All Things Art: Animation Edition

For one of the alternate blasts animations I'd like to suggest "throwing" the blast energy. For example Flares shoots multiple little fire balls, I think it would be cool for the character to throw them (alternating hands) at the enemy. That gets some full body motion into the animation rather than holding the arms out straight.

I also would like to suggest an alternate coloring scheme for some of the powers that have area effects, lines, or traveling bits (like the aforementioned Flares, or Ball Lightning, etc.). It would be neat if the two colors you can set for the power shade from one to the other as the power moves.

Two examples:
Lightning Bolt shaded violet and white would start as violet at the hands and shade to white as it hits the enemy.

Explosive Blast shaded black to red would have the blast start out as black at the targeted enemy's feet and shade out to red at the edges.

Attack Animations that Utilize costume elements.
It would be interesting see animations to taken advantage of various aspects of a character's appearance such as if the character had horns some animations for the rolling effect could be in the event that a character had the ram type horn they could head but their opponent knocking them back, or in the event of rhino or bullhorns they could have the effect of picking up the opponent and flipping them back goring them on the horns in this animation have much the same effect as does the air superiority.

I know I know it just this is knda near and dear to me. Thankyou in any case I will hold out hope.

I am still rather new to the forum seen though I have been a member quite a while, though occasionally I look at a few posts but did not in a post myself. I recently post most of this following post on another section of the forums in the going rouge section and some suggested that it would have been better posted in the development form so here it is.
I've been playing the game city of heroes for little over a year now and greatly enjoy the game I've enjoyed seeing different aspects of the game evolve with the release of several different updates and look forward to the launch of going rogue. There are several of my villain characters I would love to be a will bring into paragon city and join my supergroup there.
I think the idea of heroes having the ability to fall and become a villain and villains being able to overcome their nature and emerge as heroes is an interesting and exciting change to the city of heroes seen

With this I wonder if some changes are or could be made to supergroups allowing them to not necessarily just be a villain group or a hero group or rather simply that a supergroup. The things the group may decide to do may be viewed as good by some and bad by others, just as was said in the announcements that going rogue will dive into and explore the shades of gray between heroes and villains adding new dynamics and intricacies to the characters.

If supergroups are going to be able to be allowed to have both heroes and villains to be nice to add some features that allow you to combine supergroups so that two groups perhaps one of the villain group one that was a hero group could combine and become one group.
Two supergroups could be accomplished by deciding which base was going to be kept and then everything besides the crafted items being converted into prestige, keeping one of the two bases in converting the other to prestige. The items been crafted for the base that would be disappearing would instead go into the supergroup leaders or a communal inventory so that any one with access to edit the base could place it in the new main base for the supergroup without costing a second fee and prestige to place the items.

Or how about auctions selling all the bases that aren't being used.

Another thing I think would be nice to have with the supergroups would be able to set up a listing for supergroups to hold an open house perhaps in the window that allows you to log in to the very supergroups portals there could be a tab for open houses this would give players the ability to take a look at various other supergroups bases and get ideas on how to create their own also would open up areas for contest as to supergroup base design's. They would also be a welcome message to visiting heroes or villains to the various bases that could be used as a recruitment tool for those bases to visiting heroes or villains they could possibly sign a request in a computer in the base or a request for membership at such time and e-mail supergroup membership offer could be sent to the visiting player at his request was reviewed by the leaders of the super. This could add a whole new dynamic to the supergroups supergroup bases.

Some of the dynamic things would be fun video at the supergroup bases would be things such as the ability to create water features without having to use the slow field (which don't look as good since issue 17 ) to create this effect things like a water fountain waterfalls create different sorts of effects. To see I would also like to see more new items added in the way of decoration items for the bases not necessarily crafting new items but using morgue this time but already been used elsewhere and again I perhaps the hanging skeletons that are in the villain side. Some changes I would enjoy seeing for the editing of supergroup bases would be perhaps in the item info window a place where percentage could be entered in so that the item could be scaled to a certain percentage this could also be used as a way to slimmed down from the selections as were we already have to a particular item for instance the large medium small stone blocks either just have the stone block and radio buttons to select which style of stone block you want. In doing this you can store once slot the stone block and then reference the existing size options as a set percentage of the stone block the same concept could be used within a areas. Auto select feature different variations of the crystals and having the option to tint them different colors would be really cool. Also enjoy seeing a light-ball similar to the sprites in the hollows more like just a light ball that you place where we wanted to create lighting your base you could perhaps put it in the eyes of the stone head and its eyes glowed having the ability to tint or maybe selected different pulse rate or something like that and perhaps the general brightness would give the ability to create even more custom lighting affects the bases.

Or be able to use your supergroup base as a setting for architect mission allowing for mock raids or mock battles within your base.

Perhaps having the ability to move an object round using arrow keys were the same keys you'd normally used to move a character around wall and conjunction may be holding down the option key or something like that would allow for more precise and ease with the positioning some items.

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More items to decorate with would be nice not necessarily crafting new things but using existing elements from the game like the hanging skeletons or other crystal shapes. More ability to customize items in the bases like changing the size of different items storing the different size as a percentage and some thing that currently have more than one size the other sizes name could also be linked to this new feature as a set percentage. I would also like a light ball that could tinted and brightness adjusted and be paced to create different effects like glowing eyes in the stone faces.

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Oni Guard and other head detail Combinations
The first of which is I purchased a martial arts booster pack when the main things that got me to buy more sports booster pack was the image I saw on the preview of the oni guard and was disappointed when I purchased it on the oni guard locked in to the use in conjunction with a half helmet. I would like to see this unlocked the to be open as chin piece there lots of different looks it could be achieved by being able to use this separate from the half helmets. Similarly I would like to have the ability to to have goggles an horns at the same time. See the attached photoshopped image.
Some other mouth and nose mouth and eye details that could be used to over lay existing faces to add more ability to customize the faces. I would pay extra for a large bucket of parts booster.


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Attack Animations that Utilize costume elements.
It would be interesting see animations to taken advantage of various aspects of a character's appearance such as if the character had horns some animations for the rolling effect could be in the event that a character had the ram type horn they could head but their opponent knocking them back, or in the event of rhino or bullhorns they could have the effect of picking up the opponent and flipping them back goring them on the horns in this animation have much the same effect as does the air superiority.

******* zombie selection would be the easyest difference on these selections
Different pet selections for customizing MasterMinds
Different pet selections for masterminds would be a nice feature, zombie selections should be relatively easy as you have already develop many zombies that appeared during the zombie attacks on various cities should not be that hard to create another menu in the customizing area for the powers to allow masterminds select slightly different forms for their zombies. This would greatly in advance the ability to customize an individual character's powers and also add a lot of variety to the game so you don't see a whole bunch of necromancers ran around with the identical looking zombies with different names above their heads. In tinting feature for customizing the characters thinks it could be tinting colors for the characters would be in the colors of the zombies clothing or hair or such things. So if a necromancer wanted to have a mobof female zombie secretaries they could have it. The same principles could be applied to the other mastermind powers.

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Holographic symbol summon help emote could be fun with the chest symbols would be a holographic chess symbol that could be in the form of being an emote when someone is in trouble and looking for a they could send out a help broadcast that would also project a hologram of the chest symbol or the supergroup symbol into the air (similar to the concept of the bat symbol) thereby calling your supergroup members within sight or other heroes/villains to come to your aid. This might also have a slight effect on the opposing party may make them hesitate for a second combat.

(WARNING: lots of video links to public access style martial arts instructional videos ahead, i cant speak for the quality and production values of the demonstrators, but i selected the vids because they best showed the techniques as i had envisioned them, much butt-rock awaits)

ok dave, haven't gone through the whole thread, but for animation, my interests
primarily are in more alternate animations, particularly for martial arts. though i would also be interested in replacements for melee based attacks from the elemental sets(energy, electric, fire and ice spring to mind) i have mentioned these a few times, but since this thread is the main area for it, ell, it seems appropriate. i usually mention getting moves from a few martial art styles, muay thai, capoeria, what i called "movie kung0-fu) and korean karate are my usual suggestions. this list seems like it needs a bit of expansion though for here.

first, it seems that kinetic melee is, from the pax vid, going to address the movie kung fu idea(i called it that because there are hundreds of different styles of kung fu, often with indistinguishable differences, but we all generally know the showy style with primarily open handed strikes from movies and fighting games) so while id love to see the two share some animations, this would remove some priority.

for muai thai, the punches we recently got would do a pretty good job of covering the hand portion of the style, but my thought would be using the style's roundhouse kick heavy style for replaces for storm kick, with a low leg strike. example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcPIJ...eature=related this is similar to the current storm kick, but delivered at thigh level, and with rotation of the hips to sell it more. replace crane kick with a high roundhouse strike to the head(example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3B3e...eature=related)., preferably with a full follow through of the foot through the target, and finally, for eagles claw, perhaps replace that with the jumping knee(sagat's tiger knee from street fighter 2 being a good example).

the next style i was asking for moves for was capoeria, this would possibly be tricky for characers wearing skirts, due to the occasional standing on their hands in some techniques, , but a few techniques struck me as unique enough to add value as animation replacers. the first is called a mei lua de compasso. it involves a full body turn, so i'd see it possibly being a replace for axe kick. in videos i have seen it delivered higher and low, preferably aiming it at average head height would make it look dynamic. here is a fair idea what i am going for. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n94G...eature=related The other capoeria technique that i feel would be a nice addition would be the parafuso http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7--b1h-kY0 again, this technique is similar to what we use in the thunder kick now, but the added lift of the first leg and more dynamic full body follow through would make it another good heavy hitter animation for an eagles claw replacer.

finally i mentioned the korean karate variation, now i have generally felt that this was the style coh was originally going for, given how strong their variation of the side kick in it was, as well as since they use the axe kick, which generally is less popular in japanese and most chines styles that i have seen. but in coh there are a few elements that the current animations do poorly and i would love to see the option of having better versions of them.

First, the storm kick seems to be attempting to be a roundhouse kick, but the limited hip movement and lack of chambering of the knee prior to striking really break immersion for me, the coh version looks like a very LAZY roundhouse kick(note, i am saying the martial artist doing this would be being lazy, not calling animator lazy). a variation i woudl like to see is in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfSfiOxsfTo you will notice what i am talking about with the chambering of the knee, it really does sell the kick more.

the next technique that id like to see fixed would be the side kick in "crane kick" its a strong technique in game, but the application again looks lazy. I would love if we had an option where the character brought their knee up higher, pushed more with their body toward the target when striking, and extended their heel more to make the contact look more crisp. heres another example, i apologize for the butt-rock http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfSfiOxsfTo

ok that is my alternate animations selection for the martial arts set. it is thematically my absolute favorite set, and when alternate animations were announced, it was literally a bigger thing to me than inventions, ae or going rogue, now if you have the time and resources to add a few of these techniques I would be thrilled. if their animations could fit existing animation times, perhaps some of these strikes could be put in the elemental sets as alternates as well with flames, sparks and the like appearing on the feet when the strikes are delivered.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Been a while since I checked, but rocket boots seemed to only activate in flight. Can they also activate for super jump as well?

I would like to request a foot version of sleek tights for males. Currently you can get sleek tights for legs but not for feet. There is a version available to females.

I would also like to request the small padded fingerless gloves option for males. I know you can access it in the Smooth/Bare option, but for female characters they actually get a unique option for it.


As for suggestions put me down for more elegant dresses and tops with skin for females. The wedding pack has some great options with bridal, heart plus, excess plus, angelic plus, would love to see some more variations with that level of quality. Long gloves which cover the forearm would be great as well, currently the only option is the witch gloves which are a bit menacing.

Would be nice to get long dresses which go down to the ankles as well, its really missing.

For male characters this could pave the way for full length robes, like what the Circle of Thorns wear.

I would also like to see more shoes added and not just boots. For any formal character wearing long trousers, both male and female, there is no option for appropriate footwear. You have to make do with "Work" boots, or use a variety of cowboy, stealth or even rubber to make the look you want. Thanks :-)

I'd like martial arts and super strength options that include minimal effects.

You know, I was thinking recently about my and another poster's request for Guitars for sonic powers (I have a whole character concept riding on this!), and I just thought..

"Hey, wouldn't it also be cool to whip out a panflute or violin which glows when attacking instead of mindpower effects?"

And then I thought, how cool would it be to have instrument replacements for the ranged attack animation sets in general?

Edit: (This actually makes me wonder what options there would be for an "Instruments" powerset.)

Here are some mock up for some character mask part (i.e. Detail 2 items ideas) most of the beast one were just cropped and move a little with the exception of beast 2 which was distorted to fit. The Oni Guard and Mandible are simply used here apart from the half helm. The last two were some ideas i was playing with.


















These are some quick ones I will send some more as I get them done I have lots Of Ideas. By the way in the time I have been playing I have been impressed with each new addition the art keeps getting better, and once I started reading through the suggestions here I was even more amazed to see all the requests you have been filling. You guys are truly awesome.

Hopefully this is the right thread - I would really, really love an alternate animation for Hurl in the Earth Assault Dominator (or all variants of Hurl) that did the Propel Boulder animation. I realize the timing would have to be tweaked to make the animation speed as fast as Hurl but I would really, really love a more mystically inclined option to throw a boulder at someone rather than a super strength looking animation.

Also I would love to see a more mystically inclined option for the Healing power pool so we have tech and mystic options. I skip that power so often on so many toons because it doesn't fit the look/theme of the concept.