2 Explosions. 1 Big 1 Small

[Lelle]

Heya all,

my first post here! Thought I would post these explosions Iīm making, maybe for use in a future mobile game. The large one is a bit too large though on series 40 phones I guess! :]

EDIT: Latest revision:

details further down.









I havenīt made any AA yet since I donīt know what kind of background Iīm going to use.

Any pointers and critique most welcome!

Edit: Here is an early mockup of "the game" havenīt had time to do much yet :]


Cheers,

Lelle

[zeid]

Very nice style palette, etc. main fault is that they both end so abruptly. I think a few more frames of the smoke dissipating would serve it well.

[Lelle]

Thanks for fast reply! You are totally right about that, I will make some more frames to test.

If it ever turns into a mobile game though I think I will only get like 4 frames to play with :-|

Thanks again,

Lelle

[baccaman21]

Hi Lelle and welcome to the boards...

Not a bad start - looks rather 'metal slug' (I can see were you get your influences from) - I was gonna point you to a Metal Slug GFX repository but it appears to have gone down since I visited it last (shame) - ho hum... so, I've tried to make a quick edit myself to demonstrate my point.



Note how to emphasise the main explosion by added a couple of 'anticipation' frames in at the start... these frames are played rapidly... and have NO detail in them... - what you're trying to do is show the viewer that the FLASH  you get prior to the main blast... then you go BANG - into the main explosion, that you've managed to recreate pretty faithfully - however... it's rising to rapidly (for my liking) so i've also pulled the frames down a few pixels and made is slow down over time... I've also added a couple of tweens at the end to slow down the dissapating smoke... it could do with more time spent on it tbh but i'll leave that for you to figure out...

I'll be curious to see how it goes with the larger version.

Good luck

[ptoing]

yeh, mslugdb is no more it seems :/ lame.

Some time ago i was analyzing the metal slug explosions and as far as that goes, it's the best reference for pixel explosions EVER.

You can see that the fireball is broken up into "bulges" which flow downwards while the whole thing moves up, the actyal movement of the ball is not that big at all.

[DrDerekDoctors]

Yuss, as Ptoing points out it's that rolling motion of the explosion which really makes them special. Have a look at CPS2 games like Captain Commando and some of the other Capcom scrolling beat 'em ups for further inspiration. However as a first pass, it's not bad at all.

[Lelle]

Whoa, thanks all for kickass feedback! I will try my best at changing them for the better!

And yes Metal Slug explosions makes my heart skip a beat every time I look at one. I will try to analyze some and learn as much as I can from them. As pointed out my explosions are too static, or doesn't have any movement or life in them(like the rolling bolts of flame etc.).

Will post updates as soon as I get the chance :]

Cheers,

Lelle

[legofreak]

yeh, mslugdb is no more it seems :/ lame.

Some time ago i was analyzing the metal slug explosions and as far as that goes, it's the best reference for pixel explosions EVER.

You can see that the fireball is broken up into "bulges" which flow downwards while the whole thing moves up, the actyal movement of the ball is not that big at all.

i dont believe they are moving downward as much as they are staying in the same place while the core of the explosion moves upward

[Joseph]

lego-
I see where you would notice that, but look again.  check out the top balls, which roll down overtop of the balls underneath.  they are moving down, but not a whole lot.

with these explosions...they're not bad, but seem to fade way too fast.  good luck.

[baccaman21]

Thanks for fast reply! You are totally right about that, I will make some more frames to test.

If it ever turns into a mobile game though I think I will only get like 4 frames to play with :-|

Thanks again,

Lelle

just noticed the 4 frames reference!?

That's not a great deal of frames to do a reasonanle attempt at an explosion effect... If this is the case, then I suggest you try something different... something less realistic and more stylized...

just out of interest - are you aware of any sprite scale limitations or indeed what phone you're gonna be targetting it on? - from my (very) limited experience on Mobile phone games there screen dimensions vary quite dramatically from phone model to phone model... I've never really got a handle on this aspect of them as I've not really had the need to go there... but for your benefit perhaps someone like, adam (tierney) and/or ptoing and/or (a few others who's names escape me) could shed some light?