New to Cinematics

Its been a while since I have done custom maps since WC3 came out, seeing some of the stuff like COTN really inspired me to make cinimatics as well but I have no idea where to start. Is there any tutorial on how to make cinimatics? Where should I start? :ggani:

It depends on what you would like to do in your cinematic! Its not hard to have a camera zoom or turn around a unit, but to make a REAL good cinematic you have to lot more of things than just cameras (terrain/music/story/sfx/units/etc.)! I cant teach you anything of this cause it depends on what you want, and besides I myself am still a n00b to all this (I just made my first cinematic!)


But if you want to know how to do things with cameras:


Mini-tutorial on how to do camera movements:

We're gonna make a camera that turns around a unit.
[list=1][*] Make a new map (can be any size you want, pick 32x32 for this example)
[*] As soon as your map is created, goto the units layer and place a unit in the middle of the map!
[*] After that, press "M" on your keyboard and you will go into 'camera mode' (dont know if it is actaully called that but who cares)
[*] Click the button 'Create new camera' this will, how suprising, create a camera. you can see these cameras while in 'camera mode' as little blue cameras. The camera you just created will by default have the name 'Camera 001'
[*] Now turn the game camera (NOT the camera you just created!!!) so it looks at the unit from the other side. Click 'create new camera' again, and there should be a 'Camera 002' now!
[*] Now that the cameras are all done, we need to tell the game what to do with them. Load up your trigger editor (just press "F4"). First, right-click on the trigger 'Melee Initialization' and deselect 'Enable by default' (If you dont do this the game will create a normal melee game of your map)! Now create a new trigger and name it 'Camera'.
[*] When you've created the trigger, go to the events of that trigger. Add a 'Map Initialization' event (right-click 'events' --> 'add event'). This will run the trigger when the map is loaded. Leave 'Conditions' empty.
[*] Now, the 'hardest' part! :[/list=1][list=A][*] Add an action 'Cinematic - Cinematic Mode'
Set it to 'ON' for 'All Players'
This will make to game go into letterbox mode, which is like
the borders you see in CotN and any other Wc3 cinematic! It
just replaces the normal user-interface![*] Add an 'Camera - Apply camera (timed)' action
Select 'Camera 001' and put '0.00' in as duration, leave the
rest deafult!
(now, when the map loads, 'Camera 001' will be applied to
the game-camera in 0.00 seconds (which is instantly!))[*] Add another 'Camera - Apply camera (timed)' action
Select 'Camera 002' and put '4.00' in as duration, leave the
rest deafult!
(this will move the game-camera from 'Camera 001'
to 'camera 002' in 4.00 seconds!)[*] Add a 'Wait' action
Make it to '4.00' seconds!
(this will make the game wait until the game-camera
reaches 'Camera 002'! If you dont put this action in, the
game will just proceed with the next action in your trigger! If
that is another camera movement, the game will go
to 'Camera 002' but will go instantly do the next move too,
so it looks like it surpasses 'Camera 002'![*] when you are done with your cinematic, add an 'Cinematic -
Cinematic Mode' action
Set it to 'OFF for 'All Players'
The game will go to normal mode again, which is with the
normal user-interface!
[*] If this is a cinemtic-only map, add a 'Game - End round'
action.
Set the options to your own desire (doesnt matter much if I am
right!)
This will end the game![/list=A]
9. Save your work and test it in Wc3! Enjoy :ggani: !!!
If everything works alright, you would see the game-camera
turn around your unit!


Hope this little tutorial helped you out!

I didnt have WorldEdit up when I wrote this, so it could have some minor mistakes, or some trigger actions that I wrote the name wrong of, but I think you'll figure out though!
If not, ask again and I will try to help you in the best way I can!


- Nuladion


PS: plz, say if it was any useful to you, so I know I havent written this for nothing 8) !

Yea that helped :gsmile:

I am still getting used to the WC3 triggers since I am so used to the SC ones so that helped me a bit on how to get started.

I was thinking for starters I would create a map then make a nice battle in there :ggani:

But one thing I want to try and do is get the Camera to follow a unit but look in the 1st person view. How can I get the camera to be where the units 'eyes' are?

I used to work a lot with SC triggers, and I find the war3 ones are much easier to use. If you were good with SC, war3 shouldn't be a problem

yeah, War3 editor is more powerful and, when I finally knew the basics, much easier then SC editor!


-- Nuladion