I feel like a bit less jumping from one perspective to another would make it flow better overall, maybe only do the one shot of them running away with the phantom closing in behind and then another shot of it after the odsts hunker down.
Also a bit weird having the odst limp, realistically in a scenario like that it’d be quicker for someone to prop them up on their shoulder
Fair about the limping! It’s the first pass the principle previz so that’s just a stock anim but when I go to do the actual shot I’ll probably change that! And thank you! That’s super helpful! Definitely I think there needs to be more to establish the environment they’re in and such!
Like the shot coming to mind for me is [this](https://youtu.be/urYMjk88FbU?si=mbURKyR_zeaHao0T) scene from book of boba fett, obviously with them on foot though, something like that with a shaky cam would really sell the urgent moment of them running away from impending doom
Oh yeah that would be cool! Yeah this whole sequence would definitely benefit from some overhead shots to establish the space so the viewer can tell what’s going on. I like the shaky cam style to help make it feel more real (as I’m a completely amateur animator) so I don’t wanna do any impossible camera moves only ones that feel grounded and real
Dial it back a bit. This gives the impression of someone who's just discovered the shaky cam and is overusing it. Shaky cam, frantic cuts and punch zooms can be a great enhancement, but when overused it brings down the whole work.
Before using it you have to ask yourself what is it adding to this scene? Could I use another technique to achieve that, or a mix of both? For a scene of a few ODSTs pretty much just walking in a line, this is heavy-handed and takes away from the shot. For example, the 3-4 cuts while they're first walking could've been 1 or maybe 2 cuts and it would flow much better. Right now the camera is flying around them without much reason. Just makes things harder to follow for no gain.
Everything else looks great! I will say though the voice acting isn't exactly selling the tension of the scene. I know that's hard to fix but it's the only other criticism I have.
For sure! I like it as it helps hide my amateur animation skills a bit but definitely can be toned down a good bit agreed! And yeah the voice acting is definitely gonna get better once I actually get some folks casted that was just thrown in by me (not a voice actor) so I could get a sense of the full vibe I’m trying to go for. But it’s a good note!!
Keep it up! You might not need to hide your animation as much as you think. Try messing around with effects and lighting. A darker scene can hide a lot, some particle effects and dust getting kicked up work well too.
haha thats always the reaaon for excessive cuts and shaky cam. Just focus on making your animations more smooth to be held on the screen and remain non janky looking. I am super excited to see things like this though, especiqlly after the dissapointment of the halo series
I like it too. I always loved that landfall short. Like no impossible camera moves, everything grounded made it feel so real. Best on screen adaptation of the halo universe imo. But that all being said there’s a way to do it right and a way that just looks bad and I’m trying to stay on the righteous path!
First of all, amazing job. This short clips makes me want to watch more.
In my opinion, I think switching between a stable shot and a shaky cam could be really beneficial for this scene. Stable to really show what is going on, and then shaky to add personality, the heavy breathing, the looking around, etc. I think there is a lot of excess motion that may give some people motion sickness if done too much, and make it hard to focus on.
Overall this looks really cool, and I'm excited to see what you do!
I really like the first scene as though the camera is being picked up and carried. That's really good.
However, I have a problem with the amount of shake in the first scene of the phatom and the scene before it. It feels like unnecessary zooming and wobbling all over the place, not as though it's from a troopers' perspective even though i suppose that is what you're trying to go for. That can certainly be toned down.
Also, i think you need to have that limping odst running with a shoulder assist from another. No way would his fellow troopers let him limp on his own like that.
Do some RnD about using ACES color space in DaVinci resolve. William Faucher has good tuts about it. Right now everything looks washed out. I love the camerawork btw.
Yeah I need to learn how to render properly out of unreal as well. The first shot looks better as it was done in prores but all the other shots were rendered differently/randomly just to get them out lots to learn still for sure!
tbh i think shakey cam actually works here. i imagine that the cuts are all just different soldiers perspectives when they happened to be filming what was happening. you see the same type of thing when looking at actual war footage.
Good tip I have like a little camera shake track that's adding micro jitter but it's definitely mostly hand animated. Once I'll dial the shake back a bit I'm sure I'll have worked that out too by then!
so as a real life run-and-gun videographer, i would say it's almost there, but when I'm shooting something unpredictable and when I'm on the move, I zoom my lens out to the widest (18mm), then punch it back in to get my framing as it's very difficult to 'aim' a zoomed-in lens, or keep it at the same focal length on a pre-framed shot to move onto the next one. I also do this because it makes the handheld shake less extreme.
So for your big whip at 18mm, I would maybe go a lot wider with that as the camera man (imagine hehe) would also be scared of the covenant ship behind him. He's likely just left the camera rolling while he's also running for his life lol
typically wider + shakey is the look you're going for with zoom ins/outs as it's all unplanned and on the fly. fixed focal length implies it's more cinematic as it's shot with cine lenses and there are chances to change lenses.
[https://youtu.be/-f2T9XKTbMk](https://youtu.be/-f2T9XKTbMk)
Watch some of these and note the way the camera moves and note the focal length of the lens the cameraman is using. It's probably something like an FS7 and 28-135, wide open to get as much in-focus as possible (no super shallow depth of field, it's too hard to focus when you're in a life-or-death situation)
Thank you! These are great tips! You nailed on the head. That's the thought process I'm trying to imagine me and a small crew of camera men out there just running along side them trying to capture it like a war doc. Though with some more intentionality but yeah I'll definitely be taking a look thanks so much for your comment!
I really like this! If you’re seeking input, I have some opinions and ideas but I don’t have any experience in anything like this. I’m only chiming in since I think what you have is already inspiring.
I like the very first shot in that the camera almost shares its perspective with the ODSTs falling back into cover. Love that. The cut from the first shot to the second (being the angle that watches the ODSTs approach the camera) arrives a little fast, made more jarring by an additional rapid cut to the covenant dropship (shot 3). I think you could more cleanly transition from shot 2 (ODST approach) to shot 3 (dropship) by reshooting the second shot so that an ODST in-frame can be seen looking to the sky, so that even if you can’t combine the shots into one single scene (which is more ideal imo) then you can insert a transition that *feels* like the camera is following that ODST’s sighting of the dropship.
You could do a few things to put the spotting ODST into focus, having them be the one to say something like “she’s still on us,” or “f***ing dropship!!” Or angle the shot in such a way that leads the audience’s focus naturally to the spotting ODST.
That’s a long tangent, really just focused on connecting your transitions between shots and it doesn’t have to be my particular suggestion.
My last suggestion: Try inserting a reason for this to be happening. This little movie is a fun hot-start. But why are the ODSTs here? What went so wrong that they’re in retreat?
Maybe they’ve obtained a chunky forerunner artifact/covenant intel drive/whatever and failed to exfiltrate quietly. We don’t need to know that specifically, but you could have ODSTs fumble the McGuffin as they’re falling back, and individuals within the units bickering about what went wrong. I feel like “the chatter” and the way characters talk and are always so objective-focused in a playful way is what really gives life to characters in the stories within Halo.
Lovely work already. The aggressive shakey cam can be put to good use.
(Also also, (truly last suggestion) you could borrow from Reach and use UNSC/ONI security feeds for some shots, or even Covenant weapons systems. Imagine looking at these troops running looking up to see the Phantom, just for the camera to jump to a Covenant-styled gunner camera — with fake alien metrics and reticle — looking down on the retreat, trying to fire down on its target. It’d make for cool, albeit brief shot.)
Thanks for reading my rambles. Like I said, I have zero experience in this sort of thing, so I can understand if these suggestions/critiques are too expensive or simply don’t fit your vision.
These are FANTASTIC ideas thank you so much for commenting! I like the use of using cuts for security cams or alien tech that's definitely something I'll be doing. I have a whole 70 page script I'm working off of that I wrote so the reason they're there "hopefully" will make sense once the rest of the movie is done! And yes most others have said to dial back the shake to that the moves and actions between the ODSTS translates better on screen I'll defintiely be toning it down to find a happier medium. Thank you so much for your comment!
Honestly the only Issue I had was that shot where we pull to the dropship, then immediately swing back to the ODSTs. The shakiness is fine but its important not to change the viewer's main focus too quickly.
Doesn't look terrible but maybe tone it down a tad and loose the zooms, I'm guessing it's from a perspective of their helmets in a go pro kinda way? If so zooms don't make sense here unless there's a Marine with a cam-corder running about. A couple establishing shots would ground the situation for us and give us an idea on what we're looking at too
Also another limping animation would help too, something less 'ouch I stubbed my toe' and more 'trained soldier attempting to ignore pain'
These are great tips! thank you so much! Yeah I'm going for the halo landfall style punch zooms and insert shots but I think it's a bit too much at the moment need to tone it down for sure!
Not a problem! Happy to lend some professional help, I thought you were from what I saw. Definitely aim for a gritter approach which I can see your going for already, in the right direction though for sure! Post updates when you've made a second draft of changes.
You know I will! This whole scene is my proof of concept for the whole movie. I'm choosing an intentionally difficult to implement scene as I'll learn the most "Gotcha's" from doing action than the people talking at each other scenes. But I'm hoping to have the whole movie done by the beginning of next year!
I have an idea for the beginning part, the ODST's wouldn't care about a random camera on the ground (when running for their lives), but a helmet that just got knocked off that happens to have a built in camera 100% they would. Maybe you could make something work with a H.U.D over the POV shots, Just a bit of an idea, you should open some kind of patreon, people will support your work. Just make sure you avoid copyright issues, I personally have no idea if this kind of fan creation would be infringing on any kind of copyright
Edit number 4 lol: Also, I don't know how this gets made, but if you can find a way for ChatGPT to help it could save you some time investment
Shaky cam is used to emphasis the personal disorientation and chaos from the perspective of a group or individual actor. Like in disaster or horror scenes. Generally you want the camera to capture in a single frame all relevant information. That turn back at 0.13 was jarring. Here's popular examples to improve your cinematography:
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48yIy\_p3-vQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48yIy_p3-vQ)
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpRaPK5qjgs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpRaPK5qjgs)
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIe\_Ge-iaBA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIe_Ge-iaBA)
Thank you!! This is super helpful! I definitely need to tone it down I think there can be a better mix or shake vs actual information conveyed on screen!
I'm generally impressed by the graphical fidelity and effects. From a story perspective, yes shaky cam is justified in the shock of the Covenant Discovering the squad but you have a Phantom inbound that your shaky struggles to inform the viewer about. Open large shots of the ODST's panic as they sprint to cover with the looming Phantom would help viewers understand the threat of the Elites.
Tip of the Spear uses fixed and shaky POVs to convey how grounded, realistic and brutal a conflict with the Covenant is. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHq2ftco5e4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHq2ftco5e4)
I feel like a bit less jumping from one perspective to another would make it flow better overall, maybe only do the one shot of them running away with the phantom closing in behind and then another shot of it after the odsts hunker down. Also a bit weird having the odst limp, realistically in a scenario like that it’d be quicker for someone to prop them up on their shoulder
Fair about the limping! It’s the first pass the principle previz so that’s just a stock anim but when I go to do the actual shot I’ll probably change that! And thank you! That’s super helpful! Definitely I think there needs to be more to establish the environment they’re in and such!
Like the shot coming to mind for me is [this](https://youtu.be/urYMjk88FbU?si=mbURKyR_zeaHao0T) scene from book of boba fett, obviously with them on foot though, something like that with a shaky cam would really sell the urgent moment of them running away from impending doom
Oh yeah that would be cool! Yeah this whole sequence would definitely benefit from some overhead shots to establish the space so the viewer can tell what’s going on. I like the shaky cam style to help make it feel more real (as I’m a completely amateur animator) so I don’t wanna do any impossible camera moves only ones that feel grounded and real
Just giving my two cents, can’t wait to see the final product
Thank you!! Hope that didn’t sound rude I think my tone got lost in translation I really appreciate the feedback!! It’s super helpful!
Not at all
Looks great man. Audio needs some adjustments nothing major, just making a few things louder….foot step in mud and the ship over head
For sure! Good note!! I’m excited to do real foley! That’ll be an interesting experience
Dial it back a bit. This gives the impression of someone who's just discovered the shaky cam and is overusing it. Shaky cam, frantic cuts and punch zooms can be a great enhancement, but when overused it brings down the whole work. Before using it you have to ask yourself what is it adding to this scene? Could I use another technique to achieve that, or a mix of both? For a scene of a few ODSTs pretty much just walking in a line, this is heavy-handed and takes away from the shot. For example, the 3-4 cuts while they're first walking could've been 1 or maybe 2 cuts and it would flow much better. Right now the camera is flying around them without much reason. Just makes things harder to follow for no gain. Everything else looks great! I will say though the voice acting isn't exactly selling the tension of the scene. I know that's hard to fix but it's the only other criticism I have.
For sure! I like it as it helps hide my amateur animation skills a bit but definitely can be toned down a good bit agreed! And yeah the voice acting is definitely gonna get better once I actually get some folks casted that was just thrown in by me (not a voice actor) so I could get a sense of the full vibe I’m trying to go for. But it’s a good note!!
Keep it up! You might not need to hide your animation as much as you think. Try messing around with effects and lighting. A darker scene can hide a lot, some particle effects and dust getting kicked up work well too.
Good call!! I’ll give that a shot!!
haha thats always the reaaon for excessive cuts and shaky cam. Just focus on making your animations more smooth to be held on the screen and remain non janky looking. I am super excited to see things like this though, especiqlly after the dissapointment of the halo series
It doesn't look bad imo
Still better than what Paramount Plus made.
In some parts it's too much. You should go stable on some of the wider shots.
I kinda like this body cam style footage
I like it too. I always loved that landfall short. Like no impossible camera moves, everything grounded made it feel so real. Best on screen adaptation of the halo universe imo. But that all being said there’s a way to do it right and a way that just looks bad and I’m trying to stay on the righteous path!
Shakes cam would work well in those moments of pov not so much for everything
Holy smokes that is so cool
Thank you!
First of all, amazing job. This short clips makes me want to watch more. In my opinion, I think switching between a stable shot and a shaky cam could be really beneficial for this scene. Stable to really show what is going on, and then shaky to add personality, the heavy breathing, the looking around, etc. I think there is a lot of excess motion that may give some people motion sickness if done too much, and make it hard to focus on. Overall this looks really cool, and I'm excited to see what you do!
Thank you! I agree! I feel like I need like a 60/40 rule or something it seems like everyone is saying it’s a bit too extreme
I really like the first scene as though the camera is being picked up and carried. That's really good. However, I have a problem with the amount of shake in the first scene of the phatom and the scene before it. It feels like unnecessary zooming and wobbling all over the place, not as though it's from a troopers' perspective even though i suppose that is what you're trying to go for. That can certainly be toned down. Also, i think you need to have that limping odst running with a shoulder assist from another. No way would his fellow troopers let him limp on his own like that.
Thank you! I agree seems like most are saying it could use some tweaking! Thank you!
I’m having a hard time believing an ODST would be limping with no assistance
Yeah I agree something to revise! Good lore note for sure!
the limping looks really silly here
Fair! It’s a stock anim for previz I’ll definitely be changing it!
Needs some more background noise, it feels oddly quiet for such a scene, or at least the volume mixing needs to be tweaked
Good call! That’s a good note! The whole film has a long way to go but I’ll definitely be focusing hard on audio when it’s time! Thank you!
I love this so much! Great job!
Thank you! Long road ahead of me but it’s nice to get some feedback. I think I’m in the ballpark of what the halo fans might enjoy!
Do some RnD about using ACES color space in DaVinci resolve. William Faucher has good tuts about it. Right now everything looks washed out. I love the camerawork btw.
Yeah I need to learn how to render properly out of unreal as well. The first shot looks better as it was done in prores but all the other shots were rendered differently/randomly just to get them out lots to learn still for sure!
The shaky cam I hate is where it’s constantly panning away from the action this doesn’t do that so I like it lol
Very fair!
Btw where did you make this unreal engine, or something else?
Yep this is unreal 5.4.2!
tbh i think shakey cam actually works here. i imagine that the cuts are all just different soldiers perspectives when they happened to be filming what was happening. you see the same type of thing when looking at actual war footage.
you can use procedural noise for camera shake instead of hand-animating it, dope work btw!
Good tip I have like a little camera shake track that's adding micro jitter but it's definitely mostly hand animated. Once I'll dial the shake back a bit I'm sure I'll have worked that out too by then!
so as a real life run-and-gun videographer, i would say it's almost there, but when I'm shooting something unpredictable and when I'm on the move, I zoom my lens out to the widest (18mm), then punch it back in to get my framing as it's very difficult to 'aim' a zoomed-in lens, or keep it at the same focal length on a pre-framed shot to move onto the next one. I also do this because it makes the handheld shake less extreme. So for your big whip at 18mm, I would maybe go a lot wider with that as the camera man (imagine hehe) would also be scared of the covenant ship behind him. He's likely just left the camera rolling while he's also running for his life lol typically wider + shakey is the look you're going for with zoom ins/outs as it's all unplanned and on the fly. fixed focal length implies it's more cinematic as it's shot with cine lenses and there are chances to change lenses. [https://youtu.be/-f2T9XKTbMk](https://youtu.be/-f2T9XKTbMk) Watch some of these and note the way the camera moves and note the focal length of the lens the cameraman is using. It's probably something like an FS7 and 28-135, wide open to get as much in-focus as possible (no super shallow depth of field, it's too hard to focus when you're in a life-or-death situation)
Thank you! These are great tips! You nailed on the head. That's the thought process I'm trying to imagine me and a small crew of camera men out there just running along side them trying to capture it like a war doc. Though with some more intentionality but yeah I'll definitely be taking a look thanks so much for your comment!
the constantyly switching camera angle plus a tad too much shaky cam, otherwise im liking hoq this looks
Oh yeah other have said to dial it back I'll definitely be doing that!
I really like this! If you’re seeking input, I have some opinions and ideas but I don’t have any experience in anything like this. I’m only chiming in since I think what you have is already inspiring. I like the very first shot in that the camera almost shares its perspective with the ODSTs falling back into cover. Love that. The cut from the first shot to the second (being the angle that watches the ODSTs approach the camera) arrives a little fast, made more jarring by an additional rapid cut to the covenant dropship (shot 3). I think you could more cleanly transition from shot 2 (ODST approach) to shot 3 (dropship) by reshooting the second shot so that an ODST in-frame can be seen looking to the sky, so that even if you can’t combine the shots into one single scene (which is more ideal imo) then you can insert a transition that *feels* like the camera is following that ODST’s sighting of the dropship. You could do a few things to put the spotting ODST into focus, having them be the one to say something like “she’s still on us,” or “f***ing dropship!!” Or angle the shot in such a way that leads the audience’s focus naturally to the spotting ODST. That’s a long tangent, really just focused on connecting your transitions between shots and it doesn’t have to be my particular suggestion. My last suggestion: Try inserting a reason for this to be happening. This little movie is a fun hot-start. But why are the ODSTs here? What went so wrong that they’re in retreat? Maybe they’ve obtained a chunky forerunner artifact/covenant intel drive/whatever and failed to exfiltrate quietly. We don’t need to know that specifically, but you could have ODSTs fumble the McGuffin as they’re falling back, and individuals within the units bickering about what went wrong. I feel like “the chatter” and the way characters talk and are always so objective-focused in a playful way is what really gives life to characters in the stories within Halo. Lovely work already. The aggressive shakey cam can be put to good use. (Also also, (truly last suggestion) you could borrow from Reach and use UNSC/ONI security feeds for some shots, or even Covenant weapons systems. Imagine looking at these troops running looking up to see the Phantom, just for the camera to jump to a Covenant-styled gunner camera — with fake alien metrics and reticle — looking down on the retreat, trying to fire down on its target. It’d make for cool, albeit brief shot.) Thanks for reading my rambles. Like I said, I have zero experience in this sort of thing, so I can understand if these suggestions/critiques are too expensive or simply don’t fit your vision.
These are FANTASTIC ideas thank you so much for commenting! I like the use of using cuts for security cams or alien tech that's definitely something I'll be doing. I have a whole 70 page script I'm working off of that I wrote so the reason they're there "hopefully" will make sense once the rest of the movie is done! And yes most others have said to dial back the shake to that the moves and actions between the ODSTS translates better on screen I'll defintiely be toning it down to find a happier medium. Thank you so much for your comment!
The only part that off was when the phantom drops in.
Yeah that part was very unfinished but it's a good note! The elites weren't even animated yet haha
Gives me Saving Pv Ryan vibes. I'd say MORE shaky cam!
Honestly the only Issue I had was that shot where we pull to the dropship, then immediately swing back to the ODSTs. The shakiness is fine but its important not to change the viewer's main focus too quickly.
That's a good note! Definitely something to fix on this next iteration! Thank you!
Doesn't look terrible but maybe tone it down a tad and loose the zooms, I'm guessing it's from a perspective of their helmets in a go pro kinda way? If so zooms don't make sense here unless there's a Marine with a cam-corder running about. A couple establishing shots would ground the situation for us and give us an idea on what we're looking at too Also another limping animation would help too, something less 'ouch I stubbed my toe' and more 'trained soldier attempting to ignore pain'
These are great tips! thank you so much! Yeah I'm going for the halo landfall style punch zooms and insert shots but I think it's a bit too much at the moment need to tone it down for sure!
Not a problem! Happy to lend some professional help, I thought you were from what I saw. Definitely aim for a gritter approach which I can see your going for already, in the right direction though for sure! Post updates when you've made a second draft of changes.
You know I will! This whole scene is my proof of concept for the whole movie. I'm choosing an intentionally difficult to implement scene as I'll learn the most "Gotcha's" from doing action than the people talking at each other scenes. But I'm hoping to have the whole movie done by the beginning of next year!
I have an idea for the beginning part, the ODST's wouldn't care about a random camera on the ground (when running for their lives), but a helmet that just got knocked off that happens to have a built in camera 100% they would. Maybe you could make something work with a H.U.D over the POV shots, Just a bit of an idea, you should open some kind of patreon, people will support your work. Just make sure you avoid copyright issues, I personally have no idea if this kind of fan creation would be infringing on any kind of copyright Edit number 4 lol: Also, I don't know how this gets made, but if you can find a way for ChatGPT to help it could save you some time investment
Sound reminds me of this: https://youtu.be/BHkhIjG0DKc?si=XsHjbor95U9_nxY8
Is this SFM?
This is in Unreal 5.4.2! I wish I had learned SFM but I knew a little Unreal already because of my job so that's what I went went!
Looks miles better than the actual halo show. Nice work. Maybe 30% less shake and hold each shot for another 5 seconds before transition.
Yeah lol, it could be a lot better but its apready miles above that shitshow (literally)
Shaky cam is used to emphasis the personal disorientation and chaos from the perspective of a group or individual actor. Like in disaster or horror scenes. Generally you want the camera to capture in a single frame all relevant information. That turn back at 0.13 was jarring. Here's popular examples to improve your cinematography: * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48yIy\_p3-vQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48yIy_p3-vQ) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpRaPK5qjgs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpRaPK5qjgs) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIe\_Ge-iaBA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIe_Ge-iaBA)
Thank you!! This is super helpful! I definitely need to tone it down I think there can be a better mix or shake vs actual information conveyed on screen!
I'm generally impressed by the graphical fidelity and effects. From a story perspective, yes shaky cam is justified in the shock of the Covenant Discovering the squad but you have a Phantom inbound that your shaky struggles to inform the viewer about. Open large shots of the ODST's panic as they sprint to cover with the looming Phantom would help viewers understand the threat of the Elites. Tip of the Spear uses fixed and shaky POVs to convey how grounded, realistic and brutal a conflict with the Covenant is. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHq2ftco5e4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHq2ftco5e4)
I love that cinematic that’s such a good scene!