Establishing and Evaluating Cinematography Principles in a Third Person Computer Game
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EXAMENSARBETE INOM DATATEKNIK, AVANCERAD NIVÅ, 30 HP STOCKHOLM, SVERIGE 2020 Establishing and Evaluating Cinematography Principles in a Third Person Computer Game NATHAN BHAT KTH SKOLAN FÖR ELEKTROTEKNIK OCH DATAVETENSKAP Establishing and Evaluating Cinematography Principles in a Third Person Computer Game Nathan Bhat May 20, 2020 Swedish Title: Etablering och utv¨ardingav cinematografiska principer i datorspel med tredjepersonsper- spektiv Author: Nathan Bhat Master's degree project in Computer Science Master of Science in Engineering in Computer Science program Supervisor: Bj¨ornThuresson Examiner: Tino Weinkauf Host Company: Avalanche Studios Group 1 Abstract As the computer game industry continues to develop, there is a growing demand for games to look as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Because of this, use of cinematographic principles in computer games has become commonplace. This study aims to evaluate and compare cinematography principles regarding framing, distance from the player avatar, and moving the camera when the player avatar is obstructing the view on screen in a third person computer game. Important cinematographic principles were chosen for comparison based on previous research and suggestions by professional game developers. A qualitative user study was performed, where seven expert level participants tested, compared and discussed different camera methods that fulfilled different cinematographic principles in a test scenario. Findings showed that there was a preference towards framing that gave more focus to the surrounding scene rather than the player avatar, that using classic cinematography principles may make the player avatar appear too close, that an ellipsoidal camera orbit may give a stronger sense of stability than a spherical camera orbit, and that players prefer to be able to frame the camera manually to suit them rather than an automatic solution. Sammanfattning Med datorspelsbranchens fortsatta utveckling f¨oljer en v¨axande efterfr˚aganf¨or spel att se s˚aestetiskt tilltalande ut som m¨ojligt. I detta syfte har bruk av cinematografiska principer inom datorspel blivit vanligt. Den h¨ar studien ¨amnar utv¨ardera och j¨amf¨ora cinematografiska principer i f¨orh˚allandetill komposition, avst˚andtill spelarens avatar, och f¨orflyttning av kameran n¨ar spelarkarakt¨aren skymmer vyn i datorspel med tredjepersonsperspektiv. Viktiga cinematografiska principer att j¨amf¨ora valdes utifr˚antidigare forskning p˚a omr˚adetoch f¨orslag fr˚anyrkesprofessionella spelutvecklare. En kvalitativ anv¨andarstudie genomf¨ordes, d¨ar sju deltagare p˚aexpertniv˚atestade, j¨amf¨orde och diskuterade olika kamerametoder som uppfyllde olika cinematografiska principer i ett testscenario. Studien fann att det f¨orekom en preferens f¨or kompositioner som gav mer fokus ˚atomgivningen ¨an spelaravataren, att bruk av klassiska cinematografiska principer kan resultera i att spelaravataren upplevs f¨or n¨ara, att en ellipsoidisk kamerabana kan ge en h¨ogre k¨ansla av stabilitet ¨an en sf¨arisk kamerabana, och att spelare f¨oredrar att kunna styra kamerans komposition manuellt framf¨or en automatisk l¨osning. 2 Establishing and Evaluating Cinematography Principles in a Third Person Computer Game Nathan Bhat May 20, 2020 1 Introduction When developing games and interactive media there may be cinematography constraints that the designer would like to impose on the behavior of the camera. However, in games it is of the utmost importance that the player does not get disoriented by either having camera cuts or by losing sight of the player avatar and any external objectives, therefore cinematography in games often differs from cinematography in film. In games, player immersion is also of extreme impor- tance, therefore the camera must behave in ways that do not break that immersion. This leads to a prob- lem with no optimal solution where both technical and cinematographic constraints should be fulfilled. Figure 1: This research investigates the use of principles of cinematography in third person computer games and 1.1 Definition of concepts evaluates them based on visual appeal and player experi- ence. The following is a set of definitions of relevant con- cepts for this research project. 1.1.1 The Rule of Thirds A cinematography principle that generally creates pleasing composition regarding framing is that of the \Rule of Thirds". As stated by [Heiderich, 2018], the rule of thirds is about placement of key objects or actors in a shot to achieve a balanced composition. If one were to split the screen horizontally into three 3 1.1.3 Offset from player The term “offset" in this paper refers to the dis- tance the virtual camera object is from the player avatar. Sphere-based offset in this paper means that the offset is constant, so the camera object's position is locked to being on the surface of a hypothetical sphere around the player avatar. This can also be seen as a spherical orbit around the player avatar. Figure 2: A picture showing a rule of thirds overlay and a Ellipsoid-based offset refers to using an ellipsoid in- phi-grid overlay on a 16:9 aspect ratio rectangle. The red solid lines denote the rule of thirds grid, whereas the blue stead of a sphere, which could be useful for example dashed lines denote the phi-grid. The points at which two if the desired camera should have a larger offset when same colored lines intersect define the crash points of the aimed at the avatar's shoulder to maintain a sense of respective grids. distance from the avatar. 1.1.4 Camera flipping equal pieces, and then vertically in three equal pieces, one would result in a 3 × 3 grid with four intersec- If the player avatar is aligned with a certain side of tions between grid lines on screen as seen in Figure the screen according to the rule of thirds, there may 2. These four intersections are referred to as \crash be a situation where the player avatar is obstructing points". To follow the rule of thirds one would align the view of some external object. To solve this the key objects or actors with any of the crash points method of \camera flipping” is introduced. In this on screen and have longer objects, such as an ac- paper camera flipping refers to moving the camera in tor's body or the horizon, flow between crash points. a way that moves the player avatar from one side of Generally all intersections would not have to be used the screen to the opposite side of the screen in hori- at once, and by aligning the key objects with dif- zontal direction. This camera flipping behavior could ferent crash points different dramatic effects can be be manual in that the player uses an input device to achieved. decide when the camera should flip, or it could be automatic, where the system would try to determine when the player might want the camera to flip. 1.1.2 The Phi-grid 1.2 Problem definition The objective of this study was to investigate tech- The Phi-grid, is a similar principle to the rule of niques for solving common challenges when creat- thirds, and the only difference has to do with the ing interactive third person camera systems that are placement of the vertical and horizontal grid lines. meant to be aesthetically pleasing and practical in As opposed to the rule of thirds, the placement of games. The biggest challenge this study aims to over- grid lines is defined using the golden ratio instead of come is that of framing, with questions such as where thirds, as presented by [Svobodova et al., 2014]. The should the player avatar be in the frame, and what comparison of the phi-grid to the rule of thirds on a distance should the camera be from the player avatar. 16:9 screen can be seen in Figure 2. Because cinematography is subjective the metric used 4 to evaluate this should be the visual appeal as well Together, answering these questions should give in- as the quality of experience from the player perspec- sight to designing an in game camera for a third per- tive. Besides this the technical solution for the cam- son game, and what methods provide a high visual era should not be performance heavy as it needs to appeal as well as a high quality of experience from be able to run in real time, and be stable over a long the player perspective. Using these insights should period of time. help solve the problem presented. To research this topic an \on-foot" camera system The different methods selected for comparison were (for when the player avatar is standing, walking or based on the background and research section of this running) was developed. This camera system uses thesis, as well as suggestions given by professional certain camera movement methods, to fulfill the de- game developers. sign constraints of: framing, offset, frame coherence and accessibility, as well as fulfilling the technical re- quirement of being performance effective. 1.4 Keywords Cinematography, games, cameras, third-person 1.3 Research Questions How does the rule of thirds framing compare to the phi-grid framing in regards to visual appeal and qual- 1.5 Contributions ity of experience? This research question is meant to give insight to how This study evaluates and compares cinematographic different framing methods perform from an aesthetic principles and their practical implementation in a and experience perspective in a third person game. computer game based on visual appeal and quality of The framing here refers to where on screen the player experience. Specifically this study researches meth- avatar is placed, more specifically the head of the ods of framing the player avatar, setting the offset player avatar model. from the player avatar, and moving the camera to flip the player avatar from one side of the screen to How does a sphere based offset compare to an ellipsoid the other, horizontally.