How to make Kerbals smile/not smile?

[Andrew Hansen]

I'm making a cinematic, and I want to have a bunch of Kerbals in a meeting discussing what they might to evacuate Kerbin (a killer asteroid was going to hit it). I don't want all the Kerbals happy and smiling for this meeting, but how do I prevent them from doing that?

In space, they're happy. At KSC, they're happy. Everywhere, they're happy. What do I do? Is there some mod that lets you change whether a Kerbal is happy or not, or a stock way to do it?

They don't have to be scared or sad, just neutral. Also, for your information, these Kerbals are in chairs. If I put them inside the ship, they're neutral, but when then in chairs, they're having the time of their life.

EDIT: I just decided to make the Kerbals stand for the scene. It worked out OK. The best way to make them frown are to have things explode near by them. Most Kerbals like to be neutral. If you want Kerbals to smile, simply hack gravity.

Edited June 30, 2014 by Andrew Hansen

[Geschosskopf]

Hmmm, I'd be interested in hearing from folks who already do this sort of thing. You might ask Felbourn as he makes cinematographic stuff, often quite complex. Check out his Project Odyssey http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/76021-Project-Odyssey. Most of the videos are him explaining his rocket designs and modding, but the cinematographic stuff (which he never seems to explain) is the last few minutes of most of the videos. But IIRC he's on vacation for another week or so.

In the meantime, you might experiment. Use Kerbals with different mixes of stupidity and bravery. Provide some off-screen stress-creating things like rockets firing, things exploding, or put the entire set in orbit and have it reentering as you're filming on the inside. The Kerbals with the lower bravery scores tend to frown/scream a lot when such things are going on.

[Andrew Hansen]

Thanks Geschosskkpof for your answer.

Apparently, having less stupidity will result in Kerbals being more scared, according to the wiki. I'm going to download the crew mod thing and create a bunch of zero-stupidity Kerbals.

Also, those cinematics by Felbourn are amazing! What an inspiration! Thanks for sharing them.

[problemecium]

I find that my Kerbals frequently won't stop gaping in horror whenever in low Munar orbit. Dunno how much that helps; maybe you can have them "in a building" that's secretly orbiting Mun?

[Drew Kerman]

the only thing I know how to do is make them smile on command, and you can do that on the ground by time warping just a little

Felbourn's done some great work with KerbCam as a tracking tool so he can film multiple kerbals moving about and combine the footage so two or more kerbals are moving around in a single scene together. He's probably gotten better at it but in ep2 (where I'm at) you can see the vertical line separating different takes as the camera pans around. It's got to be tough keeping lighting conditions the same for each take. Still, great application of the technique

Edited June 30, 2014 by Gaiiden

[The Jedi Master]

Kerbals frown when something explodes nearby.

[Andrew Hansen]

the only thing I know how to do is make them smile on command, and you can do that on the ground by time warping just a little

Felbourn's done some great work with KerbCam as a tracking tool so he can film multiple kerbals moving about and combine the footage so two or more kerbals are moving around in a single scene together.

Thanks! That'll be very helpful! I've also learned that disabling gravity will cause Kerbals to smile.

And yes, what you described is exactly what I'm hoping to do for the scenes in my upcoming cinematic. That's why I love Kerbcam.

Kerbals frown when something explodes nearby.

Yes, they sure do. But often, when something explodes nearby, it fills my room with smoke. This is definitely the most reliable way to get them to frown.

[Kryxal]

Exploding nearby ... all I can say is, MOAR BOOSTERS! (one on top of another, to make the bottom one cook off)

[iStickyDuck]

High G's make them sad