Using HL2 to make Cut scenes

[Dekstar]

Hi all, My name's Dekstar. I won't introduce myself further as I guess most of you know me some way or another (Good or bad).

Anyway, I was wondering. Being completely newbish at Half-life editing, skinning, mapping, and modding in general. Would you think it was possible to do all that, and maybe some sound too, to create FMV cut-sequences in the Half-life 2 engine, and make them look decent?

I am actually currently planning on making a game (Using some sort of engine or game making program - Currently RPG Maker 3D), and was thinking that it would be cool to include some sort of FMV's in it with cool graphics or something.

If you want to read the basic idea around the story, go here:
"Dark Future" Story

Or anyone want to help me?

 

[The Dark Elf]

With the scripting, what your asking for is possible. Record to demo, then edit, then save to frames to convert to mpeg later or do further processing first.

 

[Dekstar]

Hey Dark Elf. Or do you prefere Fenric - I never asked you.

Anyway, do you think I could learn it moderately easy - I don't want anything too fancy. I'm drawing some rough sketches at the moment of like a story board, for my friend Gwyn to gaze at, then attack me with something pointy, probably... Anyway, I might need help. Any ideas though on how exactly I could do it?

Edit: Don't reply tonight Dark Elf/Fenric, I'm watching that Twin Dragons film on BBC 1. I'll see you all tomorrow. Night.

 

[The Dark Elf]

I don't think you grasp the work involved, modeling, animating, scripting, mapping, some coding most likely, and other stuff.

anyways others will reply and give you more info.

And I'll reply when I damnwell please kthx

 

[Yuri]

Wait, are you going to want to do this with HL1, or HL2?

Anyway, I don't think it'll be like a week project, especially since you're a newb to the tools. You have to make a map. And if you want characters, you have to model them, and if you use the HL models or something, you have to animate them. You could use the default animations for them, though.

But you'd still have to make a map. And learn how to use a trigger_camera (at least for HL1... dunno about HL2, but I'm thinking they will have something similiar) Using the camera, you can make it follow paths and point in whatever direction you want, using multi_managers, path_corners, info_targets, func_trains and of course the trigger_camera (probably more than one) env_fade can provide fades (really!) and stuff.

You'll have to script animations for the characters using scripted_sequences and monsters. And you'll have to use sentances if you want them to talk, but I'm not completely sure how to do that just yet. I think you can avoid the coding part a bit, though.

And you are going to need to take a video, I think there are programs for it, but there may also be a console command... I dunno. And then convert it to whatever and give it to people.

This link brings you to the VERC's description of the trigger_camera, and there are several tutorials on it. Hope I helped some, and that you are enjoying that movie

P.S. Movies made with game engines (like Red vs. Blue) are called Machanima. Pendragon could tell you all about that if he was here... ;(

 

[Dekstar]

thanks for the info, Erestheux. I was planning on using the Half-life 2 engine.
Yeah, I guess doing something big like that would take a long time, and planning to boot. The trigger camera thing is cool. And I'll be looking through hundreds of tutorials on everything before I get started. I just think it would be so cool.
What's this Red vs. Blue thing? Is that done in the Half life engine? I would like to see a few things with it.

Thanks all.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Red vs Blue is in Halo's engine

 

[yellow monkey]

do u have a link for red vs. blue

 

[Ames]

do u have a link for red vs. blue

You could have used Google, but anyways, www.redvsblue.com.

 

[yellow monkey]

thxs

 

[JFry]

I'll be honest, If you spend all the time learning how to do this yourself you'll prolly end up taking longer on this than the game. I applaud you for having a rather ambitious idea for an rpg-maker game tho. While it is absolutely possible, it would require a huge effort.

 

[Dekstar]

Thanks you all. You've been a great help. and Red. Vs. Blue is pretty cool!

 

[Dekstar]

Ok Link is down...

Yeah, sorry. The link to my story is down. I'll post the whole thing on here so anyone who wants to read it can read it...:

This was something I was actually going to turn into a proper story. But because it could be turned into an RPG (in my opinion) then let's give it a whirl.

"A dark future:
Earth in the year 2050 was as perfect as it could be. Humans had developed eternal life through genetic implants, and cybernetic limbs. "Illness" was taken out of the world’s repertoire, as every child born would have been vaccined against everything. Even the common cold was a thing of the past.
Wars didn't exist, as everyone was so content with what they had. There were no "poor" people, no homeless people, no one was dying, yet this is where the world’s problems began.
2051 – Strict new rules about child conception were being passed. These new rules stated that anyone who had children would be sentenced to prison for disobeying laws, and overcrowding the already over-populated Earth, and the child, if found, would be killed. Suddenly, half way through the year 2051, a child appeared from the under-cities sewage systems, and people were hearing rumors that there were other mutations emerging.
Questions started to get asked about the sewage systems "real" purpose, and the Earths senate was constantly being bombarded by citizens who wanted answers. By the year 2054, the Earth was in total devastation. The senate had been overrun, wars had broken out over who started the new "breed" of humans coming from the "underworld", and even the old questions that everyone had seemed to forget about in this blissful lifestyle had became apparent yet again. People became paranoid again, factions arose, no one could trust anyone except themselves, armies built and built. People deliberately severed limbs to get new, illegal cybernetic implants to protect themselves from the enemy.
By 2058, the world as anyone knew it had gone. Cities had fallen; regular peace-loving citizens turned into blood-thirsty animals, and rampaged, killing everything they met. The world was no longer green and blue, but black, and evil. This is, and will be, the dark future.

^ That above could be the setting for a good RPG - The player is, instead of being plunged into the heat of impending death, would start during the peaceful time, and would play the role of the senates body-guard or one of his army members (team-play sections, anyone?) and this would go right up to the "Dark future." Hell, if you want, you can even let the player choose, and let them play the role of one of the mutants as well. Just a thought, letting the player choose one of two roles could lead for two distinct endings, and more of an understanding where the "mutant children" came from. I would love to take part in a game like this, oh, and no copying this for your own game without my permission please."

Ok, that was my first story idea. This is my other one, which is actually quite close to the last one, but with a distinct twist which you might also like:

--------------------------------------
"The dark future:
The Earth in the year 2048 was a happy place. The habitants were perfect humanoids, with no flaws, no allergies, and no hatred of each other. Technology had reached its peak, and cybernetic implants were common place, often replacing organs of "the elders" - The old habitants that had lived through since the early 1990's. Space travel was the fastest growing commercial market known, and trade routes were already being set up between Earths first moon colonies. These colonies were named "The new founders", and were placed to rid the Earth of its human growth expenditure problem, which was rapidly growing. The senate, a large organisation dealing with the Earth's needs, was prepared to enforce strict rules about child conception, if "The new founders" proposition wasn't to work as thought. That was in the past.

2051 - Soon, an underground faction arose, who questioned the senate, and what they put in the food. They soon called themselves "The saviours", and were constantly kidnapping Citizens - Plucking them from the lower quadrant, near the Sewage system - where no one dared enter. The hostages were forced not to eat the food rationed to everyone from birth, and were fed "home-grown" food, and vegetables found in the sewage works, the remnants of "The old world". Soon, those people would lose their happy, carefree personalities, and become what they were born as - Human.
The Senate knew of these underground humanists, and soon enforced strict laws about the sewage works, and closed off the lower quadrant, labelling it "Unsafe". With the inclusion of the “mutant child”, the city was starting to become uneasy about what was really going on in the under-works.

2052 - "The new founders" proposition had fallen through, and the senate enforced the childbirth law, using Earth's already large overcrowding problem as evidence.

2053 - The everyday citizens of Earth were becoming frightened. What were those beings emerging from the sewage system? How did they get there, and why was the Senate trying to stop them from discovering the truth about that "secret" ingredient which gave their meals that bitter taste?

2054 - Illegal broadcasts were emanating from the sewers, casting themselves on every "Tru-vision" set in the world. These broadcasts showed the effects of the pills, and what would happen if they stopped taking them. The grainy, blurred photos showed a hunk of meat tied to a chair, rotting away. These were humans, kept from taking the pill, who had rotted away, rejecting anything they ate. Becoming unstable as they did, and ending up as crazy, and uttering in-cohesively before dying what seemed to be a horribly painful death. “The saviours” were starting to show what was really going on in the world, under the happy, content shroud the senate cast over the Earth.

2055 became the “trouble period”. “The saviours” had started editing these now dated images, and making them even more terrible and ghastly. The broadcast had subliminal messages tied into them, telling the Citizens not to eat the food.

2056 – An epidemic had broken out. People were found lying in dark alleyways, dead. Some were found stumbling through the streets muttering, and wanting their food. People were starting to reject their rations, and it was going to get a lot worse.

By 2058, the whole world was in despair. The senate had taken the sick, and tried feeding them new ‘recipes’, with different properties designed to counteract the decay of their bodies. As this didn’t work, people were becoming frightened, and some took longer to die than others. The ones who did would often mutate, and would start randomly attacking the few citizens left. Unfortunately, there were always lots of people starting to reject their rations. This though, was thought of as freedom to “the saviours”, who had already thought of another way of freeing the ones who weren’t rejecting the special food. This was to be the restarting of life as everyone knew it. No more technology, no more blissful ignorance. Everyone who survived would start afresh, with a new outlook on life, no more robots or genetic implants. The world was going to become how it was at the dawn of time – Free. “The saviours” released their final broadcast, stating exactly what was going to happen. They were to release the biggest EMP bomb the world was ever to see. It was to wipe out every electrical object in the world, which, “the saviours” thought of as evil. That year became the darkest year ever known to mankind. And it was going to stay that way, forever. It was to be “The dark future”…

^I think that could also be turned into a pretty decent RPG. You could take the role of say, a body guard… or even one of “The saviours”. You could even get a choice. Anyway, tell me what you think ok? I like writing stories, and they aren’t usually as dark or sinister as that though . So yeah, and no copying without my permission