Kerbal Space Program

[CoolP 283]

Ray, how's your vid project going? What, you feel asleep in front of the PC?

[RoboRay 126]

Hah!  It's coming along, slowly, far more slowly than I expected.  Real-life is leaving me little time for hobbies right now.

 

I'm glad I copied off a sequence of quick-saves along the way, because I keep needing to go back to fix continuity errors and bad shots or add new shots I think of.  And the editing is a real time-consuming and tedious bear.

 

Anyway, I was actually about to post an update tonight...  I just finished the landing itself and figured that was a good point to ask for more feedback.

 

http://youtu.be/Mj-0bzO7UDc

 

I've still got the surface exploration via rover and the return home to assemble, leaving me a little more than half-way done.

 

Remind me to never take on a full-mission movie-project again.  I'm having fun with it, mind you, but I think it will be quite some time before I do this again. 

[CoolP 283]

I like it, especially when the Kerbals are sitting in the cockpit, performing this 'bring it on' move. The landing phase is really good with the different angles and the fly-by cam. And you lander still impresses me to be honest. Nice work!

[RoboRay 126]

Thanks!

 

I finally decided to take a break from editing video during whatever "play" time I can find and try out the updated Mercury/Gemini mod pack. I've been looking forward to it for a while, because Frank has added the proposed but of course never flown "Winged Gemini" lifting body adapter!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It actually flies pretty well at low speeds, but it's really squirrelly at transonic speeds, both during the rocket ascent and reentry. On approach, it's a steep descent because you're not getting a lot of lift, but it does better than I had expected. I actually had to do some S-turns and circle around once because I hadn't expected it to glide so far.

 

Not shown is me tumbling out of control from over-banking and having to deploy (then release) one of my drogue parachutes to get the pointy end of the spacecraft out front again. :blush:

[CoolP 283]

Thanks for the hu on that one. I'm not to happy with my conventional fixings skills in KSP so that one will be a challenge for sure.

 

By the way, makes sense to see the videos as a side effect of the actual flying, not the other way around.

 

/ sent from a mobile thingy /

 

 

[RoboRay 126]

I'm back to work on the movie...  Jeb and Bill have completed their visit to the Mun's surface and returned to the orbiting CSM.

 

(Skip to about 12:50 if you want to jump to where the new footage starts.)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbbmFUVuNAw

 

All that's left now is bringing them home.  Most of my weekend plans have been rained-out, so I hope to get some more editing accomplished.

[CoolP 283]

Brilliant work. Saying that with my gf also watching.  :smile:  The only thing which is obvious to frequent Kerbal players but no so much for newbies is that part after leaving the Mun and suddenly being docked.

 

You have that phase where they leave the lander behind but you've cut the one where it reunited with the orbital module before.

[RoboRay 126]

Yeah, I cut to where they had already re-docked.  I thought that it would feel redundant, having watched one docking already, and didn't really add to the "story" for the time it would take to show.

 

I had also lost some footage and didn't feel like recreating it.  So, I jumped forward like I did with the surface exploration...  skipping from the flag-planting to be out on a rover expedition.  I may go back and grab some shots of the rendezvous, though, if the transition doesn't seem to flow well. 

 

Was that something your gf mentioned?  Her opinion might be more valuable, actually, if she's not going into it with any assumptions already in-place. 

 

I've already made some changes to the "cutting loose the LM" part because I thought it was dragging on a bit, anyway. 

[CoolP 283]

She noted that they've instantly switched the ship, so I had to point out that it is docked again and therefore 'bigger'. But we've watched after the 12:50 mark, so your point on having a redundant docking scene is more than valid. We've started without seeing the first one again.

 

Lol, I was looking for some cool pictures and angles from the Apollo docking phase but the sites I went too are shut down. :mellow: Erm, lets hope they fix this. Like soon. Earthly problems. :unsure:

[RoboRay 126]

I've got some ideas for improvements...  let me see what I can do.

 

Thanks for the feedback! 

[RoboRay 126]

Ok, here's another take on it.  Still not completely satisfied, but I don't know what else I can do.  I wanted some better close-ups on the kerbal faces as they abandon the LM ascent stage, but I just don't have a way to get them without going on EVA (and then helmet faceplates and lighting becomes an issue).  The slightly excessive length of the music I chose for that sequence is another part of the problem...  but I'm pretty much stuck with the score as-is.

 

http://youtu.be/vKSRe5MFpHI

 

I also took down the older videos because one of them popped up on .  I caught it quick, before more than a handful of people viewed it, but don't want it being linked there until it's finished.  (Not to mention, I want the link-karma!)    The few people who care enough to visit this thread on AVSIM are my limited test audience.    I think it was my fault, though, because I may have neglected to set the latest one to Unlisted, making it visible to searches.

[RoboRay 126]

Actually,  I do have something I can do about the musical score for that part...  but it's bed-time.  I'll do some re-editing tomorrow.

[RoboRay 126]

Ok...  I think I sorted out the issues with the "departing the Mun" segments.  I was able to juggle a couple of tracks around in the score and recut to them, which trimmed the excessive length of abandoning the LM and also let me put back in some stuff I previously had to cut for time-reasons before they took off from the Mun. 

 

I still left out the re-docking as I don't feel it adds any tension (the audience has already seen they know how to do that kind of thing) and just adds fluff-time.  I think that to someone watching the entire piece straight through, having just watched the lander un-dock, that it won't disrupt the flow.  I did make the fade transition a couple of seconds longer, though, hopefully to better convey that some time has passed.

 

http://youtu.be/SzkbClPyAZY

[CoolP 283]

Ray, be sure that I'll watch the vids later. The full audience isn't available this time.

 

However, you are also making sure to play the game instead of just filming it, k? You know, between the days on the set. :smile:

[RoboRay 126]

Play?  For fun?

 

Yeah, a little bit.  From time to time. 

 

I'm kinda waiting around for version 0.22 to hit before I get serious about playing again, though.  I don't know if you've checked out any of the preview videos, but the science and research aspects in Career-mode are going to be game-changers.  Really cool stuff!