[Bontz-team] mpeg, new character

[Owen Swerkstrom]

I am up to the challenge of finally doing the in-game
cinematic of sterdroid crashing through the wall.  I
don't have it for you yet, as it involves modeling a
bunch of scenery I don't have done.  Sterdroid's
sprite is 256x256, so just having enough room for
him's going to take up a lot of the screen, never mind
the debris and the broken wall, etc.  I'd always
pictured him crashing through a wall that's to the
side, like our characters came in from the left and he
crashes through the right wall.  But, perhaps they're
going down this long corridor to the north, and meet a
wall there.  That would let me get away with a much
smaller movie, and I actually like the layout better. 
So the video will probably be 352x256.

In the meantime, I made a quick test render video last
night, check out the media module to see two test
mpg's.  one's at 640x240, the other at 352x240.  I've
been mistaken about the "original, strict" mpeg
standard, it wants 256 pixels high and not 240.  Well
on the bright side that makes things nicer for
sterdroid :^)  Anyway this video's the same thing,
just different aspect ratio, and wants to be stretched
to exactly 640x240 either way.  You can use that to
test the video abilities instead of whatever other...
umm, wholesome videos you might have laying around.

You might be curious who this pinkish lizard thing is.
 At the battle for the moon, Furgason et al aren't
able to defeat the huge swamp monster all alone.  This
character comes out of the blue and for reasons only
she knows for sure, helps them out.

Kim had noticed I'd had several characters named after
buddies of mine, "Rob" as the flatulent character,
"Dusty" as the thief, "Sell" as the useless character.
 She wondered if she might get the same treatment, and
I thought, well yeah, a character with a big stick as
a weapon, that would work.  :^)  (To anyone who
doesn't know what I'm talking about, Kim used to keep
a big stick by her desk where we worked, and it
frightened people)  I'm terrible at designing female
characters, but I sketched up a few weird
vaguely-effemenate things and she liked this one.  I'd
been looking for an excuse to introduce another
playable character late in the game anyway
(half-to-2/3 through) and this all just seemed to come
together.

So, right.  I'll get cracking on some scenery for
Furgason's secured future-house, and an animation of
SterDroid breaking on through to the other side.

(p.s. happy birthday to me!  I'm an ancient 24 today)

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