Adventure Game Studio

Update at my last post.

I think it's a pretty darn neat sprite.

The static view is markedly superior to the walk cycle, though. To me he looks like he's scooting along... it doesn't read like he's crossing one leg past the other and taking normal steps. It looks like the leg that starts out in front stays in front and the leg that starts out behind stays behind. I think this is partly because his shoes are two different shapes and the shapes stay on their respective sides throughout.

Also, the hat doesn't really look like a fedora, which is what I imagine a trenchcoated noir figure would be wearing. Fedoras usually slope down in the front and up in the back; his hat slopes downward all over.

Lastly I think his torso is several pixels too long compared to his legs, but I could be wrong.


Hope this helps some and I can't wait to see the game.Ã,  :)

I think this is pretty neat, and it would be interesting to see this in a game ^_^

A few things:
-like Pslim said, his legs are too short... if you look at where his thigh extends from his torso, it's pretty low
-I think a slightly less exaggerated gait would match the top half of his body more.  Try keeping his knees closer in line with his body
-I agree with Pslim that it doesn't look like his legs are crossing properly, and the different shapes of the shoes is partly responsible.  Also, to me it appears that his legs are in straight profile while his body is in a 3/4 view.
-if he's wearing a trenchcoat, I think it should be covering his legs more

Good work so far, keep at it! ^_^

Thanks for the replies! ;D

Pslim- Yeah I thought that it looked as if he were just kinda scooting along too.  But the part on the left on his torso in the idle frame, the part that sticks out just a bit, is supposed to be his right arm. The collar is also on that same side, thats why it gets smaller as we walks. But I totally agree with you on the legs. As in fedora, do you mean this?

(http://www.villagehatshop.com/media/pantropic-montecristi-fedora.jpg)

Mash-  That 3/4 view the torso shows was supposed to show more detail in part to the animation, because it is a silouette, and I wanted the player to know that it actually is a dangerous character, by looking at the shapes moving on him, but yeah the legs are all screwed up. I was thinking of making a trenchcoat but I wasn't sure yet.

Anyway, thanks for the replies, and I'll be working on it as soon as I come back home after some tasty BBQ! :o

His torso moves like he has a stiff leg. The shoulder closest to us should go past his "body" right now it moves back and to the middle, but doesn't go forward. The gimping walk makes him look more dangerous, but his shoudler would still move forward a few pixels. His knees are also very high.

I like the sprite and the style used for it. Here are some tweaks that could help you:

1 - the original frames
2 - duplicated frames 1 and 5 from the original animation and changed the order of
     the frames so it runs more smoothly
   - fixed frames 3 and 4 where the char looked like he was about to fall on his back
   - tried to make the legs longer
   - maked the char shortest in the frames where his feet are furthest apart
3 - shifted the animation to right for one frame
   - played with the collar bounce
   - made the shoulders move in both directions
4 - tweaked everything from above

The paint-overed animation - 10 frames, 1/10sec per frame:



As you can see, there is a small limp. That's probably because the leg animation is copy-pasted so the same leg always goes forward. Also, there are some jerky head movements and few stray pixels I didn't fix.

Keep it up.

Oh-myÃ,  :o Damien! That is awesome! Do you mind if I use this in the game?

Update: Okay, I just worked on the character's talk view. Here are the frames:

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/mantalk.PNG)

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/mmtalkie.PNG)

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/MainTalkTwo.PNG)

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/MainTalkFour.PNG)

Keeping the same look as the sprite you see. Im trying to silouette him, and keep his figure, while showing who he really is, a bad guy. This, however, is rather difficult for me, but I think I nailed it here. Right now, I'm using Sin City as an inspiration. How does this look?

Quote from: Rap4Life42o on Sat 01/07/2006 22:20:53
Keeping the same look as the sprite you see. Im trying to silouette him, and keep his figure, while showing who he really is, a bad guy. This, however, is rather difficult for me, but I think I nailed it here. Right now, I'm using Sin City as an inspiration. How does this look?

I really think you have nailed a gumshoe grimace. Taking Sin City as a visual influence is a good idea. However, If you are trying to create a noir narrative I'd look elsewhere.

Noir detectives don't kill their way to the truth. Look to the Maltese Falcon or the Big Sleep. And for more visual inspiration look to German Expressionist prints. There are some examples on THIS (http://spaightwoodgalleries.com/Pages/Exhibitions_German_Exp.html) page.

This character is coming along really well!

Thank you Ali for the comments. I can't reveal whether this guy is good or bad, because then I would have to spoil part of the game for you  :)

QuoteDo you mind if I use this in the game?

Feel free to use it.


About the talk view, you could try rotating his head more like in this photograph (http://gfx.filmweb.pl/p/49685/po.67129.jpg), for example. That way the facial features (jaw, cheeks, ...) would be more noticeable and you could use their movements to add more detail to the talk cycle.

Sorry for not making an example, but I have little time right now.

its ok, I understand what your saying. That would definately bring out features.

*bump*

Though Damien's walkcycle fixes a lot of problems, I've noticed that is shoulder sway back in forth, it looks as though he only does it when one of the two legs are extended, maybe you should put the should thing in frames 7 and 8, though I'm not 100% sure right now.

QuoteNoir detectives don't kill their way to the truth.

You must of forgot about Max Payne.

Anyway, earlwood, I think Damien's version looks great. I think it's because there aren't alot of frames, and the shoulders would have to go with the flow of the legs.

It IS great, it just kinda gives me the feeling that one of sides never moves, like a stroke surviver.

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/SilouetteWalkslower.gif)

This is kinda what I had in mind, but there would have to a redrawing in order to make it seem as though the left shoulder comes forward.

[Edit] In frames 5,6, and 9 his ass completely disappears, maybe it only bothers me.

And he walks a little too fast.

I haven't read the whole thread, but what I see in ALL the walkcycles is that becasue the sprite is black, you're all trying to get away by repeating posses. The legs in particular never seem to be going one after the other. It's always one-one-one, never one-two-one etc...

like earlwood said...

Other than that IT IS GREAT! indeed! I like it and I've been following this trhead.! :)

earlwood, I see what you were trying to explain, and your absolutely right. i'll have to make some edits. Thanks for the help! ;)

UPDATE- Here are the intro sequences, I need some critique on the knife-hand one.

Heres the first: (http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Intro_Start.PNG)

Heres the second: (http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/inroom.PNG)

How are these?

EDIT: Here are the new talk views, referenced from the picture Damien shared in his post.

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/mtlkone.PNG)

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/noirtalk.PNG)

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/mngrin.PNG)

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/mtlkfor.PNG)

Lovely!

I suggest though, to put the knife in his hand and not in his wrist.
It also looks like a huge sabre to me.

Maybe make the knife a bit smaller, it looks like the hand fits twice in the knife. Use your own 2 hands to simulate the size of the knife!

Kinda large eh? :)

For the rest, the style is great!

Ok, I fixed this picture:

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/newinroom.PNG)

Instead of putting the knife in his hand (too gritty :D) I just showed the knife on the ground next to the victim. You might ask about the hand, well I put my hand on my computer desk, relaxed it, and then drew it out.

This is looking very stylish.
The knife looks like a potato peeler though.

Quote from: SteveMcCrea on Tue 11/07/2006 05:33:15
This is looking very stylish.
The knife looks like a potato peeler though.

lol I had a feeling someone would say something like that  ;D

Ill have to make some edits. Thanks for the critique so far!

Quote from: Rap4Life42o on Wed 05/07/2006 23:10:30

QuoteNoir detectives don't kill their way to the truth.

You must of forgot about Max Payne.

I have not! Max Payne was what started my bi-monthly 'Noir detectives don't kill their way to the truth' rant.

On topic though, the second knife image is a vast, vast improvement. The clarity of the composition is much stronger. I would suggest you make the ketchup on the document the same shade as that on the floor. I also think the document is a little to large to be on the floor and further away from the knife. To me it looks a little like it is being dropped by the hand in the foreground.

If that was your intention, however, never mind!

-Ali

Actually Ali, it wasn't my intention to do that. Oops!  :D

Ill have to fix that and the knife.

Can anyone think of a good name for my character? Right now, I can't think of a good name. Im looking for a name that sounds gritty, but good too. Im no good at creating character names. :P

EDIT:Actually, I think I found a name but if you can think of something better, please tell me. I've come up with Harding, John Harding.

EDIT2: Also, does anyone know how I can get more fonts? Not AGS fonts, but Truefonts. Im looking in particular for the Ransom font, but my computer does not seem to have it.

Thanks for the help so far.

If I might ask - how will you do backgrounds? They can't be all black because you won't be able to see the character. How will you do them then?

Dig, I plan to use 320x200 backgrounds greyscaled down, just with a Sin City flair. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

UPDATE: Here is a new screen for the intro sequence:

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Seqthree.PNG)

Quote from: Rap4Life42o on Mon 17/07/2006 02:45:33
EDIT2: Also, does anyone know how I can get more fonts? Not AGS fonts, but Truefonts. Im looking in particular for the Ransom font, but my computer does not seem to have it.

http://www.1001freefonts.com/

Under "R" they have a ransom font.

Also try Blambot, which is linked off above site. Happy hunting.

Thank you so much!  ;D

John is used so much. Try Eddy.
Oh, and the should be a comma between "the same" and "mr. Harding."

Here is another pic:

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/wrench.PNG)

And here is the edited version of the last pic:

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Seqthreeedit.PNG)

Jet: Eddy sounds a little petty, like My Cousin Vinny petty. Do you have another name?

EDIT:Sorry if that came out to be insulting, I didn't really mean to say it like that.

UPDATE: I decided to put together a little non-playable demo that reveals some story. It the intro for the game. You can download it HERE. (http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Emerald.zip)

Welcome r4l. Looking forward to this game.

Btw about names how about Vincent, Rick, Derek. They're kinda dead hard. Especially Rick. I can count about 6 film noir movies I have with Rick as a main character.

Haha, I like that, R4L...

I like Vincent, and Rick. Hmmm... I might use Vincent, IMO it sounds better with Harding. Vincent Harding.

Rap, you just gave me the entire source code for your intro ;) When you distribute your game you only need to give us what's inside the compiled folder!

But then again, with my evil plan, loading up the source code in AGS shall completely and utterly destroy you computer!!11!1!!  :=

J/K but that was just the demo, I always create a copy for the final version.

UPDATE: I know that I couldn't finish this before the end of MAGS, so I decided to re-do most of the work. Here is a scene of a police car parked outside of your apartment. I don't really like the shadowing, but I worked roughly 2 hours on this.

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/noirpol.PNG)

For using only white and black: That's really good. I like it. Only the police car looks out of perspective.

cheers
nihilyst

Yeah I can't seem to fix the police car, but I think it looks fine for the scene, as I am using it only for the intro.

You could always say someone stole the back tires.  :)  Really, really good work here, although I can't say I've spent much time dissecting film noir.