Testing: Animated Camera Paths and Motion Blur

I've been getting back to work on machinima in the source engine and I decided to test a few things. All of what you see here is very much a work in progress, the animations, motion blur processing, models and sounds. I'm hoping to improve and polish all these elements.

Motion Blur Processing:
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This was accomplished using the same process that Ross Scott uses in his Civil Protection and Freeman's Mind series. Basically this method involves filming the footage at 180 frames per second in the source engine and then running it through the MVTools plugin using this script:

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\mvtools.dll")
source = avisource("sidepass1 180fps.avi").assumeFPS(180).ConvertToYV12()
backward_vectors = source.MVAnalyse(isb = true, truemotion=true)
forward_vectors = source.MVAnalyse(isb = false, truemotion=true)
return source.MVFlowBlur(backward_vectors, forward_vectors, blur=100).TemporalSoften(2,255,255,255,2).selectevery(6,1)

This uses the high frame rate video to work out motion vectors for areas of the image and then blurs them based on their speed. Unfortunately in some of the high speed shots in this video you can see that there is no blurring, I think this is because there is too much movement in that part of the screen and the tool is unable to keep track of the movement because it's sample size is too small.

To be honest I know very little about AVISynth scripting and using the MVTools plugin and I am appealing to anyone with previous experience to offer advice to help me improve the effects shown here. I should also mention that this was made using MVTools version 1, I know there is a newer version available but i was unable to get my script to work when using it.

Animated Camera:
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The animated camera path was created in Softimage and put into the Dodge Charger model as a simple animated attachment point. I then parented a normal garry's mod camera entity to the attachment point and the animation plays out thereby moving the camera. This is mainly just an experiment but it will be useful for my future films which involve high speed chase sequences.

Dodge Charger:
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If you haven't already downloaded it then get it here: http://www.garrysmod.org/downloads/?a=view&id=121149

Or here as part of my vehicle pack SVN: http://svn2.assembla.com/svn/mastersmiscmodels

More info on the full vehicle pack here: http://www.facepunch.com/threads/918163-Master-Chris-s-Vehicle-Pack

The sounds you hear in this video are still WIP but the final versions will be added to the vehicle pack in the next update.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• MVTools
• AVISynth
• Virtualdubmod
• Softimage
• animation
• gmod
• garrysmod
• garrys
• mod
• half
• life
• source
• engine
• 1969
• dodge
• charger

[Greatdictator]

Would it be possible for you to create a Stool that can make these sort of camera movement on vehicles maybe ? Cause these would be very usefull in chase scenes (which i am workign on currently )

[mynamedosntmatter]

@Greatdictator I'm afraid not. 1) I don't know anything about lua coding 2) This requires an animated attachment point to be added to the model, it can't just be put onto any model at any time. 3) I'm not doing anything related to Garry's Mod any more, i've moved on and i'm too busy with university.

[deathguy56]

its a bit boxy...

[mynamedosntmatter]

@deathguy56 Please elaborate.

[deathguy56]

@mynamedosntmatter you could make t have a bit more curves in the body, like on the front it seems like a long rectangle.

[mynamedosntmatter]

@deathguy56 The Charger model has been updated since this video was released, you will probably find the newer one in the download more to your liking.

[DMGaina]

The shot at 00:29 is outstanding! I really really really love this!

[lanktdk]

cool man:D



[LemonadoHD]

@mynamedosntmatter i dont hear the sounds when im driving.I got hl2,hl2 ep1,hl2 ep2,i dont know whats going on!Help me!

[deserthawk48]

That's pretty awesome man, it will be cool if you can change the color

[taz275]

Now i have a reason for reinstalling Gmod awesome addon bro

[Noobkilla99786]

Can you kinda simple it down on how you got the camera animations to be like that? I read the description, but its a bit advanced. Can you explain?

[elmikkycz]

iam download this but i dont have a sounds :( if you now how i can have sounds,this is my steam -elmikky

[munfmunf4boisdinner]

you do some freakin amazing camera work 0.0

[deathguy56]

@mynamedosntmatter thank you much appreciated. its looks like a great car, i dont know why i was holding back... shurly wasnt the boxy look to it