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Just some stuff that immediately caught my eye:

Look at her belly button... it's not in line with her crotch, which should be the line of symmetry.

Her shoulders go down a bit low.  Might want to extend her upper arms upward.

Is that black line across the breasts part of the design?  If it is, you may want to suggest bulging.  If it's meant to be a wrinkle, you should lose it... it's cutting across the "filled" part of the shirt where there should be no room for slack cloth.

You may want to consider moving the breasts higher... mainly because that part of the curve that blends into the armpit is not very natural as is.

Her left knee (from her perspective) cuts in a bit deeply making it look as if her leg is two sausages in a link.

Unless her nose is meant to cave in a bit, it needs to round off toward the left side (our perspective) a bit.  As it is, it appears that her right cheek (her perspective) is swollen.

I know that sounded like a lot of criticism, but I actually like this sprite a lot.  Good luck!

Please view the first post for updates.  Thank you!

Hehe, me too... there's still much work to be done

It... it WORKED!  Wow, I was really worried that it wouldn't because my syllables are EXTREMELY short... just over a tenth of a second.  This really made it sound like complete words instead of disjointed syllables.  You're quite the genius!

To my knowlege, "n-posting" is the act of posting the same info multiple times, not different thoughts.  If it bugs people, however, I won't do it, as I already know about the "Modify" button.

Thank you!

I figured out that it wasn't working at all because my character does not have a speaking view (no mouth, heheh). 

However, after I added one (just use the regular view), this caused a rapid-fire speech bonanza which resulted in a lockup.  I was expecting the rapid-fire speech, but the lockup put me off.  I'll try your code and let you know if it works

EDIT:
You're quite the life-saver!  So the lockup was caused by my use of "while" instead of "if," you say?  I'll remember that.

Your code worked beautifully.  I really appreciate it.  Now I can whip up a syllable-speech module and I'll be good to go

EDIT 2:
This is probably asking way too much... but is it possible to somehow blend the syllables together?  It sounds cool the way it is, but it's really... choppy.  It doesn't sound like nonsense speech, it just sounds like a sequence of syllables with a slight gap... and I think the gap is the problem.  I don't see any controls in AGS for filtering sound, though.  And a little reverb would be perfect.

Heya... I'm making a game which features robotic characters, and I'd very much like to handle their speech by using text while random mechanical-sounding syllables play in the background.  Is this possible?  I've tried the following...

Code: ags

//Repeatedly Execute Always function
function repeatedly_execute_always()
{
  while (cThirtysix.Speaking)
  {
   PlaySound(Random(2)+12);
  }
}

...to no avail.  I even tried commenting out everything but the PlaySound command, and that actually worked... so I suspect that there's something I don't understand about the .Speaking deal.  Can anyone help me out?

Sure, here's the wires.
(Dont understand why you need 'em.)

What Mr. Colossal said.  3D animation is a pretty fine art... you have to take a lot of things into consideration.  The way that vertex loops are arranged around opening/closing orifices (mouths and eyes) will make or break animation.  It's the difference between professional and amateur work.

Wireframes make it immediately obvious whether or not you have a good setup for the vertices.  You can arrange them in such a way that the head looks good static but still have them arranged badly for morphing.

EDIT:  As for the teeth, I may do it the improper way (but it's the only way I know of)...

But I always just add the teeth to the lower jaw bone unless I'm animating using morph targets only, in which case I make them part of the "open mouth" target and don't touch them in any of the other targets.

Well, it really depends upon what you wish to do with this mesh.  If it's meant to be static, then you're really getting there.

If you mean to animate it, then I'm afraid it's going to take a lot of work... unless there's some geometry that isn't obvious based on just the render.  Maybe show some wireframes... if you do intend to animate the head... and then it'll be easier to crit from a technical standpoint.

ProgZmax:  Thanks! 

MadReizka:  The "bump" that your seeing is the result of my attempt at having the robot snap his arm upward just before pounding it into the ground.  I just made it snap a bit too far upward without smoothing into it.  You can see it in the other anim and even in the other arm in that anim, it just got a bit overly pronounced in that particular arm.

Just curious...are his legs supposed to be held together by some sort of magnetic bond?

Heheh, nah, not necessarily.  I'm not concerning myself too much with whether or not the 'bots would actually work.  I'm pretty much just going with what I think would look interesting design-wise.

Whew... I hope you guys like this one as much as I do, 'cause I'm burned out on this guy.  I need to move on, at least for a while.



And here's the side view.

Huw Dawson:  Believe it or not, the stride function in AGS clears that slide problem up very nicely.

Ali:  I very strongly considered using your wonderful suggestion... the only reason I tried another direction is that at some point, this 'bot is going to carry the main character away someplace, so he'd still need an alternate means of travel.

ProgZmax:  You're right... the previous animation made him look pathetically constrained, and not menacing at all.  How's the new one?

monkey_05_06:  It's all good

Sleeping Turtle:  Exactly

Babar:  Yeah, I really don't know what I was thinking there.  Oh well.

At a glance, I'd say that you need to do the following:

Drop in a shadow.  Look at the tree's shadow to see the light direction.

You need to match up the grain in the superimposed image to the grain in the source image.  Experiment with noise in the overlay's layer.

One last thing... you need to match the saturation in the overlay to the background.  You really need to take it down a notch... pay special attention to the red and green levels.  You may want to boost the blue a bit.

Other than that, you seem to have done a very nice job of smoothing the edges.  Well done!

Lucifel:  Well, the whole idea is that he propels himself on his hands rather than his feet, which only bob along beneath him.  I see what you mean about the seperate movement, though.  I could have one arm extend to the floor before the other.

As for human walks, this is the main character:

I'm trying my best to take advantage of the fact that my characters (being machines) aren't limited to common biped transport.

Evil:  Yeah, I'm trying to find that balance... I know it would look a lot better if he followed through with the entire thrust-and-swing motion, but then his stride would be really impractically long.

Ben304:  That may be the key to forcing more dynamism.  I'll try putting a little more swing in the hips (and by extension, the legs) in addition to de-synching the arms.

Thanks, guys!  I'm sure that the next version will be better

This is a walkloop for a heavy in my WIP titled Prototypical.  I like the overall design, and I actually like the walk, too... but I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for making it look a bit more... dynamic.  I was thinking... and my wife confirmed... that it almost looks as if the 'bot is manipulating an unseen wheelchair.  Any thoughts?

I've decided to leave the leapfrog-ish walk for now and try out a knuckle walk instead.  I even looked up a video of a walking gorilla for reference.  It's not exactly dead-on due to anatomical differences between the 'bot and a real gorilla, but I think it's much smoother and more natural than my previous attempt.

this looks really great!  i hope you finish this project. 

Thanks

I hope I finish it too.  You guys need to keep kicking my butt if I slack off too long without an update.

I have to chime in on the graphics as well.  The detail is really mind-boggling.  I'm very, very impressed with the quality of this game's visuals.

[Updated Monday, June 11]

The demo still lives here:
Prototypical Demo!

Before I forget, you will need the XviD codec.

Prototypical is the tale of an experimental robot.  A prototype, in point of fact.  This particular robot was blessed by his creators with a highly sophisticated set of problem-solving algorithms.  Meant to be the next step toward hightened artificial intelligence, it was cold-booted in front of many cameras and blank robotic eyes, submitted to a brief series of intelligence examinations, and finally carted off to a trash compactor to be unceremoniously destroyed so as not to be unlawfully lifted by its creators' rivals.

You take on the role of that robot.  Your first task is to escape your imminent doom.  From there, get ready to be tossed headfirst into a bizarre world inhabited by fellow machines who follow only their own logic.  Work your way through the system and team up with a resistance bent on eventually taking down the company that created you.

Surprisingly enough, progress continues on the  Prototypical front.  There are various and sundry rooms in production as well as a character or two.  Or three.

The story is pretty much fleshed out from start to finish, and it turns out that in order to fit everything in that we want to fit in, we're going to have to break it up into chapters.  Five are planned, with the "prologue" which currently exists as the demo tacked to the beginning of the first... and slightly modified.  Augmented, if you will.

Updated Monday, June 11.  Major work on backgrounds, major overhaul to dialogue system.



Chattin' it up at the hotel... Copperwell...

This is a preview of the direction we're taking with dialogue.  I have made the somewhat painful decision to go with the Sierra-style dialogue system in what I believe to be a more LucasArts-style game.  I just think that it looks cleaner and fits the aesthetics of the game better.  Agree?



The lights are much brighter there, of course.  This room is one of two hubs, which are directly connected to one another.  I like to keep my world design simple.



Raiding peoples' garages is a traditional undertaking, the importance of which cannot be understated.  It's like a rite of passage.  You are not a true adventure gamer until you've done it.

It's the hair.  It steals too much attention.  The shaded areas look rather green to me, and that's making the yellow look almost neon.  I'd try changing that shading to more of a brown tone (added bonus, it'll give the character some vertical assymetry) and slightly brown the other areas of the hair as needed.

...And here's a paintover.