Taking Photos for adventures?

Hey guys, I have started this post because I'm curious as to how some people(especially maxis) get really great pictures for their adventures with no music pins, terraform pins, or respawn/team things next to the NPCs. I can get good photos using methods like going into terraform and/or using one of the characters in the mission as your captain in edit mode and temporarily remove the character(this way you can control what the creature does to some degree and get it RIGHT in the middle of the picture. But some good photos for adventure covers just BOGGLE MY MIND with awesomeness. This is often the case with maxis and ParkaBoy. Can you guys give me some tips for photography for adventure covers??? That would be great

BlobZoid wrote:Hey guys, I have started this post because I'm curious as to how some people(especially maxis) get really great pictures for their adventures with no music pins, terraform pins, or respawn/team things next to the NPCs. I can get good photos using methods like going into terraform and/or using one of the characters in the mission as your captain in edit mode and temporarily remove the character(this way you can control what the creature does to some degree and get it RIGHT in the middle of the picture. But some good photos for adventure covers just BOGGLE MY MIND with awesomeness. This is often the case with maxis and ParkaBoy. Can you guys give me some tips for photography for adventure covers??? That would be great

Use freecam.

Pokochan98 wrote:

BlobZoid wrote:Hey guys, I have started this post because I'm curious as to how some people(especially maxis) get really great pictures for their adventures with no music pins, terraform pins, or respawn/team things next to the NPCs. I can get good photos using methods like going into terraform and/or using one of the characters in the mission as your captain in edit mode and temporarily remove the character(this way you can control what the creature does to some degree and get it RIGHT in the middle of the picture. But some good photos for adventure covers just BOGGLE MY MIND with awesomeness. This is often the case with maxis and ParkaBoy. Can you guys give me some tips for photography for adventure covers??? That would be great

Use freecam.

What is freecam?

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 10/03/2010 22:05:04

cntrl+shift+c type in freecam , then use arow pad and scroll out, play around with it and take pictures!

AAhhh.... I knew it would be something wierd like that... THANKS MAN!

Use Freecam Ctrl+Shift+C then scroll around the Planet and take photos at the Main Parts of the Adventures but Always Pause so you can keep the Creatures or Scenery in the Right Place.

Your welcome.

You can also use the "disguise creatures as gates trick" to do some shots that don't work with actual creatures, due to bounding boxes. I did that with this picture, which by no means uses the technique to its potential. Still, for the small amount of work involved, the picture turned out well. Adding a couple rocks and some ships flying overhead could add quite a bit, if I wanted to get fancy.

JellyCup wrote:You can also use the "disguise creatures as gates trick" to do some shots that don't work with actual creatures, due to bounding boxes. I did that with this picture, which by no means uses the technique to its potential. Still, for the small amount of work involved, the picture turned out well. Adding a couple rocks and some ships flying overhead could add quite a bit, if I wanted to get fancy.

I think that's how Gelca made this one:

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 10/07/2010 19:22:16

Slyth33 wrote:

JellyCup wrote:You can also use the "disguise creatures as gates trick" to do some shots that don't work with actual creatures, due to bounding boxes. I did that with this picture, which by no means uses the technique to its potential. Still, for the small amount of work involved, the picture turned out well. Adding a couple rocks and some ships flying overhead could add quite a bit, if I wanted to get fancy.

I think that's how Gelca made this one:

Yep! :D
Also, use effects to make your thumbnails look truly epic (you may need to take more than one pic for effects like Lazer Battle).

Gelca wrote:Yep! :D
Also, use effects to make your thumbnails look truly epic (you may need to take more than one pic for effects like Lazer Battle).

You should always take more than one picture, even if you don't have effects like Lazer Battle. Then use the one that turns out best.

I agree on the use of effects. I mean, look at the left adventure thumbnail in my sig. It wouldn't have been half as good looking if I hadn't used effects. :)

Freecam is great for finding your way out of the Magical Gates!

Darkwellor wrote:Freecam is great for finding your way out of the Magical Gates!

"The Magical Gates" ?

Mr. Puzzleton's magical gates, find a key, remember?

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 10/20/2010 02:46:43

Also remember that your thumbnail doen't have to contain any actual scenery from the advenutre. You can set up an area outside the playable area with some Epic scene in it then take a picture, like on this adventure I made:

While the adventure is entirely indoors, I made a few gates disguised as spaceships and andded the gunfire effects so it looked like there was a fighter swooping down and attacking a cruiser.

This is actually a pretty common technique amongst seasoned adventure creators as well. The Bauder's Gate series uses it, for another example.

Darkwellor wrote:Mr. Puzzleton's magical gates, find a key, remember?

It's Mr. Puzzle's magical gates, not Puzzleton's.