Messages

Could everyone perhaps post a .mid or tracker file along with the mp3/ogg?

Tis interesting to see how the submissions are constructed.

The first frame shouldn t be included in the walkcycle.

Frame removed:




Original:

Pay a visit to www.vorbis.com n download an ogg encoder.

It s free n superior to the mp3 format, and yes, it works with AGS.

it is not midi, it is .xm + fx

Then I guess the trackerfile would do.

Think it needs stronger contrasts to give it depth, as well as some other things.

Here s the result of some quick contrast/saturation fiddling (turned out a bit dark):



Original


Cropped it a bit too.

Hope it s of some use

Could you provide the midi file? Would make criticism more meaningful.

I really like the wobbly lines n animation in general. One thing that I d make different would be the eyes.

At the moment they look too off in my opinion when they travel around the face reaching a complete frontview in one frame.

Although it s a cute effect, it makes him look a bit inanimate as though his eyes weren t really in use by him. Ofcourse this is just my opinion.

The original:




Slightly modified:

I think the upper body could look less stiff.

Quick attempt:



Edit: Updated the modified version

The main issue as I see it, is that s it s very predictable at the moment, hence boring.

To make it more interesting you could:

(i) Make the melodyline less predictable.

Presently you re using a sequence (e, d, c, d, e, d, c) which is transposed downward then up again.

Using sequences is very important when making melodies; it s what makes them catchy. However in this case the sequence is not interesting enough to be used exclusively imo, at least not with the current harmonies/chordprogression.

So the main options would be:

___(i) Introduce something else besides the sequence in the melody: could be a modified version of the sequence or something completely new

___(ii) Change the rhythm of the sequence: at the moment eightnotes are only used (except one quarter).

(ii) Pan out the instruments

They re all centered at the moment which gives no width.

(iii) Let the instruments playing the melody play in harmonies


Here s an example demonstrating the points. I ve tried to change as little as possible:

(the cheesy string arrangement is there to show a chordprogression that could fit the slightly modified melody)

http://w1.865.telia.com/~u86517124/Downloadable/MidiNew1_mod1.mid

Hope it s of some use

I guess the winner would be

Spoiler

Archangel

[close]

Are there any contributions in the making or should I end the contest at the current date?

I think the publisheridea is interesting for many reasons, although the idea that "it would be the same for all ags games"(Umo) sounds unneccessery n monopolic.

Some reasons:

(i) Developers who dislikes all kind of involvement in businessproceedings, like myself, could hand it over to experienced, skilled and willing people.

(ii) Would most likely reduce the costs/risks for the individual developer.

(iii) Reduced costs/risks would mean that more people would probably consider going commercial. (questionable premise being that this is a good thing).

(iv) A benefitial consequence of (iii) would be that the standard in AGS games would in some aspects probably be raised in general. A less wanted could be cynical commercial thinking.

(v) Marketing would be smoother, hence bigger publicity. A bigger market would generate greater incomes and who knows, maybe some day we d have a professional AGS gamedeveloper among us.

Any thoughts?

Here re some versions I came up with:

Cartoony:



More realistic:



Process:




Main modifications:

(i) lowered shoulders. Made her look less tense/shy

(ii) narrowed her head horizontally. Less of a balloon face

(iii) let her arms hang more freely. Less tense

(iv) placed feet closer together. Less masculine

Hope it helps

It could really use a distinct bassline imo.

I noticed that you have one already following the guitar but it s well hidden underneath it and is hardly noticable.

Either change the bass sound to one that s thicker or raise the volume of the current one.

Another option would be to make a different bassline which could also make the song a bit more interesting.

(The current soundformat prevents me from overdubbing with an example bassline)

Personally I find the text still too hard to read.

If some words were made difficult to read some sort of suspension would probably be built up, but as it is at the moment it s, in my opinion that is, plain irritating.

To make it more appealing I d go about as follows:

(i) Make the title more distinct. Just resizing the main font doesnt give it enough uniqueness imo to make an impression on the viewer.

(ii) Make the black texture even smaller. That or work something else out to make the text easier to read.

(iii) the "Powered by..." n "Visit us at..." texts looks very out of place imo. Use another font or place them behind the black texture as well.

(iv) the main text is too compact. I preferred the first version in the aspect.

One way of doing it would be:

"____What if...

The people around you dissapear in the blink of an eye,

___and the world suddenly turns into nothing but hate, anger,
____fear andsadness, with no safe place to hide?"


__=spaces


(v) The "Solidus Software" text needs to be made more distinct otherwise it makes the bottom text look disorganized.

(vi) Make the margin wider.

(vii) I m not personally very fond of the colors. I d make them more monochromatic (perhaps all in bluegrey or something)

Tip:

To get a really huge effect strong contrasts are pretty essential.

Example: start soft, hit hard, fade out, strike again.

As long as the theme is recognizeable to someone who s familiar with the original you can do pretty much whatever you want  (repeat, skip parts as you please).

Spend a day or two reading this n you ll surely come up with some satisfying results:

http://www.pinwire.com/loomis/DawingTheHeadandHands/

(can skip much of the textpages although there are some nice thoughts in there)

Good luck

Any fairly well known theme will do; could be a commercial jingle or an opera theme.

I must say I feel a bit awkward n silly criticizing people far more skilled than myself but here re some minor things that I d ve made different I think:

Scaled:



(i) she looks somewhat crosseyed to me since she doesn t seem to have a close object infront of her.

(ii) this may be a style/characterissue but her left eyebrow looks a bit thick which makes her a bit masculine in that area.

(iii) I think some light from the upper right lightsource would hit the area where I ve erased some shade. I m likely wrong in the matter though.

The pic looks very nice imo btw.