Our next topic of conversation will be about the use of film grain and dust. According to James Grieve from Valve, concerning film grain “It gives a detailed look to a piece”. This technique is also known as vignetting. Another way to explain vignetting is: A gradual reduction in density of parts of a photographic image due to the stopping of some of the rays entering the lens. A lens mounting may interfere with the extreme oblique rays.

Think of grain as a subtle but important visual element inherent to film, and even though we consciously unaware of it, it is a key to providing implied complexity. Grain can be used to affect a certain style, such as the World War II archival effects which were done successfully in the DOD trailer that Valve has just produced. Remember that random dust splotches can add to the appearance of old film. Other effects include flickering and vignettes. Some opportunities which arise to exploit film grain include low-light noise and anti-aliasing.

 

 

 

Well if you’ve made it this far, you really do care how games are made, and now you know more about how solid companies such as Valve, are striving to produce more realism in games for you, the end user.

I’m going to show an array of screen shots taken while using some of the new tools which Valve provided, for scene editing. Most of these controls are quite similar to what one might find using Photoshop or other editors, and have a lot of intrinsic value in the future. Kudo’s to Valve for not only developing these handy and easy to use editing tools, but also sharing them with the general community through SDK soon. What does that mean? More mods are forthcoming!

The first panel we will examine is the Color Correction Panel below.

Color Correction Panel

Note you will see the lookup view defaulted in the Color Correction panel. Below I’ve inserted the Color Balance Tool screen shot. Not only can you adjust for shadows and highlight, but midtones as well, besides adjustments in the color spectrum.

Color Balance Tool

Next let’s look at the Color Correction Tool Selection drop down menu below.

Color Correction Tool - drop down menu

The curves tool is similar to that used in Photoshop, just click a point and drag to effect changes as desired. You’ve pretty much seen the lookup tool but let’s take one more peek for fun.

Curves Tool

By clicking on the color squares in the lookup view panel you can make slight adjustments at your whim. You can then choose a blend level. I can already hear you asking, what the heck do the HSV tool and the Levels tool look like and how do they operate? Peruse further please.

Output Level

You can now see the output level screen and all you need to do for adjustments, is move your output level line up or down as you choose. Again we have the blending option.

HSV Tool

Probably the most intriguing tool selection to me personally was the HSV tool, allowing a plethora of adjustments including Hue, Saturation, Value, Tolerance, amount of Fuzziness, and again your blend factor. The inset shows right away what changes you are contemplating.