AuthorTopic: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...  (Read 182276 times)

Offline alspal

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #160 on: January 14, 2010, 12:57:27 am
Really like the main character choice!
Maybe there could be more movement in the waist area? Although his armour seems to restrict that. I'm not really sure how goriallas move but it seemed a bit stiff.
It almost seems like he has 2 different types of fur on his arms (the lower and upper areas), the fur also seems like it's made of crystals  ;D

Offline big brother

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #161 on: January 14, 2010, 04:49:48 am
There should be more vertical movement I think. The head and torso almost seem stiffly held in place. In a kind of bounding gallop, I would imagine that the head would move in a nice arc over the frames. Also, it'd be nice to see his facial features more exaggerated, enhancing the simian quality for this scale. Your world seems kind of cartoony, and the furry detail doesn't really jive.

Offline Tuna Unleashed

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #162 on: January 14, 2010, 05:16:00 am
the back legs are really floaty. i like the character design way better now, but i agree darker fur would help. nice progress

Offline Howard Day

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #163 on: January 14, 2010, 07:02:58 am
Konrad: It's a GorillaCat! ...I don't know why those ears. I thought they might look good. I was obviously wrong. I like the robo legs, they're gonna make more sense when you see the gun. :D You're right on the leg extents.
Larwick: Glad you like it! The ears were obviously a bad choice. As for the upper arm, I think what's jarring about that area is the extreme range of motion of the biological arm right next to the almost non-moving torso armor. I stuck in a sort of shoulder pad to help dampen that movement.
Jad: Thanks for the support! I think I'm well on my way to proving that the idea is solid. :D
CaKsTeR: That should be fixed in the latest.
aspal: Glad you like! I'm definitely still tweaking the overall movement. And good call on the specular on the fur - it was too much. Removed.
big brother: Done - added in there. I'll hit the facial features when I do the close up talking portrait. Sometime in he future. :D
Tuna Unleashed: Fixed and fixed.
So a while back someone asked about the Max settings and workflow that I'm using. It's pretty simple - I'm rendering the images at twice the final resolution with Blackman AA. I then shrink the images in post using nearest neighbor sampling - that's the only way I've found to get these nice, crisp edges. The lighting is one directional area light, and max's advanced lighting radiosity.
Here's a preview of the next image set - quickly done with none of the cool stuff turned on.

That's your first look at a player gun. It's one of the high-level ones, if not the highest-level one. :D
Thoughts?

I'm rendering the final quality frames now. I'll post 'em up when they're done.

Offline CrazyMLC

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #164 on: January 14, 2010, 07:21:51 am
The legs and event he torso needs some work imo, and the palms should be pointing inwards a bit more.
the stride seems a bit off, heres a reference video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHi3xYS3cOs

I like the legs but they seem very plain and archaic when looking at the beautiful, flowing armor and electronics of the spider and company. Gorillas are a lot like humans, and the belly should stick out a bit more than it is now... unless this is a super weightlifter gorilla! :D

The gun looks big and cool, but also very bulky and heavy, and it seems to be more on the gorilla's left side, and that would probably make walking, or even standing, very hard.

Offline Stab

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #165 on: January 14, 2010, 08:17:04 am
Thoughts!

First off: Fantastic, ridiculous, if I can concoct stuff at this level of quality some day, I'll die happy.

Second: For your Gorilla... if the function defines the form, then what is his body armour/cyborg-ness doing? What is he supposed to be doing?

The rest of your work seems to make sense in this regard. Not much seems incongruous; everything is where it should be, reads easily, and supports a function.

For example, the Deathbot. From a few seconds of looking, my brain picks it up as a tough, frontal-defense robot, built primarily to stand its ground and repel a number of medium-to-small, relatively slow targets. This idea of the robot is gathered from the way it appears to be crafted. It has a single, nonrotational optic up front, mounted low and moderately well defended, as well as two frontward-facing guns, seemingly well-protected legs and an energy core placed behind it all where it's very unlikely to be hit at all. Your design of the character is fantastic, and tells the viewer a lot of things that probably won't even register unless he thinks about it.

In comparison and using the same analysis, I wanna look at your Gorilla. It has a giant friggin' cannon, which is very clear in intent and purpose. It appears to be built to charge headlong into a battle and exploderize everything by virtue of the fact that its gun is so large aiming is just a suggestion, not a necessity. It is incongruous, however with itself and its own percieved function by the way it is crafted. If it IS a beast (Cyborg primate whatever) meant primarily to juggernaut its way in there and leave bits of robot strewn across the earth, then why are its two most important physical forces entirely unarmoured, save for two bracelets that remind me more of restraining devices than anything else? Also, why is there more protection on the rear end, where nothing is likely to even be scratched, let alone permanently damaged?

The character's design isn't telling me what it's meant for. My heart says it's made to rush in there fastlike and crushinate (Also, I feel like I read this somewhere), but the character design isn't supporting that thesis, or offering another suggestion (If the gun had a longer barrel, and the gorilla had freaky optics, I'd think sniper gorilla. If it was clutching a nuclear warhead, I'd think kamikaze gorilla.).

What I'd be playing around with or attempting to do would be to push the idea that this gorilla does not believe that "slow", "backwards" and "stop" are anywhere in the dictionary, and that forward progress despite any obstacle is the only way to go, ever. The character doesn't project any definite idea right now, and I think that's where it suffers most.

Offline Howard Day

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #166 on: January 14, 2010, 08:41:06 am
Alrighty - the final quality sprite. Not final, just final quality.


CrazyMLC : I'll play around with the arms/hands a bit more. And as much as I like the way the legs are made right now, I'll take another look and see if I can't come up with something better. As for the size and placement of the gun...I'm willing to forgo total realism in this case, in favor of sheer awesome. Remember - that weapon is a late-game deal, most of the game will be played through with weapons far smaller and less cumbersome than that.
Stab: You bring up some excellent points - and if I'm honest, I don't know how to properly address them. The only thing that comes to mind is some way of showing the player that that gun mount was not originally intended to *be* a gun mount. Something along the lines of at the very beginning of the game, right after the scoutship is shot down and you, the player, wake up - having some sort of mangled comm gear that he tears off his shoulder. The player is supposed to be a scout returning from a mission. That's actually key - he's never intended to *be* a frontline weapon, but a passive, furtive observer. Thus, his hindquarters would be armored, for running away, legs altered, enhanced, so he could be faster, yeah? And a neat-o satellite dish with some bad-ass binocular attachment would make a lot of sense. And the shoulder mount could just be a generic mounting point, like an AC socket. This all makes sense to me, sure - but I'm really close to the character and the project. You're right - the key is communicating the knowledge I have to the player.

I'm rendering out another take on this, from the rear view. I'm fairly certain that I'll be using the front view from here on out, but I thought some might like to see.
 

Offline 9_6

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #167 on: January 14, 2010, 08:54:24 am
The player is supposed to be a scout returning from a mission. That's actually key - he's never intended to *be* a frontline weapon, but a passive, furtive observer.
A gorilla bigger than the biggest enemy (so far) is meant to have the role of an passive observer?
That's like taking the hulk and giving him the job of a scout.
Does not compute.

Also if it's meant to be a scout, robotize its frond legs and de-armorize its chest or something to communicate mobility cause right now, that's way too much armor for something that's not meant for battle.
But then again, that's way too clunky and heavy looking for a scout, with or without that gun!
How could you, out of all possible mammals, pick a gorilla as the "passive observer"?
Gorillas are neither stealthy nor (do they look) agile. They're gorillas! They're hell of strong! They're the most hardcore apes in existance!
« Last Edit: January 14, 2010, 08:57:44 am by 9_6 »
Does scaling an image blur it?
Opera fix Firefox fix

Offline Tuna Unleashed

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #168 on: January 14, 2010, 01:26:49 pm
imo you should have the gun mounted on his back. i mean i know its exaggerated but... wow, that might be a bit much. he ought to topple over as long as he's going under mach 10. i do like the gun though

Offline CrazyMLC

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #169 on: January 14, 2010, 02:13:12 pm
The reasons Stab posted are very, very good, and I think represent why he should find some new armor, but knowing your reasons, Howard, make it make sense.

Still, I think its in conflict with the huge gun... you say that this one will be later in the game, so how about having the armor be upgradable to fit in with it?

One thing is, arms are part of gorillas' stride, so why are they left unenhanced and organic?
They're also needed for movement, so I'd think keeping them intact would be top (or second to top? >_>) priority...
The legs are hard to read, I can't tell if they're in really boxy armor or robotic legs.

The torso armor, apart from the the hip area, looks like a single piece of armor, the chest and spine need a lot of room, and you see how in medieval armor its all segmented to allow motion, I think you should apply this concept, especially for a scout.

The socket would make much more sense in context, I think seeing other gorillas/people attached to the bottoms of planes, etc, ready to be dropped off, or or having is be part of the seat belt for the plane he crashes in, or something like that. If you do something like that you probably wont have to worry about it, but for even a civilian/scout to be using it, when they're not supposed to be constantly using guns, there'd have to be a lot of use, or need, for it

One way you could get away with the armor being like it is is having a personal shield on him.

Or, how about he makes/finds new armor, or cobbles things onto it to make it fancier?
On his ship he crashed in, was there no suit of combat armor?
Does he not come across any deserted police stations with police armor?


Like I said earlier this is evolving into a game i'd love to play, heres hoping it gets made!

I liked seeing the mock-ups with everything on the screen, can we see one with the gorilla, HUD, etc? Pleeeease?
« Last Edit: January 14, 2010, 02:17:41 pm by CrazyMLC »