The only reason i ask is because it's controller; i'm aware you can use controller on PC, but if this is console's photo-mode there is still the possibility that it can still be Nvidia exclusive on PC.
Well, it's official. I'll never complete the main storyline now.
This was everything I wanted, and a hundred things I didn't even know I wanted. Bang up job, CDPR.
This was everything I wanted, and a hundred things I didn't even know I wanted. Bang up job, CDPR.
Sailor moon, Jojo Bizarre Adventure and Dark Souls reference galore.
I don't like it, in fact I don't like the entire selfie culture, it's narcissistic.
Allow me to complicate the conversation a bit. Wouldn't the existence of "selfie culture" play well into Night City's "Style Over Substance" vibe? Looks matter a lot in that universe, and the overtly commercialized world capitalizes on narcissism to thrive. So V as a person in his/her 20s would most likely embrace all that. You can, of course, role-play against it, too.
Well I don't agree with this. Yes there are many, 20 something, people that do play into the look at me crowd, but I don't feel it's the vast majority and I think the trend is very location driven California vs Tennessee sort of thing. When you add in the 3 life paths that V can have Corp, Street kid, or Wastelander I don't picture any of those 3 being shallow minded, narcissistic and self-absorbed. But hey we are discussing a fantasy world so who knows.
Hello there!
I really hope that this message to the whole CDPR team will get attention and resonance, as after many years I got something important to say.
That was great news when photo mode was confirmed more than 2 years ago. However..
I'd like to suggest a really important thing, which is described in point №3.
In a few words, it has been described in a quote by Arcade Racer at the very bottom of this post.
1. Moving a character.
Spotlight can also have different shapes: square, rectangle, strip, which also give a variety of different effects.
I hope, at this point the time was well spent for all of us,
and I believe, it was a good read for someone.
Be creative, and strive!
Thanks for your attention!
——
I really hope that this message to the whole CDPR team will get attention and resonance, as after many years I got something important to say.
That was great news when photo mode was confirmed more than 2 years ago. However..
I'd like to suggest a really important thing, which is described in point №3.
In a few words, it has been described in a quote by Arcade Racer at the very bottom of this post.
Before this rather lengthy message, I feel that I have to briefly introduce myself to you.
My name is Mikhail, I'm an automotive photographer and a retouching artist, working in this field since 2015; found myself as a photographer in late 2013.
Virtual photography is my side kind of work, which I've been doing for more than 7 years.
Below are some opinions and details regarding the new and important features of photo mode.
First, I'll quickly get through few features that people hyped about the most.
1. Moving a character.
An option to precisely move a character directly in photo mode is truly an unique thing, as in my own experience I've been able to do so only in a modified version of GTAV. This feature lets a photographer to "polish" their composition without losing the frame (camera position, angle, etc.). I hope this applies to vehicles as well.
Though, this is not the fundamental thing.
2. Poses, emotes, expressions.Such feature might help a photographer to express their ideas and make pictures & character feel more alive. This feature also has been seen in other games, eg: Fallout 76, Death Stranding, GTAV, Far Cry New Dawn. Obviously, the "Pose" tab will get used pretty often.
Though, this is not the fundamental thing as well. Here's why.
3. The light.Now, onto the most fundamental and powerful thing that every image is based on in games, movies, photography, and everything visual.
Lighting tools open in front of you one of the most creative worlds. The next level of freedom. Light will help you create something out of nothing, and raise the quality bar. Basic sun and city lights are usually cool for a landscape photography, but Cyberpunk 2077 has a lot of characters and vehicles that might get covered by shadows pretty often: no matter day or night.
Under the spoiler, you'll find out how exactly lights can help you during night and day, and what would happen if you don' use them. For that case I've prepared 8 visual examples with the posing feature.
Pictures under this spoiler are captured in GTA V as an example.
Practical example on using only Posing feature, no custom lights, but only available street lights.
Here we get to see an image without custom lights. Only the stock lights that are already exist in the world.
The image doesn't catch an eye, as it's stock, dark and boring.
In the darkness, there is an idea. Both characters show their poses. But it all gets wasted without the fundamental thing - lights. In addition, in photo mode's lighting properties you can change red color to blue, and green to yellow, and that would reference the main Cyberpunk 2077 color scheme. Bit of blue to the left, and a lot of yellow to the right. Yellow is good news!
Hard light: hard shadows, make somebody look tough, maybe with a bit of mystery;
Soft light: soft shadows, make somebody look lovely and friendly;
Loop light is a light above character's head, which in this case comes from the top right corner.
Rim light / back light: dramatic light for a hero with no face, but with the muscles and, maybe, a firm stance.
Rim light can be used to highlight an object, in combination with other lights. It's especially useful when an object or some small details blend into background. Below you'll see more examples of light combinations that I got prepared for you.
Example on using different rim spotlights:
Below is a combined example on using rim lights, key light, practical tube lights. Practical lights are used to explain the "nature" of a light. In fact, to light up the face in this example I've used an invisible light source.
Lets take a look on a different approach with the same scene, but this one is polished, as I captured and retouched it 6 months ago. However, somebody might like an example approach above.
Now onto day time. Even with the ambient light, sun is just a single source of light, so it's basically harsh light. Example with 2 pictures:
A few custom lights in the top picture:
No custom lights in the bottom picture. Only sun and ambient light. The characters look pretty dark, so it gets very hard to see their faces.
There's a lot more examples on the techniques above, and a whole lot more other lighting techniques.
There are also light types.
Sphere light: illuminates everything around it.
Spot light: direct light. This light basically has shape of a cone, it can be controlled in a lot of ways. Wideness, softness, length / attenuation.
Speaking of RTX, light is also a great tool to see how it bounces off a surface an traces its rays.
So, now here's my question to those of you, who have made it to the end of this spoiler:
How do you find your kitty that is hiding in the darkness? I don't have a cat, but I surely know what to do first.
Use the lights!
Lights not only can light something up, but they also can create some nice reflections (in Cyberpunk 2077 we speak RTX). Different types of shapes can complement and reflect on an object, by repeating its curves.
An example picture captured in NFS Payback. Lights were created with "Cinematic Tools" by Matti Hietanen, just a single person. The Lights can be set with any color and any brightness, even brighter than sun.
From left to right: rectangle spotlight (can be transformed to square, strip); red tube sphere light; invisible source of blue strip spotlight (reflected on the right side of a car); sphere light.
In this game it is also possible to turn off visible shapes of the custom lights, if you need to.
What else can you turn on / turn off in "Cinematic Tools" for NFS Payback: specular pass, diffuse pass, shadows. But this is very specific and might be too complex.
As you get to control lights, you will never have the need to look for some street light to light up your face for a picture. And by trying to find a suitable light you will probably lose a nice background. Once you try it, you will never go back, trust me - there's always something to use the lights for. As we go next gen, it's time to go next gen in all forms!
—
There are games that I've bought only because of an interesting photo mode, it's a decisive factor at least for me.
Here's a short list of games that officially have lights feature in photo mode:
- Spider Man: Miles Morales (this one makes me think of buying a PS5, because they've nailed the photo mode)
- DIRT5 (its photo mode also has one of the best features ever: additional rendering, It creates anti-aliased image, physically correct and clean it calculates Depth of Field and Motion Blur)
- Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order
Spider-Man: Miles Morales looks like a game with a good degree of priority in artistic content. Potential brought to life!
Though it doesn't have time of day & weather controls, and other less important features.
Cyberpunk 2077 looks like a game with a lot of visual potential!
Lighting tools can complement this 100%. Ask any creative person, that has previously worked with lights. It's a whole new world, where you can spend many-many hours trying different lighting setups and see how drastically a scene might change. Make your scene realistic or cartoony, high-key or low-key. It has to be a photographer's decision in 2021!
—
Not just a few people miss a lighting tools feature..
There are many people that have been using 3rd-party lighting tools in a lot of great games, they've been creating original photographs and astonishing cinematic videos. Now they miss it in a lot of new titles - and new titles are missing a lot of truly amazing content. So, why not to step up the game not only in terms of gameplay, but in terms of creative freedom, for the people who like to create and then promote the game with awesome wallpapers that are worth printing on a wall? Make all kind of developers more proud of their work, as they see it in a good light.
I completely understand that game development is hard work, especially in 2020..
Gamers and creators have kind of different interests, and priorities belong to the vast majority. But after all, the gamers try out photo mode and might find their destiny. Many people love to learn and experience advanced instruments used for image creation. The creators discover that they have already spent several hundred / thousand hours in the game & photo mode and cannot be distracted from the next branch in the plot, meanwhile capturing every other character, vehicle and scenery in their very special lighting setup, according to their characters or emotions. Enjoyable videogame in its all aspects - is a dream?
I'm trying my luck and speaking up for the people that do stand my point, but over a long time they've lost hopes in trying to reach someone out to change the game. There are a lot of great artists which results of work you might have seen on the internet.
Please, hear me out: there's no bright future without lights, Cyberpunk 2077 needs lights in its photo mode!
From what can I see on the recent video showcase, besides the "moving a character", and background options (no greenscreen, though), photo mode is pretty basic even for 2018 (or earlier).
In the photo mode showcase, (when they were showing off different background options under "stickers", with a person leaning on a wall), I've spotted that photo mode already has an enabled spotlight (which has appeared above camera position, and reflected in glasses), looks like the base is already in photo mode! This might mean, that any further development can go much easier?
I don't know. But we all really hope so!
Timing on the video, 1:09
Screenshot of that part:
I hope, at this point the time was well spent for all of us,
and I believe, it was a good read for someone.
Be creative, and strive!
Thanks for your attention!
——
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This thread needs a sticky! I bought the game because of this post <3 (long hair! pretty V!)
I like that this long hair has a look that it's from a can so I can add more fun visual storytelling to my V
also those boots !
I don't see how content creation has any thing to do with "selfie" culture.
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I don't think a corpo being shallow self absorbed and narcissistic is a stretch of the imagination. I mean that's like the whole stereo type. And same with street kid. In night city, reputation and how you are perceived is everything. So these traits would for sure be super common among street kids.
In fact, I think one of the ideas is how most people in these universes are vain and narcissistic, and how that's driven by un restricted capitalism. Everyone always needs to buy more look better and show it off.
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I get what your saying but when I think of corpo, I think money/power driven A-hole, who will do any and everything for more power/money.
But it's all good... we can all play how we want to play.
Not mutually exclusive lol
One of the key driving traits of what you just described is narcissistic and shallow.