camera in each shot. With this information you can tell your modelers to build only what's necessary. And by knowing what elements will be in the foreground and which in the background, you can also tell them to what degree to lavish attention on each area of the set. Layout can save a lot of time and money by showing exactly which parts of the environment need to be built and to what degree. One advantage of prerendered cutscenes is that they don't require any programmer time. Making them is a known process and one which affords the artist a lot more control over the product. Another advantage of prerendered cutscenes is that they look better. The limitations of in-game models, lighting and effects are still such that they impose a real restriction on image quality. Yes, game engines are making great strides, but they're not there yet. With prerendered cutscenes, the only things that keep you from creating film quality animation are your budget, and the skill of your artists. Model and Texture Optimization Previsualization allows you the opportunity to optimize your models. One of the first things that one needs to do when beginning production is to go through the script and make a list of all the models that you'll need to tell the story. But a model list doesn't tell you which objects need to be built with a lot of detail, and which can be built more simply. Previsualization gives you that information. Use previs to gauge how much of your model is in the frame and what parts are seen more often than others. Build only what is necessary for the camera. Background objects need not be rezed up to the level of a foreground object. Background objects can often rely on textures instead of heavy modeling, saving render time down the road. Don't overdo it on the resolution of the textures -- use only what will be necessary for the scene. Finally, if the object is off in the distance, it's a good bet that you don't need a 1024x1024 size texture back there. Keeping the poly count down, and minimizing the size of the textures that you use, saves time not only for those doing the modeling and texturing, but can be a huge time saver when it comes to rendering. Animation Optimization As far back as the storyboarding stage, but especially in Layout, it's a good idea to try to compose your shots so that you create the least amount of work possible for your animators. As I've mentioned already, animation is the most time consuming and expensive part of the process, so any way you can find to save animator time is good.
Previsualization gives you the opportunity to make informed decisions about cinematic structure. That's a good thing, but it raises a bigger issue. In many, if not most, game companies, there really isn't anybody there who has the expertise to make these decisions. Game companies are set up to make games, not animated films. Many of the artistic resources for making a film are there: concept designers, modelers, texture artists, animators, effects artists. But there is one area of expertise that is missing, and that is in the area of cinematic design. The people in the animation studio with the knowledge of cinematic design are the layout artists and film editors. (Animators generally don't know much about cinematics. Animators are actors, not cinematographers.) Game companies don't tend to hire editors or layout artist (or cinematographers from the film industry) because their talents don't really lend themselves to making computer games. But when it comes to making cutscenes, they provide an area of knowledge that, in many cases, is sorely missing. The more ambitious the cutscene, the more important it becomes to have people onboard with the knowledge to be able to shape the overall cinematic design. Ignorance
of the rules of cinematic design is why cutscenes often look weak and
amateurish. The forth step in making better cutscenes is increasing your knowledge of cinematic storytelling. This topic is much too big for me to try to address in the time remaining. The bibliography at the end of this article lists some books on the subject. In the meantime, I'd like to focus in on one topic that that touches on the subject: how certain traditional shooting and editing techniques can be used to solve the problem of how to enter and exit a cutscene. Out of Gameplay, and Back Again: Making the Transition Moving the game player from gameplay to a cutscene, and back again, is always a little tricky. One obvious problem is that you are moving from an experience in which the player motivates the camera, to one in which the game designer is in control. Another is that you are often moving from a camera style of continuous action, unbroken by a cut, to a more traditional, cinematic style with cuts. Filmmakers have developed strategies that help the audience move from one shot to the next, across the cut, with minimal confusion. The place where there is maximum potential for an audience to become confused is on the cut. Establishing a stage line, being consistent about screen direction, cutting on the action, maintaining an eyefix ---these are all ways of getting from shot to shot smoothly and efficiently. The goal is to be able to make cuts that are unnoticed by the audience. The best kind of a cut is the kind you don't see. One of the central questions of cinematic design is where and when to make a cut. And, in computer games, the cut that occurs between the gameplay and the cutscene is the trickiest cut of all, because of the potential for discontinuity. The reason that there is such a risk of jarring discontinuity is because it is often hard, as a game designer, to know where a character is going to be when the cutscene is triggered. Gameplay being what it is, we are not always in complete control of the exact pose of a character at the moment when the transition will occur. If handled badly, this discontinuity across the cut will cause confusion in the player. The player may see a jarring pop as the character jumps from his ingame position to his cutscene position. In film when a character "jumps" from on position to another across the cut, this is called a "jump cut". Of course, this kind of problem comes up again and again with cutscenes. Fortunately, there are strategies that we can borrow from film that have evolved to deal with exactly this issue.
Each of these strategies, cut-ins, cutaways, lead-ins and hand-offs, allows you to introduce the main subject of the shot indirectly, and in the process hide any discontinuity between where the character is ingame and where he is in the cutscene. Whether you are moving from gameplay to cutscene, or from cutscene to gameplay, the same principle applies. A Note on Camera Technique In the world of 3D animation, the camera is free from the constraints of the real world. This is both a blessing and a curse. Nothing gives CG animation that cheesy 3D animation feel more that a camera that flies around all over the place at lightning speed. One of the reasons that we feel this way is because we are all very familiar with the conventions of the film language. Having spent thousands of hours in our lives watching films, we've absorbed a sense of how cameras should move. Pixar's philosophy is to make the audience feel at home by mimicking the way that real world cameras move and operate. For example, traditional motion picture cameras are big and heavy. In order to move them around, production companies lay down track and hire grips to push the camera along the track on wheeled dollies. When the camera starts it's motion, it takes a moment for the dolly grips to get the camera to come up to speed. Then, at the end of a move, it takes a moment to slow to a stop. To mimic this, we put plenty of ease-in and ease-out on the translation of the 3D camera in order to give it the proper feeling of weight. Dolly shots, crane shots, pans, tilts, hand helds, and so forth, are all modeled on the way these shots feel in traditional live action films. Having said all this, I would add that it would be foolish not to take full advantage of the freedom that one has with a CG camera. A camera that takes up zero space and is completely unaffected by gravity can be a distinct advantage. But be careful, because camera technique that is uninformed by a knowledge of traditional cinematic practices can often lead to a feeling of disorientation in the audience. Follow The Steps In order to build a better cutscene, the first step is to be clear about the purpose of doing cutscenes at all. Step two is to do plenty of planning, by means of thorough previsualization, as a means of rehearsing the cinematic structure of your animation and making sure it tells your story clearly and dramatically. Previsualization also allows you to do Step 3, which is to optimize each shot and use your artistic resources more effectively. And, finally, Step 4 is to acquire a greater knowledge of film and cinematic design, not only for creating compelling and professional looking cutscenes, but also for navigating the problems of moving from the world of gameplay to the world of visual storytelling.
Bibliography
______________________________________________________
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
Introduction
Features
