Tools for machinima

[superlou]

So, based on someone's Reddit post, I got curious about using KSP for making a space machinima. As any reasonable person would do, I started writing before I knew what the game was capable of from a film maker's perspective. From what I've found, there's a mod to change the textures of Kerbals so they can be a little easier to identify. I've seen people get pretty creative with stock parts to make both interior and exterior sets.

I was wondering, though, is it possible to control gestures or expressions of Kerbals? I've been googling, but haven't found anything definitive saying it can or can't be done. Anyone interested in am original(-ish) plot based machinima?

Thanks,

Louis

[Plume & Akakak]

Hello Superlou,

I can't point you to the mods you're looking for, but I'm sure other members of this community will be able to help you.

I just wanted to make a suggestion, from the perspective of a video-artist who has also "shot" films in video games environments.

Starting with a script is not necessarily the most reasonable way. Why not take it the other way round, and first fiddle around with the game to explore its functionalities ? Learn what your tool is capable and incapable of.

Methinks that limitations can prove to be creative assets : flaws that can be used, limits that can help you not to spread thin, barriers that you can either admit as your framework or try to by-pass with ingenuity. Lots of fun along the way. Much more amusing than running after (sometimes imaginary) mods, in my opinion.

Flexibility, lad. Dance with your program. You chose KSP like someone opts for a particular camera. It will be your primary material, don't try to bend it to your wishes. Reveal it and use its distinctive characteristics.

[superlou]

Hi Plume, thanks for the feedback! I meant the reasonable bit tongue-in-cheek. I've played KSP casually for a while, so have a decent idea what's capable from a vanilla game play standpoint. It sounds like I should play around with it as a "camera" for a while.

[Xacktar]

You may find this interesting.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/130663-1-0-4-Kerbal-Animation-Suite-Development-Thread

[Plume & Akakak]

Oh, regarding camera : without mods, you can at least tweak the speed of the zoom and rotation in KSP's settings.cfg file.

Look for these lines and toy with their values :

FLT_CAMERA_ORBIT_SENS = 0.04

FLT_CAMERA_ZOOM_SENS = 0.5

Tried it for a video where I wanted a very slow zoom and rotation.

Changing the "zoom sensibility" value worked with the default keys (numpad+/numpad-). However, using the arrows keys didn't reflect the new value of the cam's "orbit sensibility". Had to plug a gamepad to make it work.

Cheers

[superlou]

That animation suite looks really in depth. Not sure if the Kerbals faces are rigged for it, but I wonder if you could map mouth phonemes to hotkeys to animate speaking.