Popped down to Edinburgh for the MOVE Summit, a series of talks on the UK Animation industry. The Thursday portion began with a talk from Christopher McDonald from Framestore, showcasing the technological pre-production (or "Previs") done for movies, with Wicked Part 1 as the example.
They start by using overhead "Blocking Maps" to figure out the space of a scene, where each character is going to stand, position of objects, camera locations, field of view, etc. Then they make CG mockups of characters and locations, using concept art as a base, then animate based on the director's vision. It's sort of like the next step up from storyboards.
This helps them gauge the spacing and stage setup required to pull off practical effects ("Techvis"). For example, the scene where Glinda is sailing to the university, the camera is underwater, showing her hand beneath the water's surface. This means that for the camera to be below her, the actual prop boat needed to be several feet off the ground, something they might not have caught if they just started shooting.
"Postvis" is of course the post-production of adding all the effects together for the final shot. This was also the first time I'd heard the term "Plate", for the base shot that all the effects are later layered onto. Like a sandwich, I guess. Big thanks to Chris for that talk.
Magic Trickery! ππππ Oldtimer and UFOh My!
WISHLIST Magic Trickery on STEAM! Pretty please and thank you!
Happy Valentines day! A good excuse for chocolate (for any relationship), and for me to talk about my partner, Coding Dino https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@codingdino. Not to gush, but sheβs the smartest person I know, full of passion for her craft, and keeps pushing herself to improve.
Iβve learned a lot from her over the 11 or so years weβve been together, and Iβd be a far worse person without her. <3
She's been obsessed with Ascendance of a Bookworm for the last couple weeks, so here's some Rozemyne.
MeaBea π§‘π
Used to see a lot of 3D art back on Twitter, glad to see others like @molegato keeping it going on other platforms. If you haven't played their game Frogun yet, go grab it on steam! Great, classy platformer. I love those low-res pixel textures; they tend to come out quite crummy when I try making them, so I appreciate the talent.
I saw one of their tags as "WireframeWednesday", so let's give it a bash. MR's spawning in to blast some crazy alien noggins!
Now that my indie game has a map and fast travel it is really satisfying to see just how much of the world is finished so far~
Hey friendly reminder that I made not one but two games in which you've got a grappling gun that's a frog! They're lowpoly platformers and you go up against Beelzebub himself <3
Hey all! I haven't been making much progress with Bounder Games lately, mostly due to GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT (fill-in college lecturer). But that's no excuse! Here's where we stand:
I've been reading Hideo Kojima's "The Creative Gene", a collection of reflections on the books and media that inspired him to make games like Metal Gear. In "The Moon Over the Mountain", the main character feels he has failed to capitalise on his talent and describes his unwillingness to publish imperfect material as "timid pride" and "disdainful shyness". His following quote hit me pretty hard:
"No, whether the poems are good or bad, I would not rest easy in my grave without passing these poems on to later generations, since the represent my deepest passion in life, even to the point of losing my fortune and my sanity."
It's been almost 10 years since we founded Bounder Games and began work on Armoured Engines, and that decade of shame floods through me like toxic oil. I felt like I'd let everyone down, not working hard enough or focusing on the wrong things. I have so many ideas; to build, to design, to write, to act, to create, that I'm overwhelmed by the cavernous silence of my portfolio. The more I thought upon my neglect, the more I mired myself in doubt.
That quote struck me, and I could feel what Li Zheng could feel. That need to pass on what I make. Shame is the great assassin of creativity. If I could be a fraction as confident as Kojima-san, I might be able to look at myself with pride.
For me, no more excuses. Time to Make!
Rediscovered this treasure. My bible circa 2009; discovered I still use most of the tricks I learned from this book today. Animating waves using masks, proper gradients, animation principles, etc. Its advice is still relevant even after Flash's demise.
I had a lot of game ideas I wanted to make in Flash, most of which never escaped their notepad concept. Had a few successes, a Tetris-blackjack combo called DiceJack, and Rawrysaurus, a kaiju game where you escaped from a tidal wave. My first forays into game dev.
Thanks Chris Georgenes.
hi guys guess what, this game i worked on has a demo coming out soon and you can finally wishlist it on steam !! so if you were waiting please go ahead and do that, and i'll let you know when you can play the demo :---3c