Four ideas for MediaTracker and moviemaking
Posted: 21 Aug 2011, 14:06
Well, having been a Moviemaker on TrackMania United & Forever for some time (then I stopped playing TM until now), I wanted to see if some things from the MediaTracker and the HQ Shooter have changed. And if there's improvements, there's still some flaws, that should be easy to correct and fix.
First idea: Tweaks for targeted cams.
The target cam is frequently used to keep an eye on the car, and is a very simple way to stay in the action. However, it has some limitations, present since MediaTracker was introduced in TM, that could be easily tweaked and unlocked. Here's the two features:
- Roll feature should be unlocked. While using the target, the stays flat on a X, Y axis and this makes the target cam much less spectacular. Many people are forced to use the path cam to make cool sequences with rollings,
- Holding right-click and moving the mouse should move the target position (X, Y, Z coordinates).
Second idea: Being able to tweak the motion blur for HQ renders.
That's something I'd like to see: being able to tweak the motion blur for HQ shoots. Sometimes we want it to be really high, to have a really blurry and a huge sensation of speed, or to be very low, for slow actions for example, or to keep a good clarity on the image. People should be able to choose their own style of motion blur.
Third idea: Choosing the folder and the name of the shoots.
(I didn't check that by myself, don't know if it's really present in TM2C)
The thing is simple: letting us choose the folder for our renders, for example to put them on another hard drive, and choosing the name of each shoot before the render begins, as having Video##.avi isn't clear at all and we can be lost quickly.
Fourth idea: Remove the path cam angle range.
Let me explain this with an example with the rotate angle.
Keyframe 1: 90°
Keyframe 2: 150°
Then you advance in time, you create a new keyframe and you rotate the camera a bit more in the same direction to get 190°. The problem, is instead of having 190°, there's -170° instead. It comes from the fact that the path cam range is (-180;180), and if a value goes out of this range, it's taken back automatically into that range. And that creates a stuttering effect, which ruins the path cam. And then we are forced to manually put back the right values.
So just remove that range, so the path cam can be smooth in all circumstances. What can be done also is to remove 360° automatically if the difference between two keyframes is higher than 270°.
First idea: Tweaks for targeted cams.
The target cam is frequently used to keep an eye on the car, and is a very simple way to stay in the action. However, it has some limitations, present since MediaTracker was introduced in TM, that could be easily tweaked and unlocked. Here's the two features:
- Roll feature should be unlocked. While using the target, the stays flat on a X, Y axis and this makes the target cam much less spectacular. Many people are forced to use the path cam to make cool sequences with rollings,
- Holding right-click and moving the mouse should move the target position (X, Y, Z coordinates).
Second idea: Being able to tweak the motion blur for HQ renders.
That's something I'd like to see: being able to tweak the motion blur for HQ shoots. Sometimes we want it to be really high, to have a really blurry and a huge sensation of speed, or to be very low, for slow actions for example, or to keep a good clarity on the image. People should be able to choose their own style of motion blur.
Third idea: Choosing the folder and the name of the shoots.
(I didn't check that by myself, don't know if it's really present in TM2C)
The thing is simple: letting us choose the folder for our renders, for example to put them on another hard drive, and choosing the name of each shoot before the render begins, as having Video##.avi isn't clear at all and we can be lost quickly.
Fourth idea: Remove the path cam angle range.
Let me explain this with an example with the rotate angle.
Keyframe 1: 90°
Keyframe 2: 150°
Then you advance in time, you create a new keyframe and you rotate the camera a bit more in the same direction to get 190°. The problem, is instead of having 190°, there's -170° instead. It comes from the fact that the path cam range is (-180;180), and if a value goes out of this range, it's taken back automatically into that range. And that creates a stuttering effect, which ruins the path cam. And then we are forced to manually put back the right values.
So just remove that range, so the path cam can be smooth in all circumstances. What can be done also is to remove 360° automatically if the difference between two keyframes is higher than 270°.