The Frames Who Came to Life

Well, more specifically animations, which are by definition a collection of frames that creates movement and there by gives the character life. So yeah, that is what I have been doing this week, amongst other things such as sound effects and the like.

So who, what, and how have I animated? Mothgomery of course, our glorious moth leader, Mothgomery the king, Mothgomery the magnificent, Mothgomery… the vile. The moth playing dictator, sitting on his throne letting his minions do all the work, only to then be slaughtered and struck down by Barney the robot, Barney the murderer, Barney the intruder, Barney… the hero.

Mothgomery, the final boss, is like I said a moth sitting a top his throne sending minions your way during the final battle. So his animation are rather simple but was rather fun to make.

Last week I changed his setup significantly just so that I could animate easier and that has payed off. Although I can’t go as far as I want with the animations due to time restraints I can still get nice animations from him. So far I have an animations for when he is idle, when he is idle during his invincible phase, as well as the transition between those phases, and the animation for sending out his minions. The animation you see here is when he sends his minions out to fight the player.When it came to this animation I first wanted more movement in his face and just showing how nonchalant he is towards the player. But Mr. Time said otherwise. And as the player will most likely focus more on the minions coming his way than the actual boss, it is not all too important. All I have left on the animation department as of now is his death animation. And that I do want to make special. What I had in mind was that he sort of falls down on his knees reciting the final words of Darth Malak, “And in the end, as the darkness takes me, I am nothing.” But that is nothing I can fool around with as of now, there are music and sound effects to be made, so that animation will have to wait a week or two.

Another thing to note, that I think is rather nice when it comes to his way of protecting himself, is that he puts his wings in front of him trying to shield himself from the needles from the players needle gun. His wings being torn at places showing how he has withstood terrible pain by doing just that. Just a small thing, giving him some sort of history I guess.

“Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape.”
-George Taylor, Planet of the Apes