Step into the Ancient City

[Nescent]

These are some short animations for each area in the Ancient City, made using the images available on bionicle.com.

 

City Gate

Constructed in times gone by, the impressive gate marked the entrance to Okoto’s magnificent capital. Many great battles have been fought here. And probably many more will.

 

 

The Arena

Back when the City of the Mask Makers was still the sprawling capital of Okoto, the Arena hosted many exciting game events such as the popular Hammer Flush.

 

 

The Graveyard

Ages ago, the islanders of Okoto were laid to rest here. Today, the site is abandoned and creepy, a perfect place for the vicious Skull Warriors to spring an ambush!

 

 

Forge Entrance

The Forge Entrance marks the threshold to what used to be Okoto’s most powerful place.

 

 

The Forge

Once Okoto’s most powerful place. Many, many great masks have been forged here; masks of strength, of speed and a thousand other miraculous powers. However, since Makuta’s betrayal, the furnace has been cold.

 

 

[Soran]

Howdy there,

 

I normally don't come on this section of the forum but your topic caught my eye and I will say, these are very cool. These are exceptionally awesome. They look like they could be the little animations for when you enter that particular part of the region, like something in a video game that plays while it loads up the level. It's pretty neat. I could just imagine an Okoto themed game similar to MNOG that displays these little animations before each region. 

 

Now, I'm assuming what you did was separate the different sections of perspective and animated them in a way of making it appear to almost be panoramic in appearance. Further going off of this assumption, I'll be critiquing based off of what I felt about each little mini-mation. Just as a fair warning, I have very little experience when it comes to animation, I'm simply going off of what I remember from some research I had done on the subject in the past.

 

1. The City Gate: Exceptionally done and probably the best out of the group. It's honestly pretty flawless when going off of the trends of the other animations. The perspective is created in a way that seems realistic and the slowly lowered zoom is very nice looking. Because of the slow action of the speed, it makes it appear almost mystical when combined with the background. Exceptional. Now that being said, there are some ways that I can think of that could improve it in a way, but those are more personal opinions that affect all of the animations and not this particular one. Those ideas I will expand on later.

 

2. The Arena: This one is very good as well, although there definitely is something I had noticed which looks odd. If we were to go off of the movable perspective order presented in the video as (1, 2, 3, 4) with 1 being the closest to the viewer and 4 being the farthest (background) then I would say that the main "issues" or odd looking scenarios are present in 2 and 4. The 2nd layer moves too quickly to the left, especially when compared to the other present perspective's movements. And the 4th layer or background moves too quickly downward at about the 2 second mark. Number 1 and 3 in my opinion are absolutely perfect, however. Regardless of those critiques it's still exceptionally well done.

 

3. The Graveyard: This one also is great, but it's got something I noticed as well. This one looks pretty simple compared to situation going on in The Arena. The vine (on the right) simply moves too quickly and too high. That's about it. The hexagon object (the closest perspective) also moves pretty quickly but it's barely noticeable and I'm assuming it only appears that way because of the vine. Nice work as well on this one.

 

4. Forge Entrance: This one is pretty great as well. It actually reminds me very much of the Mask of Light movie for some reason. Perhaps it's because of the scenery, maybe the animation, who knows. Either way it's interesting. It still has something I noticed though and this one probably bugs me the most when compared to the other animations. When you moved the mountain down, it changed the perspective (which it should, so nicely done) but you didn't adjust for the tower's changing of perspective. It makes it appear that the "camera" has moved slightly to the left but the tower is still in its original position and has not been moved to the left to adjust for the change in perspective. It makes it look like the tower physically moved to the left when it should've slowly panned right to follow with the mountain. It's a little thing but it still bugged me. Besides that though this one is pretty gorgeous.

 

5. The Forge: I'm actually not sure what's odd about this one. It just simply looks odd. Did you perhaps use a different technique for it? It looks as though you resized the closest perspective vertically instead of simply shifting it across the 'X' axis (vertically). The way you panned this one worked out as one of the better ones but I just can't get my mind to wrap around the resizing in this one. If there is any resizing in the previous ones then you did well with those but this one's is simply too obvious. It ruins the illusion. 

 

Extra Tid Bits: This isn't anything I would count against you since the main demonstration was on the animation itself which was all great. These are just personal things that I would've preferred to see. 

 

• Instead of having it transition into white at the end, having it fade to black.
• Change the text to something that looks more… "Mystical?" That might be the word. The text itself is actually not anything major and it could be left the way it is. This is once again, just personal preference.
• Remove the black outline around the text. As far as I recall, none of the backgrounds truly were bright enough where you wouldn't be able to differentiate the text from the background. Because of this, it gives the text a "cartoonish" appearance which doesn't suit the animations and pictures provided. (It looks cartoonish to me because it's often associated with cartoon sound effects (onomatopoeias found in comic books). Alternatively if a black outline is needed around the text, make it thicker. The current thin look gives the wrong impression of the animations as I assume they're supposed to appear.
• Add sound. Some sort of background sound that fits with the atmosphere or the setting. So around the forge, perhaps the sound of fire crackling slightly or around the City Gate have some bird's calling in the background, etc. As well as a slight "Whoosh" sound when the text starts to appear. 

All in all, these are all good. Some have their issues but they aren't anything major. You should definitely be proud of these mini-mations, they're very cool. They definitely look like something from a game which is also neat. Great work on these and I hope you make more animations in the future.

 

~Soran

Edited December 8, 2015 by Soran

[Nescent]

~Soran

Wow, I was not expecting such thoughtful criticism on these. Thank you so much for taking the time to give such detailed thoughts on each one.

 

So, I made animations for each Region, similar to the Ancient City ones above. They're going to be part of a video, used to transition into each Region, kind of exactly what you said:

 

They look like they could be the little animations for when you enter that particular part of the region, like something in a video game that plays while it loads up the level.

The animations for the Ancient City were really just for practice, and I didn't spend much time on them - I think that accounts for a lot of the odd re-sizing that you mentioned. It's also why they don't have sound; I'll absolutely be using sound effects in the Regions' animations.

 

2. The Arena: I would say that the main "issues" or odd looking scenarios are present in 2 and 4. The 2nd layer moves too quickly to the left, especially when compared to the other present perspective's movements. And the 4th layer or background moves too quickly downward at about the 2 second mark.

I see exactly what you mean about the second and fourth layers - they're both moving way too fast.

 

3. The Graveyard: The vine (on the right) simply moves too quickly and too high. That's about it. The hexagon object (the closest perspective) also moves pretty quickly but it's barely noticeable and I'm assuming it only appears that way because of the vine. Nice work as well on this one.

Oh yes, that vine's movement is all sorts or wrong. I had trouble with The Graveyard, because the layers were difficult to split apart compared to the others. I think it would have looked better if I had blended the ground on the vine's layer with the layer behind it, and like you said, moved it farther down.

 

4. Forge Entrance: When you moved the mountain down, it changed the perspective (which it should, so nicely done) but you didn't adjust for the tower's changing of perspective. It makes it appear that the "camera" has moved slightly to the left but the tower is still in its original position and has not been moved to the left to adjust for the change in perspective. It makes it look like the tower physically moved to the left when it should've slowly panned right to follow with the mountain.

I actually didn't catch this one until you mentioned it. Yes, I re-sized the mountain horizontally, and because of the way it slants to the right, I should have moved the tower with it.

 

5. The Forge: I'm actually not sure what's odd about this one. It just simply looks odd. Did you perhaps use a different technique for it? It looks as though you resized the closest perspective vertically instead of simply shifting it across the 'X' axis (vertically). The way you panned this one worked out as one of the better ones but I just can't get my mind to wrap around the resizing in this one. If there is any resizing in the previous ones then you did well with those but this one's is simply too obvious. It ruins the illusion. 

I did use a different technique in this one, but I agree that it did not work out so well.

 

For this animation, I separated the front of the floor into two layers, and blended the first floor layer with the second. Then I re-sized the front of the floor differently from the back of the floor, to hopefully shift the focus down toward the Forge.

 

That's probably the reason that it looks strange. I used the same technique for this image, and I think it looks a lot better in that animation.

 

Instead of having it transition into white at the end, having it fade to black.

Good advice, and probably something I would have done if these were anything more than just-for-fun.

 

For my animations of the Regions, I faded to white, and I think that's fitting, but since the Ancient City is so dark and dreary it makes sense to fade to a darker color.

 

Change the text to something that looks more… "Mystical?" That might be the word. The text itself is actually not anything major and it could be left the way it is. This is once again, just personal preference.

 

Remove the black outline around the text. As far as I recall, none of the backgrounds truly were bright enough where you wouldn't be able to differentiate the text from the background. Because of this, it gives the text a "cartoonish" appearance which doesn't suit the animations and pictures provided. (It looks cartoonish to me because it's often associated with cartoon sound effects (onomatopoeias found in comic books). Alternatively if a black outline is needed around the text, make it thicker. The current thin look gives the wrong impression of the animations as I assume they're supposed to appear.

 

Oh, I'm no good with fonts. I'm glad you mentioned that. I'll look for a less bland font, and toy with the outline.

 

I really appreciate your feedback, Soran; you've been extremely helpful.

[Onuki]

This is some nice work! You've really made the images come to life with the changes in zoom and angle of perception. I think the effect of changing the view of the Forge Entrance is particularly impressive.

 

You've probably already considered it, but just to throw it out there, another project might be to add in some images of the new Bionicle sets where appropriate! Of course, that would probably take a lot more work and might ruin the awesome artwork, and also I have no idea how well that would fit with the 2015 storyline anyway. If only you could collaborate with another Bionicle artist who could draw or paint the new sets in a similar style...

[Nescent]

This is some nice work! You've really made the images come to life with the changes in zoom and angle of perception. I think the effect of changing the view of the Forge Entrance is particularly impressive.

 

You've probably already considered it, but just to throw it out there, another project might be to add in some images of the new Bionicle sets where appropriate! Of course, that would probably take a lot more work and might ruin the awesome artwork, and also I have no idea how well that would fit with the 2015 storyline anyway. If only you could collaborate with another Bionicle artist who could draw or paint the new sets in a similar style...

I will be doing something similar, taking my own MOCs and putting them over animated backgrounds.

 

Thanks for the comment!

[bionicleFanatic]

Now for some of my "thoughtful criticism" []

 

SQUEE! [] These are superb! We seriously need a G2 MNOG![]

[Eyru]

You've done a great job here. The City Gate animation was so smooth that I didn't notice the animation at first: it took another watch or two to really appreciate it. Like Soran said, I could see these being played in a video game whenever the player enters a new region. I look forward to seeing more!