Smoother ch animation transitions
After having watched the gameplay vids I have to say that I loved the graphics. Everything looked sweet, except one very important thing. The transitions between the animations!
In the vids, every time you give a new movement command to Sam, the animations just "clips" if you understand what I mean. As if you created one "standing still animation" and one "walk cycle", and then just flip between the animations. The transition would be the thing that turns the character around, and initiates the walk cycle.
Because of the seeming lack of transitions, it becomes very obvious that the characters are not "real". I do know that it's very hard to create realism in 3d, especially in a game with a lot of freedom, but come on - you've chosen the 3d environment and we're in 2006 now.
In the vids, every time you give a new movement command to Sam, the animations just "clips" if you understand what I mean. As if you created one "standing still animation" and one "walk cycle", and then just flip between the animations. The transition would be the thing that turns the character around, and initiates the walk cycle.
Because of the seeming lack of transitions, it becomes very obvious that the characters are not "real". I do know that it's very hard to create realism in 3d, especially in a game with a lot of freedom, but come on - you've chosen the 3d environment and we're in 2006 now.
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That said, I'm not sure if this is a problem that exists in the final version of the game. The good news about episodic gaming is that even if it does happen in the finished version, if enough people gripe about it, we can focus on improving it for the next episode(s).
Especially because old games didn't have any transitions. Do not forget the standards for low resolution sprite animation is different from hi-resolution 3D animation.
if you have the old sam and max take a look and you will see.
yet - I do understand the general request - we are in 2006 , and the technology allows us to create smooth transitions.
hahahah omg! The characters don't look real? Well duh! They are a Dog and Rabbit. Will this really effect the gameplay? Seriously... people need to stop picking this game apart
The realism of a fictive character is very important. Otherwise you'll get the impression that the strange rabbity-thing has no weight, that he just is a plastic picture that just floats around in some random directions in the room, doing some un-coordinated spasmodic movements with its legs.
There's a reason why it's hard to get a job at Pixar, even though they create something as strange as talking cars and fishes. Their animations are extremely well done, so that you don't have to question the illusion. Instead, you can focus on the movie and the story.!
The transition animations should be so short and discrete that nobody really notices them, at the same time as they remove all the clipping between the animation cycles.
That sort of graphics is what separates good from great.
My last comment was about the importance of realism in games.
Good luck TellTale! Your game shall forever (hopefully) be sacred. (Maybe even as sacred and Sam & Max Hit the Road) [>:D<]
Anyway..
I'm sure the story progression and everything story related will be excellent since Steve won't let them mess with his beloved characters too much. The thing I noticed from all the videos besides the horrible Sam voice was that the colors on the caracters and the background looked very bland. I mean, what is it with that gray guy behind the counter? It looked nothing like the colorful images of lucasarts past that I was was expexting.
Also maybe it's because of the angles, but every shot and scene looked too big, I missed that cramped feeling from all the Snuckey's. Even the street looked too big.
Did anybode else notice this?
I don't know man ... the lucasarts version looked better.
And it's basicly the same guys isn't it?
I hope the game is better then these previews...
Funny about the "gray" guy. I've seen that comment elsewhere too. I just don't see it... Bosco looks like a black guy to me.
One other thing I've noticed is that the colors of the street, the office, and the store are pretty similar - a lot of yellows, browns, and brick. This is not true of other locations in the game, but we haven't revealed all of the locations because we want to keep a sense of mystery. (Can't win them all, I guess!) As an example, the colors in Sybil's are very different.
I'm just glad it was intentionally.
Don't worry, you haven't lost me. I'm still going to play this game, I haven't waited 13 years for something and not playing just because of the previews
I'm sure it'll be fine .. (if not you'll be hearing more ranting.)
Btw. thanks for the reply, I really wasn't expecting it