Greetings from the animation crew

Greetings from the animation crew of Fissionchips! (Me.) Ed here, to bring you the third entry of our production blog. This time around we’ll be jotting down some minor details about the animation of our characters and maybe a video or two of some test animations!

Animation is a painstaking process involving discipline, hard work, a strong back and the sweat off your brow. And Kung Fu. You have to know Kung Fu if you want to be a  good animator. Animation will kick your pudgy ass if you don’t know how to defend yourself! That’s right!

No, actually, it just takes some patience, imagination and the ability to take constructive criticism. Like most art, animation takes practice as well. So, if you’re serious about becoming an animator, it might be a good idea to spend a large portion of your time practicing and showing your friends. Before this becomes a full-on lesson on animation, I’m going to move on to “M” and a couple of his animation tests.

When we were discussing concepts and character design, the main idea behind M’s character was that he was going to be an unintelligent, borderline Cro-Magnon human, with a touch of schizophrenia, who barely knew how to even speak, let alone tie his own shoes. (Luckily, his suit has a zipper.) His actions would solely be driven by his emotions and occasionally his stomach. This meant, that M could be dumb as a box of rocks, but still be able to care for his friends and his home in the forest. These are a few of the things I had to keep in mind for M’s animations. He has to be dumb, cute and dumb. All in that order. He’s a cute sandwich, with dumb bread.

So, in our first test animation, we had to see if our 3D character would look good with a close-up speaking some dialogue, so we kind of cheated a little and threw aside our character bible for the time being, just to see if Noel’s model would work when it was moving.

As you can see (and hear) M was shaping up to be a pretty funny actor, even though he was technically out of character there. As I said it was only a test to see if our translation from 2D concept to 3D model had worked out the way we wanted it to. We were all pretty happy with the results!

The next animation is a perfect example of M’s innocence and, of course, his stupidity. We also see a scratch of his crudeness due to his lack of common sense.

See what I did there? A scratch of his crudeness? I kill me…

That animation is a good example of what kind of acting you can expect from M. A scratch of his buttcrack while no one is looking, a lick of a phone receiver when it smells like fried chicken or maybe a head-butt for anyone messing with his friends. In any case, there probably wasn’t much thinking behind it, which will either lead to a little bit of  stomach pain, or a slight headache for any of his friends nearby (Inside of head-butt radius).

I’m currently working on getting the main villain rigged up and ready to be animated! But I’m not going to show you. Ha ha! Maybe next time, eh? Maybe. We’ll see how your next report card shapes up. Until then, you can keep up with us on Twitter! (Twitter @fissionchips1)

Fail Train

Hey everyone!

Looks like I’m in charge of this months update for all you guys with the second installment of our production blog! This month I’ll be introducing you to some of the artwork that is going into the game. I’ll be showing you a few of the flops that didn’t make it all the way to the final cut of M.Raccoon. Sketches, and concepts that just didn’t quite fit the bill.

First of, I’d like to introduce myself to all of you. I’m Noel, one of the modelers and artists for Fissionchips. I (along with a lot of other great talent that I’m sure you’ll all hear from soon enough) get to come up with some fun ideas to toss back and forth with our team visually. With feedback by our other artists and teammates we hone and mold our thoughts until we come up with a final image or idea, then it’s up to me and a bunch of other really talented folk to bring that idea into fruition! And by that, I mean give it some real dimension!

Polygon by polygon I’ll build whatever wild ideas we come up with into a fully 3D character model or, hell, even a few backround props or two, whatever we’ll need for whatever we’re working on! I’ll show you some examples of a couple characters and how they’ve evolved from 2D to 3D…. in time. We dont want to spoil too much for you! I’ll keep some of the better stuff for another blog!

So, let’s get this fail-train going! Like I said before, in the making of M. we all came up with some fun ideas that sadly didn’t really make it to our final stock. These are just a few of my own…

Here’s a few example of those very images that got the ole’ heave-ho…

Oh, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter! We’ll often post thoughts and even some progress notes on
how the game is developing! We love stalkers-s-s-s… er, our fans!

Follow us on Twitter @fissionchips1 to get the latest news and updates!

Until next time!
~C’ya

-Noel

on with the show…

Hello there internet and welcome to the first Fissionchips production blog. This blog is mostly an introduction to the team and project – but future ones will center around our upcoming game, “The Irregular Adventures of M. Raccoon”.

So lets get on with the show…

Fissionchips is comprised of animation, game and comic book aficionados (nerds) hell bent on creating original games. We are not limited to a genre or style but its safe to say we’ll leave M rated shooters to other developers.

While we’re not ready to divulge everything about M. Raccoon right now, lets just say we are big fans of merging video game and art mediums.

Check out a sneak preview of a couple storyboards from M. Raccoon…

Follow us on Twitter @fissionchips1 to get the latest news.

-Nick