| Icon |  |
|---|---|
| Name of gadget | Camera |
| Section | Cameras & Lighting |
| Number of Tweak pages | 2 |
| Author | LadylexUK, QuietlyWrong |
| Last updated | 19 Mar 2019 [Beta] |
Description
The camera is the player’s view into your Dream. Whether you’re making a game or a movie or showing off some art, you’ll need some sort of camera through which the Dreamer can see your efforts. The imp (and anything it possesses) has a basic default viewpoint, but you’ll almost certainly want to control what the Dreamer can see at some point, and that’s when you can stamp any number of cameras to meet your needs.
The camera has a versatile range of tweak options that determine what the player sees, how transitions look and some controls for how the camera interacts with the imp or the things it possesses. You can move a camera round freely and record its movements or make it part of a group and control it with mover-type gadgets.
And you can check exactly what the camera will show – just press L1 + X over the camera to scope in to it and you’ll jump into its own viewpoint, from where you can move it freely or change some of the view settings. (L1 and circle to scope out.)
Only one camera works at a time. There is no support for split-screen or picture-in-picture. But you do have a lot of control over the transitions between cameras and even more so with the help of the Wiper gadget.
Example Tutorial (adapted from Media Molecule)
- Start with a basic scene.
- Stamp in a puppet.
- Stamp in a camera.
- Position the camera high up above your scene so as to give a top down view of everything (scope into the camera to help with this).
- Stamp in a controller sensor.
- Set the controller sensor to remote controllable.
- Connect the output of the Square button on the controller sensor to the power port of the camera.
- Start test mode
- Possess the puppet and then press and hold the Square button to switch over to your new camera at any time.
Tweak Menus
Click on arrows to reveal
Tweak Menu 1: Camera Settings
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- Menu page indicator
- Focus Distance
Use this setting to choose the distance from the camera at which it is focussed. When scoped in to the camera view, you can change this directly with (L1 + d-pad up/down). - Aperture
Use this setting to choose the “aperture” size. In Dreams this does not affect exposure but it is used to lengthen or shorten the depth of field (i.e. you can choose how sharp or blurry objects will appear as they get closer to or further from the focus distance). - Transition Type
Choose from one of six types of transition that determine how the viewpoint of this camera is reached from the previous view.- Smooth
A smooth movement from the previous view with acceleration and deceleration at either end of the transition. - Cut
An instantaneous cut from the previous viewpoint to this one. - Ease In
A smooth movement from the previous view with a more gentle deceleration at the end of the transition. - Ease Out
A smooth movement from the previous view with a more gentle acceleration at the beginning of the transition. - Linear
An uncomplicated transition directly to the current view with no acceleration or deceleration. - Crazy
A “crazy” transition… “Try it out!” [TBA]
- Smooth
- Transition Time
Select the length of time it takes for the viewpoint to adjust to this camera’s settings. - Field of View
Use this to decide how “wide” a view of the scene the camera has. A very small field will result in a tightly “zoomed in” view whereas a large field is a wide-angle “zoomed out” view. When scoped in to the camera view you can adjust this directly by pressing d-pad up/down. - Transition Done
This outputs a signal once the transition to this camera is complete. So for a longer transition from a cut-scene, for example, you might choose to wait until the transition is complete before releasing control to the player. - Display Black Bars
All this does is toggle on or off the appearance of black horizontal bars at the top and bottom of the picture – sometimes known as the “letterbox” effect. This gives the impression of a cinematic presentation and is commonly used in games as a subtle visual indicator that the gameplay is on hold while a cut-scene plays out. - Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 2: Imp & Player Settings
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- Menu page indicator
- Imp Scale
Use this to pick the size of the imps relative to the rest of the scene – whether you want mountainous or tiny imps. - Min Imp Distance
Use this to specify the closest distance in metres that the imp can get to the camera. - Max Imp Distance
Use this to specify the maximum distance in metres that the imp can move away from the camera. - Follow Imp
Use this to determine whether the camera tilts to track the movement of the imp and if so, by how much (angle in degrees). Use a value of 0° to lock the camera view regardless of imp movement. - Disable Controller Sensor Input
Use this to override any controller sensor logic. While the camera is active with this setting toggled on, the controller sensor is unable to output any signals. This is great for cut-scene cameras, stopping the player from taking any action while the scene plays out – though note that they won’t be able to skip the cut-scene either, so you might prefer to use another method. - Hide Imps
Toggle this option on the active camera and imps will not appear at all in the scene. - Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
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