[S] REX DUODECIM ANGELUS - Thread Two!

[MoraicTrochee]

Ahh I knew this would happen! I go away for a weekend and suddenly an influx of AMAZING NEW PEOPLE. Yesss!

1. Re: gif stuff - the color compression issue is a super important one and I'm glad those more savvy than I brought it up! In that case, disregard my idea about GIFing things - it's pry more trouble than it's worth. We can animate normally.

2. NEW PEOPLE! Welcome welcome! Akitsu, I already responded to your PM, but for everybody: the Desperation sequence DESPERATELY (no pun intended) needs artwork. As in, it has only a few backgrounds! (Note to self: make new Wiki page for those art assets.) Post here if you want to work on that and I can give you my sloppy frames (or just give you some undone sections). We also need more art for Vriska's section (if interested, PM Psych to find out what frames still need doing) and Feferi/Eridan's sequence (if interested, PM Vikiel for frames to work on). In all of those sections we need both backgrounds/effects and figures. Note to other artists who volunteered recently and maybe haven't done anything - this applies to you guys too

All sequences can be found HERE.

3. Nimz, how great you are! A one-stop-shop for sigbanners is great. How do I link to that particular post in the OP?

4. MultiversalInk, you image is broken...?

5. The NYC subway plays a two-note interval when the doors close that sounds EXACTLY like the opening notes of Kanaya's part of RDA. I would say that this observation shows how devoted I am to you guys except I totally wasn't the one who noticed it. My boyfriend was the one who pointed it out to me. Anyway, I thought it was a random fact you guys might find cute.

THAT'S ALL!

[Marraph]

I've been assigned a few parts of the Nepeta/Equius section; that is still a thing! I've just been busy with some other projects lately. They'll be done eventually :\/

[Nimz]

3. Nimz, how great you are! A one-stop-shop for sigbanners is great. How do I link to that particular post in the OP?

I don't know how necessary that is, since it's only three posts below the OP. But here you go:

Preview:
One-stop Sig Shop!

Code:

[size=3][b][url=http://www.mspaforums.com/showthread.php?44123-S-REX-DUODECIM-ANGELUS-Thread-Two%21&p=5858007&viewfull=1#post5858007]One-stop Sig Shop![/url][/b][/size]

You can find the link to any particular post by clicking on the number that appears in the upper right hand corner. In the case of this post, it is #28.

Also, crystallinePerplexity helped me figure out how to break the [img] tags so the banner codes can be copy/pasted without any of the hassle of replacing [img ] with [img]. I'll be fixing that shortly.

[Morphosky]

Guys guys guys, I tried to put what I have of the Dersite vs trolls sequence together at school this morning and it was at least 16mo, which means SWF Mega want me to pay if I wants to upload it. So if anybody knows another website where I could upload it that doesn't have a 10mo limits, that would be cool. Or I could post it on Deviantart. Hum. I'll see. But it can also mean we will have to think about a way to make the whole thing...less heavy, because like we feared, the whole animation will be huge and will probably lag if too heavy : T

I'll eventually edit or post what I had put together.

[spycomic29]

Anything I can do to help? If animation is necessary, can one of you guys tell me what to do and where to post it? I can reply and say whether or not I can. Alas, I own a school laptop with the entire Adobe Suites program, but many sites have been blocked from my use on the internets.

[MultiversalInk]

4. MultiversalInk, you image is broken...?

Hmm. Try this?

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Edit:
Morph and spycomic: I use MyFrogBag to upload Flashes and Imgur or Tumblr for pngs and gifs. I think FrogBag can do images too, but I prefer Imgur. Deviantart is very laggy.

Edit2:
Actually I should just have put that on Imgur in the first place. Here:

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[spycomic29]

Thank you, that helps a lot. Now, are there any ideas for me to do?

[Morphosky]

Even Frogbag didn't want of that file. So Deviantart it was.

Here's a link that everybody should be able to have access to to see the progress of the dersites vs trolls sequence.

I guess there's some little modifications to do, but it was just to show the finished sequences with the music and the storyboard.

And I didn't put all the finished sequences because I didn't have the time :X

EDIT: I didn't know stash was only accessible to deviantart members : O so I put the sequence into my scrapbook instead, which should okay for everybody.

[MoraicTrochee]

1. MultiversalInk that worked. Great!

2. Spycomic, would you be able to set the Karkat or Feferi/Eridan sections to their music? That would be extremely helpful! The storyboards can be found on the wiki.

3. Morphosky, I love it! Beautiful beautiful. I can't wait to see it with all the finished sequences!

Regarding the size of the flash: HM. That isn't my area of expertise, but it's a very real issue that we need to work on. If even a small section is too big for Frogbag, how are we going to host the finished animation? Would Newgrounds work for the final issue? As for the intermediate parts, I guess we can continue to use Frogbag and Deviantart until we have any better options.

[Nimz]

As someone without a dA account, it looks like I can't get to that flash, Morphosky - I get stuck at a stash login page. As a non-artist, I have little use for a dA account. I'll get one if I have to, but I wanted to point out that potential issue - it would be terribly inconvenient to make people have to have a dA account to view the final product, e.g.

Thanks for fixing the link!

[Frost-]

I'm no artist in any sense of the word, but may I suggest that someone who is takes a couple minutes and finishes up the groupshots? I'm talking about the left/right edges [KK's arm on the red pic, Equius/Sollux/Fef's 2x3 blue] because at least in my opinion the cutoff is noticeable when it pans, if only for a split second.

If you intended to make a final runthrough and touch up the stuff like this before it's finished, this post may be ignored, and I apologize for troubling you.

[spycomic29]

I can't find the Karkat stuff. There isn't a link which I can download the file. I won't be able to use DropBox until January 3rd.

[WillSpark]

As someone who is only here as an onlooker, I think Newgrounds would be your best bet for hosting the final product. I mean hey, if Hussie can do it with the EoA, why can't you with this, right?

[ArtemisTheHuntress]

I would love to help with the Desperation sequence. I watched the storyboard on Youtube that the wiki linked to; is there anything else I should see/anyone else I should talk to about that, or can I start in with some stuff, and post it after I've started some things to see what you guys think?

[Sigma]

I'd like to point out that on the wiki, it shows the Eridan and Feferi destroy the wings, and then the start of the second interlude says king stumbles back from stabbed heart. is this a mistake or did i just miss something?

[Kohila]

Guys guys guys, I tried to put what I have of the Dersite vs trolls sequence together at school this morning and it was at least 16mo, which means SWF Mega want me to pay if I wants to upload it. So if anybody knows another website where I could upload it that doesn't have a 10mo limits, that would be cool. Or I could post it on Deviantart. Hum. I'll see. But it can also mean we will have to think about a way to make the whole thing...less heavy, because like we feared, the whole animation will be huge and will probably lag if too heavy : T

I'll eventually edit or post what I had put together.

That's why I instilled a preloader into the movie, that way it won't lag due to the fact that the whole movie must be loaded before it'll play.

[MoraicTrochee]

Wow, lots of stuff to respond to! But first (drumroll please)....

There is now a page for Desperation Art Assets on the wiki! Hooray!!

Now for responses:
1. Frost, I think that's a very good point! I'd assumed that we should just fix the panning issue by making the trolls bigger so that the cropped part starts offscreen, but this is something that might be feasible - Elanor, are you willing to add in the edges, or would you prefer that we just start it offscreen?

2. Artemis, welcome to the team! I'm the contact person for Desperation, so I am happy to have you. Basically, you can do any of the art needed except for the lightning, which was already completed. When you're done you can post it here/upload it to the Desperation page on the wiki. So go ahead and start drawing!

3. Sigma, you're right - the second interlude is actually old and out of date. Changing it now. Good eyes! It would be nice to have an animatic of the text storyboard, if anyone (new artists, looking at you guys!) wants to take that on.

4. Spy, I only have the frogbag link:here But perhaps CP can get you the file? Thanks so much for helping with this!

5. Kohila, good point! Hopefully our preloader will also take care of this..? (One quick note - the forum policy is that using any text colors other than black/fancy fonts/typing quirks/etc are frowned upon on the forum. Don't worry about it - you're new! Just thought I should let you know though before someone gets upset.)


ALSO I noticed something problematic - in the finished Aradia/Sollux part of the flash, the Black King does not show his proper injuries! What should we do? We need to go through the others as well and make sure that all injuries are cumulative.

[Morphosky]

I'm not sure the preloader will change the fact that the frame rate could be dropping even when we play the animation in Flash :X but I could be wrong. I need to search on the subject.

[crystallinePerplexity]

I've actually started trying to make something for the second interlude, here's what I got so far:

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Trying to follow the text storyboard as well as possibe...

[Elanor Pam]

Okay, I extended Karkat and Equius's arms and also made some minor changes to most of the other characters (since I've found a better program than photoshop for pixelly art). The new pics are all in this photobucket folder.

I didn't make a composite shot of everyone together because I thought the flash animator might want to move them around a little. I did make a shot of Vriska, Tavros and Gamzee together, but that's mostly because I'd originally planned for them to be together, kind of like the two psycho highbloods bothering the poor harmless lowblood. Otherwise Gamzee would be sitting his butt midair and Vriska's arm would be floating.

[MoraicTrochee]

Great on both counts! Morph, let us know if the preloader will solve the issue

Also, question - what animation programs do you people recommend? If there's anything good for both drawn animation and stop-motion that would be great, but drawn animation is the most pressing.

[Afrowolf]

Whew, it's been a while.

Good news everyone!
I have almost finished the new preloader, all that is needed is the code. Also finishing Vriska rescuing Eridan. Will upload examples of both in due time.

I'm not sure the preloader will change the fact that the frame rate could be dropping even when we play the animation in Flash :X but I could be wrong. I need to search on the subject.

The frame-rate will be dependent on the veiwer's Central Proccessing Unit, so it may look lush on some newer computers but shudder and skip on others. We can do two things to ease this problem.
1. Optimization.
We remove as much as we can that will not be neccecary. E.G deleting something as soon as its out of veiw and loading it back in when neccecary rather than just leaving it to the side.
2. Quality change.
There are some actionscript codes knocking about which will change the film quality where we choose. If we put these in the intense areas, aka lots of fast moving things and special effects, and simply drop from best to medium and back again, we can reduce fps loss without much visible change.

[AlishaShatogi]

Hi folks! I am BACK! The semester is over, so I have lots of free time until January. Gonna tackle FX and backgrounds wherever it suits me, probably mostly focusing on the desperation sequence. The king's scepter looks like a fun thing to get at.

[Scarodactyl]

OK, I have gone ahead and modified my painting to allow a more interesting pan. I did this by separating things into different layers: a background and foreground layer of clouds to scroll by horizontally, two meteors which can fly through and separate layers for the battleships so they can drift.
Note: one other change I have done is adjusting the contrast and saturation. I did this because the original file was painted on my old desktop, whose monitor is a bit wonky (to use technical terms). I think my laptop, on which I have adjusted the painting to look as it did on my desktop, has a better monitor so this should look better. If it looks oversaturated or overexposed, just tell me and I can easily adjust it back to where it was before.

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Sorry, just a static preview for now.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/33769829/der...anipulated.psd source .psd with layers. Each layer can be converted to a transparent .png for purposes of the flash. I can do this relatively easily if necessary, just tell me.

[Slice-Hazard]

Ditto what AlishaShatogi said. I have loads of free time now.

It seems like the desperation sequence is the only thing not being actively worked on. So I'll probably do that. But if anyone would like some assistance just ask.