Process improvement is a big portion of where my time goes. Whether it’s writing Python helpers for keeping track of events or handling layered images, iterating how I work is something I often enjoy more than working on the game itself.

The most recent was something very simple… so simple in fact I don’t know why I didn’t think of it months ago.

Whenever I compose a larger scene, like the group dinner scenes, I’m typically working with 2-3 cameras. A 40-50mm “Closeup Camera” for facial expression shots, and a 65-90mm camera for longer shots that can keep the entire group in focus. It takes an hour or so to pose/seat each of the characters, arrange the food and props, run clothing simulations, etc. and then I may get 2-3 shots out of it. Each time I’ll grab one of the cameras and move it around the scene, adjusting the focal plane/depth, doing test renders, and then doing the final render.

Later on when I’m writing dialogue though, I might want to pad it out with some additional headshots for people talking. What I did was create a wearable preset with 3 cameras that can be quickly loaded onto any character in the scene. One camera focused on their face, another mounted to their eyeball for ‘POV style’ shots, and a third ‘over the shoulder’ camera. All of these have preset focal planes, so it’s just a matter of loading an old scene, loading the wearable onto a character, and hitting render after some minor tweaks.

All the cameras are either parented to the chest, head, or eyeball and will auto follow movements if the character turns their head or eyeballs.