Revisiting the Graphics

I think I am starting to see some light at the end of this tunnel. Scripting is almost finished, programming could be done unless I decide to port some more scripts in, and level building is getting much easier and faster to the point that it finally feels like a typical workflow rather than poking a badger with a stick. With this much work under my belt I am running out of excuses to procrastinate re-modeling and re-animating the characters. 

To the right you can see box man. His political appearance today is to signify our dedication to better character graphics for the Aeges Road Project. While I liked the old characters to a point, their bodies were more awkward than cute and they never seemed to animate well. My second attempt at a template body produced some decent animation, but it was still pretty lacking and didn't quite fit what I was looking. Finally, I decided to try some different 3D software and landed on Cheetah3D. I got Cheetah 3D on Sunday, just before I learned of my website trouble, did a few tutorials then started on boxman who will soon become my character template. The new software has made editing much easier and it has yet to really try my patients. I have actually found myself enjoying modeling and animating for a change. 

As for the goal of the graphic, I am still pretty intent on giving it a bit of an anime tone. I am going a bit more realistic than last time, but the deformities are still there and hopefully will come across much better than the last time. 

I am also trying to save myself steps and time where ever I can, so rather than model then animate, I decided to do an abstract, animate, then model and tweak the animation afterward. From there I hope to create a male and female template the several humanoid templates such as werewolf or goblin. If my fingers are crossed just right, I many only have to do a handful of new animations from scratch after I finish box man. So far box man can walk, run, wave, and beat me in every staring contest.