Camera Rongkai Guo Why Camera First? Games have their own visual - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Camera

Rongkai Guo

Why Camera First?

• Games have their own visual rules
• Contrary to other kinds of camera
• Difficult and Expensive to change a poorly designed camera
• Rules are needed to govern the camera through the whole game

Camera Types

• Fixed Point
• Rotating
• Scrolling
• Movable
• Floating
• Tracking
• Pushable
• First Person

Rule #1: The Golden Rule

• Cinamatography: Convey plot or emotion
• What story want to tell
• What audiences want to see was before. User Center Design
• Gamatography: Both plot and emotion
• What players need to see
• Lensing: How the player sees the game and how the players

interprets what they see is a constant

• The Golden Rule of good gamatography: If your camera doesn’t help

the player play then design one that does.

Rule #2: Surrounding Space

• The game world is what gets most of the play brain’s attention
• The surrounding space of an action game is usually the immediate

area surrounding the character plus a cone extending out from its front

• For example, Super Mario, racing games.
• Rule: Make sure that the camera can always see the surrounding

space

Rule #3: How Much Agency?

• Moving perspective is a part of the play experience
• Any difficulties?
• First time player?
• People who got easily disoriented?
• Expert players?
• Rule: Know your audience’s tolerance for camera control

Rule #4: Distance to Action

• Depth estimation is a lot harder in a 3D game environment. Especially

when the objects is moving toward or away from you.

• 2D games usually won’t have this issue
• If the main action is far away, like first person shooting games, aim is

more important

• If it is close-up games, like fighting, the ability to judge close distances

matters more.

• If the players need the information, be able to see the whole field is

vital

• Rule: Compensate for distance to action

Rule #5: Light The Way

• Human: 170 degrees of horizontal and 100 degrees of vertical vision
• A screen: 100 degrees of horizontal and 50 degrees of vertical
• A game: A world framed by the borders
• Easier to blindside players
• Rule: The camera and lighting need to lead rather than follow
• Cinema Examples
• Insanely Twisted Shadow

Rule #6: Transitions

• Modern games commonly use more than one type of camera.
• The complex part is managing the transitions.
• Cinema often uses cuts, however games are usually better served with

movement rather than cutting because cuts during play are disorienting.

• Sometimes movement transitions won’t work. When passing through a

doorway in third person action games. The game would have to pause for more than a second or move the camera through a wall. Neither is good, so the camera just cuts instead, but try fade out and fade in

• Preserve the direction to reduce the disorientation from a cut.
• Rule: Always ground your transition.

Ultimate Goal

• Fell natural!
• Robust and consistent through the whole game
• Predictable
• Gamatography’s job is to let players play and establish the emotional

connections on their own.