Intro animation

[Mattn]

I recently added roq support to the ufo engine - see http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Artwork#Videos_.28Cutscenes.29 - now we need an intro for UFO:AI - contributions are highly welcome

This topic is for discussion the content, and other intro related stuff

[Adrian Magnus]

In an ideal world there would be a sequence showing the attack on Mumbai in all its glory. Really awesome would be live actors and CGI, it worked for the MechWarrior 4: Vengeance intro.

That's the lofty goal.

A realistic goal would possibly be a news reporter in a street in Mumbai reporting on the what little is known about the situation. In the background you could have the sound of gun fire, a few plumes of smoke, and the occasional explosion.

[Blywulf]

What I'd do would be an animation in a style similar to this one (you might have already seen it):

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1wygv_iraq-animation

It's basically a series of well done drawings. The camera moves from one spot to another and all things come alive, they seem to move even though they're mostly static. I think it's realtively easy to do (it's certainly easier to do than a full blown 3D movie) and it wouldnt consume a huge amount of time to get it done.

Oh and if there's no chance for a simple but good looking intro then I'd suggest having no intro at all

[Mattn]

well done animation

[Destructavator]

If you're looking for acting, I have two digital cameras and a chroma key blue screen for photography, and I also have some nice police uniform boots as well as a bunch of BDU camo pants and shirts and stuff in different colors - not just the typical woodland green, but also city grey and sky blue (the blue camo isn't officially used by the US military, but coincidentally it *does* match the default blue color the soldiers in the game wear).  I also have a bit of acting experience in front of a camera from a college digital video project and past music videos I've done.

I also like to dress up in outfits - to be honest in my past I've gone through countless different styles, been into mohawks and long hair phases, and other wild stuff (I still have a black leather motorcycle jacket in my closet, too bad it's now a little bit too small).

Props might be a problem though, I don't own any firearms or have much that would look like one.

[Mattn]

is anyone working on this?

i've published my first crap version of the intro - only to show what i'm think it should be like:
download this file: http://mattn.ninex.info/videos/intro.roq and copy it into base/videos directory (create the dir if it doesn't exist) then start the game.

Note: This is only working with the most recently trunk version or the latest 2.2 beta installer

you can always start the intro by typing cinematic intro to the game console.

Please also note, that sounds and music are completly missing right now

Description
It's just our green rotating globe (texture see here: http://ufoai.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ufoai/ufoai/data_source/images/globe_green.tga ) and some flying ufo_fighter and ufo_harvester (i took the model from http://ufoai.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ufoai/ufoai/trunk/base/models/geoscape/ )

[Psawhn]

I think what would really be neat is if we could have a writer who could come up with a script for the intro (Hrm, I wonder who? ), and also have someone who can sketch up storyboards. (I do have a small graphics tablet, but my art skills aren't that great.)

Also, VLC seems to play the animation. I don't know if the artifacts also occur when played through the game, though.


Hrmm.... actually, does anyone of any good free networking drawing programs? I have an old version of opencanvas that sort-of works (as long as you don't need to save afterwards), but I was thinking of a vector-based drawing program with the potential for multiple layers.

[Mattn]

inkscape is what you are searching

[Destructavator]

I'm willing to read a script as a narrator, record it, and sync it with any video footage created - I have the hardware and software to do it.

EDIT:  I also have a little digital video footage of (daytime) clouds in a sky I shot myself, if anyone wants to add ships flying through the sky at any point in the intro.

Also, is it possible to animate some of the models already used in the game in a pre-defined manner just for a video clip?  I don't know too much about animation or modeling, but if I had some aliens or other animated models to work with, I could add video filters, FX, editing, etc.

FURTHER EDIT: If I even had a moving creature or soldier with nothing else against a solid colored background, I could use a Chroma key FX to place the animation on top of a background for parts of the intro, regardless of whether the background is still or moving, computer-generated or real video footage.  (I know of a movie that used this technique to make a real live actor look like he was holding an animated cartoon gun.)

I just need some components to work with.

[Mattn]

you can find everything in our svn: http://ufoai.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ufoai/ufoai/trunk/base/models/

or the source files here: http://ufoai.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ufoai/ufoai/data_source/models/

but i don't think we should include speech in any of our cutscenes - just video and music. because localization would be a problem for every language we have translations for. We need small cutscenes of UFOs attack a city (first campaign stage) - every campaign stage needs a small cutscene - please just ask our storywriters if you are interested in doing them.

It's also enough to create skyscraper models we can do the rest with our sequence scripts. Models of houses and so on.

The only "speech" we need (also for in-game dying sounds) are crying civilians, dying sounds for male and female, panic sounds and so on

[Winter]

I think what would really be neat is if we could have a writer who could come up with a script for the intro (Hrm, I wonder who? ), and also have someone who can sketch up storyboards. (I do have a small graphics tablet, but my art skills aren't that great.)

Hey, I'd be happy to write a script, but it would probably end up a bit too . . . extravagant.

The easiest way to do it is for someone to step forward and say, "Yes, I will animate the intro," at which point we can figure out something that's both well-written and doable.

Regards,
Winter

[Winter]

Okay, I've written a very simple opener script that I think would make a nice lead-in to the game. More extensive animation can be easily tacked on after the logo is displayed.

Script:

   CLOSE-UP: Taman face, eyes slightly narrowed, on a backdrop of golden afternoon sky. Gradual zoom out to see the whole body, holding a plasma rifle, and a landed Harvester UFO behind it. Before fully zoomed out, camera circles 180 around the alien to reveal the human city in front of it. For two seconds the city is pristine. Then blue light flashes against the buildings, and a pillar of smoke starts to rise into the sky. Sounds fade in of plasma and gunfire, explosions, human screams of terror.
   The Taman hefts its rifle and starts to walk towards the city. It suddenly pauses and assumes a relaxed shooting stance; screen fades to black as plasma firing sounds and human screams commence. UFO:AI logo appears.

Regards,
Winter

[Mattn]

yeah - that would be cool

[BTAxis]

The logo in the animation should seamlessly (or a good approximation thereof) connect with the loading screen. In other words, the loading screen should also display the logo. I don't like the current screenshot that's there, it's not appropriate.

[Psawhn]

Here's a very quick sketchup of the first part of Winter's script. Very quick and very sketchy, that is. As you can see, I don't have much in the way of art skills .

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/Psawhn/UFO-AI/ufo-ai_intro_a-1.swf

The second part (actually animating the Taman) is beyond my skills right now, haha.


Edit: One idea that's sort-of been going around my head are TV news on the attack of Mumbai. It would be dawn/dusk, with the city smoking and in ruins behind the reporter. Plus, the reporter would be speaking Marathi (an Indian language).

I have some Indian friends I could maybe pester to get some news recordings of . It might have to be Gujarati or Punjabi, though - depends who's willing to do it, haha.
(Or Chinese - I have some Cantonese-speaking friends, too.)