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Chapter 11 Animation Composition
Not all game art movement is manufactured through animation. In many
cases digital video is used as a cut scene in the game or simulation. A cut
scene, as you may recall from Chapter 2, is a movie-like segment between
levels, scenes, or major actions in a video game that does not require player
interaction. Often, a cut scene is used to occupy the player while the game
loads a new portion of the programming. Additionally, the cut scene may be
part of the pause-and-relax structure of the game.
In most cases, video is used to tell part of the story not included in the gameplay.
A video cut scene at the end of the level may have the king presenting the hero with
treasure or being knighted. These activities would be difficult to produce in gameplay
as the player may leave the scene or otherwise act unexpectedly.
Effects or special effects are visual or mechanical additions. Visual effects
change the appearance. In first person perspective, a red color overlay of the
game world would be a visual effect of the player being injured. Visual effects
may also be integrated into cut scenes or other videos using chroma keying.
Chroma keying
involves removing a specified color, usually chroma green or
blue, from a photograph or video. A chroma screen, or green screen, is a typical way
of removing the background from a video. An actor is filmed in front of a chroma
screen, as shown in Figure 11-20. After the video footage is recorded, the chroma
screen is removed from the footage. Only the actor and any items not colored in
green remain in the video footage. An animated background can then be composited,
or layered, with the footage of the actor and items to create the final video.
A scene for a racing game might have video footage of a real car interior and
an actor with the windows of the car painted chroma green. The actor pretends to
drive the car as he or she follows the script. To take it a step farther, the actor may
be wearing a sensor for use in a mocap application. The chroma green windows are
Video and Effects
Figure 11-20.
Chroma keying
allows a different
background to
be added later.
The chroma color
seen here will be
replaced with a new
background and it
will appear as if the
model is actually
standing in front of it.
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