Thursday, August 27, 2009

My Long Project is Over, Pt. 3



This is the opening cinematic I directed for the Gas Safety game. Trever lent his fantastic animation of Therm and the computer interface, I painted and animated the other backgrounds. The intent was high adventure with a tablespoon of cute, and it really feels right. The Gas Safety game takes almost a half an hour to play (which is kind of epic for a Flash game) whereas playtesting for the Electric Safety game below takes about 5 minutes.

My Long Project is Over, Pt. 2

So, we'd already built the huge and near-seam-splitting gargantuan-ness of the Gas Safety game, so the Electric game was much, much easier. We based the visuals on 1950s animation art. I've seen the latest incarnation of the game, and Volt's animation is perfect walking through these sets. Additionally, we got a small jazz ensemble to provide soundtrack, and this is, without a doubt, my favorite game.

This is level 1:


Level 2, complete with lounge and kitchen.


Level 3 contains a kind of "boss" room from the intro animation (gonna post that later!):


Level 4 takes Volt outside and the hazards that threaten us all... like big, green pad mount transformers:


And as if you haven't had enough, here's the cinematic that opens the game. This particular version was designed for Power Point presentations, so you may find the type a little small in places, but it's essentially the same as in the game, except there's no card at the end - that's where the game begins.
Volt is just a little nuts - you get to see it in the game, but you get a little taste of it here, too. Our animator, Trever Barger, really captured the flavor I wanted from the character model (posted below). The backgrounds were created by the rest of the team and myself.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Zealot-Crazy-Talking in Public




If you get a chance, come out and see me ramble on what little I know about storytelling in animation. I've spoken at SIGGRAPH twice - and always get enthusiastic feedback. If you're bopping around Indianapolis on September 10th... do stop by! And don't forget to register!