===== Athina's Center for Kids Who Can't Record Good =====

Footage for hype/cinematic videos requires an extra bit of care and ~effort~ to capture something that looks good. This guide covers game settings, controls, and basic filmmaking/cinematic camera techniques that can be replicated in game to produce good looking footage.


===== Game Settings =====

The first game setting to look at is the mouse sensitivity and inertia. these can be found in the Escape menu: Esc>Camera tab>Camera Settings.

**Sensitivity** determines the //speed// at which the cursor moves during mouse movement (the number of pixels it traverses per unit of mouse movement).
**Inertia** determines the //stiffness// of movement. Inertia is the tendency of an object in motion to stay in motion. In EVE's camera settings, it affects how stiff or smooth the camera control is. (A setting closer to "smooth" means a camera motion will continue and gradually come to a stop after you stop moving your mouse - a "stiff" setting will make the camera movement stop faster after you stop moving your mouse).
{{ https://i.imgur.com/s9uPRzg.png?400}}

Typically, we want **Sensitivity** to be set to a **slow** value, and **Inertia** to be set to a **smooth** value. This means that the camera takes more mouse movement to rotate, and the smooth inertia prevents natural hand jitter from significantly disrupting the velocity of the camera (if you don't think your hand jitters, try turning the sensitivity and inertia to fast and stiff values - you'll see how unsmooth your hand movement really is).

For a reference, I would suggest starting at a sensitivity value of 0.4-0.5, and matching the inertia slider to the same position. Then adjust from there based on your preference.

Additionally, I recommend having **Camera Bobbing** ticked ON. While it may not be ideal for normal gameplay, the bobbing can give a bit of controlled "life" to your camera for capturing footage.

**Camera Shake** can go either way - with camera shake ON, you will get nice dynamic, attention-grabbing snaps of movement in your camera on missile hits - however this can also be disruptive when attempting to get a more controlled, smoother shot.

**Camera Center** - this changes the left/right anchoring of the "subject" of your camera. If you set it further to the left, when you look at an object it will be centered further to the left on your screen. This can be helpful to make shots look less centered and utilize the screen space more. It's not necessary but it's interesting to experiment with.
===== Game Controls =====
All three camera modes have their own uses for capturing footage: **Tactical Camera** (default key: alt+1), **Orbital Camera** (default key: alt+2), and **First Person Camera** (default: alt+3).

==== Orbital Camera ====
This is the setting most people default to playing in, and offers the most simple controls without significantly restricting view like the First Person camera.
  * **LMB + Drag** - rotates/spins camera around ship (or current camera target). (camera term: truck)
  * **RMB + Drag** - turns the camera at its current position. (camera term: pan(left/right), tilt(up/down))
  * **LMB+RMB + DRAG** - camera zoom in/out from forward/backward mouse movement. (camera term: zoom)
  * **Scroll wheel up/down** - moves camera closer/away from ship (or current camera target). (camera term: dolly)
  * **C + LMB(on an object)** - camera points to and focuses on selected object from current position.
  * **RMB(on an object) + "Look At"** - moves the orbital camera to focus on a new object or ship.
         *   When using "look at" on something that is moving while **Dynamic Camera Movement** is ticked ON, the camera will stay where it lands and then track the target. Holding LMB will stop the tracking and keep the camera moving with the ship as normal, and RMB can be used as normal to pan, tilt, and zoom. When **Dynbamic Camera Movement** is OFF, the camera will behave normally as it would on your own ship. Dynamic Camera Movement is great for capturing "fly by" shots.

==== Tactical Camera ====
This camera can behave as a free-floating camera, unlike the orbital camera which is attached to a ship or object at all times. It's only downside is  that it does not have the ability to "lens zoom" like the orbital camera.
  * **RMB + Drag** - DETACHES camera from current focus, dragging around as long as RMB is held.
  * **LMB + Drag** - same as orbital when attached. When DETACHED, pans and tilts in place (like RMB+Drag of the orbital camera).
  * **LMB+RMB + DRAG** - moves camera closer/away when attached. When DETACHED, moves camera forward/backward along camera-pointing axis.
  * **Scroll wheel up/down** - moves camera closer/away when attached. When DETACHED, moves camera forward/backward along **cursor** pointing axis.
  * **C + LMB(on an object)** - attaches camera to selected object.
  * **RMB(on an object) + "Look At"** - attaches camera to selected object.

==== First-Person Camera ====
This camera is much more limited in functionality, however it provides a unique first-person "in-ship" point of view for the camera that can be useful to capture interesting shots under the right circumstances.
  * **LMB + Drag** - Pans/Tilts the camera from the First Person position.


===== Best Practices =====
Generally, "centering" objects doesn't look good. We want to use our screen space. A common filmmaking technique is to give moving objects "lead space." If a ship is flying from left to right, orient the ship closer to the left side of your view, giving it more space "ahead" of its motion. This helps sell movement on the camera. As a rule of thumb, if you're looking "at" something, move it a bit off-center and it will look better.

{{ https://i.imgur.com/fsPXzNT.jpeg?400}}
**Rule of Thirds** - imagine your screen cut up by 4 intersecting lines, dividing the screen into a "grid" of 9 rectangles. These lines divide the screen by thirds. The "Rule of Thirds" is a filmmaking concept in which we use these lines (and their points of intersection) to guide shot composition. If you're taking a photo of a landscape, you'd generally want to orient the horizon either on the upper third line or the lower third line, rather than right in the middle. While there aren't really "horizons" in EVE, we can still use the rule of thirds to position interesting things in the camera on those third lines or the points where they would intersect.

When capturing footage, in most cases subtle camera motion is best. The "action" of EVE can speak for itself, when capturing footage all you need to do is frame it.

While subtlety is king, we still want some smooth motion to make the scene feel alive. This is one of the reasons why we want to set our mouse sensitivity to a low setting so that we can control slower and smoother movements. A good place to start is to simply slowly move the camera in one direction while capturing, usually tracking the action - if the fleet is moving from left to right, slowly track your camera from left to right.

C+LMB to "track" another object or ship is a great hands-free way to get a smooth, moving shot. Use it liberally, especially if you're still learning.

You do not need to get both ends of a fight in one shot. While it can be cool to have the attackers in the foreground and the enemies in the background getting shot, or vice versa, there are many other types of shots to get. Close shots of ships firing, fly-bys during a fight, sweeping shots showing a large fleet firing at off-screen targets, and all kinds of other things look good. Many great hype videos of EVE are, in a simple sense, simply compilations of "cool shots."

Use the environment - large objects/structures often look good in shots and can help to add scale and perspective. You can do things like use the movement of your ship to get a steady moving shot in front of a Keepstar, letting it slowly move through the frame, revealing the sun behind it.

===== tl;dr =====
First of all how dare you not read my words
But also here's a tl;dr if you just couldn't be bothered:
  * Low mouse sensitivity + "smooth" mouse inertia settings = smooth camera movement
  * RMB + Drag on orbital camera lets you point the camera wherever you want
  * C + Click sets the camera focus on an object. This will track an object while the ship you're looking at moves which is a nice smooth camera movement.
  * Subtle, smooth camera movement brings life to a shot, static or "still" shots usually look bad.
  * Use your screen space, position stuff on the screen away from the dead-center
  * Right click -> "look at" on a ship by default will make the camera still and track the ship as it does a "fly by" - great easy shot to get on a moving target (needs Dynamic Camera Movement to be turned ON).
  * Environmental stuff in your shots are great - the sun in the background, a nearby citadel, a stargate, etc. All helps to fill out the scene and provide scale.
  * Just experiment and try stuff and you'll figure out what works for you.


- STILL WIP -