Divinity: Original Sin 2 Bullshittery - Update #7

After a couple of days break, I'm back at it. Aiming to get this video done.

And on that front, I'm having some fun :)

The artists BewBewDingo, NervousHawk and TwistieZ have provided some lovely assets on commission. And I'm savings them in their correct folders to get started on some animations.

The second cinematic is set to explain how we got from the Merryweather prison ship to Fort Joy. I've been unpacking BewBew's ocean assets, finished a couple of weeks ago. All drawn on separate layers, as I've requested.

They can then be adjusted to make sure they're the right scale. This has been unexpectedly challenging, actually. It took me much of the early afternoon. Photoshop and After Effects have their differences and trying to figure out how to properly scale the layers, with smart layers in mind, has been tricky.

I was able to work it out though. Placing each of the layers in the correct order. Putting foreground objects at the front, and background stuff behind.

So there we have an ocean. And a series of waves for the transition from the previous animation underwater. That gives us a title screen, of sorts. That's quite nice, I think.

So since I was quite specific about what I needed on each individual layer, I'm now able to perform my next trick.

I'm able to move elements of the pictures separate from each other. Either to create an illusion of distance. Or a parallax effect if I need one. A couple of positional keyframes in the right places.

And a simple title card can end up looking pretty snazzy!

Additionally, I've been looking at the first part of the cutscene, which takes place underwater. As the Merryweather sinks and her cargo and crew are pulled down into the ocean. I need to focus on getting the timing right first, before getting too stuck into the details.

There are stock sound effects libraries that I've been browsing. Making a few purchases of things like lightning strikes, breaking wood, waves crashing, etc. And by using a lowpass audio filter I'm able to mimic the sound of someone entering the water.

A very basic example from this morning - Audio example on dropbox 

I'll add things like wood splintering, chains snapping. The general sounds of a ship coming apart under Voidwoken attack, but heard from underwater, so everything is muffled. Then debris is going to rain down past the camera. With bubbles trailing past.

That part I must absolutely leave to the very last. I must show restraint. Particle effects may be fun, but they murder the render time. Slowing down the process.

Will crack on! But I've hit the ground in a sprint.