Tilt Shift Effect? (SimCity Style!)

This is something that I've been playing around with but with no success due to my lack of photo editing software.

I'm thinking, is it possible to have an actor that displays a opaque tilt shift filter/image and constrain it over the camera?

I'm sure it would be, but I'm unable to create the filter. I'd be interested to hear what you have to say about the idea, especially if someone would be willing to donate the image!
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Comments

  • SocksSocks London, UK.Member Posts: 12,822
    edited February 2013
    The simple answer is no, although your question is sufficiently vague to allow for the fact that I haven't got a clue what you are talking about ? :)

    For example if you had a 'filter' (as an image) that you wanted to apply to something why would you want it to be opaque ? And what does 'constrain it over the camera mean' ?

    Outside of real tilt/shift the simplest way to simulate it would be with selective blurring (to create the illusion of a shallow DOF), but GameSalad is unable to do even basic filter effects.

    I can think of one way, but it would require a lot of work to implement, be a large strain on any device running it and even then probably wouldn't be (look) very successful.
  • iCreationZiCreationZ Member Posts: 158
    Sorry, let me try to clarify!

    Like how you can have a png image that is semi-transparent to add a "Night" (For instance) overlay effect by having it on top of everything on the screen to make everything seem darker, is it possible to have an image that would have the blur effect already incorporated, so if it were overlayed onto the scene it would have the effect of a "Tilt-Shift" filter?

    This is way harder to explain that I originally thought! :P
  • SocksSocks London, UK.Member Posts: 12,822
    edited February 2013
    Sorry, let me try to clarify!

    Like how you can have a png image that is semi-transparent to add a "Night" (For instance) overlay effect by having it on top of everything on the screen to make everything seem darker, is it possible to have an image that would have the blur effect already incorporated, so if it were overlayed onto the scene it would have the effect of a "Tilt-Shift" filter?

    This is way harder to explain that I originally thought! :P
    Ok, so not opaque but semi-transparent ? If you have an image that is blurred and you overlay it on a scene (rather than 'constrain it over the camera') the results will be exactly what you might expect, your scene will have a semi-transparent blurry image overlaid onto it ! :) But of course that's not going to make any underlying images or actors blurry.

    Simply put: GameSalad lacks any kind of filters, that's really a job for an image manipulation or compositing application.
  • iCreationZiCreationZ Member Posts: 158
    Hmm. So it's not really going to happen...
    Thats pretty much what I thought. Still, I'll have a play making a fake "Filter" image so to speak and see what happens. Thanks!
  • SocksSocks London, UK.Member Posts: 12,822
    Hmm. So it's not really going to happen...
    Thats pretty much what I thought. Still, I'll have a play making a fake "Filter" image so to speak and see what happens. Thanks!
    It will just be an image overlaid onto a scene, that's all.
  • iCreationZiCreationZ Member Posts: 158
    Bingo!@jamie_c That's exactly the sort of thing I'd like to achieve, but obviously with a "tilt shift" effect, rather than night vision effects etc. reckon it is possible?
  • TesseractEngineTesseractEngine Member Posts: 180
    No, it's not. As @Socks has explained to you, there's no mechanism for blurring images in GS, let alone selectively blurring images a la 'tilt shift'. It cannot be done in GS.

    What @jamie_c has shown you are some alternative visual effects that GS can do.
  • SocksSocks London, UK.Member Posts: 12,822
    Bingo!@jamie_c That's exactly the sort of thing I'd like to achieve, but obviously with a "tilt shift" effect, rather than night vision effects etc.
    What would this image you overlay onto the scene look like, in your mind how do you envisage this image ?

  • iCreationZiCreationZ Member Posts: 158
    Aw... I guess I'm a little too optimistic! I kinda hoped that in the same way you could place crosshairs or whatever over the top of a scene, you could overlay a blur effect to blur the actors beneath it. The reason I figured it would be possible was because I assumed that this is how some of the online image editors that can artificially add a "Tilt Shift" effect did it, by simply overlaying the effect, rather than actually editing the image.

    Still, it was a nice idea!
  • TesseractEngineTesseractEngine Member Posts: 180
    @iCreationZ You led me to wonder if anyone is doing tilt shift in games at all, because the cycles would take a hell of a wallop from real-time z-buffer blurring. And looky here:

    http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/The-New-SimCity-Through-a-Tilt-Shift-Lens
  • iCreationZiCreationZ Member Posts: 158
    Haha! That's what inspired me to look into it in the first place! It was just a neat little idea that I thought would be neat to try out, but if it cannot be acheived artificially with an overlay effect, I can see that not only is it impossible, but if it were, it would prove a huge drain of any devices resources. Never mind, maybe one day such filters will be viable!
  • SocksSocks London, UK.Member Posts: 12,822
    edited February 2013
    @iCreationZ You led me to wonder if anyone is doing tilt shift in games at all, because the cycles would take a hell of a wallop from real-time z-buffer blurring. And looky here:

    http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/The-New-SimCity-Through-a-Tilt-Shift-Lens
    @TesseractEngine

    That was the game he was referencing in the thread title.


    P.S. You wouldn't really need to mess with z-buffers or depth maps, just a basic (post) blurring of the top and bottom of the frame looks fairly convincing.
  • iCreationZiCreationZ Member Posts: 158
    I think it's a really cool effect if it were possible. I'm working on a top down RPG, so I hoped it would have added a little "extra" to my game.
  • SocksSocks London, UK.Member Posts: 12,822
    The reason I figured it would be possible was because I assumed that this is how some of the online image editors that can artificially add a "Tilt Shift" effect did it, by simply overlaying the effect, rather than actually editing the image.
    Yep, most of the simulated tilt/shift implementations are simple post effects (basically selective blurring) - so you are right in your assumption that this is how the online image editors add the effect.
  • TesseractEngineTesseractEngine Member Posts: 180
    That was the game he was referencing in the thread title.
    Oh yeah! :D Missed that entirely.

  • SocksSocks London, UK.Member Posts: 12,822
    That was the game he was referencing in the thread title.
    Oh yeah! :D Missed that entirely.

    Lol :) Did you ever hear back about your application for that job as a detective ?
  • TesseractEngineTesseractEngine Member Posts: 180
    Lol :) Did you ever hear back about your application for that job as a detective ?
    I did! But I mistook the letter for something about Tesco clubcard points. I got 30p off a bag of jelly babies, though, so it wasn't all bad.

  • SocksSocks London, UK.Member Posts: 12,822
    Lol :) Did you ever hear back about your application for that job as a detective ?
    I did! But I mistook the letter for something about Tesco clubcard points. I got 30p off a bag of jelly babies, though, so it wasn't all bad.

    Swings and roundabouts . .
    :))
  • jamie_cjamie_c ImagineLabs.rocks Member, PRO Posts: 5,772
    I actually think you could 'fake' the blur effect in GS, not the miniature tilt shift part though. With a well designed 'blur' layer in GS, done like I do the 'blood edge effect' in the video I think you could do a blur effect. It might not be perfect, but if you're a little forgiving it might be acceptable.
  • iCreationZiCreationZ Member Posts: 158
    Haha! So many differing views regarding the possibility of this! :D

    I think it's a unique concept, but I don't have the software to create such a "blur layer"... Still, I'd be interested to see what is possible if you do feel like giving it a try @jamie_c !

    Thanks for everyone's (differing) viewpoints!
  • SocksSocks London, UK.Member Posts: 12,822
    edited February 2013
    @jamie_c
    With a well designed 'blur' layer in GS, done like I do the 'blood edge effect' in the video I think you could do a blur effect.
    What would this 'blur layer' look like ? That is to say, if you were using an image then what would this image look like ?
  • SocksSocks London, UK.Member Posts: 12,822
    edited February 2013
    I think it's a unique concept, but I don't have the software to create such a "blur layer"...
    Neither does Jamie :)) 8-X

    Honestly, I'm no fan of brushing aside ideas because they are not readily achievable in GameSalad, normally speaking you can achieve most things with some ingenuity and a little compromise, even many things that people might consider beyond GameSalad's capabilities . . . but this one really is beyond GameSalad's capabilities . . . it's not just that GS can't apply post effects to a project, it's also that the concept of a blur layer within GS doesn't make any sense at all, you've said that you lack the photo editing software to create this blur layer, but it's nothing to do with a lack of software, a blur layer (that is a layer that blurs the underlying image within GameSalad) simply doesn't exist.

    But . . . if such a thing did exist, and you had all the photo editing software you needed (and sufficient experience with that photo editing software) . . . what do you imagine this image would look like ?
  • jamie_cjamie_c ImagineLabs.rocks Member, PRO Posts: 5,772
    edited February 2013
    Indeed I don't have any way of actually blurring underlying images. But what I'm thinking is create an image in photoshop that is a combination of color, maybe white, light grays, blues, something soft. Add a creative alpha channel that has varying 'layers' of soft tinted areas. Where the final effect added as a separate layer in Gamesalad would totally 'blur' the edge of the screen to the soft color and fade, through the alpha channel to the live underlying actors in Gamesalad. If the alpha channel in the layer image were created so some areas are more or less visible than others the overall feeling MIGHT be close to a faked 'blur' effect.

    Is it a LIVE post effect - No, is it a fake trick that MIGHT work well enough - Maybe.

    :)

    As I type this out I'm thinking the final effect will look more like a patchy fog, but still if you are forgiving it might look 'good enough'.
  • SocksSocks London, UK.Member Posts: 12,822
    edited February 2013
    . . . the final effect will look more like a patchy fog . . .
    Yep, you'll just end up with a misty, hazy, patchy fog in whichever colour you made it.
    . . . but still if you are forgiving it might look 'good enough'.
    There will be no forgiving here, you will be held fully accountable for your 'blur layer' and taken before the Court of Graphic Design were you will be tried for giving false hope to a community of games developers. 8-X
  • jamie_cjamie_c ImagineLabs.rocks Member, PRO Posts: 5,772
    @Socks, lol! I should have been held responsible years ago for crimes against graphic design! Why stop now?! :)
  • SocksSocks London, UK.Member Posts: 12,822
    @Socks, lol! I should have been held responsible years ago for crimes against graphic design! Why stop now?! :)
    All your previous crimes will be taken into consideration, that Photoshop lens flare incident back in 2009 and those drop shadows from 2007, it's all in the prosecution reports.

  • TesseractEngineTesseractEngine Member Posts: 180
    As I type this out I'm thinking the final effect will look more like a patchy fog, but still if you are forgiving it might look 'good enough'.
    Like our post-equine associate Mr. @Socks, I'm not fond of dismissing any ideas out of hand - I think an important part of game dev is lateral thinking and creative problem solving - but...yeah. It wouldn't look like a tilt shift, but it could be an interesting effect!
  • jamie_cjamie_c ImagineLabs.rocks Member, PRO Posts: 5,772
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