Live action leaderheads

Rob (R8XFT)

Ancient Briton
Retired Moderator
Joined
Aug 11, 2002
Messages
10,871
Location
Leeds (UK)
Would it be feasible to use live action footage as leaderheads? I'm not suggesting for one moment that it would be cheap to set up...but if, for example, someone were filmed acting out the different moods/saying the various requirements for the dialogue, could this be then integrated into the game as a live action leaderhead?
 
That sounds brilliant! I'd never have thought of that. Sure hope it does turn out to be possible, as that would make a lot of civilization mods so much better. Seems like that would be sort of an intermediate step between inanimate leaderheads and custom 3D leaderheads until Ekmek does his tutorial.

I don't think it should be done with audio though, as we already have a process for adding custom speech to custom leaders.
 
That sounds brilliant! I'd never have thought of that. Sure hope it does turn out to be possible, as that would make a lot of civilization mods so much better. Seems like that would be sort of an intermediate step between inanimate leaderheads and custom 3D leaderheads until Ekmek does his tutorial.
I agree, though suspect the lack of response indicates it's not possible at the moment.

I don't think it should be done with audio though, as we already have a process for adding custom speech to custom leaders.
If I was arranging for someone to do the action, why have them mute and then go through the hassle of adding sound? They might as well do the speech in addition to the actions.
 
The problem is that first, you wouldn't be able to use movie files to use in the leaderscenes I don't think, and I don't know how you would go about using a frame-by-frame texture approach, which I imagine would take an insane amount of space (and perhaps time to make) even if it were possible. I'm skeptical of the possibility, but you never know.

Personally I think it would look weird. Not only because it would have a really innapropriate feel about it, but it would be hard to make the cuts so that after the actor does his motion, he seamlessly goes back to his original position (which in 3d, happens naturally because of the nature of key frame based animation). So it would look like a bunch of playback videos playing in cues and not like you're actually in front of a leader.

So yeah, I wouldn't get really optimistic about it.
 
Perhaps as a step in the right direction, it would be good to be able to distinguish a "look" based on what the leader is meant to be intimating. Let's say, for example, I have a leader I've created a static leaderhead for in Poser. I can change (in Poser) the expression and stance quite easily; therefore, it'd be a case of "if character is greeting you, show picture A", "if character declares war show picture B", and so on.
 
Perhaps as a step in the right direction, it would be good to be able to distinguish a "look" based on what the leader is meant to be intimating. Let's say, for example, I have a leader I've created a static leaderhead for in Poser. I can change (in Poser) the expression and stance quite easily; therefore, it'd be a case of "if character is greeting you, show picture A", "if character declares war show picture B", and so on.

Isn't that what the game itself does when you set Leaderhead Quality = Low in the Options menu? I remember I always had to set that on my old computer to keep it from overheating, and I always ended up going to war with Darius and Alexander. When I met them they would be in one position and kept that position as long as I was friendly or indifferent towards them, but when they became guarded or hostile they were in different positions - clenched fists, frowns, sneers in Alexander's case, that sort of thing.
 
Ah, good ole Rob. A visionary, as always. Maybe its time yo update the old Goldflash Civ 3 Leaderhead with a Live action version?
 
I think would be a good idea... if you can find software to do it, and if the software + video camera aren't horrendously expensive, and if you can get as many people from across the globe as needed to be your actors...

In other words, it sounds like a good idea on paper but it must be terribly hard. Possibly not even worth it as long as you can get a good 2D leaderscreen.
 
If it's possible to use video files for the different animations, maybe that could be used with a model to have animations other than the ones ingame? As I understand it now 3D leaderheads have to use animations which are existing already within the game, but if we could have the videos then maybe that's no longer a factor?
 
If it's possible to use video files for the different animations, maybe that could be used with a model to have animations other than the ones ingame? As I understand it now 3D leaderheads have to use animations which are existing already within the game, but if we could have the videos then maybe that's no longer a factor?
I thought the same thing as well. It would be the best alternative, but not ideal.

The reason I say it's not ideal is because, besides the fact that it wouldn't feel like it belongs to civ5, there would still be a problem with the cutting and making the gestures look seamless.
 
Top Bottom