Case 3.1

Dee Sea Glow so far. Enjoy: http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1285967324

The Big smash: http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1285967757

Case 3.0 – Environment

In this case the surroundings of our character are being made. As for my character it is the dark seafloor. My plan is to make a ruff seafloor and add some deep sea plants and stuff. The tricky part is to unveil it under my fish’s lamp antenna. 

I started by experimenting on how to solve this problem. This is one I did whit bone tool by connecting the lamp antenna to a giant square with a cut out hole in the middle. It gave a nice light effect but after some fighting with the bone tool I gave up. It must be a simpler solution. 

I also tried masking all my layers under one circle shape. It works but I could not get the same light effect as in bone tool experiment. I try to gradient the masking to fade out in transparent colour but no meter it still gave me a sharp edge:

I was then recommended to create the big square with the hole and fade out the edges. Then to make a circle inside this one smaller and with a yellow colour inside that fade out to transparent. This will be the core light of the angler fish’s light. I first started to put these light effects directly into the fish symbol so it could follow its every move. But then I got a problem. All the objects that were in front of the fish didn’t get the light effect. I had to put the light effects in to the main timeline and place the highlight and square on different layers. In this way the fish can swim behind something without the light effect going on the outside.

I also named my game “Deep Sea Glow”. I made a title screen opening and combined all the cases so far in to one clip. I will upload it soon    

Case 2.0 - Animation

In this case we are going to make our figure come to life, animation is next. We are going to make three different movements: a walk cycle (Right and Left), a jump and also an idle position. 

My main character is an angler fish and I was afraid it wouldn’t be enough for a proper walk cycle. As it turns out a fish’s swim cycle is a real pain in the a*s. A fish uses the whole body to swim not only its tailfin (legs). So to animate a fish is definitely not easier than an ordinary walk cycle. 

 

First animation

My early swim animation I moved the fish across the stage frame by frame. I figured out its better to have my figure move at the same place on the stage. When I do it like this it’s easier to know where to draw my “in betweens” and I can later on import the swf-file to any wanted stage. My character is deep sea fish it swims around on the bottom of the world’s deepest oceans. So why should it jump:P Instead of the jump move I decided to make it bite. The bite move is for eating the prays you encounter on the seafloor.

 Second animation

Case 1.1

This is some of my early sketches of my main characters. This one is a fearless pilot I was planning to have in a major air battle with zeppelins, planes and huge explosions. But when we came over to animation part and learned about walk cycles I decided to drop that idea. I mean walking planes come on I have to come up whit something cooler then that. And THEN I draw this:

Case 1.0 - Idea

At first I wanted to make an pilot hero who fight blimps and other enemy aircrafts. After some brainstorming and other ides along the way I decided to go for my ”Deep sea Adventure”. The name is not decided yet but something like that. My idea is to make a game from the deepest ocean depths wear the sun can’t reach and in nearly complete darkness. The main character is this small angler fish witch lights up a small area around him whit his lamp antenna. 
 

The idea is that you are going to explore the depths with this currently unnamed character and collect or eat smaller fish and shrimps and avoid any dangers you encounter. The tricky part is that you sight is limited and other lights you can see in the dark can be a good bonus or a horrible trap.