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[McMutton]

A little preview of her sword, though the hilt isn't textured:

[io3 creations]

Looks doog!

Are the animations scripted uv texture based?

[McMutton]

Aye, just scrolling uvs. The flames' mesh encases the hilt, but their normals are inverted so you can see it through them

[gimymblert]

That's a great job

[McMutton]

Thanks!

So my path is now set! The main game takes place after the completion of the Shieldbearers' Adventurer Aptitude Exam, so I'll be making a little demo that will consist of the field portion of the Exam itself.

It'll take place here at Costello Fortress:



It's an old stronghold that's been repurposed as a Shieldbearer proving ground. Just a single-dungeon dungeon crawl with some of the conversation elements and flying to create a nice showcase of what the game proper will consist of.

[gimymblert]

Have you considered a short length web series too? I mean machinima style shorts of 5mn, it seems you have enough lore depth, characters, recognizable elements and charismatic design to pull it off.

[McMutton]

Hey, thanks! I have wanted to, yeah- I just have trouble thinking up scenarios to depict.

[io3 creations]

Aye, just scrolling uvs. The flames' mesh encases the hilt, but their normals are inverted so you can see it through them

Cool!

What do you mean by being able to see through them?  It's not just the transparent part of the texture right?

[McMutton]

Here's a depiction:



the left side is with the normals going outward like a normal object, so you can't see the hilt parts. By inverting their normals, you can see the hilt, itself, and it also appears encased in the flame regardless of the viewing angle:



Though it still needs a few adjustments to look just right. Might try some shader magic later on.

[io3 creations]

Thanks for the explanation.

What does the mesh look like exactly though?  At first, I imagined it to be simply on a 2d plane, but then I noticed that certain features don't lie on a 2d plane.  Or is it made up of multiple meshes, some with curved surface(s)?  If it's not too much trouble, of course.

Regarding lore, there are plenty of examples e.g. the Overwatch animations:
Those basically follow the classic Hero's Journey:
-Who is the character (i.e. background)?
-Why is the character going on the journey (i.e. what is the conflict/issue about)?
Answering those questions are good for those characters that are about to go on their journey.  For characters that already completed theirs, you can show how they overcame their challenges, etc.
Hope this helps.

[McMutton]

It's the latter- a bunch of convex meshes in a + shape, with some extra bits to fill in the other angles:



I have been cheating with the mesh on the pommel by manually rotating it- though I intend to have it rotate to face the camera ingame, anyway

That's a good idea for reference, actually- didn't consider the Overwatch stuff.

[io3 creations]

That's neat solution indeed!  Thanks for sharing.

Oh, looks like I didn't mention it, but it also looks good.  Fits the character's style well.

[McMutton]

Just gonna sneak on in here after two years and pretend nothing happened...




Choices, choices.

[gimymblert]

Did you change the character design once more?

Final fantasy versus 13 will be released as a kingdom heart continuation

[McMutton]

I did, yeah.

I'm completely revamping the story and world, so this is the perfect chance to unchain myself from my previous conventions, as it were.

At this point I'm redesigning everyone to more accurately convey their role in combat. Ellie, as you see, gets some T H I C C armor to convey her absolute Defense. Gil will have less armor and an even more dramatic physique to convey his Offense, Van's way more lithe and thin to convey swiftness and Movement, and so on.

In regards to the world, if you recall all of my worldbuilding about the Shieldbearer Guild, the new story focuses on their disappearance and how it affects the world at large.

[Ishi]

Just gonna sneak on in here after two years and pretend nothing happened...

Welcome back

[McMutton]

Thank you, Ishi!

I'm tickled pink to return to this project- I only stopped before because of the scale of my previous ideas and those ideas' lack of narrative strength.

But now I've got me some solid ideas, AND I can start out with a smaller entry!


Anyway, here's some stuff:



Ellie's gone full gremlin. She's, like, four feet tall and built like a bunker.

Van, conversely, is above average in height and super thin. More birdlike, too.

Gil will be around two heads taller than Van! He's an absolute unit.



Here's a concept for Errant Hero, Adelaide. She was one of the highest-ranking knights in the Shieldbearers, and one of the ones that vanished.

She inspired Ellie to be a knight- her idol.

Incidentally, she's about as tall as Gil!

[McMutton]

Here's a Gil!



As his role is Offense, his redesign has very little armor. The outfit and the proportions serve to exaggerate his physique and make him look quite powerful.

His giant cape has been replaced by a smaller shoulder cape, as I felt the original one hid too much of his body from behind in-game, so you couldn't see his animations as well.


He's a biggin'

[McMutton]

Aaand here's Celeste:



Not too much to say regarding her redesign- her role is Utility, which doesn't lend itself to any particular features.

I just gave her really floofy sleeves and coattails.


Now, when putting them all together, it showed that Gil was lacking in smaller details like the rest, so here's that resolved in a lineup:



Now he's a... Stud Muffin!


Further refinement:

[gimymblert]

Good good, do what any author do when they don't have an ending though, wrap things up on a cliff hanger by using a small subplot ... and make it a series