Looking for more info about making cinematic videos

[Art of Simulation]

Hey all!

I'm practicing with creating some cinematic footages of DCS, but I'm feeling like I'm missing some information or missing some kind of tips or tricks others are using and I'm probably not aware of.

I've searched Google yet, and followed some tutorials on YouTube on how to create cinematics - but looks like everyone is doing it in another way. Some prefer doing it on a server, some just watching the client track file and taking different camera angles and screen recording it. I also read something about AVI Tool. Looks great, especially to get your video into 60FPS. But I've tried it and looks like it doesn't do anything with zoom in/out and FOV controls unfortunately..

I've also read the thread with hotkeys for nice camera options: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/95008-dcs-cameras-views-and-video-recording

Now I've tried it all out, and yes, in general, it looks great. But I'm still feeling I'm missing some kind of tricks or some equipment to get nice angles and smooth movements.

For example, in some videos I see people who (I guess in free cam mode) are flying next to the aircraft, and "flying over the aircraft" to another angle, into a smooth movement. Or just smoothly changing from angle. Or I see others doing some nice camera roll. Haven't found out how to do such a camera roll or smooth cam movement with my mouse or numpad keys.

My guess is, that the ones with very smooth camera movements and very dynamic angles are using TrackIR and thus "filming" with their head movement. Is this true? I'm not having TrackIR and so moving the camera with my mouse. I've set the mouse sensivity to its lowest, but it looks so shaky, so static and not dynamic and smooth.

Also, do you guys still nowadays use the AVI Tool? Or do you use video editing software to convert the video to 60FPS format? As it looks like the AVI tool (actually the track file) just ignores all my FOV and zoom in/out input.

Is it a real must to have TrackIR to create stunning cinematics? Or is it possible to do this by mouse as well? Like I would like to know why I'm facing some limitations with camera movements, others seem not to have.

As an example I've taken a cinematic video, and specify my questions on the things I see: 

On 0:22 seconds, I see some slow smooth camera movement. I'm not able to achieve this with my mouse (too shaky, too chaotic). How to achieve this?

On 0:24 there's a zoom in (or FOV change). When I use the numpad keys for this zooming in/out is way to fast.

On 1:16 the camera gets moved while flying together with the jet. Again a very nice slow movement, which I'm not able to produce by mouse or numpad.

So it feels like I know the basics, but missing some tricks (or equipment like TrackIR)?

Would be happy to receive your answers! And thanks for your effort for reading my questions

 

 

[Art of Simulation]

I've just ordered TrackIR, so I can try it myself. I can always return it if it's not what I expected, and maybe it's nice to use in the cockpit while gaming as well. Will let you know if it worked for me.

[Dscross]

I've done a few videos using dcs. None have been perfect. It's a learning process. Let me share with you some  things I've learned recently.

Triggers. 

Resort each scene at least twice. 

Just because you can't do it with the airplane, dosent mean you can't film it, use a little editing and make it look good. But seriously, reshoot, Rosholt, Rosholt. 

You'll never get the AI to do what you want in just the right way. Use triggers to force things to happen the way you want. 

Sometimes you'll need to make the explosion bigger. 

Name you units for the mission so you know who everyone is. Organization pays off big time when you want things to happen or are scripting something to happen. 

If you have any questions, or need advice or whatever, here's a link to my squadron discord. Drop by anytime, and I'll do what I can to help.

https://discord.gg/JuBydbsfDn