Just like the original Armed with Wings, Rearmed will open in cinematic the same way. I’m recreating the epic moment where Vandheer executes the Lone Warrior. I’m injecting the more action, drama, dialog, emotion and expression.
As you’d expect from me, the animation is done all in Adobe Flash. Everything is vectored and very sleek. I’ll explain some of my progress:
Sketch
Beginning with a storyboard, I draw up each shot that will occur and spread them out along the timeline.
Lone Warrior looking towards camera
Vandheer attacking
Lone Warrior battling Vandheer
Character Art
I usually create the character art before the backgrounds. My sketchs are usually detailed enough to use as a foundation. I lighten the opacity of the sketch and lock it to a layer, at which point I draw the actual art on top. Using a pen I create the character outline, which I then fill with either solid or gradient color.
Notice the gradient colors. I tent to use gradients when a shapes needs to be more distinctive. Clothes usually have gradients applied to them. Exposed body is always black, except for the face (face has subtle gradient). The extra detail like cloth folds, body and chest lighting always have a gradient applied.
The Result
Totally done in flash. The background elements have a blur filter applied. Notice that Vandheer is darker than any other element, that’s to make him readable and focused.
Here is some more artwork from the cinematics:
The Lone Warrior defeated and seized.
The Lone Warrior’s face, up close and enraged.
The Lone Warrior, preparing for another battle.
So far so good if I dare say so myself. Can’t wait to get into the animation. It will flow in a similar fashion to the Armed with Wings 3 cinematics.
Revisiting this critical moment in AwW is dope. Perhaps I should do an Armed with Wings cartoon?!
Comments
not to bother u,but can we ave vandheer’s coat back?Also,it would help if the movement control keys were shifted to wsad.
Keep up the good work?
Sure thing 🙂
Hm.talking about comics,mayben u could tell the story through comic panels in game.Just an idea
I love that idea!
If you were ever to do a cartoon, you’d need some pretty dedicated animation partners to make it work. I have seen some 3 second footage of what your WIP animations will feel like, and it seems pretty amazing. Will you use that in your cutscenes too?
Also, shouldn’t you use Red Moon’s cinematic moments? Those were the smoothest and most action-packed cutscenes. You even made facial models and mouth movement. I would think that would take a lot of hard work to draw all those frames, but it’s a remaster. You could use Red Moon level cutscenes for THEBIGONE especially.
The Red Moon cinematic took awhile to produce. Sadly, I don’t have time to do animation to that level, at least not for Rearmed. In the future, expect animation even greater than Red Moon!
Hey Dan
I am a big fan of your AwW games. But looking at the pictures you posted and the major art changes done in them make me think about further design ideas. Out of my point of view the main attraction of the game was the monostructured design of the characters letting them look totaly different from other games and move smoothly (like , and ). But by trying to look more shiny and eye-catching by adding (more or less unneccessary) details like Armor in totally different color (look at picture) you leave this advantage behind. It is just an idea but please try to think about designing the characters less structured and more like in your earlier AwW games.
Richard
Sorry for links not working…
Hey Richard! Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve often thought that having pure silhouettes is smart because it leaves much to the players imagination as to what the character actually looks like. With that said, I’ve found that players sometimes struggle to identify who’s who. Even observing people play the game, they see Lone Warrior in one shot, then Vandheer in another – and they think it’s the same character. We will see how Rearmed fairs. Rearmed has small amounts of detail in the character sprites. I can assure you that the animation and movement IS silky smooth, the characters are silhouettes mostly 🙂
If you ever do make a cartoon. make it a long one with proper lore/storyline. pssh i would even pay for it!! keep it up
one day i will!
When should we expect the game?
I didnt hear any details about it except for this
Early 2016 🙂