Here are first tests (GIF animation):

The hardest part was to slice and prepare stadium model for rendering into layers. Also, we need to find some way to automate rendering process using scripts.

It was really nice, filled with great experience two days in our native Kiev town. We had a chance to meet a lot of interesting teams from all over the world and masters of their own business, which were our mentors for that period.
Here is video presentation of FDream online football manager I have done for Seedcamp. We had really tight deadline, but I like final result:

BTW, we have won it (in Ukraine it was a selection part) and our team should show polished FDream project again in September in London.

Some miscellaneous icons I have done for FDMPro:

Forum badges:

At last I have some free time to prepare and upload my animation online.
It’s CG music video for song “He is Hacker” of Ukrainian music band “Bottle Green”. Leader of the band is the friend of mine so I created this animation almost for free in my spare time.

You can download Medium-resolution DivX video here:

http://retrostylegames.com/temp/clip/Hacker_clip_fin_en.avi

Almost everything was done by me during last year and rendered in December. Final cut with some post-fx was done in January of 2008 with help of my friend Vadim.

Update: my video was mentioned at 3DTotal.com which is really popular 3D resource.

Some additional details and Low-resolution YouTube variant of the video are under cut…

The story of the video is based on the comics by band’s drummer and connected with song’s lyrics. Main hero is hacker which has exchanged his real life with computer world. And now he is starting to see various kinds of illusions.

We have discussed first stages of creation process with band’s leader more than 1.5 year ago and first models and animations were created then. After that I had a break and back to the video only in a half year.
That’s why and also because it was really hard to do everything from concepts, modeling and rigging to animation, rendering and direction by myself – video can look a bit outdated in some places.

But the main thing I have set oneself as an object – was bringing everything I have done to the final, understandable and complete look.
It was really great experience for me.

A week ago I have suddenly noticed a new tutorial on his site.

It’s - Animation workshop #1: roboBall

Tutorial consist of four parts: Animation, Shading, Rendering and Compositing. But the most interesting is the first part. I was stunned when I saw his straight workflow and his animating speed! Especially compared to pose-to-pose technique I am trying to use in my animations.
It was really great experience watching how Tyson is animating his robo. If you have missed this guy - hurry up to his site.

Again, CrazyBump was used to create Displacement maps.

You can download final Sharp Old Bricks texture here: http://retrostylegames.com/temp/blog/seamless-old-sharp-bricks/seamless-old-sharp-bricks.rar

It’s 1800×1800 resolution .TGA files.
Diffuse, and two Displacement maps are included

Then I decided to choose less complex metal texture from CG Textures free collection: http://cgtextures.com

Here is preview of final texture rendered with use of displacement:

CrazyBump was used to create Displacement and Specular maps.

You can download final Bronze Copper Metal texture here: http://retrostylegames.com/temp/blog/seamless-bronze-copper-01/seamless-bronze-copper-metal-roof.rar

It’s 1400×1400 resolution .TGA files.
Diffuse, Displacement and Specular maps are included.

Read More to see Additional tileable textures displacement examples…

It’s always a fun to find out who is linking to your site. It’s a bit childish, but anyway I’m happy with any new link where RetroStyleGames.com is mentioned.

Today I have found a job request from Mode 7 Games who are creators of original game called Determinance.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/jobs_view.php?job_id=17107

And they have mentioned “RetroStyle Games Artwork” along with such great sites as:

http://www.fengzhudesign.com
http://www.peterboehme.com
http://www.allied-studios.com

Also, it’s pretty cool to find out random testimonials from other players even if they have found your game 8 months after release. Somewhat distressing is only one thing - that some of those players are playing pirated releases.

Anyway, here is funny Mars Miner testimonial in Russian:
http://www.li.ru/interface/pda/?act=comments&jid=1527107&pid=59404278

In a couple of words he is writing:

“Last week I got attracted by two small games.
One is called “Mars Miner”. It’s essentially good old Bomberman. And I think it’s the reason I got soooo attracted by this game!
In that game one dude in environmental suit is running from “various kinds of life” – spitting out spiders, ants, some kind of poo and big monsters in size of full-screen. There are some other features, but I have no time to look into them. Something similar to teleports and some other items with strange purposes.”

Such small things are really inspiring!

They are looping TGA sequences with alpha channel. Animations were done with top-down shooter in mind (like Crimsonland).
Body and legs - are separated sprites and can be rotated independently.

Sprites of Skeleton, Skeleton Archer, Skeleton Warrior and Skeleton Legionary are presented in this archive:
http://retrostylegames.com/temp/blog/skeleton-warriors/skeleton-warriors-sprites.rar

Read more to see animated GIF previews.

Mostly, skeleton sprites have such variants of animations:

• idle
• move
• attack, stunt or fire
• defense
• death

Here are some examples:

Size of the sprites may vary. Originally game-engine did scaling of sprites if it was needed.

Icons are free for non-commercial use.
Originally they were done in 3D and can be rendered to any resolution with alpha channel.

You can download archive with them (64×64 TGA version with alpha channel) here:
http://retrostylegames.com/temp/blog/christmas-icons-64×64.rar

Included: cartoon heart, 3 kind of Christmas balls, candy and 3 presents.