Looking to make a l4d2 movie

[biggest_kid]

Hey guys recently picked up garys mod in a steam sale, as i was told it would probably be the best tool to achieve what i have in mind.

Anyway i have recently stopped mapping for css, and decided i wanted to make a short(2-4min) movie based on l4d2. I hadnt seen this done before until i stumbled onto [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjfdEe6-dKM&feature=related]this youtube video.[/url] Now im not sure how exactly the author accomplished that, or what tools he used, but that is the sort of short movie/film im going for.

So i guess my question is, would garys mod be able to do something along those lines?(even if not to the same level as that movie) If not what would u guys suggest i use to do it with?

Thanks for any help,
big

[revan740]

That video you posted is the official trailer for the game. It's the intro to the game when you launch it, same as L4D2. Which means the "author" is Valve.

[Smartlord]

Well I'm no expert but you could possibly make a video along the lines of that trailer by using Gmod and learning to animate models using a modelling program

But that's a professional quality movie created by Valve themselves and it's unlikely you could do something that looks that nice

[OneFourth]

They also use a modern build of Source Filmmaker combined with imported animation from Maya and high res textures using the now taken out mat_picmip -10 command.

Short answer: Red Bull and H.A.T. Addon

[biggest_kid]

Ahh ok didnt know that was the game's trailer, that explains why its so good. But i dont need it to be that good, i was just using that movie as an example of what i wanted to do.

So im still tossing up between doing this in gmod or just using the l4d2 authoring tools. What do you guys think?

Hmm dont know what any of that means OneFourth, could you please explain?

Thanks so far,
big

[Smartlord]

[QUOTE=biggest_kid;34006484]Ahh ok didnt know that was the game's trailer, that explains why its so good. But i dont need it to be that good, i was just using that movie as an example of what i wanted to do.

So im still tossing up between doing this in gmod or just using the l4d2 authoring tools. What do you guys think?

Hmm dont know what any of that means OneFourth, could you please explain?

Thanks so far,
big[/QUOTE]
First of all signing your posts is unnecessary

second of all, he's naming addons you'll need to do it

To make it look nearly as nice as the one in the trailer you'd need Source Filmmaker (a program unavailable to anyone who isn't Valve) and very good modelling skills and since it seems you don't have those he named simple addons that can approximate similar reults

[biggest_kid]

Well i have intermediate modeling skills, but no animation skills in my modeling program(3ds max). And what exactly do i need modeling skills for to accomplish this?

And yeh i figured out they were addons after some research, though i cant figure out what the Redbull addon is.

Also are all the l4d2 animations available in gmod? Such as the smokers tongue shooting out and the boomer vomitting etc etc.

Thanks,
big

[E X C L]

Try cinema4d or 3dsmax.
Simply import the models you need.

[editline]2nd January 2012[/editline]

also don't sign your posts.

[Sylerr]

That video isn't made in Left 4 dead or on the source engine, probably in a program like 3ds max or cinema4d.

[biggest_kid]

And what is the Redbull addon? I still cant find it or a description of it anywhere.

Also are all the l4d2 animations available in gmod? Such as the smokers tongue shooting out and the boomer vomitting etc etc.

[Jackpody]

It's not an addon you silly goose.
[img]http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1507/st_redbull_f.jpg[/img]

[BreakinBenny]

[QUOTE=biggest_kid;34008971]Also are all the l4d2 animations available in gmod? Such as the smokers tongue shooting out and the boomer vomitting etc etc.[/QUOTE]
Nopey-dopey. Those animations were made in a newer version of Source and would likely make The Orange Box crash or gain lag because the old version doesn't like animations from its successor, and no, the vomit from the Boomer and Smoke from the Smoker are particle effects (that Garry's Mod doesn't seem to have support for, yet. But one [I]could[/I] try making a custom "particles_manifest.txt" and copy all the content written in the other games's manifests into the single one)

Also, why in the hay would you sign your posts??! You'd [I]only[/I] need to sign if you make a new message on a user on Wikia
[QUOTE=Sylerr;34010078]That video isn't made in Left 4 dead or on the source engine, probably in a program like 3ds max or cinema4d.[/QUOTE]
WHAT? If you'd think they didn't use the Source Engine to make that, why can they move around during the recording of the clip and how can they shoot without expert thirdperson? For example, the Tank ripping a chunk of rock from the wall is scripted as a special effect, the vomit that Bill picks up and rubs on Francis's vest is also special animating.

Also, if they used Cinema4D or anything like that L4D wouldn't have been on DirectX 9 or released in 2008. That would have been like, in 2014, when Valve had moved up to DirectX 11 (Not that they are [I]going[/I] to leave DirectX 9 or even DX9Ex (DirectX 9 on DirectX 10 hardware)

[Smartlord]

[QUOTE=biggest_kid;34008971]Well i have intermediate modeling skills, but no animation skills in my modeling program(3ds max). And what exactly do i need modeling skills for to accomplish this?

And yeh i figured out they were addons after some research, though i cant figure out what the Redbull addon is.

Also are all the l4d2 animations available in gmod? Such as the smokers tongue shooting out and the boomer vomitting etc etc.

Thanks,
big[/QUOTE]
If I remember correctly you can import animated models into Gmod and make movies with them

[Korpor4l]

Really what you need to make free amateur home Garry's Mod movies ([URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYWkdw_Reh0"]classic example[/URL]) is a game video recorder/screen recorder, video editor, audio editor (if you want to edit sounds), and everything included in Garry's Mod (phys gun, etc). For Video/screen recorders I recommend either [URL="http://www.fraps.com/"]Fraps[/URL] (great quality, limited capture time) or [URL="http://www.wegame.com/"]Wegame[/URL] (lower quality, no limit to capture), for video editor use Windows Movie Maker if you have Windows (if you have a Mac, I don't know what video editing software it has), and for audio editor use [URL="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/"]Audacity[/URL]. You may find all the audio clips used in Left 4 Dead 2 in "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\sound" or wherever you have Steam Installed. ("C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead\sound" if you don't have Left 4 Dead 2).
You can either record while you "act" in Garry's Mod or pose characters and take a picture, repeat (stop-motion) and edit it all in the video editor.

Other than that... Garry's Mod can be used for playing a large variety of different mods like Zombie, Trouble in Terrorist Town, Sandbox, etc.

[Sphinxa279]

[QUOTE=Korpor4l;34044502]Really what you need to make free amateur home Garry's Mod movies ([URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYWkdw_Reh0"]classic example[/URL]) is a game video recorder/screen recorder, video editor, audio editor (if you want to edit sounds), and everything included in Garry's Mod (phys gun, etc). For Video/screen recorders I recommend either [URL="http://www.fraps.com/"]Fraps[/URL] (great quality, limited capture time) or [URL="http://www.wegame.com/"]Wegame[/URL] (lower quality, no limit to capture), for video editor use Windows Movie Maker if you have Windows (if you have a Mac, I don't know what video editing software it has), and for audio editor use [URL="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/"]Audacity[/URL]. You may find all the audio clips used in Left 4 Dead 2 in "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\sound" or wherever you have Steam Installed. ("C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead\sound" if you don't have Left 4 Dead 2).
You can either record while you "act" in Garry's Mod or pose characters and take a picture, repeat (stop-motion) and edit it all in the video editor.

Other than that... Garry's Mod can be used for playing a large variety of different mods like Zombie, Trouble in Terrorist Town, Sandbox, etc.[/QUOTE]

You sounds like a top notch machinima creator, windows movie maker and fraps, I would love to see more of your stuff :downs:

[Jackpody]

[QUOTE=sphinxa279;34045366]You sounds like a top notch machinima creator, windows movie maker and fraps, I would love to see more of your stuff :downs:[/QUOTE]

Oh come on, man. This is the bare bones of stuff you need for your videos. Pretty much everyone started out with this setup, you shouldn't expect OP to go out and waste his money on editing programs or screen recorders if this is not what he wants to do (in the end). Like Christ, korpor4l was just trying to help. No need to go all sarcasm on him.

[BreakinBenny]

Ah and, you "may" want to ask MaxOfS2D for some resources he can get you right [URL="http://source.maxofs2d.net/index.php"]here[/URL]. There's Bonemerger, Actor Manager and... other stuff like actor teleporting, the rest requires a modelling program.

[Sylerr]

[QUOTE=BenjaminTennison;34010726]Nopey-dopey. Those animations were made in a newer version of Source and would likely make The Orange Box crash or gain lag because the old version doesn't like animations from its successor, and no, the vomit from the Boomer and Smoke from the Smoker are particle effects (that Garry's Mod doesn't seem to have support for, yet. But one [I]could[/I] try making a custom "particles_manifest.txt" and copy all the content written in the other games's manifests into the single one)

Also, why in the hay would you sign your posts??! You'd [I]only[/I] need to sign if you make a new message on a user on Wikia

WHAT? If you'd think they didn't use the Source Engine to make that, why can they move around during the recording of the clip and how can they shoot without expert thirdperson? For example, the Tank ripping a chunk of rock from the wall is scripted as a special effect, the vomit that Bill picks up and rubs on Francis's vest is also special animating.

Also, if they used Cinema4D or anything like that L4D wouldn't have been on DirectX 9 or released in 2008. That would have been like, in 2014, when Valve had moved up to DirectX 11 (Not that they are [I]going[/I] to leave DirectX 9 or even DX9Ex (DirectX 9 on DirectX 10 hardware)[/QUOTE]

Sure you could make this in a heavily modified source version since source is good for videos games but horrible for cinematic style movies like that and I believe pretty much inpossible without modifiing it a lot.

It would be way easier for valve to just do it in something like 3dsmax.

[BreakinBenny]

Valve used Source Filmmaker to make those intros and cinematics, Sylerr. And the models are and were made in Maya, they used 3dsmax too, but that was when they were still doing Half Life 1 and CS 1.6 in GoldSrc.

What would people expect otherwise? Playing video games IN 3dsmax?

[biggest_kid]

Yeh i dont think i will be doing this in gmod anymore. The phys gun is extremely crap(ie hard to pose) and half the time i end up stuffing up my pose and then cant revert to the original which absolutely sucks. Also you cant pose fingers and the animation using the HAT tool looks extremely un-natural.

All in all an inadequate program for what i wish to achieve.

[BreakinBenny]

Have you tried holding down Shift and E (USE key by default)? It makes the prop/ragdoll snap and make it easier to adjust

[biggest_kid]

Makes it snap to what? Coz i just tried it then and didnt notice anything

[BreakinBenny]

Then try by moving your mouse around [I]while[/I] holding Sprint and USE... or something! And make sure you aim at a prop/ragdoll before holding Sprint + USE, check these videos out:

[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDoarTCUxUA&feature=watch_response"]Garry's Mod Machinima Tutorial: Phys Gun Basics[/URL]
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsvhrrbVbpI"]Greenscreening for Spaceships or other[/URL]
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5dPe0PFGO0&feature=relmfu"]Making Garry's Mod movies or Machinima alone and as One Man[/URL]

[biggest_kid]

Hmm actually i think my shift key is currently set to slow walk, thats probably why it doesnt work. Also, your last link links me to the same video as the 1st link.

[BreakinBenny]

Fine, I'll fix it by editing comment #23. Also, smallest_kid, set the Walk key to Left Alt instead of Left Shift. Left Shift as Walk is only for HL1/CS/L4D-styled movement where you always sprint/run by default

[Luke-N]

[QUOTE=biggest_kid;34010633]And what is the Redbull addon? I still cant find it or a description of it anywhere.

Also are all the l4d2 animations available in gmod? Such as the smokers tongue shooting out and the boomer vomitting etc etc.[/QUOTE]
Wow you didn't know what Redbull was?

[biggest_kid]

@Luke-N: Haha no i knew wat redbull was, but i thought he was referring to an addon called redbull.

Ok so i have a few more questions.

-Is it possible to pose the fingers of the l4d2 models?
-I want to make rochelle hold a clipboard, but right now her hand is about 10cm away from it and that is as close as it can go. So is it possible to turn off collisions of certain models?
-Also im using the HAT beta 2(coz i dont know how to use SVN to get the latest version) but whenever i play the animation it makes the whole game go extremely laggy until i stop the animation. Any ideas why this might be happening?

[BreakinBenny]

[QUOTE=biggest_kid;34084796]I Have a few more questions:

-Is it possible to pose the fingers of the l4d2 models?
-I want to make Rochelle hold a clipboard, but right now her hand is about 10cm away from it and that is as close as it can go. So is it possible to turn off collisions of certain models?
[/QUOTE]
Question 1: Of course! Put on Finger Poser on your Toolgun and aim at the hands of the L4D Characters. This works with ANY model that has fingerpose support

Question 2: I'm surprised you haven't figured [I]that[/I] out yet, put No Collide on the Toolgun and shoot the clipboard, then shoot Rochelle. After that you can weld it to her hand

[biggest_kid]

Ok that worked thanks a heap Benjamin.

The only thing is now, that whenever i go to exit the game it freezes and i have to bring up the Task Manager to shut down gmod. Any idea why this is happening?

Also my HAT tool isnt working anymore. It wont let me add in new frames. Any idea why?