Probably a little while still, will have to adjust the timing of most scenes to match the new music, then a lot of little fixes to do (animation tweaks, audio balance, sfx, vfx, etc.) At this point, most of the hard work is done at least so progress should start picking up if things go well.
Spyro standing in a doorway, nervously avoiding eye contact with the viewer.
Had nothing really planned for April Fools so here's a slightly awkward Spyro picture instead.
In other news, almost got the music for the last scene done that the screenshot takes place in.
Only realizing just now that some of the music may be a tad bit loud in some places, can definitely hear the compressor trying to keep the volume under control so I'll dial it back a little as needed.
Another music update covering scenes 7 & 8, with Spyro "borrowing" something. Starting to get the hang of it, just scene 9 to do then anim polish & timing adjustments for the music.
Shoutout to Swordtee40 & KovutheVA! (The green dragon talks, but in an earlier scene but I'm mention it anyway.)
More music work, mostly got scene 6 sorted and 7-9 to do at this point. This section I was mainly trying to do something more "atmospheric" and also landed on the idea of the clock being part of the music. Took awhile to find what instruments worked best but I'm mostly happy with the result so far.
Mainly aiming to make music that isn't too distracting while still sounding a little interesting (I hope). While there's a lot of nice Spyro fan music out there, there are a few scenes where a looping track simply doesn't fit imo so going out of way to do it myself.
Having fun with it so far lol
With most of the animation polished (aside from some minor things), starting to delve into making some music (first time doing so😅). Got 15 minutes so far in a week.
Using Mixcraft 10 in my case, has basic video editing to help retime things so music & animation work well enough together.
Another small update, I'm currently doing some late night animating (scene 8 of 10) and accidently made Spyro look like they got stung by a bee while doing lipsyncing lol
I'll fix him I swear
A social gathering on top of a floating island illuminated by a sunset, with a tiny purple dragon hitching a ride on an unassuming dragon elder.
Two dragons, with one flying/pacing around wondering if they missed their portal.
Spyro sitting between a clock, lamp and a closed portal wondering if they'll make it in time.
An annoyed elder dragon that's trying to not ruin Spyro's whole career after shaking them off their tail, pointing them in the right direction.
Spyro in places where he probably shouldn't be.
Got majority of scene 6 out of 10 done with dialogue all sorted out at this point. There's only so much I can post without spoilers so here's some more nice screenshots instead, with improved lighting overall.
Spyro checking to see where they are while riding on a dragon elder who may not be aware they picked up a passenger.
Mainly polishing scene 6, just couldn't help but post this one shot that I find amusing on so many levels.
This shot crashed Unreal 5 in the past but it's more stable now.
Updates will probably be more sparse as it's mostly just polish work at this point. Finally working on scenes in the second location and I'm super happy how some of the shots look at this point.
I might of made things a little too big though, oh well.
Finally, after several days of editing (I don't talk much but when I do, I really get going), here's part 1 of 3 of an early behind the scenes look at the process of how I put together a PS1 Spyro animation in Blender & Unreal Engine 5. Did my best not to spoil much.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=C38G...
A behind the scenes video for a Spyro animation project, edited in DaVinci Resolve
Last December I posted an early look on YouTube of the Spyro animation. This December I'm putting together a lengthy BTS video showing how I made it. Was planning on doing this after the animation was done but now just want to get it out of the way. Still polishing the animation itself.
The 2nd part of the update (see my previous post) of Spyro essentially being given a task but not before consequences of his actions catch up to him, featuring Evan Duff and AnnoMorana.
More info on my YouTube channel.
Finally another full update on the Spyro animation "short" I been doing, this being part 1 of 2 as it's a lengthy sequence of Spyro essentially being given a task but not before consequences of his actions catch up to him, featuring Evan Duff again.
More info on my YouTube channel.
Still grinding away at polishing the little dragon project, planning on posting a more full update (usually have to go out of my way to do so).
For now, a handful of screenshots as I'm on the scene where Spyro nearly gets caught, playing around with expressions. Lighting/shading was also tweaked.
"Courier" elder with the dumbest smile on their face.
Still making progress on the animation, aside from polish, trying to adjust the animation and character expression to match the VA better.
The other reason I'm posting is this dumb face I made Courier do by complete accident lol
Another Spyro animation update: Mainly just polishing since all the voice work has been done (might re-do some Spyro lines). Underestimated how much iteration is involved but it's progressing.
Here's a scene with VA by Evan Duff with Spyro acting like nothing's wrong, trimmed to fit to 3 minutes.
Spyro ruining a painting in front of another Artisan dragon.
Places where Spyro probably shouldn't be: Accidently ruined an Artisans painting.
In other news, got almost all the voices from the VA talent I worked with recorded (aside from one) so next on the to-do list is adding it into all the shots. Planning on posting a bigger update on that soon.
Spyro doing a handstand with an Artisan costal town in the background.
I hear every once in a while animators like to goof off. With how smoothly everything is going at this point, I wanted to see if Spyro can do a handstand for the fun of it.
Got one role voiced so far on the animation project (thanks Evan Duff!).
Meanwhile, the number on Casting Call Club just keeps getting bigger, having to keep track of auditions, got another VA call tomorrow, and still animating on top of that. Very exciting lol
Gotta say, the Casting Call Club is doing pretty good after 10 days. The hard part is having to assign roles, I'm having to use a spreadsheet to take notes at this point lol
Released a trailer for the animation I've been working on for #SpyroCommunityDay! Currently during a casting call and polishing up/working on remaining scenes but it's a good amount of the way done.
youtu.be/Z8QKNf1BywI
Recently setup a project page on Casting Call Club for auditions for the Spyro animation project. Take a look if you're interested or just want to hear me do a rough job doing (temporary) voices of dragons dealing with a pesky kid.
www.castingcall.club/projects/tes...
Gonna try doing a cool trick of watching YouTube videos without using YouTube (copying video URLs into a separate client such as Greyjay) and see if they notice.
Spyro caught hanging on a dragon elder's tail
Places where Spyro shouldn't be.
(The one shot Unreal 5 finally decided to not crash on so I can finally finish it)
After working in Unreal 5's sequencer for while, I found out what might be causing RAM issues: Sequencer just spews UObjects and doesn't do garbage collection at all. You have to frequently run "obj gc" command to manually clear it.
2nd part of scene 5, with some hiccups with how Unreal doesn't always play audio properly and still some audio adjustments. Also showcasing a dynamic ambient lighting setup I recently got working to help various props/characters fit the environment better.
Another Spyro animation update after some time, mainly wrapping up scene 04 and polishing 05 as Spyro rushes to get to the boat with the package. There's a lot with two videos and some music (Cope Land) and audio as well (some still temporary).
The 2nd video is in the thread below.
Spyro hiding in a barrel, looking annoyed
Still working on it with an update soon, for now here's a purple dragon hiding in a barrel.
