[Loki]

Ha!
We've just been awarded the intro-movie for the upcoming Mechwarrior4! I can't tell you anything about the story of course, but there'll be plenty of matte paintings in there. I've also been slated to help out a little bit with the art direction and wanted to ask you MW-fans out there what you've been missing from previous MW-intros and what you'd like to see this time.

I know this is only remotely paint-related, but what the heck ...

Thanks,

Loki

[imdaking]

Well........ I'd like to see.....

hrm...

Maybe alot of action....And make it look/feel somewhat like the original Mechwarrior2 intro ... but BETTER!! I mean like.. lots better.... I mean like....

Have like a big war scene.... of maybe some planes flying bye... dropping off a bunch of mechs that could get ambushed but then they fight back or something...

And make it nice and long too... Not some simple 2 minute thing.... I mean like..... make the game 3 or 4 cd's where the first CD could be the begining intro or something

[Muzman]

um, something with the big walking tanks would be good... and...uhhhm...explosions perhaps?

*dodges fruit being thrown his way*

[eclipse]

How about putting something in the background of one scene from one of the older versions. Something recognizable that only the true Mechwarriors fans would pick up on. I can't include myself as a fan having never played so I really can't tell you what that "something" could be.

Good camera pans, camera angles, and action sequences are always good too.

Will you be using storyboard artists for this?

[Loki]

The intro is already fully boarded out. Yes, there will of course be explosions. Oh yes.
The old MechW2 intro was done by a friend of mine - I thought it rocked. Exspecially the sound. We'll try to recapture some of that feel. The MW3 intro was nice, but I didn't like it as much. I think it was lacking the 'mood' a little bit ...
That's what I'll be focussing on with my paintings - to really give it a nice baroque, wide look.

[Scorchmon]

I think that you should put some elementals in the movie, and show off some of their excellent abilities that they possess due to their battle suits.

[immi]

I agree, the opening movie to Mech2 is one of the best, and probably the best at the time. I'd like to see you truly capture how big they are. Have one guy being blown out of the cockpit of one, and another mech standing crushing him. Lol, now that would show how big they were.

[Affected]

How about, just for effect, having some of the bigger weapons really have an impact on the mechs, maybe tearing a part of their torso away, or pushing them over... Maybe a weapon hitting an arm or a side, causing the torso to twist from the force.

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[Leo]

Aha!
Nice work you've guys! I can only suggest make it as quality as you can. I saw a lot of movies, intros, trailers, bla bla bla and must say that movies for games usually have a poor quality (not all of course, but in general...). Sometimes they have a good models but have a bad bg ...or good bg and bad models. Usually sci-fi movies use a 95% of screen filled with black color to hide bugs. So try to make some light shots to show all mechs beauty. Also it'll be nice to see a really heavy metal war machines, not those 3D-puppets... and add some life! Add dynamics! Add more details! Something like Craig Mullins' "Roboplane" in motion. Or wait! How about huge battle field filled with mechas? Hehe, hope you've enough powerfull renderfarms to render it all. Good luck!
Hey Loki, are you planning to show your matter paintings after all?
/Leo

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IN ART WE TRUST

[-=Regulator=-]

Wow!!!! I'm a MW fan since the very first part!!!
I want a lot of action in the movie!!! BANG!!! BOOM!!! SCREAM!!! BLOOD!! DIRT!!! WARRRR!!! :-))
Intro in the MW3 was terribly lighted, like if they used default lightning. Make a shiny, cool, huge, detailed mechs!

BTW, can you give me some mech sketches? I'm 3d artist too and i want to make them in 3d!!!(and may be help you that way...

[n8]

o yeah...mw3 intro was good...not excellent...on the other hand the mw2 intro ruled!!...and i gotta say that the heavy gear 1 and 2 intros were up there with it..
ooo i been a mw fan since the begining too...since the very first...i still got it on disk =P......16 colours?? i think it was....best game ever!!i wouldnt mind sum sketches too *winkwink nudgenudge* ....just to have a geeze..??..pleeeze!!

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Woo0boggyboggy!!

[Count Zero]

People! Y'know, humans. I know the emphasis is on Mechs, but what's been lacking is the understanding of the sheer SIZE of them... Put a few humans running around their feet (or something to that effect) would greatly increase the emphasis that these mechs are BIG motherfuckers!
That's about it really, a city backdrop also helps with the size thing...

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[Loki]

Thanks for all the input guys! I'll try to think about it when we're starting on this thing next week.
Basically, there'll be all the things in there you mentioned. We really want to show how huge those things are. Also, I've made it my personal mission to have some nice Mech-damage in there. In all the other intros you just see an explosion covering up the Mech and then it falls - nothing else. We'll try to make it a little bit different.
And yes, there'll be people in there too.

Unfortunately, I can't release any materials for obvious reasons. But after it's done I'll probably be able to put up some production art and also some mattes (hopefully). If you want mech-sketches, go look around on the net, there's plenty of material out there, or even better - design your own!

Well, thanks again - keep the input coming!

[B]

how about a little 10 second scene, where some mech pilot, shuts down the mech <a 30ton mech firefly or something>, jumps out to do a little tweak on the outside of the cockpit, and turns his head to see some bigger mech <vulture or something> walk up and flick the guy off the mech, then knock it over...... then at the end of the intro to the game, you see the vulture, coming away from a city victorious, but beat to hell,. and then it zooms into the cockpit of the firfly walking up behind the vulture, aiming, then shooting a pair of LRMs which finishes off the vulture,.. yea that'd be cool,.. or something ;)~

i've played MW3 once, last night.. thought the intr was pretty cool,. my roomates own all the versions of just about every game that you can play over an IPX network.


b

[This message has been edited by B (edited January 20, 2000).]

[Daniel Vogt]

NOW THIS IS A TOPIC.

keeping with the whole damage thing, i wanna scene where one mechwarrior is calling for help (he's disabled somehow) and just as someone comes to his aid, you see the head of the mech shot off with a gauss rifle. The radio transmission stops suddenly, the mech slumps forward slightly... we all move on.

All we've seen in the intro's are big explosions... i want gauss rifles >=)

Smeg

[This message has been edited by Daniel Vogt (edited January 22, 2000).]

[Glenn T]

Just reading some back topics and this one caught my attention.

Haven't any REAL ideas but I just thought i'd say to try and campture the ATMOSTPHERE of the whole mech thing. Take for example the preview movie for Warcraft 3, absoloute class...

-Glenn

[Frost]

"...Oh! oh! oh! and I wanna, uh, I want, you know, like naked chickz and stuphz, with big h00terz hovering in spaisse, and like, then there are BIIIG expl0zionz, and, and, and THEN, another big explozion, but their are sum mechz wit' like, water piztolz and stuphz, and maybe sum naked mech beach-party where they all take their armor off, and stuphz like dat!! Dat wood be K3WL and shit...!" (*sigh*)


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Anyway, It's great to see you looking for some audience feedback from previous works to give ppl what they want -- good research. I'm sure whatever you decide to do with the matte paintings (and not with the flying hooters, explosions and scripting=) will look awesome Loki. =)

Can't wait to see it!

cheers,
frost.

[Ronin Spoon]

You want my opinion? Either make it short and small or make it long and sweet, like Independence War. Otherwise, it's just crap and a waste of valuable disk space and talent. Personally I rarely watch the intro movies and find it annoying to be forced to cancel it everytime I start the game.

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Ronin Spoon

Of course, now that I look at the date of the original post, it's probably way to late for my opinion to have any impact.

[This message has been edited by Ronin Spoon (edited April 17, 2000).]