Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

[9_6]

The 3-coloured kind of thing you have going on reminds me more of mirrors edge where everything is red, white and blue rather than what I have seen in that video.

[publicenemy1]

Hi Howard,

the mockup looks very professional. What happened to your Possible Space Shooter Mockup... ? Is that game still in the making?
I work as a programmer for other kind of software but lurking to get a opportunity to work on a game.


So if you need someone for a game prototyp please send me a mail.

[Splode]

Absolutely beautiful.

The weapon needs a lot of work though.
 - The bug braces too quickly.
 - The gun's delayed recoil after firing is both odd and also excessive. Maybe if you had the gun on a sliding mechanism, so it moves backwards when it fires, rather than upwards after it fires (which looks unnatural)
 - This is just a possibility, but maybe the guns swing around too much when the bug walks?
 - The entire fire animation seems to happen too quickly. Let us enjoy those fantastic effects for a little more than that split second!

[Howard Day]

Pawige:Yeah, I think I exaggerated the firing movement too much...Here's an update. , and I'm glad you like it - I gotta say, it would be nearly as cool without all the feedback I've been getting - and for that I thank you!
CrazyMLC: Thanks! I dunno if I am gonna change the walk order, but I agree on the guns....re-do:
Tuna Unleashed: Aaah, the wonders of radiosity.
9_6: Yeah, I went ack and looked at the video again, and was kinda surprised how little it resembled what I had come up with...
publicenemy1: Thanks. The space shooter thing is pretty stalled right now - I think it a combo of both I and DKH being distracted by other things...as for you kind offer, I think I shall have to turn you down at this point - I already have far too many projects I'm working on where people are depending on me to deliver assets - I'd hate to add yet another one to the list of disappointments.
Splode:I hope the previous 2 animations meet your expectations. As for slowing it down, I dunno - I've had the experience that whenever I slow animations down to showcase the awesomeness that occurs, it always looks really weird in game...Nevertheless, here are the newest animations at half speed...
And the latest version of the explosion:  and one with a little moar whumpff at the begining.
I'm working on the background buildings right now...

I know about the tree. Already fixed!

[Conzeit]

I recently looked into the original vid a little more...to be honest with ya, I originally thought that your interpretation had no true connection with the short (which plays a bit more like an intro).

http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x9ol42 what's most like your background is the shot at 0:07 and the architecture is all slightly wonky, it was hand drawn and it shows...I believe you should tweak the verticals of your building so that it isnt really vertical, so that it looks just a little off. Also....you should keep in mind all of the buildings in the original have a very artisan looking aspect to them, unlike your building which somewhat feels prefabricated, it feels like a futuristic fantasy prop that could be maybe in megaman or similar.

There is a feeling of childlike curiosity all over the short which is wholly missing from the mockup. When I think of a game version of the short, I think http://adamatomic.com/canabalt/ only less punishing and with a bit of exploration into it...

The distancing from the short is also true for the spider sprite. If you want to keep the same kind of ambience I think you need a few hand drawn elements in the sprites or atleast elements that imitate hand drawn stuff (think viewtiful joe's scarf) or maybe the ocassional cel shaded element

I dont even know if you're going for the short's ambience anymore but I wanted to give u ideas in case you did even in the slightest. With work of this scope I feel the need to make crits of the same kind of scope :p it's all as inspring to me as the original short was to you and I wouldnt know where to start to do something like this, much kudos

[Howard Day]

Conceit: I gotta say...I'm pretty content with going my own way on this one. The original video was great for inspiration, but the goal was never to copy it 1-to-1. I've done far too much of that in my artistic career, and its good to go my own way a bit on this one. I love that it inspired me to start the project, but I hold no more loyalty to the original video than that.

[Conexion]

Brilliant work. I love how cohesive it all feels, and the style is wonderful. I must ask, how do you keep the render colors so consistent? I use Cinema 4D myself, but have had the same troubles in my experience with 3DMax. I find I can either shade the models by hand without lighting, or use a standard light and get a million shades.

Great work though. Have you considered maybe making the shadows have a ting of blue to complement all of the orange going on?

[CrazyMLC]

Speaking of blue, the blue on the spiders is very dull but they look like they should be sci-fi glowy lights.

[Howard Day]

Conexion: Thanks. As for the render colors, that's a combination of an orthographic camera ( one with a viewing angle of effectively 0 degrees) and a Directional light (light with no position in the world, just an incoming angle). I let the advance lighting/radiosity do all the cool bounce lights and color bleeds. Not nearly as tricky as you might imagine.  The shadows are quite blue-purple right now, and I think they're saturated enough. if not, I can always up that at a later date...
CrazyMLC: yeah, ever since I switched 'em over from red they've been sort of lost. Here's an update: along with the inspiration to up the interest in the blue lights was the decision to change the muzzle flash to orange/green. Looks much more Raptor:Call of the shadows-y now...

And I thought I'd give you all a bit more of a look under the hood - here's the spider bot animation at it's original resolution:
And he are two untouched render frames direct from MAX..

And all together now!

[Conexion]

Awesome stuff! Good to hear, I'll need to play with that myself And I should have clarified - I meant the shadows cast by the spider-bot guys.