If the tree is animated, than so should everything else. otherwise the tree shouldn't move at all lol
Well, I certainly like WAY more the new tree. The alpha one is identical to the original, I agree on that, but by seeing it on comparission with the new one... I don't know, it feels empty. I think that the first one is a CSI filter and the new one a full recreation. Keep up with your amazing work, artists! Regarding to animated vs not animated, I think it would be like S1 sunflowers, they are animated and everything else don't. It can not hurt anybody to have an animated tree, right? I don't think that things have to be black or white, all animated or all not animated; if everything is animated it can look overloaded, but if everything is static it may look empty, so this can give a good balance to the level visuals.
The tree is blowing in the wind, and the sun flowers in sonic 1 are not . Huge difference in animation goal. If you think about it,wind does not just effect 1 object and ignore others. I think if they reduced the amount of animation from a hurricane to a breeze than it'd look much better, and perhaps let them get away with animating just the tree.
I think it's great, obviously we all have our own idea of the PERFECT tree, that's what made the damn thing infamous. I am happy with it as is. I think the wobble is supposed to be from the wind, which makes sense on the top of a hill and with the clouds passing by in the background. It does look a bit like jelly, but I have faith in the team. Probably other assets will also blow in the breeze, which is amazing!
I'm really looking forward to seeing all these assets arranged in one scene. I get the feeling the main distraction for a lot of us here is we're not only focusing solely on the tree, but we're looking at it likely scaled up from how we'll see it ingame. Animations are typically exaggerated a lot more to enhance the presence of assets and I feel we're missing the idea that in its own lively environment, it won't seem out of place at all. To get a better impression and lift focus from only the tree, click the animation so that it's on one of its lowest speeds, zoom out the page, and picture it amongst animated flowers and a scrolling background. Sounds pretty stunning to me.
Can anyone confirm whether or not the trees are ever visible during the earthquake/rising lava segments? I ask because having that tree jiggle at max speed would look awesome during the quake!
What's left of Hill Top now? I've not seen the boss yet and at a guess the background will get redone.
I have high hopes. But I will not have those hopes anymore if it gets cancelled again. My dreams were crushed! :'( Just kidding, hopefully this goes well, Sonic 2 is my favourite Sonic game. It would be even better with a graphical uplift.
I've got to agree... It looks a bit less flat, and seems to be a nice blend between the old one and the animated version (although that "hat" on top looks a bit weird on both...). I'd use that one with the final trunk design, since the added details are also pretty non-intrusive, but oh well.
I think earlier trunks were better, if not just for the palette. The leaves are always going to look crap - it's an inherently crap tree, but this is an admirable effort. But I'm sure we went through this before - the foreground isn't meant to share many colours with the background, otherwise it doesn't stand out.
While I greatly respect Black Squirrel's opinion, I really like the trunk. Rightly or wrongly, it sort of reminds me of Austrian folk art/coo-coo clocks, which I think is fitting for the zone and it's other elements, such as the lift. Everyone has a right to their opinion and everyone is being respectful... These updates make my day (days).
Ill say it once, and I'll say it again for the last time. I LOVE progress pictures, don't get me wrong. But JESUS can you just move forward with the project? Leave something for me to go "OH wow they went this direction" instead of me knowing every little pixel decision you went with. Can I see, maybe another levels gameplay instead of a tree? At this point I do not give a fuck about what tent of orange you go with for lava. End of the day, I just want to see some actual progress. I also understand this stuff takes time, but trust me...you'll get a ton of hype even if you keep quiet for 3 years.
Not that I'm quoting to snowball this ('cause I am ), but I think what he's getting at is... Do you have an engine? I know its a sore point, and I know the most dedicated of the team that stuck out the first S2HD breakdown were the art guys, but whats going on with coding? Art is great, its S2HD for fucks-sake so really we should be expecting updates relating to art, but just the same, I think letting people know sometime soon that the art will be displayed within a working engine would be a plus.
