Well pox hasnt released this yet but i figure being that im a flash reg you all would be interested to see what i was up to this weekend at a montreal meetup.

God this is embarassing.

http://ngmontrealmeet3.122mb.com/

working with others

Well the only time I've worked with others is on normal collabs, so we all were doing animation. I don't like working with others on games just because of difference of opinions on how the game should be, so I take it upon myself to do some actionscript. I made hookshot in 3 long (very long) hours, if I had an actionscripter for that, it would have taken longer. I prefer to animate rather than actionscript because its waaaay more fun, but I like making games more. Its kind of an oxy moron really....

working with others

I have to strongly disagree. I actually do love making sprites, its not as fun as making a movie, but I like letting users decide how they're gonna go about my art, and a game gives people more control. Yeah, ive been working with TrueDarkness for about 2 years, maybe more, and when we first started it as hard, but you get used to how programmers look at things and learn to set everything up how they want it. If you hate to critique something in fear that they'll get mad at you, or get their feelings hurt then you probably shouldnt be working with other people. Or if you dont mind dropping the news that they suck, and they dont try to improve, then its just not the right person. I guess its all about finding the right person to code your games, or maybe just getting used to them. This is just about games though, personally I dont like collabs that switch from scene to scene in a retarded blur of shit, I would much rather watch a collab 3 or 4 guys that will dedicatedly work on a piece nather than a put together instead of 50 forum goers. Well, if that makes any sense whatsoever, good. If not, I just wasted 5 minutes of my life that were eventually gone anyways.

Re: Working with Others

I don't really like working with others that often. I think the joy of collaborating should be like a holiday from usual work, because collaborating can be a lot less work and a lot more fun. I've only really collaborated on three projects, one of them just being with one other author. Unlike a few of the others in the forum, I feel like collaborating with different people over and over again is truly the way to collaborate. You find so many interesting people and styles when you diversify who you work with. For example, I had no clue who sinz3ro was, but when I collaborated with him, I found his visual style to be the most unique and freshest style to hit the Flash world for quite some time. Or with Zoy, whose bitmap style was polished and well done.

At 12/19/06 10:55 AM, Luis wrote: God this is embarassing.

Hah funny. I was hoping to see more morning after pictures though.. I hope you shagged her good.

Working with others

Game wise, I think it's best to start with something big, so there's some basis to build on. For example for some side scrolling game, don't start on the character, start on a big easy background, or maybe the menu. I like doing it by having the ASer draw fill-ins then me redoing them later. Sometimes it's hard to get motivated, actually not so much motivated more 'not know what to do next'. At somepoint you'll notice you and them are amatuers just doing your best (a little harsh sounding).

The worst when working on something is not having much direction, but sort of knowing what you gotta do to get there. So there's no real aim but theres still shit that's just in the way and needs to be done. Backgrounds can be like this. Or maybe say if you leave some big fill-in the ASer did till the end.

And while on the subject - played Gears of War with my two mates over last night and drank JD.. so i'm a day behind on the Hannukkah game for anyone keeping track :(. Atleast I wasn't as drunk as Lu.

Bold

At 12/19/06 10:55 AM, Luis wrote: Well pox hasnt released this yet but i figure being that im a flash reg you all would be interested to see what i was up to this weekend at a montreal meetup.

hey Luis, notice how this whole Bold Topic Title has started to fade away!?

<3

Xmas TV

just been looking at the tv listings for xmas (Radiotimes :D!) and theres alot of shite on this year, more so than usual. alot of non-xmas movies are on and alot of crappy specials and movies aswell.. but most amazingly, 'A nightmare before christmas' is being shown on tv in the afternoon for once, usually they show it late a night.. yippe!

oh, sadly, no Chewing the Fat hogmany special though :'(

Re: Working with others

Obviously, I've been working with an artist for everything I've done - the difference is he lives in the same house as me, so its handy. I tried to work with Joey (LegendaryFrog) on a game, but uni got in the way. Same deal with trying to work with John and Richie Zirbes (Perfect Kirby guys) on a game - that one was just too big for me to take on, I realise that now.

I still have hopes of working with both of them some time this comming year, as well as other people like Luis. Now that I'm doing Flash as a job, I'm fully motivated to work. I think that as long as you keep in touch regularly with each other, there wont be too many problems.

Tom~

Re: Working with Others

I think it's really cool when programmers get to collaborate. Seeing different coding styles and talent is a lot of fun.

I'm starting an AS War on January 2nd, where you can create your own AS bot and have it battle autonomously in an arena with other user's bots. We had a similar competition about a year ago, and I think it would be awesome to have everyone battle again, especially with a fresh new wave of programmers coming in. It should be a fun project for the Flash forum to take part in.

RE: Working with others

It should be a fun project for the Flash forum to take part in.

COOL. I'm glad someone else is taking a leadership role in making projects to integrate the community. I feel alot of pressure by people waiting on me to do it.
Anyway I think I've yet to see a true collaborative effort artistically. Its all fun and shit to have collabs where parts are split and people take what they like but i think it would really push the collaborative scene to really see artists styles playing off of each other, like maybe in the same scenes even something where you can really notice the communication going on between the two creators. I think its definately more challenging but something worthwhile to do. I think it could really be inspirational to the scene and get people to think about collabing in a smarter light.

At 12/19/06 01:56 PM, Luis wrote: Anyway I think I've yet to see a true collaborative effort artistically.

Re: Working with others

One idea I had was for one organiser to animate a simple scene (perhaps a fight, it is NG after all) with really basic stick figures, then assign each character to a different artist, and they have to animate over the rough animation. Then it gets put together again afterwards, and hopefully you'd have all the different characters interacting. That'd be cool.

Tom~

COLLABS

At 12/19/06 02:27 AM, UnForged wrote: Collabs

Anyone else notice that theres been a lack of new collabs lately. Im really interested to get into one, but none have been made recently.

Everyone is really busy with christmas and stuff... some collabs that were started a while ago havent been realy active..

I would start one, but firstly, I cant think of anything useful,

Its a lot of work to start a collab.. i have an idea for one.. not music based.. but i wont tell you coz i want to star it once i have a batting average and some work of my own.. i dont know if someone else has done it..

collabbing
The robot collab (wall to wall) that is going on at the moment i one I really wanted to take part in but it took a direction that didnt agree with me. For me what would have worked would have been one design of robot done in each person's style smashing from scene to scene. Would have been really interesting to see each persons style tackling it in a different way.
Instead they are all doing their own design of robot, which doesnt make any sense to me.

I've done a lot of collaborative work at uni because sometimes group work is required. I find it tricky because noone seems to care about the subject (or be any good at animation if im honest) as much as me so I end up taking a directoral role instead of us all working together. It makes me seem really bossy and like a bit of an arrogant fuck but in all seriousness it wouldnt be as good if I didnt take control, I strongly beleive in having someone as a director and Im happy for it to be me. I guess I need to work at being constructive with others instead of bossing them around. It doesnt help them I'm ALWAYS sarcastic about everything so if they say something dumb I say something really sarky back. I gotta stop that.

I've been working with JPI some as well and he's much more fun to work with because we can bounce ideas off each other more than when i work with some other people. He knows what he's doing more than people in my year, which is great considering he's the year behind us. I think I still take a bit more of the lead role but he doesnt seem to get pissed off about it like other people ive worked with. But then he takes the piss of me as well so I guess we're both assholes which works well ^^. People in my class are too fucking nice and will not go for what they want, they are polite and boring - nice guys finish last.

end of rant, I think that was a learning post for me, phew

RE: Xmas TV

they always show that christmas movie with arnold shawartzanegger trying to get some toy thats sold out absolutely everywhere (no, not the wii) and he works togetherly against some postmas and in the end has some suit with the guy and is a really crap but good because its old funny ending. every year, dammit.

RE: Working with others

As my AS skills increase, my art and animation skills steadily decrease to the point where it hinders my ability to make certain styles of games that require like.. characters or animation. So I have learned how to work with an artist, and it can be fun. Occasionally it can be frustrating (orb) if they take too long.

I have to go now but i will say that I couldn't work with another ASer, it gets to complicated to coordinate things.

Working with others

While on the subject, what way do you go about organzing the project? Say for example, if there was some unfinished art, like a character sprite MC, but it has a few sprites missing, would you send this over or wait?

What me and Evan have been doing is i'll draw stuff and save it to it's own Fla then send that, then he'll compose it all together in a master FLA, naming the library symbols and tidying it all up etc.

BE NICE

The user by the name of Edvin, wants to post but he feels shy because you guys are going to make fun of him becuase hes not a reg. He's very e-shy. Be nice to him or be banned instantly. That is all.

-L

RE: Working With Others

I think it's easier when its something like an organised collab. When you're just getting a partner to do the parts you can't do, it's useful but I don't feel it's worth it.

If you can't do one part of a game/movie but can do the other, practice the parts you're not good at, and you'll eventually get better.
My drawing skills suck on a computer, yet I wanna become a digital artist. I used to be a noob to AS, yet I wanna make web games, the only people I'd actually be requesting jobs from at this time would be the talented musicians in the audio forum, there're some real talented people that respond when you request there (If you request from them, they can come up with something awesome that'll suit your game better than a randomly chosen song from the AP).

As for graphics, I've always seen this as something you just pick up as you get better, if you keep doing something simple like puzzle games, which can be very advanced but require barely any graphics, you won't get better. I say practice w/e and get better at it, then you won't need to wait for the artist/programmer who is taking forever, as you'll be able to crack on and finish your project :).

RE: Be Nice.

At 12/19/06 02:59 PM, Edvin wrote: Hi my name is Edvin, I've been sober for 18 days.

Hello Edvin, my name is Jindo and I'm an alcoholic :'(.

He looks reg to me :P.

Stuck for Ideas :(

arg, doing a movie and got baout 3 seconds of nothing. so i was thinking of having a random characer slide into veiw from behind a wall, but have no idea what character to have appear :(

so maybe you guys cna help out :D!
if you can doodle something for me i'll keep the best one ;)
of course, credit will be given, somehow.. hey, could even be a picture of yourself ;)

any suggestions :(?

(pic below)

RE: Stuck for Ideas :(

Well you could always just make the characters from "The Wall" Album from Pink Floyd that would be cool. Just seeing "Wall" Makes me think of the song "The Wall" by Pink Floyd. Is that where you are going with it? With that sound track as the background music? Or is it just a video called "Wall."?

Just curious.

Here's some images:

Really small:
The Wall 1
The Wall 2
The Wall 3

i haven't posted in here for a while
i hope I got the whole RE: thing down :D

RE Stuck for Ideas

http://denvish.net/ulf/1166563182_6555.php
the section of the movie that has the said area of stuck..ness

its rigth at the end after the word " wall" has been said, there is a bit of a gap inw hich ntohgin happens, and i really wanna put somethign there cuz i hate leaving black areas of stillness in my movies :P

so, any suggestions :P

RE: Stuck for Ideas

First of all, I rofl'd at that, very awesome start (dunno why, it was prolly the voices xD).

You could add a bunch of wierd things that do some kind of dance from one side of the screen to the other, and then a face comes out of no where :P.

Good luck with it, I look forward to seeing more, that really made my day :).

RE: Be Nice.

At 12/19/06 02:59 PM, Edvin wrote: Hi my name is Edvin, I've been sober for 18 days.

Hello Edvin, my name is Jindo and I'm an alcoholic :'(.

hello Edvin and Jindo, my name is Jacek and im also an alcoholic.

im also in love with luis.

At 12/19/06 04:38 PM, zoy wrote: RE: Be Nice.

At 12/19/06 02:59 PM, Edvin wrote: Hi my name is Edvin, I've been sober for 18 days.

Hello Edvin, my name is Jindo and I'm an alcoholic :'(.

hello Edvin and Jindo, my name is Jacek and im also an alcoholic.

Hello Zoy, Jindo and Edvin, I'm Ali. I am an undersexed Sexaholic.

I've been sober for .01 of a second.

RE: Stuck for Ideas...:(

Ohh I get the picture now.
Ahh stupid me. :P

Well the preview was nice, I liked it.
Very ...Sesame Streetishhhh xD

Well have some dancing penquins come out or flying monkeys.
Or even better yet, a car bashes in the wall :)

RE: Learning

At 12/19/06 05:17 AM, PaperBagMask wrote: Easing is really helpful in tweening, and I believe you can get an extension for Flash that makes it easier to tween. I think it makes it work a bit like animating in Pivot.
Tweening is one of those things that can be done really good and really well with a nice look to it but not a lot of people seem to do that.
You should probably try out how the Brothers Chaps do it(Homestarrunner.com), if you give that a try it could come out really good yet be simple to do.

Yeah, I read Dim's tutorial on tweening and saw the easing trick. It does make everything look 100x better. Homestarrunner has always been really good at realistically moving their interestingly shaped characters. I tried doing the same sort of thing with my old series TLC. I obviously failed, haha.

I agree, tweening can look super nice, but people don't know any of the tricks. That's why i've been talking about an in depth tutorial for tweening character models effectively. The only thing that kinda helps is Dim's on the SFB site, but that's minimal.

RE Imma stuckin' ma ideas

At 12/19/06 05:01 PM, Rudy wrote: Very ...Sesame Streetishhhh xD

music is from sesame street..

Well have some dancing penquins come out or flying monkeys.
Or even better yet, a car bashes in the wall :)

interesting..... but random as hell.. i will think about that, any other ideas?

All For Nothing

I had a project that required spray painting. I had no where to do it, so I did it in my dorm room. I put paper down under it but the shit got everywhere...My room now has a purple tint. I take it to class...my professor grades it...I start walking back to my dorm and the shit I'm holding it by snaps and it comes crashing down. Broken. My whole floor smelled of spray paint, I could've gotten kicked out of the dorms if I was found out. My RA even walked down the hall looking for where it was coming from. I got the grade but I liked how the project came out. Now it sits by a dumpster waiting to be taken away.

What do you think about working with other people?

3 experiences.

Go Godzilla Go!
movie - folk doing individual scenes.
Four Second Firestorm
Pico Jr Jr (v0.6)

As all the things had a deadline (either set by the leader or Tom Fulp) I definitely worked harder for the collabs than I do normally. Extra impetus and all that.

Pico Jr. Jr. was done with an old friend (Danny Parker), which was specially great, as he was really accommodating and did all the coding of the game, whilst I did the art/design, which is all I really enjoy. Can't continue now though, with his new job and life.

Like Shmelo, I'd rather animate, but I'd rather make games. Ideally, I'd like to do only design, but that's what everyone wants, ne?

At 12/19/06 01:56 PM, Luis wrote: RE: Working with others
Anyway I think I've yet to see a true collaborative effort artistically. Its all fun and shit to have collabs where parts are split and people take what they like but i think it would really push the collaborative scene to really see artists styles playing off of each other, like maybe in the same scenes even something where you can really notice the communication going on between the two creators. I think its definately more challenging but something worthwhile to do. I think it could really be inspirational to the scene and get people to think about collabing in a smarter light.

I'd say that this gel/Dustball collab has a lot of 'playing off of each other'.

RE: Working with others

At 12/19/06 05:52 PM, Bezman wrote: I'd say that this gel/Dustball collab has a lot of 'playing off of each other'.

Youre right. Hadnt seen that before. I think many overlooked it as well.
But yeah its rare.