Thanks for the heads-up Synt! =D

No blog or blurb at the start? =(

Yeah, I should have put a little blurb at the start (but a blog?)

This is just fine synteny. What Leord means is that Karune usually adds a "blog" section in which he discusses a gameplay experience, or a topic to a bit more detail. Its not included this time though, which is rare

Ah ok, silly me.

Haha, yeah, I didn't mean anything about your news item =)

So, what do you like the news of the cinematic availabilities in SC2? I am suspecting really cool Machinima for SC2 ;)

I think it's awesome. There will be an influx of cinematics from fans. If only Blizzard would include unit modellers and skin designers into the game...

What do they mean with "the full 3D cinematics mechanic from the single player campaign". 3D camera movement?

Probably the bridge from the Terran campaign, for example.

If you look at the single player gameplay from BlizzCon 2007, you'll see a section when Jim Raynor is on the bridge of Hyperion. He means that sequence. The full 3D-models, and they have also said they used higher rez ones for the ACTUAL cinematics ;)

Yay for blur effect

Yay for the option to take out blur effect in custom games

great Q&A, felt like I got some insight into what they are trying to accomplish over in Irvine

I'm still pretty confused by the cinematics comment. Guess I'll have to wait and see =)

What are you confused by? The sequences they have between maps, like ON HYPERION, including the engineering bay (inside Hyperion), the bridge and lunch room, those things can be used by cinematic makers. I assume that the Protoss one will be in some Mothership, and the Zerg one to be in some Hive (cool to see inside of a Hive!).

High-rez characters with proper talking animations etc.

Did I help any? =/

Aw ok, thanks.

Nice, even though I fear that most of the high-res stuff will be rather useless since it comes in limited amounts and doesn't fit to the other "low res" models.
Meh, speculations. :P

actually, I'm pretty sure in-game cinematics means that in-game cut scenes ala Warcraft 3 in which the in-game models would have dialogue and whatnot before gameplay starts or in between. So there cinematic editor means that you can create your own true in-game cinematics

Both the Hyperion and the map you play on is "in-game" =)

I think you can use the Hyperion bridge (etc) in very cool ways, but I think they are just "sets" or "stages", and probably nothing you can "play Doom" on. It will be cool, but I also think that the coolest things will appear in the map gameplay cinematics.

I like the reasoning behind the Hydralisk downgrade, but it still doesn't mention what happened (if anything) to the Roaches.

The anti-blur feature is a nice addition to the map editor.

It's just that the Hyperion backdrop and hi-res characters sound a bit limiting to me somehow... We will probably only be able to use what's been used by Blizzard in these cinematics.

I wouldn't be surprised, if the characters had very specific motion-capture motions that can only be used in very specific situations. Hope I'm wrong, though.

You're probably right that they only have a certain amount of animations, but I would wager that you could use all those any way you want, and probably also make new animations. I doubt they are motion capture, as I have heard Blizzard likes to use "real" animators that make "real animation", not motion capture.

Also, yeah, the Hyperion sets will probably be about that limited, but they didn't seem overly complicated, it's very possible we could re-skin them, or even make new ones ourselves!

I dont know. The idea of removing the blur effect may have an impact on the game. We'll see.