Intro animation

[Winter]

Here's a very quick sketchup of the first part of Winter's script. Very quick and very sketchy, that is. As you can see, I don't have much in the way of art skills .

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/Psawhn/UFO-AI/ufo-ai_intro_a-1.swf

The second part (actually animating the Taman) is beyond my skills right now, haha.

That's a pretty decent storyboard, thanks a lot.

Also, the Taman wouldn't need any complex animation -- the model already has walking and firing animations, so really you could just set the default anims to play and you'd be done.

Regards,
Winter

[Psawhn]

Actually, I mean drawing the Taman walking around, for the storyboard, is beyond my skills. Thanks for the compliments.

For the next shot in the storyboard, were you picturing a different camera angle, or just the camera fixed at that position behind the Taman?

[Winter]

For the next shot in the storyboard, were you picturing a different camera angle, or just the camera fixed at that position behind the Taman?

It could be either a chase camera on the Taman, or (preferably) rest at a fixed point after the 180 spin, just watching the Taman walk towards the city.

Regards,
Winter

[Psawhn]

I kinda gave up trying to make the next part look pretty, I just can't do it decently.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/Psawhn/UFO-AI/ufo-ai_intro_a-2.swf

I kept the camera still, but then added an upwards pan as the screen faded to black. (It broke the smoke plume, though, haha )

[inquisiteur2]

I like very much the concept and the current make up. What it lacks is fancy drawings - don't now if the currents artists are able to draw something decent.

[FelixFelix]

Hi there,

first, cool storybord! Would really spice up the game!

Question: Wouldn `t it be more interesting to turn around the order of the revealed elements? For example:

1. City
2. City exploding or burning or whatever
3. Feet of the alien
4. Back of the alien
5. and THEN turn around, showing the alien and face (maybe second shot/angle)

I just don

[XaverXN]

I don't think we should really show an alien in the intro, that would take away the creepyness of the 'unknown'. Rather as silhouettes, shadows or single body parts, like "hands" grasping a gun or sth. Anyone knows the glowing eyes in the dark cave from Tomb Raider: Last revelation?

As for drawings, that sounds like a job for blywulf... is he still around?

EDIT: OK, I shoud've known there's nothing that' not on YouTube *g See at ~7:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDxQD6imHlQ&mode=related&search=
(very short, had it in mind longer)

Or what about a scene with minigun soldiers being mowed down like in Dune 2? See @ ~2:18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tppjzT-su0Q
(Don't you just still love that intro? :-D )

[beliar]

What I'd do would be an animation in a style similar to this one (you might have already seen it):

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1wygv_iraq-animation

It's basically a series of well done drawings. The camera moves from one spot to another and all things come alive, they seem to move even though they're mostly static. I think it's realtively easy to do (it's certainly easier to do than a full blown 3D movie) and it wouldnt consume a huge amount of time to get it done.

[...]

I know this posting is a bit old but i must say that i like the style. Reminds me of AC2...

[brainy19]

I agree with XaverXN. What would be better (I think) is you see the city, with people walking around and minding their own business.  You see parents playing with their children, friends laughing around a table from a cafe.

Life was good.

But then, the screen goes black.  Then you see a scene with people running, crying, and the camera moves around chaoticly, as if it's being held by someone on the scene.  They run past soldiers who desperately try to hold back the unknown enemy, but soldiers left and right are shot by flashes of light and you see tanks roll into the screen, only to get shot by the enemy aircraft.

The screen goes black.  Then you see a news report of the UN meeting declaring war.

The screen goes black.

Jet fighters shoot missiles following curved paths from the distance.

The screen goes black.

Then the camera would be behind a wall of flame with PHALANX soldiers walking towards it cautiously.

then the screen goes black.

Then you would see the commander (from the back) and the alarm of the base would sound.  then the soldiers mount metal walls in front of the main entrance, waiting for the enemy.

I was thinking of this being either the intro or the trailer of the game.
What do you guys think?

[Destructavator]

I see we have this topic going on in more than one thread - If some of the people who post here that have experience rendering animated models could make even some of these brief clips and post them, I'd be more than willing to put them together into an RoQ video and add a soundtrack - Again, I'd need some source videos to work with.

I also added a section in the wiki some time ago on making RoQ files (hopefully I'll have time to finish it soon) if anyone else wants to make cutscences or small clips for the UFOPedia.

Regarding the source clips I mentioned in the first paragraph however, I could work with short clips in almost any format, the higher quality source the better, preferably lossless (as opposed to lossy).  My personal favorite is Lagarith (it is free and open source, makes very nice AVIs), although I can work with most others as well.  The one exception is RealMedia, which I can't do too much with.

[brainy19]

Hmmm... what do I need to learn if I want to make my own videos for UFO:AI?

[blondandy]

Destructavator said he put it on the wiki

http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Artwork

[Chriswriter90]

Orrigonal X-com Intro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX0Cm3N_n6k

[Robbos]

Maybe a real life "blair witch" type thing?

a reporter walking around town with a cameraman, but then aliens land and start shooting the place up, and then PHALANX soldiers arrive and a stray plasma bolt decapitates the news reporter. Then a PHALANX in body armor whips out a rocket launcher and blows up a nearby building, the cameraman can be heard muttering "Pulitzer time". After he gets enough footage he turns a corner and bumps into a ortnok, who turns around and a slicing is heard as it brings its kerrblade up. the camera hits the ground and specks of blood hit the screen as the cameramans hand lands in a pool of blood infront of the camera; the ortnoks feet start moving and a soldier can be heard yelling obscenities and a shotgun goes off, the ortnoks head crushs the human hand and green splatter hits the screen, whitch then fades to black.

[Destructavator]

I've seen a lot of ideas thrown around here, many of them good ones, but it would really be nice if someone could simply step up to the plate and actually start creating some media, even part of an intro, fragments, short clips, even backgrounds to work with that the project's existing models could be animated in front of - in other words, it would be nice if there was less of nothing but talk and talk and more of people who would "just effing do it already," or even create part of something.

I've seen this topic discussed for a long time, but little of anyone actually implementing anything.  I've slowly been teaching myself to animate 3D models, use blender, and touch a little C/C++, but I only have so much time, and it will be quite a while before I'd be able to try to animate something myself.

Sorry if I sound irritated, but we already have 3D models to work with, we already have many animations for them for the game already, and I know there are people here who have more experience than I do writing code to animate and render them, but if all we do is talk about it and no one actually tries to implement anything, it will be a loooooooong time before there is any intro animation.

Again, even if it isn't complete, even if someone puts together a fragment of a video that could be combined with something else, that would be a nice start, and the more fragments created the more possible intro videos could be made.

Again, sorry for my rant - I've been away from this forum for a while, a leave of absence of the involuntary kind.