Explore camera shot types

The position of a camera is only half of the story in creating good camera design in interactive experiences. The other half is how the camera is focused. A camera very close to the object it’s focusing on will produce a different mood than a camera very far away. Shot types are various well-known approaches to the camera’s focus on and distance from the objects in view. In this tutorial, you’ll learn about some of the most popular camera shot types and how to use them to contribute to the overall mood of a scene.

Wide angle shots allow the user to see the maximum amount of the environment at one time. For this reason, they’re excellent for establishing shots of new locations in an interactive experience. Take a look at a wide angle shot:

1. Locate and open the Camera_Shots_Scene in the Scenes folder and enter Play mode.

2. The game starts in a wide angle view. Press 1 on your keyboard to activate this view.

In the same way this wide angle shot puts emphasis on the environment, it decreases the importance of the player character since the camera is so far removed from them. This can be a useful technique for narrative purposes, but keep in mind that from a functional perspective, the farther away from the camera the player character is, the harder it is for the user to control.

Next, take a look at a close-up shot, which brings the focus to the player character.

To view a close-up shot, press 2 on your keyboard.

Close-up shots tend to be from the waist to chest up. When locked behind the player character, they are often called over-the-shoulder shots. From a functional perspective, this shot type can be somewhat limited if used as the primary shot in an experience, because it limits the amount of visible environment with the player character taking up as much as a third of the screen.

A bird’s-eye view gives the user a top-down perspective that is still focused on the player character.

To take a look at a bird’s-eye view, press 3 on your keyboard.

The bird’s-eye view is in between a close-up and wide angle shot – but with perspective. This view gives the user a better viewpoint of both the environment and the player character. It is useful where the context of the environment is important for the user to see, such as in situations where perspective and scale are important for the user to navigate the environment.

The worm’s-eye view is from the ground up. To see a worm’s-eye view, press 4 on your keyboard.

Worm’s-eye views are useful for giving a sense of unease or otherwise alerting the user that something isn’t right, since the perspective is so unusual. However, they are not typically used in productions unless a great deal of the experience’s activity happens above the player.

These are a few examples of different shots that you can create in your interactive experience. Each shot here has both benefits and detriments and may not work in every situation. Shot design is an artform that’s long been practiced in film and animation and is worth additional study.

Consider the media that you reviewed in the first tutorial. Were there any dynamic shots present in your review that drew your attention?

If so:

• How was the mood affected by the way that the shot was framed?
• What did the shot communicate about the subject matter of the scene?
• How would you describe the shot? What angle was it set from, and what was its primary focus?

In this tutorial, you learned about a few popular camera shots for interactive experiences, and you began researching other shots that appeared in popular media that appealed to you. In the next tutorial, you’ll take all of your learning from this project and apply it to a challenge.