Messages

My wallet?

I'm just going to submit this whole page as my guess.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_in_film

Clever! 

If Ben is working on the weekends for a while, why not have a guest host for the podcast? I nominate Dualnames or SSH. I NEED to hear a hillbilly accent coming out of a Greek or Scottish mouth. Or have VinceXII sit in again. Or maybe Ron Dave Gilbert or Snake or Steve McCrea -- one of the ancient, old school AGSers who can regale us youngins with rambling tales about the good old days, back when all we had was each other, CJ, and EZBoard! Snake could tell us all about Leitor's Edge! Dave could tell us about Purity of the Surf II. ProgZmax could tell us why we should vote for Ron Paul. The possibilities are endless!

Ben's addiction to working outdoors and being healthy shouldn't hinder my addiction to hiding indoors where Ryan Timothy can't find me and listening to podcasts! My dog and I don't get along as well as we did before when we go out walking. I think the Two Tools, One Cup podcast may be all that's keeping us from drifting apart entirely! I need Spaceman (In Space) and my dog needs DeliverRants!! Help, Grundy!

Spoiler

Ooh! I wanna post in spoilers too!

[close]

Hmmm. A lot of cigarette butts. An apple core. A razor. A drawer full of pills and other drugs. And a hand searching for something that isn't there...

Is it Ben Chandler: Paranormal Investigator: In Search Of The Sweets Tin II: Minge Patterson's Revenge: The Movie?

Is NsMn going to start a new contest soon? Or are we done with the fortnightly writing thingie? 

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/QC0xd.png[/imgzoom]

Actually, in the event of a water landing, the udders can be used as a floatation device. 

Ha, Swedes discovered sex.

At best it was a co-discovery. I'm pretty sure the dude was American and the chick was Swedish. So we each get some of the credit. 

Also, why am I not surprised that unlike Eggie, Dualnames knew who Sally Ride the lesbian space astronaut was. 

Cool picture, Eggie. If I were her, that's exactly how I would want to be remembered! 

Can't be bothered to count them all but... Ninety-Nine Luft Balloons?

Milkshape is old enough that it may run on your system.

Damn, Snarky. This is a tough one.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore?

I'm currently having to work weekends

Ah, "having to work weekends." I got ya. No need to explain. I've used that excuse myself from time to time. (I hope your latest bout of herpes Bunyip Flu clears up soon). 

Oh Duals, didn't anyone tell you? America is the first at everything. First people to discover America. First people to discover sunlight. First people to discover sex. Hooray for America, Duals!

Please give us an other task 

No way! That's not how the paint game works, Tabby. You drew the last picture. You set the theme for the next one. Rules are rules! 

I don't think I've ever drawn a female before

Really? Gosh, all I drew as a teenager were chicks. Heck, as a middle aged dude, I still draw lots of chicks.

closest thing I've drawn is a fat mans breasts.

Boobs are boobs. 

Personally, other than a few artists I follow or know irl, I stay away from DeviantArt. The last time I surfed there, I found an incredibly well-drawn picture of the Teen Titans in which Starfire was doing unspeakable things to Robin. After bookmarking that page, I never admitted to going there again.

True story! 

I was ten or eleven years old when she went into space. I remember it being such a big deal in class that week.

RIP Astrochick. 

Blade Runner?

it's Heavy Traffic, isn't it?

Damn right, baby! Heavy Traffic it is! One of my all time favorite movies and a damn good soundtrack to boot. 

Your turn, sir.

Several of my later games feature full screen animated cutscenes. Doing them in AGS can be tedious, but I think the results of an "in game" animation" mesh well with the game around them, and so they're worth the effort.

As far as the best way to do them, I almost never use views for my cutscene animations. Getting the loops to time just the way I want them has always proven to be too unreliable. If I need what's on screen to sync up with the music, I always use some variation of the following command:

Code: AGS

// Object 2 is a blank 320x200 sprite that appears at x2 size on the screen. Using a smaller sprite draws faster & takes less Mb.
object[2].Graphic = 100;Wait(4); // Advance the animation by one frame, waiting a bit before drawing the next frame
object[2].Graphic = 101;Wait(4); // ditto, changing the time just a bit to move quickly to the next key frame
object[1].Graphic = 200; // A different object in the scene begins to animate at the same time as obj 2, so no waiting
object[2].Graphic = 102;Wait(4); // Advance obj 2 to the next frame and hold there for a moment or two
object[1].Graphic = 201;Wait(4); // Object 1 continues to animate while obj 2 stays "frozen" for a few moments
object[1].Graphic = 202;Wait(4);
object[1].Graphic = 203;Wait(4);
object[1].Graphic = 204;Wait(2); // Object 2 will begin animating "in between" obj 1's wait cycle
object[2].Graphic = 103;Wait(4); // Object 2 starts animating its way to the next key frame while obj 1 continues to animate
// Etcetera etcetera until the animation is complete.

Doing a cutscene this way can be very tedious, but it allows me to get just the results I'm looking for. The "power slide" finale following the end of the car chase arcade in Forever Friday 3 was done this way. With two cars sliding to a stop, away from the camera (Akira style) at two slightly different speeds, this would have been tricky to do with views, in my opinion. But with a little cut and paste, changing the graphic numbers for each object in each line, I was able to get precisely the look and timing I wanted.

The night chicken attack from Forever Friday one and the entire Tom Jones "electric sexytime dance party" at the end of Forever Friday 2 were also done this way. Frame by frame, line by line, until I got the end result I wanted, all inside the AGS engine. I probably could have used the Vorbis movie module and imported a ready made movie, but I love to do animations by hand (and I was mocked mercilessly on the Blue Cup Tools Podcast for this). Others might not find it fun, but I do. 

I hope some of this was helpful to you.

The movie that inspired all Ponch games?

Very, very close. But it's not Cool World. This movie (and a few others by the same guy) did inform my art style and my love of silly, sexy stories.