How to take amazing screenshots that stand out

Taking great shots for any game is difficult. Read through these tips before setting out!

Each shot needs to tell a story: Before you set out to take a shot, have a goal for it. What are you trying to show? Then pick the setting, avatars, and action that will tell the story.

Variety: Take 20 or more shots of the same scene to get the one best capture. Try different angles for the camera, position the characters in different areas, experiment with the lighting.

Turn the UI off if possible: Most of the time, you’ll want a shot clear of UI distractions. Turn it off, or take some shots with it on and some with it off to get diversity.

Don’t get stuck in the in-game camera: Some atmospheric shots can be taken while you’re in the editor. Don’t feel like you have to take shots while playing the game live.

Shots should be in context: A stand-alone shot has to do a lot of work, it needs to show multiplayer, an amazing world, and some awesome action. When you have multiple shots to share, you’ll want to make sure each is as unique as possible. New environment, game type, avatars, etc.

Show multiple avatars in action: Remember, Core is a multiplayer experience. Ideally we should show two or three characters in a shot. Each should be in a different pose and different avatar. Try to show diversity in skin tone and gender.

No idle butts: Usually you want to avoid taking shots of avatars and characters from behind. If you do, try to put them into an action mode, not just a random idle.

Keep action close: When action happens at a distance, it’s often hard to read on a screenshot. Our characters and art look great, so we should show them off.

Postage stamp test: Many, if not most, screenshots will never be seen in a full screen. Test out your shot by shrinking it so it’s the size of an index card and a postage stamp. Does it hold up?

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Thanks for the tips! I always struggle when it comes to taking screenshots of a new game I made.

Do you have any advice on how to do a good screenshot showing multiple players in action when you actually are alone behind your laptop?

Good question! It's tough. One option is to ask some friends to hop on and spend 30 mins or so taking screenshots. It can help to try to think of how to theme your characters' appearances and to try to stage something interesting.

If you have players in your game, there's always the option of asking for a hand. Players will often say yes and enjoy taking a moment to get immortalized in a screen.

Depending on your game, some creators have luck using the multiplayer testing bots in preview mode. Careful it doesn't just look like everyone's standing around, though. If you're fancy, you can pose animated meshes.

You might also try asking folks in the Discord for a hand. What would be super helpful is if a community member started hosting a regular screenshot session, for instance, where different creators gathered to help one another with shots.

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When playing in the client editor you can press tab to pause the scene. If you keep the camera consistent when you take screenshots you can fake multiple players being in the screenshot by yourself.
To keep the camera consistent I took the Cinematic Camera from CC and set it to not move. Then pressed M before pausing so it teleported my camera to the same position each time.
Additionally you can slap a large cube with a green coloured opaque emissive material to make a greenscreen.
The following shot from Hazard pay was done with just me as the player.


Also all the screenshots for Run24 were without any additional players