Noob needs advice on camera control and movie-making

[desertjedi]

I've gone from making <20MB Arma combat movies that I can e-mail to friends using the free tool VirtualDub to making up to 2GB movies in HD DVD format that I upload to Youtube and create movie DVDs with. I've even considering recording/creating in 1080p (vs. 720p) but a friend says that on blu-ray players it might not make that noticeable a difference. I've started to buy royalty-free music for my vids too.

But all my vids are simple, unscripted gameplay videos recorded through my eyes.

I don't have the time to learn camera-control scripting. Heck, I don't even have the time to learn the more-needed skill of scripting good missions (I have two jobs and one of those is actually comprised of two full-time job responsibilities ).

But movie-making is a blast so I plod along. I've learned the keystrokes for camera.sqs and have changed the default keys to use the mouse for smoother movement. But I've got a couple of problems:

1) There are only two camera speeds and there is no smooth accel/deccel. When I let go of a motion key, the camera stops dead in its tracks. Because of this, most of the key-based motions are "jerky" and look bad in the video.

2) I can not get the camera to "track" a unit. All the keys, F, NumPad / and spacebar do nothing. I had to commandeer a key assignment away from Camera Selection Type. Could that be related to the problem?

I know it's not a solution to the above 2 items but would getting a joystick for this improve things?

Is it possible to use keystrokes/joystick and camera.sqs to record a very good video? Or are all the good movies scripted and use camera-scripting commands? It just seems REALLY awkward trying to control the camera this way.

Any advice on recording mission gameplay for turning into videos would be appreciated.

[desertjedi]

I figured out how to get the Arma camera to attach to an object. Its not apparent if you turn the cross-hair off which is what I did as soon at the camera started.

I think the wiki documentation on the camera states the camera will attach to the nearest object when you press 'F' but you had to put the cross-hair on the object and then press 'F' to attach it. After you "attach", then turn the cross-hair off. FYI, If you have your mouse mapped for bulldozer look options, if the mouse moves ever so slightly, the camera detachs.

Overall, Gigan's camera mod is much more functional but what I found useful in the Arma camera was:

- abililty to pan around the object (not just rotate the camera in a circle)
- the Arma camera has some VERY cool depth-of-field effects. I'm just not sure how or why they kicked in when they did but I don't get them with Gigan's camera.

Other than that, IMHO, Gigan's camera is the way to go.

Oh and I found the "momentum" key (DELETE) which greatly improves Arma camera usage.