Project 2 update

I spent the afternoon experimenting with getting some 3D renderings of my character, similar to what was done in my research. In the end I created a full 3D model, taken exactly from my 2D vector character, which can be easily animated, rendered, and turned into a sprite animation in flash. My character was fairly simple to model, although the jacket and hat were a little frustrating to get right, and I'm still not completely happy with either yet. Overall I am pleased with my progress so far and now I confidently feel that I can use the technique i looked at in my research to create a nice looking landscape for my character.

Here's a shot of the original vector image, and the final 3d Model

A couple of Development shots

And a few more shots of the finished model

Project 2 Research

I began my research by thinking of some of my favourite video games, and what I really liked about them, after completing project 1, and with monkeys still on the brain the first to come to mind was Donkey Kong Country (1994 SNES) (and its sequel Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest (1995 SNES) which I loved even more!) This graphics of this game really blew my mind, it was the first time I had seen such fluid and convincing computer animation. Somehow the game designers had managed to create what appeared to be a flowing 3 Dimensional landscape and characters, on a system that was nowhere near capable of doing so. This was done through a revolutionary technique at the time, what Nintendo referred to as ACM, or Advanced Computer Modelling.

Using the latest Silicon Graphics workstations, the designers created full 3dimensional characters and landscapes, and then converted the 3D renderings into 2D backgrounds and sprite animations. Although by today's standards the 3D is very primitive, at the time it was a window to the future.

I really like the idea of using 3D rendered images in a 2D scrolling game to create a really simple faux 3D game, I think using this technique and 3ds Max I can create a really impressive looking world for my character to explore. I have begun playing around in Max creating a 3d version of my character (As I feel using the very flat looking vector character will look quite out of place in front of rendered backgrounds) I will post some progress shots of this up shortly.

Here are some Donkey Kong Country images

And heres a video of gameplay, as well an interesting a "Behind the scenes" video (Beware, its very 90s..)

Project 1 Final

'Fang' - The Monkey PirateI have come up with a lycanthrope character that is half monkey/chimp half pirate. His facial features are predominantly simian in style, with a few exceptions such as his eyes that I have left distinctly human. His Posture and walk are also very human in nature, as is his dress. I included a peg leg to give him an interesting lop-sided walk cycle and to help stylise him a little more. Although he carries a large sword and has quite a gruff appearance, he is really very kind and pleasant, but a little cheeky..

click for .swf

Update

Have been pretty tied up with other assignments the last couple of days, id sort of put my character on the back burner for a while, hence the lack of updates. I Decided to re-do my sprite sheet and walk cycle to make it more complex and interesting by adding details like a bending knee and the jacket moving etc.

After spending most of the evening on it I got quite stuck on the final part of the cycle, after his peg-leg moves in front of his right foot, and then the two legs meet again in the middle to restart the cycle. There was this weird kinda slidy thing going on with both his foot and peg-leg moving at the same time, it just didn’t look natural. So I checked out the internet for other examples of walk cycles incorporating a limp/peg-leg, and found this, after studying it for a few minutes I worked out my mistake and quickly fixed it, with the walk cycle now complete I just have to add the action script.

Found Peg-leg example clip -'MattEl' December 28, 2006

Sprite Sheet

Here is the initial Sprite sheet I have come up with, I came up with this adaptation of this character after completing the Adobe character animation tutorial in the links section, and thus is a little stylistically different to my previous direction, But I am happy with this result, which is a little more cartoonish than I was originally going for. The motions are hive him walking, and slicing with his sword.

Character Profile

'Fang' - The Monkey Pirate
I have come up with a lycanthrope character that is half monkey/chimp half pirate. His facial features are predominantly simian in style, with a few exceptions such as his eyes that I have left distinctly human. His Posture and walk are also very human in nature, as is his dress. I included a peg leg to give him an interesting lop-sided walk cycle and to help stylise him a little more. Although he carries a large sword and has quite a gruff appearance, he is really very kind and pleasant, but a little cheeky..


Here is the Development process I went through

And here is A larger image, which I have begun to add colour too.

Initial sketches

I intend to make a character based on a Monkey/Human combination. At first I toyed with the idea of simply giving the monkey a very human scale and posture and dressing him in a snappy business suit.

However, after some quick sketches I felt this direction was a little plain and just looked like an average monkey in a suit, so I decided to include a Pirate element to give the character a little more depth.

I added some stylistic items such as a boot, a cap and a sword to give the character a distinctly Human feel, and a peg-leg to create and interesting gait and walk cycle.