Messages

TheMagician: Thanks for your compliments and offer to help- i really appreciate it and will certainly let you know if we'll need help!
I can't exactly say how much time did this first half of intro take me to finish, as i was working on it on and off (sometimes not touching it for a month or working on in-game graphics instead).
But if i take in account "pauses", i'd say there was around month or better month and a half of pure developing time (not counting the storyboard and script- which were *very* time consuming too, as the whole animation depended on them).

Btw, the game will have mp3 music. Agree, that the difference is just too big, to use midis

Cpage: as Scummbuddy said, you just need to adjust the scanning setting (there must be an option like "Set resolution of image" or something like that).

Thanks again

Cpage- it's a rather tedious work: you need to scan every single frame of animation at least at 600 DPI in 2 "color" Black&White. You then convert bitmap scans in vectors with Adobe Streamline and import vectorized animation frames in Flash (it's good if you save scans/frames as 01.ai, 02.ai, 03.ai, etc., as Flash will automaticaly recognize animation and will import all frames at once) and color them... that's it

Scummbuddy- sadly it's not really possible to use Flash's tweening option for that kind of animation. You can use it for camera movements or if you are doing paper-like animation. Classic animation still requires you to draw every single frame... bummer.

Aurynnz- thank you for your kind comments!
About music: exactlly, you sumed it very well! At the moment it's not completely linked with animation and i think that should be fixed.

Mad_Reizka- hehe, no need to worrie about me diving in anime/manga waters. If there's one style that isn't my cup of tea it's that one

Jannar and Netmonkey- emails are on its way.

Agree with what everyone already said- Poser is a nice alternative for everyone who don't want to spend hours and hours on drawing/modeling their own characters. As Danny said, the results aren't nowhere near as good as with original characters, but they are still completely acceptable.

GarageGothic's character is a bright exception (especially the first- white one), but then again, i'd say it's more of a original character than Poser one.

Btw, sometime ago i was reviewing Poser3 and so i was playing with it a bit (nothing fancy- didn't even use textures). I was especially interested, if it's possible to create something else than a sterile realistic characters. I found out it is... in a way. However, "set in stone" main characteristics of existing models, prevent you from having any real freedom in building the character- it's very limited... The typical Poserish feel is still there too. Well, i must admit it was fun though (i think that's the main strenght of Poser).
Here's caricatured character that i came up with after a few minutes of moving sliders


Sorry for bad scan, but i lost original pic

Really like the animation! I think it fits the character. As always i'm looking forward to Bad Timing enormouslly.

Hehe, this must be one of those rare boards i keep hearing about, where male (!) visitors encourage you to stop drawing girls... Hm, i always thought it was just a myth, but now i guess it's all true

Great pic!

Thanks everyone for comments! I'd bow another million times, but my back started to hurt...

Jannar- thanks I'll e-mail you the ad.

Netmonkey- Yes, Bugbrain is small animation studio i'm freelancing for. I sadly won't be using Maniac Ent. name anymore (i'm redesigning website in more of personal-portfolio style). Well, except for the name, nothing else has changed

Goldmund, i played the demo... didn't like it one bit, sorry. As far as i can say from that demo (and reviews) the only correct choice between Syberia and Post Mortem is Syberia. It might be a bit on the boring side, but at least the atmosphere is nice and some touches are brilliant (without spoiling it: music box).

It's interesting to compare TLJ with Syberia- i still think TLJ is one of the best adventures around- with its amazing characterizations and story. On the other side Syberia, who tries quite hard to be similar (main character, story about personal growing, etc.) just didn't do it for me. I didn't care one bit about Kate and at the cruical points of story, i just went "ah, ok... so, now what?". As some have pointed out, that's partly because of absence of "look" mode, where you usually get to know the character, and partly because of life-less locations. And i'm not talking about absence of people to talk to (that's part of the atmosphere)- no, the problem is, there's no freaking hotspots. You walk over 10 screens with nothing to do, just to find location with one hotspot... great.

My hat goes off to you Neole!

Whoa! I bow another million times for all the feedback!

Mätzyboy- Thanks! I'm a big fan of classic cartoons, so i'm really happy if i managed to incorporate some of that feel in intro

Pessi- I'm *really* glad to hear it from you!

Necro- I promise i'll do a few tuts as soon as i'll have some more time (this last few months were hectic (heh, can't wait to finally go on vacation )).

Rookworm3- Thanks! Trained or untrained... you have a really good eye for those things! Never really noticed the problem with "10 %" sign, but you are right- i think the problem lies in font i used for "10%" (and too strong color of it), will certainly fix it !

Agree with others- except for the hand (it looks as he's just about to pinch someone), everything else looks great.

Looking good The only thing that seems confusing to me, is that every page has different design... is that intentional or are you just trying out different designs?

Thanks again!

Neole- now that's one of the biggest compliments you could give me! Thanks

Yufster- no, it will be freeware I much rather see more people playing the game, than to get a few bucks from selling it. There's a small chance it might get sponsored... but for now i won't be too optimistic about that (it's not even worth thinking about it until the game isn't fully finished).

Minimi- for animation, i'm using Staedtler Pigment Liner. It gives very accurate results and lets the hand flow nicely. As far as scanner goes, it's not really that important for animation itself, because you'll use only 2 "color" black&white scan anyway. Just be sure to have high enough DPI (to convert scaned bitmap pic in vectors, it's good to scan at lest at 600 DPI) and most importantly- to be *fast*. I'm using Umax Astra and while it's far from perfect (it could be even faster), it does its job nicely.

Evilspacefart- oh goody, another virtual beer. Sure thing!

Petteri- hehe, now you gave me a good idea! j/k

Miez, no secret here Hand animation, scanned and colored in Flash

>>and its not chez its czar<<
Czar, of course, what was i thinking Anyway, Roderick kindly offered me to do narrator voice for Ignac himself and after hearing his examples, my jaw droped of

I bow before you a million times for such a great (and fast) feedback!

OTG- cool smiley Thanks!

Danny: thanks! Game most probably won't be talky (except for intro and cut-scenes). The main reason for this is, that i just can't decide how should Ignac sounds like. Another solution, i was thinking about, would be to use the same style of speech as in The Neverhood (only noises that wouldn't mean anything (you'd have to read speech text to understand), but would illustrate the characters mood- i think it'd be fun, and would create nice surreal atmosphere )

Chez: Music won't be the same, but believe me, it will be better- Marcus (the guy, who is composing it), already put out some "sketches", and they are fabulous!
PD is sadly down at the moment (AD deleted all files). Anyway, you are not missing much, as it's *very* short- it's just interface demo anyway (but i got some great suggestions that were very helpful in Ignac). Btw yeah, Nadja is my sis. She thought out most of the puzzles and is now taking care of some scripting.

Yeah, i know about main site. I'm redesigning it right now and i'm just too damn lazy to upload back the old one till the new one is finished

>Pa sredi to, ba!<
Ocu  

Is it a bird? Is it a ten ton hamster with giant haemorrhoids? No! It's Ignac trailer (first part of intro). Go check it out here:
http://maniac.adventuredevelopers.com/trailer.htm

Sadly, the music in this trailer is only temporary, but hopefully it will be soon replaced with new one (the mood will be very similar anyway). Ah, and here are some more character sketches from game:



Enjoy!

Looking really good! However my suggestion would be to stick to the type of walk you used on the side animation- only up and down animation (no leaning). It's good to keep animation consistence, otherwise it may look a bit strange in game.

Great coloring, great expression, great pose... Great!

It's a tie now
What i like about old version: the simplicity of his face and closed eyes and some colors to pencil lines
What i like about new version: red blush and body

Oh, and i somehow prefer the rough pencil-look over smooth one. It looks more interesting.