Cutscene Perspective; Discipline
Wanted to get the cutscene done last night, but I got home late and, thus, got started late. Worked on the layout and physical features of the cutscene. I decided that I wanted a tower in the background because A) it would look dramatic and B) it made sense to me that the two armies would fight at some key area. As I sort of knew, the rural tileset didn't have much to offer, so I ended up using the Wizard's Tower placeable - which just looks like a tower, and not particularly wizardly - from the CEP. Then I decided that I wanted it on a hill, so I added the Hills of Wayland hakpak to the module, because I wanted the tower to sit on a gently sloping hill, rather than the chunky, squarish, built-in variety. Then I decided that the scene would look better if there was a forest behind the tower, so I started throwing in a bunch of tree placeables. I also wanted the battlefield to have a bleak, smoky, Excalibur-esque feel, so I spent a long time adding and removing various fire, smoke, and scorch mark placeables.
One of the things I quickly learned is that what you see in the toolset isn't necessarily what you're going to see in the cutscene. Because of the way I have the camera movements scripted, you don't even see the trees or tower or first. It's only as the camera swoops forward that they emerge out of the mist, along with the sky. It's a very nice, dramatic effect, but it also made me realize that a lot of the background stuff I was futzing with isn't going to be visible anyway. For instance, I wasn't happy with the fact that I couldn't place a pathway on the slope of the hill. There's actually a hak that would let me do this, but it looks like you have to have another hak to make it work, and the player probably wouldn't end up seeing it anyway.
When it comes to custom content, I'm finding that I need to have a lot of self-discipline. Although some modules use a lot of haks, I'm trying to keep this one relatively simple. Also, the more haks I include, the more likely I am to end up having them in conflict, which means I'd then have to go in and merge them. I'll have to learn how to do that anyway, but it's still something I want to avoid if possible. So whenever I see some cool piece of custom content, I ask myself if my module really needs it. Sure, the module will look cooler if, say, I use nothing but custom tilesets and placeables and so on, but for the first time out, I'm thinking it's better not to go overboard until I know exactly what I'm doing.
As it is, I might end up undoing all my work from last night. I don't know if I want a tower after all; the original vision was for an open battlefield, and the tower might be superfluous. If I dump that, I'll probably drop the Hills hakpak too. Yeah, they look good, but I don't really need them anywhere else. The landscape is supposed to be flat plains, and in the places where I do want hills, I actually want the rougher default style, rather than the gently sloping variety. However, I'm also going to try increasing the size of the area and moving the trees behind the keep. I'm hoping that'll make it look more like a distant forest. However, it's also possible that they simply won't be visible at all.
One of the things I quickly learned is that what you see in the toolset isn't necessarily what you're going to see in the cutscene. Because of the way I have the camera movements scripted, you don't even see the trees or tower or first. It's only as the camera swoops forward that they emerge out of the mist, along with the sky. It's a very nice, dramatic effect, but it also made me realize that a lot of the background stuff I was futzing with isn't going to be visible anyway. For instance, I wasn't happy with the fact that I couldn't place a pathway on the slope of the hill. There's actually a hak that would let me do this, but it looks like you have to have another hak to make it work, and the player probably wouldn't end up seeing it anyway.
When it comes to custom content, I'm finding that I need to have a lot of self-discipline. Although some modules use a lot of haks, I'm trying to keep this one relatively simple. Also, the more haks I include, the more likely I am to end up having them in conflict, which means I'd then have to go in and merge them. I'll have to learn how to do that anyway, but it's still something I want to avoid if possible. So whenever I see some cool piece of custom content, I ask myself if my module really needs it. Sure, the module will look cooler if, say, I use nothing but custom tilesets and placeables and so on, but for the first time out, I'm thinking it's better not to go overboard until I know exactly what I'm doing.
As it is, I might end up undoing all my work from last night. I don't know if I want a tower after all; the original vision was for an open battlefield, and the tower might be superfluous. If I dump that, I'll probably drop the Hills hakpak too. Yeah, they look good, but I don't really need them anywhere else. The landscape is supposed to be flat plains, and in the places where I do want hills, I actually want the rougher default style, rather than the gently sloping variety. However, I'm also going to try increasing the size of the area and moving the trees behind the keep. I'm hoping that'll make it look more like a distant forest. However, it's also possible that they simply won't be visible at all.
posted by Razide | 5:34 PM
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