Question: "Cinematic mode" for the VAB/SPH?

[KristopherKerblumbus]

Okay, so this is something that I've only seen a handful of times, so I'm not sure if I'm even in the right section--if this is stock or mod behavior, or just clever use of photoshop/Blender/something else. If I'm a mile out in left field, someone please correct me

Basically, what I'm looking for is a way to remove all the toolbars and panels from the VAB, and (possibly--this would be INCREDIBLE icing on the cake if I could do this) remove the non-selected parts going transparent if they're not part of a craft. Purely for shots/beautification of course. Is there a mod that does this? Like I said, I'm not exactly requesting a mod, so I don't think this should go in the mod request section, but if I'm wrong, please feel free to fix me!

Edited October 19, 2015 by KristopherKerblumbus

[RA3236]

Actually, not a bad idea. I have seen some of this before so I will look it up.

[MedwedianPresident]

Actually, not a bad idea. I have seen some of this before so I will look it up.

[Drew Kerman]

Okay, so this is something that I've only seen a handful of times, so I'm not sure if I'm even in the right section--if this is stock or mod behavior, or just clever use of photoshop/Blender/something else. If I'm a mile out in left field, someone please correct me

I think you mean photos like this?

In which case here is the info you're looking for (scroll down to bottom of the post). tl;dr - it's composite imaging. I've since refined my methods, and things are a lot easier now with WASD Editor Cam & No Offset Limits - I no longer need to take multiple shots of multiple loaded vessels. I can load the vessel once, place things where I want and snap a single image from any angle. I still need to do multiple images from that position to remove the UI though. On that note I also realized it's easy to get rid of the staging menu by putting everything into a single stage, then grabbing and dragging it down out of sight and taking the screenshot. I also make use of the Merge feature to get two complete craft in a photo like this:

In this case I added a large truss to the craft on the right, then merged in the craft on the left which I had saved re-rooted via the fuel tank (instead of the probe core within the fairing) so I could attach it to the truss. Then used offset to move the entire thing to the right of the flag, then used offset to move the truss w/attached second craft outside the VAB, then offset the second craft from the truss back into position inside the VAB. Note that positions are always relative to the root part - so if I were to rotate or move the craft on the right, the one on the left would rotate too. So when you get down to doing something like this which started out as a completely staged vehicle before I tore it apart with the offset tool:

You need to be very logistical in how you move things around to place them - do it in the right order so you don't end up moving a part you already placed where/how you want it when you adjust another part. I kind of enjoy figuring it out - it's sort of like a puzzle.

[KristopherKerblumbus]

Gaiiden! Thanks for the reply This is going to be incredibly helpful. I was thinking of DLing the WASD editor cam for a while now, and you've just provided the impetus I needed to get it done. Thanks for clearing that up.

[Drew Kerman]

use the UI to remap the "run" key, I use left-alt. You might find it too twitchy under normal settings so I dial back the acceleration to 15 and up the run multiplier to 7. The default spacebar key is an editor shortcut the snaps the part you have selected for translation back to its original position