I was hoping to have three minutes worth of fight done on Episode 3 by the end of 2009, but I must report that I am about fifteen seconds short of that goal. However, progress is being made. It's just being made a little slower than expected. It's probably not going to improve much over the next few weeks, either. The reason for this is that a very recent series of events have made matters a bit complicated.
A few days ago, my external HDD backup died. Pretty much my entire sound effects and mugen character archive went down with the ship. After being initially pissed, I realized that I had not lost anything that wasn't fairly easy to replace. (I was looking for a reason to clean out and streamline my computer...) Anyway, it had seemed that my normal technique of taking visual effects out of mugen characters had been dealt a serious blow. I had just reached a point in the fight that could have used some advanced smoke effects and now my ability to get them had been compromised.
Facing this, I found myself pondering the following: "Why should I rely on the limited effects placed within mugen characters? Why not make my own?"
To that end, I have procured Adobe After Effects and the literature I need to teach it to myself are now on their way to me via the wonder of eBay. For those who aren't aware of this resource, it was primarily responsible for the visual upgrade between Proxicide's second and third MK vs. SF. Now I have it. Uh-oh.......
The simple fact of the matter is that I have hit a plateau. The graphic quality of Episode 2 is about as advanced as I can get at this time. Looking at my Episode 3 tests, I realize that while I can make my current graphics more complex, I cannot improve them as a whole. Given the advantage it has provided to other animators, I have every reason to believe that After Effects can provide me with the same boost.
I can already feel some of you wringing your hands with a mixture of anticipation and dread. Some of you may be thinking, "OH NOES! R1 is going to get wrapped up in the graphics aspect and lose his cutting edge! He just might abandon spriting altogether and disappear into the wastelands of the internet like at least one other famous former sprite animator we could name!"
Let me reassure you. It is my belief that updated graphics should be for the benefit of the action, not the other way around. I also have no desire to make my fights "pretty". Anyone who follows sprite fighting knows exactly what I am talking about here. I don't do "pretty". I don't do "uplifting". I do "bloody", "brutal", "dark", and "gritty". Any graphic enhancements I add to the series will be to that end. You may also rest assured that the day I quit sprites will be the day I quit flash altogether.
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Anyway, being the raging autodidact that I am, I have decided to suspend production of VG EXILES EPISODE 3 for a few weeks until I can properly use After Effects and evaluate it's potential usefulness for the series. This short break will also allow me to get some writing done for the story segments. It will also give 3XStudios more time to work on the necessary artwork. I've been very negligent in providing him with my artwork needs, so he will be under even more pressure to get it done than he did for the previous episode. That said, any delays in artwork are definitely going to be my fault here.
I should also mention that I later realized that most of my lost data had been backed up on various thumb drives, so the data loss from my hard drive crash was much less serious than I had previously thought. Had I not taken the time to back up my more useful resources, I would have spent quite a bit of time replacing my lost archives. Had it been my main hard drive that failed, I could have lost six months of utterly irreplaceable flash work. That kind of setback would probably end my career as an animator.
Luckily, it is my policy to make LOTS of backups just for this reason. Take my example as a very important lesson:
ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR STUFF!!!!!
A catastrophic hard drive crash can occur at any time and with little to no warning. A night spent backing up your files is a small price to pay to avoid the soul-crushing hellish nightmare that is irreplaceable data loss. I dodged a bullet because I follow this method and take no chances with my flash work. Make sure you do, too.
This public service announcement has been brought to you by:
R1665
stiller
Not once while reading that did I doubt that you would be focusing on the graphics over the sprite as a whole. Frankly I expected the opposite because I know better than that. The material that you produce is well worth whatever wait that might ensue by computer failures or otherwise. Best of luck.