Huge step reached late last night. All the words and melody for the words are completely written! So the rest is just recording for the first act. It’s taken a while to get to this point, it feels good to reach it though.
Lyrics Sample
Lyrics Sample
Sequencing time and animation notes
Not long now.
Quick entry.
Over the Christmas holidays I bought a real proper laptop! No longer using my 10.1″ Intel Atom netbook to write the opera on. Got a full size laptop to work with. It’s powerful enough to run Sony Vegas at high resolution! Before it was…tricker but with this upgrade in hardware, the later acts should be coming out a lot faster than before. A lot of time was spent working around the speed issues of the older netbook. But no longer!
So a biggish gif below to show you something new, but the first act should be ready really really soon.
Menacing 4D Cube
The opera is taking shape and the end of the first act looks like it is within reach. The amount of work required to get this opera working is surprising.
This post is just a way of showing more the how-to side rather than the finished article.
I decided to cover an important part of the opera. Walking. As I am doing this opera almost frame by frame, it quickly became apparent that I would need a way to make them walk, sit, stand and a whole host of other things. I needed a way of taking a static picture of a character and changing it so that it looked like they was moving and walking. A walking generator was what I needed.
After searching online I found the perfect Walking Generator that is easy to use, malleable and works perfectly for 2D animation.
WCEdit Application
The way the character walks is entirely customisable within XML. After a bit of educated guessing and some trial and error, I was able to get my characters walking from entirely static images.
Sgt. Adams Walking
Jean strutting her stuff
The program is also capable of having characters walking towards the screen. I like that the program can do that but am not sure if it will be implemented in this project. It feels that a character walking towards the viewer could feel unnerving and change the opera from voyeuristic to an almost forced claustrophobic interaction. We shall see at any rate.
Hope to have another update as regular about my progress soon.
Apologies for the lack of update. Updating this blog every month was the plan, but maybe every other month will prove more flexible and fruitful. Documenting these steps is useful.
Found him!
There is progress, of course. But it’s coming a lot slower than previously imagined. The second section of the first act (1-2) is almost done. The third section of the first act feels considerably shorter than the first two sections, but that will have be seen in time.
Landing the StarShip
This man looks dangerous!
Slowly, the opera is coming to life. It is doubtful that the entire opera will be completed this year. I will release each act separately, then once all parts are complete, it will be rolled into one super-long HD video. Here is just a taste.
Dressed to impress
Just a quick update. As stated in the previous post, the 3 act Opera has been subdivided into three further parts. So in a way, it’s in 9 parts. This post signifies that the first part has been completed. If it takes around 2/3 months per part, then that translates to an estimated finishing time of around two years! Quite a proper to take on…I don’t mind it taking long to complete. It’s quite a long story to tell and animate.
Below are a few images on what things look like.
That is one evil dude
Scared StarShip Pilot
Meeting with Evil Dude
Docking Ship
I’ve written a operatic script called a libretto that describes the story of BlueShift City in some detail. I’m just continuing to go over the main story and may make some minor changes to the main script but the idea exists in the most part, in writing. This opera has 3 acts. I’ve decided to further sub-divide each act into 3 parts to further aid storytelling and music writing for me. I’m currently working on the the first third of act one. I think by doing this sub-division of the opera, I would be better placed to judge timing and get a better sense of how things run and timing.
For a lot of the imagery and looks I only had to look at some NES flight sim games like Top Gun and and see how the cockpit was constructed so the gamer felt immersed in the game. I also looked at several space fan art to get some ideas about how lighting on planets should look and relative distance between different planets.
Below are some of the screenshots that have come about from some of the work I’ve been doing.
The Planets with the Starship barely visible
The Starship in empty space
Inside the Starship in the cockpit
Starship flown by a barely visible character first seen in BlueShift City Intro
I’m continuing my minimum monthly update schedule to record and log my updates and hope to show you more next month regarding characters moving. Something I’ve found to be somewhat tricky to try and resolve.
New upload on YouTube today.
I’ve uploaded a new video on YouTube designed to give a glimpse into the 8-bit opera I am currently writing. You can now see my progress in this continuing project called Blueshift City. It is a music video overture that displays the main characters in the opera. As this is an opera I’m writing, the music is of greater importance than the images, but the imagery still hold significance.
All images and audio were created by me using LSDJ, Sony Vegas and Audacity. I have found these tools to be very helpful and simple to use in my production process.
Feel free to leave feedback and comments as they are always appreciated. I will upload again next month and give an update of how I am progressing in this project. Below are a couple screenshots of the software I used to create my overture.
Using the LSDJ software for audio creation.
Audacity is a brilliant audio capturing and recording software I’ve used extensively
Sony Vegas is a great piece of software to use for video editing.
End of February already. Wow.
I’ve decided to post online my progress once a month until my current project is finished. I’ve stopped working on the Engine Heart series. Not for lack of ideas, mind. There are a few more things I still want to do for that, but I’ve got a new grand scale idea I want to do. I want to write an 8-bit opera. I’ve been doing my research on it and it is certainly achievable, just may take some time. I’m hoping by the end of the year to have it completed.
I’ve written a story that I think would make a really good 8-bit opera. Some drama, suspense and intrigue with an 90’s computer game look and feel. The opera will be set in the not-to-distant-future and like all other good operas, I’ve tried to include some comedy, twists and a few surprises.
I’ve attached some images on what I’m working on. I’m currently writing the overture for the opera, (entitled Blueshift City). I’m hoping to have to overture completed soon.
Blueshift City 1 – The main characters. Some good, some bad.
Blueshift City 2 – It’s set in the future so space travel is mandatory
Blueshift City 3 – Even though it’s set in the future, some old things remain popular. Like qipaos.
Second post in the month. Nice.
I’ve written an interactive visual/music ROM for the Gameboy Advance. I’ve called it Splat! It consists of a piece of music you can directly affect by pressing the buttons and the image on screen is also directly controlled by the users decisions. It’s interactive art!
Below is a picture of what it looks like, but to truly understand what it does, you really ought to download and play it 🙂
Download and play!
Such pretty colours
Moving using UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT across the screen triggers new sounds and pressing certain buttons will also cause different sounds to play. I tried to make it as interactive as possible in that respect but still keep a central theme playing.
As ever, here are the controls:
Controls for VisualBoy Advance
As with my last post/ROM, WordPress won’t allow me to directly attach the game to my page so I’ve created a URL that will give you the ability to download and view Splat! Remember, you need the VisualBoy Advance application to open Splat! if you don’t already have it installed.
https://www.box.com/s/udtm7gxe398d7ucvc7vb
This took quite a lot of man-hours to create, I hope you like it. My second ROM for the GBA. Let me know what you think, feedback is always welcome.
It took a long time. A lot of searching through the internet, a lot of lies for well meaning people, dead ends and restricted websites but I got it. A decent book on GBA Programming! It has helped me understand the Gameboy a lot more in terms of CPU usage and registers used. I’ve also gained a new appreciation for the games written specifically on hardware like the GBA. It’s not easy!
I’ve written a Gameboy Advance game where you can listen to the instrumental track and the track with vocals of the first song I uploaded to SoundCloud, Old Mistakes. Below is what it looks like when you download it. Not the prettiest music player around but it gets the job done.
Instrumental Music and Vocal Version of Old Mistakes
In order for you to download and listen you need to have a Gameboy Emulator, like VisualBoy Advance. WordPress doesn’t allow you to upload file types it isn’t familiar with so I’ve had to get a box account and provide a public link for you to download and try it. You need to download both files and open the ROM file I created with VisualBoy Advance.
https://www.box.com/s/flurg7va9mh9lv4nf03k
The controls are below for the VisualBoy Advance emulator.
Controls for VisualBoy Advance
Any issues using the ROM let me know. This is definitely something I am proud of. I’ve written a game (sort of) for a retro hand-held console I adore. Brilliant! Let me know what you think.
Broken Spares 