Captura Advanced Options Concept

[Arkis-Prime]

As the "Captura the Moment" contest is wrapping up, I wanted to share my thoughts on the tool and offer some suggestions for improvements. I hope it's a system that will continue to grow based on how much it has to offer. A lot of people out there probably wouldn't consider themselves the creative type but give them a tool like this and it's always surprising what they can come up with. So let's dive into it! I've put together a mock-up version of an expanded UI and can go through the list.

Note: It's a rather tall image.

Spoiler

First part was largely rearranging certain options to be grouped in similar sections. Also you'll notice fields for numerical values to the side which will be a large improvement not only to precision but the ability for people to come up with unique lighting and editing, then be able to share those settings for other people to easily use in their scenes. I included a toggle for depth of field as at the moment you have to back out of camera mode and go to the options to turn it off, possibly resulting in losing the progress and spontaneity of a great shot. The tilt option is a slider version of what you can do with keys when outside the option mode. I figured if we were able to advance time with hotkeys and a button, tilt could be too.

Next is all about adjusting the colours of the scene. I moved exposure and saturation to this section and added a hue option. Dragging the slider left or right will shift the colours of the wind of the scene through the spectrum. You'll still be able to pick specified looks like we have now; contrast, cross-fade, etc, but with the added bonus of pushing those values to your liking. The following values for shadows, midtones, and highlights  will allow you customise the red, green, and blue values individually for the scene. I figured an RGB curve wouldn't necessarily work given how the menu is set up, so a slider based colour balance felt consistent. I forgot to add it in but a slider for contrast would also be great here.

I didn't have any issues with the lighting, and the 3 point light set up can let you do some creative modifications, just adding numerical values where appropriate. The rotation of the rig is on a single axis at the moment, possibly letting you rotate it in x, y, and z could be an option but not really necessary.

Filters covers a lot of the scene modifications, grain has been moved here from it's original spot up by camera. The lens distortion toggle will disable the chromatic aberration that happens when depth of field is enabled which is the splitting of the red, green, and blue channels the closer to the edge of the screen, simulating a faulty lens. Bloom and glare will be made accessible here so the player doesn't need to exit out to the options menu. Rift overlay will allow you to have the effect seen from Limbo's abilities. Tone map will allow the player to put an overall colour remap over the whole scene, this will allow them to achieve affects like sepia tone and negative.

Last but not least, we have settings. Pause scene is essentially a safety net toggle. Much like how when you enter camera mode everything freezes, when you toggle pause scene everything will remain frozen even when leaving camera mode, including your character. I had too many good shots lost because I accidentally left camera mode or had a graphical issue that I needed to go to the options menu to try to fix. Pause time is a similar but variant on this idea, essentially Limbo's stasis for the whole scene except your character, allowing you control to set up an elaborate shot. Spawning has had some slight tweaks, the current option is "kill enemies" which doesn't immediately remove them as the bodies can hang around. I do wonder if it is due to a limitation that we didn't get a despawn option in the first place so if possible, maybe the option could kill the enemies with channelling damage, or something that guarantees that the body disintegrates quickly. A spawn allies option has been added but would most likely contribute to the npc cap, so a little more creativity but 3's your limit. I've seen plenty of amusing gifs and videos where Tenno bit off a bit more than they can chew and get launched by some bombard missile, toggle invincibility will enable us to create these kind of scenarios in captura. I do have to note though how much I appreciate it's on by default, it can be tricky enough hearding npcs for that perfect photo, having to do all that while losing health would be a nightmare. Toggle invisibility fills a similar role, it could be difficult to get the npcs to do what you want and once they have aggro things could get a bit hectic. Especially units that prioritise taking cover, I often just had to respawn them since I had no idea where they went. This is captura not hide and seek!

The final component to add to these features will be giving us a little more control over npcs via abilities. While in camera mode it would be fantastic to utilise skills similar to Ivara's arrows, notably sound and sleep. Vauban's bounce pads and Titania's spellbind would also allow for some fun.

That about wraps it up! Of course more scenes to use would always be welcome and any other fun features that could possibly be added. Group photo mode perhaps? One person gets to be designated cameraman perhaps as I imagine 4 cameras zooming about might cause issues. All in all though captura is a feature I really enjoy, not only to create things in but to also study what's been made, a great tool for artists! I'm Interested to hear other peoples' experience with captura is so far, what kind of features do you feel work well and what needs to be added? Thanks for reading!

[RIKENZ]

Awesome concept, I'd love also to be able to record actions and replay them like theater mode in Halo.

[elitetrollz]

[Arkis-Prime]

7 hours ago, RIKENZ said:

Awesome concept, I'd love also to be able to record actions and replay them like theater mode in Halo.

That's a great idea! Since we have the toggle advance time option that's kind of like a pause and play button. Question would be if recording actions to replay them would be possible. Still, would be a great feature for those who want to make gifs and videos.

 

7 hours ago, elitetrollz said:

(snip)

What is that supposed to mean? Confusing? Too long, didn't read? Discuss.