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.