World in Conflict Movie Maker Tool

World in Conflict Movie Maker Tool
Q&A with Tobias Nyman (Director / Film Photographer) and Stefan Johansson (Tech Programmer)

What is the Movie Maker Tool?
STEFAN: The Movie Maker Tool is an editing mode for the regular World in Conflict client that allows you to place camera paths in the game world. It also has some independent functionality for recording video from a replay at a fixed framerate.

TOBIAS: And it’s the same tool that I used to create the in-game trailers for the game.

How does it work?
TOBIAS: Well, you place different camera-paths in a replay – covering the different situations that you want to highlight in the trailer – and then record them. It’s a very precise tool that forces you to keep track of a lot of things at once. I usually have to keep going back to the replay I want to film and tweak the camera-paths and re-record the same situation from different angles a couple of times until I’m satisfied. Then it’s just a matter of editing the footage and adding music and sound effects on it, because the Movie Maker Tool doesn’t record sound.

What are the system and software requirements?
STEFAN: It’s not very demanding. You can run the tool on any machine that can run World in Conflict, but it’s a plus if you have a good video compression codec as well.

Is the tool primarily intended for the hardcore movie makers, or can anyone use it?
TOBIAS: I think the tool is going to appeal mostly to people who’re ready to put some effort into it, but it’s of course easier for people with at least some prior knowledge of movie making and filming.

STEFAN: Essentially, anyone who’s made any machinimas before should be able to figure it out. And with the help of our manual, it should be pretty easy to figure out the basics of how the tool works

TOBIAS: And if you want to create more than just cool camera-paths for showing of – like a trailer or so – then you have to edit it, so you should have an editing program at hand. But editing programs today are easy to learn. At the end of the day editing is only about taste.

So I’ll need access to a good sound-effects library and some music too, right?
TOBIAS: Yeah, if you want explosions and music and so on. That’s the way we’ve worked with it, and the tool wasn’t intended for a public release at first – it was just a solution to enable some nifty camera work in the game world.

So I can make trailers just like yours?
TOBIAS: Yes, I’m sure you can do better! The release of this tool may expose my weak spot and get me fired!

What are some of the tool’s coolest features?
TOBIAS: It’s hard to point at just one thing. I like the shaky-cam a lot, but I love the whole idea of the tool! It’s just so cool that you can win a match, make a movie out of it and rub it in your opponents’ faces (in a friendly way of course)!

Do you have any tips for aspiring movie makers?
TOBIAS: Just to practice and to never give up. If you get an idea that you want to try – just try it! And dare to (I know – it’s a cliché) kill your darling-shots for the bigger picture.

STEFAN: Also, it might be worth remembering that running the tool in DX10 mode can make it a lot faster together with a fast compression codec.