Thursday, November 20, 2008

Faster than the Eye -- If you didn't see it, did it happen?

Hi Everyone!

Here's a cute shot I thought I'd share with you. It's from Heroes of Might and Magic V, from the first expansion, Hammers of Fate.

You need to understand that prior to the expansion, character animation was very limited. Characters didn't open their mouths. When they were in the non-interactive sequences (cutscenes), they mostly stood around while the dialogue was played. If they emoted anything, a spell-casting animation or combat-related animation was used.
Naturally, players dissed this as sort of pathetic.

In Hammers of Fate, characters got to open their mouths. Cutscenes improved immensely with better direction and a wider range of movement.
Perhaps they stretched the engine a bit to get it done, but it looked great, so who cares?

Anyway, here are some shots of the Haven hero of Hammers of Fate, Freyda. In the first shot, we see a bit of an animation boo-boo with Freyda's sword which you would probably have missed because it goes by so fast.

animation error

Freyda cuts down a Squire

closeup Freyda 2

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It always amazes me what interesting things are available on the web. Thanks for sharing Simon.

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