VaM 1.x "Painting" in-game

[cancer1111]

I'm playing around the idea of creating the scene where one character is painting on easel/canvas. The one (and so far the only) approach was using the https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/cua-cameras.60091/ and https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/freeze-frame.56633/ plugins. Basically, camera display picture is frozen with Freeze Frame simulating the painting. Maybe adding multiple cubes over the "painting" slowly reveling parts of "painting" via transparency parameter simulating the painting process.

However, i'm not totally satisfied since FOV of camera is fixed and picture come out a bit stretched and i would like it more zoomed in if possible. Freeze Frame works only with assets that have rendered texture, so i can't use it with camera plugins that are, for example, attached to Empty Atoms.

So, couple of questions: is there maybe a plugin that overrides/controls other camera's FOV? Is that even possible without editing CUA asset itself and then recompiling it? (i'm not unity native, so this one is not option for me)
Is there some plugin that controls the post-processing of camera display? I would like to simulate different painting styles (pencil drawing, more contrast, less contrast, brightness, etc.)
Is there maybe completely different approach to this idea using different plugins other than https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/cua-cameras.60091/ or/and https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/freeze-frame.56633/ ? Are there some other camera plugins around that use rendered texture maybe? Or some other way to capture the photo in game and feed it to some display/panel/surface?

Thanks in advance.

 

[hazmhox]

That's a very complex subject what you're trying to do.
Unless you'd dive in code and/or shaders to make this actually nice, you're likely gonna have to use dirty tricks and probably get nowhere near the look you expect to get.

 

[cancer1111]

That's a very complex subject what you're trying to do.
Unless you'd dive in code and/or shaders to make this actually nice, you're likely gonna have to use dirty tricks and probably get nowhere near the look you expect to get.

Yeah, i'm kinda aware of that. At the moment i'm lying to myself to proceed in five steps: use dirty tricks->throw up in the corner because how bad it looks->use more dirty tricks->scrap everything and spend a good portion of my life learning proper tools->ponder on my life choices

At this particular moment in time, i'm open to listen dirty tricks advices

 

[hazmhox]

The only "simple" way I'd have in mind, is :

Imagine your main canvas texture. Subdivide it in several texture with portions of it "alphaed" out with like a paint brush effect. With your 5/6 alpha texture, you overlay them on the canvas.

So the order would be like :
Canvas < Freeze Frame painting < Fake Canvas 1 < Fake Canvas 2... etc.

And with the animation of your character, you fade out each fake canvas layer with the alpha cut off.

 

[Origin69]

Dirty Tricks for the win!
I did something similar in my Mileena's return scene for the glowing magic runes on the floor. I had one main texture and multiple alpha textures that I would animate switching to in time with her performance and the music. There is a slight delay in loading a texture by trigger if it is not already loaded in the scene, so I put the alpha images on the sides of a cube under the floor.

 

[cancer1111]

Sounds simple and dirty enough for me, thanks guys. Although i still need to figure it out how to capture freezed image with proper POV, current camera i'm trying with is with too high POV to my liking, image is kinda stretched and squeezed at the same time. And at the end, some kind of post processing of the image.

 

[Clownmug]

Hey, I just updated the CUA Cameras resource with a simple plugin to change FOV, hope that helps. Unfortunately, I don't know how to do anything about post processing to help with that though.

 

[cancer1111]

I'll repeat again in public too: you're a living legend sir/madam!!! May you live long and prosperous life