Descent Into Darkness Campaign: Ghast Revision

[Stern]

I have been working on the blocking for the Ghast's attack animation. The Ghast has bright colors to make the different limbs easy to edit. While animating, I tried to envision how a Great White shark would tear flesh from its prey, and apply the same action and momentum to each of the Ghast's mouths. (Instead of just the 4 original mouths, I added two more which are hidden within the "armpits"). Tell me what you think of the attack thus far.

[thespaceinvader]

I'd maybe can the armpit mouths, and make sure it's going a little more south-east, but otherwise, it looks cool =)

[Boucman]

I had already noticed that in your previous posts, but never said it openly...

you're a darn good animator...

we definitely need more people with your talent, even getting people good at blocking to contribute is hard...

[Gambit]

That is probably the most dynamic, exaggerated, and violent, animation there is for Wesnoth. Shame it's for a seldom seen specialty unit.

[Zerovirus]

Damn. I may be a bit better at baseframing but you are the king of anims. If you can provide frames I'll see what I can do before I get bored as I probably will eventually..

EDIT: Better baseframe. Used the Necrophage more referentially and changed shading substantially.

[Stern]

Here is the current state of the Ghast, I tried to aim his heads towards the lower right corner a little more. I also colored him and added some simple outlines. Expect the full coloring/detailing step to take a while. The Ghast has lots of little details that will take some time and effort to get right. Before I get to the detailing/shading phase, I need to make sure that the animation is as smooth as possible. Does anything in general seem to stick out to you in the animation?

[Cloud]

Nom!

Brilliant work you two, it's looking very good

[Zerovirus]

I don't see anything wrong much. I'm putting my request in again for the individual frames, because I usually use MS Paint.

[thespaceinvader]

It's a little odd that the claws disappear entirely when it rears right back - the angle of them on the arm feels to me like they ought to stay visible.

Otherwise, awesome

[Stern]

For the animation, I need to change the color of the claws when the Ghast rears back. The color of the claws blends in quite well with the forum background, making them appear to "disappear." As this is pretty much the only thing awry with the Ghast's animation, I think that we have completed the blocking step, and we can move forward towards more detailed work.

Attached to this post and the following are the frames of the Ghast's attack animation. I did not upload the frames in a compressed file because I did not know whether or not you could open a .tar.gz file. All in all, this is one cool monster.

[Stern]

The final two frames.

[thespaceinvader]

Ah, i see - yeah, that looks fine.

Don't worry about doing a death animation, by the way - if you're interested in animations, we have some areas which are massively wanting, and we'd greatly appreciate your skills.

Mermen, for instance. And probably some other future projects yet to be formally announced...

[Darker_Dreams]

tsi; At a glance there's a two birds/one animation situation here; take the last two frames, out of context, and it looks like the thing's collapsing to the ground and dying rather than the violent slam it is with the windup.

just a thought.

[thespaceinvader]

Potentially, yes, but it will require testing to see whether it's smooth enough. If not, I would prefer some original attack and defence animations for more commonly used units, than a death animation for a one-off special.

[Stern]

No death animation? Thats ok. I realize that the Ghast is little more than a novel, campaign-dependent unit, but I did have a really good idea for a death animation. Upon collapse, the Ghast could feature a miniature explosion of toxins, teeth, and maggots. Although grisly, it would be a fitting end for such a ravenous and unstable creature. Once Zero and I have finished up the Ghast's attack (and hopefully defence) animation, I would be happy to work on more animation projects that are of a higher priority. I do not want to leave the Ghast half finished, because otherwise Zero's work and my own would be lost.