posted 07 October 2009 08:05 PM EDT (US)
Okay now first of all, you need water on an edge of the map.
Now, lower the ground elevation so that the water gets homogeneous.
Now, know that normally I turn all of the ground around the ship and under water into black ground, but right now to make it easier for you to see I won't make it black yet.
Once the water pool is all homogeneous, with not lighter areas where ground is more visible, you have to modify it so that when you'll be in your cinematic it doesn't look like this:
As you can see, on the screenshot above there's a big lighter part of water because it's sky we see through the water instead of the ground. Therefore, you must do the following. I saw that trick while looking at the maps for The Corruptor, Vandhaal had done this for the first act. First, you'll get ground near map edge out of water like this:
Then, you'll lower the rectangular edge island so that it becomes like this:
Now look at what it gives with the ground black like if it was supposed to be (I repeat that I am not turning ground black so you can see easily). Compare with earlier horizon shot, that one only has a thin black line, a lot better than the big lighter line.
Now that the horizon problem is fixed, time to start off the boat scenery. First, take the kind of boat you want to use and enlarge it to the desired size. After enlarging it make it move.
So as you can see, a lot of ships, especially triremes, will go float when enlarged. So unless you want to make a cinematic or screenshot about the Flying Dutchman, you must place under the sea level, while in middle of the sea. So first, you'll make a rectangular island the size of your ship and at the position you'll want your ship to be. The island should look like this:
Now lower elevation to dig the rectangular island like you had done at map edge. It'll look like this:
Now place your ship in the hole and adjust it at right height that way:
Notice that you see some land sticking out on the side of the ship, but when ground will be black it'll almost be unnoticeable.
Now, time to make the land spikes that will allow to place units. You want a large land spike all dull, so take elevation brush exactly as large as the rectangular hole and get it as high as maximum.
Now lower it (reduce elevation adjusting speed to be as precise as you can). You want to adjust it at a level where even if the ship rocks, you won't see land sticking out. The perfect height is when you only see some kind of shadow, like this:
Don't worry, this shadow only appears when camera is far, when camera is close you won't see the shadow.
Now do 1 or 2 other big spikes at other areas of the ship, but remmeber you can't make a spike at the "sensor area" of the ship, the area that if you increase elevation the ship will go higher as well.
Now that you made your spikes, you can start placing units! Place whathever unit you want, you can add fire if you want the ship to be incendied, etc. If you can't place them at the ship place them on the shore and drag them there.
Now see what it gives with land black.
Sea?(Pun intended) Almost unnoticeable, even though at the right side of the ship it is more visible, there'll usually be a side that's less visible than other, but I arranged it so that the less visible side is the one at which my camera tracks will look.
Anyway, now, last thing you need to add are waves to make look the ship advancing.
Now, everything's perfect for screenshots. But for cinematics there's one thing left: having the ship row without it moves. For this, I had asked how to do that in the question thread the first day I started designing, and here's a trick HailToTheOboe gave me.
First, you'll get the ship out of the island hole. Now, you must do some triggerwork.
Trigger 1:
Effect: Move to point
Source Units: The ship
Set Area: somewhere the ship will take some seconds to reach.
Trigger 2:
Loop: Yes
Must fire some seconds after Trigger 1 so that it happens while the ship is moving.
Effect: Set animation
Source unit: The Ship
Animation name: any random name that isn't a real animation
Loop: Yes
When a unit receives a looping set animation trigger with a fake animation name, if it was doing an animation such as attacking, healing or moving, it'll continue doing that animation untill you tell him to move somewhere or work on something.
So now, you got a ship continuously rowing without moving in middle of water. You have to teleport it in your hole island. So now,
Trigger 3:
Must fire after the ship reached its destination.
Effect: Teleport units
Source unit: the ship
Set area: you'll have to do a lot of trial and error, because it's hard to choose the exact right spot so that it teleports at exact right height and position. You'll have to playtest a lot and observe if it is too high or too low, and then choose the area in editor untill it's at the right height like explained earlier, with the land spikes shadows but where ground must not stick out.
Once it's done, you're finally ready to make a screenshot or cinematic happening on a boat.
Good luck with your naval design!
-Alex_Of_Macedon
Some of my cinematics: Vinland Saga Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) The Bow of Odysseus The Final Destination of Alexander the Great
[This message has been edited by Alex_Of_Macedon (edited 10-08-2009 @ 05:08 PM).]
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