Time-lapse of Agent Ray

by Ron Gilbert
Aug 01, 2016

Here is a time-lapse video from master pixel animator Octavi Navarro showing how he animated Agent Ray waking up after SPOILER!

- Ron

Natalija - Aug 01, 2016 at 13:30

Hows that a spoiler?

Arto - Aug 01, 2016 at 13:31

What spoiler? We know when she passed out.

spiffy - Aug 01, 2016 at 13:34

But now you know that she'll wake up again.

Mattias Cedervall - Aug 01, 2016 at 13:36

Excellent work, Octavi!

I still think that one of the agents should be renamed because their names are way too similar!

Randy Hofbauer - Aug 01, 2016 at 15:13

I thought the same at first, but then figured the similarity between names might play into some jokes -- or possibly even a puzzle or plot element.

Arto - Aug 01, 2016 at 15:23

https://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/podcast41
From 26:02.

Jammet - Aug 01, 2016 at 13:36

She's a Ninja!

Carlo Valenti - Aug 01, 2016 at 13:37

Cute! I'm electro-cuted.

Sebastian - Aug 01, 2016 at 13:50

Smooth! Nice work!

What's the name of the background tune? It's so cheesy and catchy...

Cheers,

Sebastian

Ron Gilbert ✓ - Aug 01, 2016 at 13:51

It's music from the game.

Big Red Button - Aug 01, 2016 at 14:25

The music is very convenient. For whatever reason, it reminds me of the music from the overview map of Mêlée Island in MI.

Big Red Button - Aug 01, 2016 at 14:41

...and of the circus.

Derrick Reisdorf - Aug 01, 2016 at 15:05

I don't know why, but the music sounds like it should be music for a menu maybe.

Sebastian - Aug 02, 2016 at 15:23

Thanks Ron.

Good for me that I backed the project with $50 so that I can enjoy these cheesy melodies over and over again!

Sebastian

Brian Small - Aug 01, 2016 at 18:40

Thank you for asking that question. I needed to re-watch the video with my headphones on, I didn't realize there was cool background music to listen to.

Sebastian - Aug 02, 2016 at 15:25

You're welcome, Brian.

I just cannot get this tune out of my head - I keep on rewinding this video :-)

Assaf - Aug 01, 2016 at 14:08

Cool, interesting to see.

Gene - Aug 01, 2016 at 14:23

How many frames in this animation?

Octavi Navarro - Aug 01, 2016 at 15:55

81 frames. And this is a small one!

Brian Bagnall - Aug 02, 2016 at 09:13

That's great! Now it's becoming clear why TP takes longer to make than Maniac Mansion which had almost no animation. How long did it take to create all those frames?

longuist - Aug 03, 2016 at 04:35

How long did this small animation took to produce?

Mario F. - Aug 04, 2016 at 09:31

@ Octavio: JFYI : For this kind of upright Jump, she needs the legs a little bit more to the head instead of 90 degree angle into the air. better 130-140 degree and then snap to front like the karate guys do. Its all about contraction and release of the abdominis muscles ;)

Darkstorm - Aug 01, 2016 at 14:39

Kip-up! HBK would be proud.

Geoffrey Paulsen - Aug 01, 2016 at 15:11

Love this. I just love pixel art and animation. I hope that in the future there will be some giant online database of all of these animations to be recycled with love for future projects.

Zuckerberg - Aug 01, 2016 at 15:14

No podcast this week!? ;)
For anyone reading comments here and isn't aware of the Double Fine Adventure video-podcast series (like myself was), catch up, while we wait for more TWP behind-the-scenes goodness...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIhLvue17Sd7F6pU2ByRRb0igiI-WKk3D

Nor Treblig - Aug 01, 2016 at 15:41

That's actually the documentary of Broken Age.

Their Devs Play series can also be interesting:
- Season 1: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIhLvue17Sd6u2akeZZdYVBxNtfWZPm5W
- Season2: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIhLvue17Sd5E75N5z8hK0-X7LXgGsJA5

Zuckerberg - Aug 01, 2016 at 16:04

"Broken Age" is the final/release title, "Double Fine Adventure" was the kickstarter codename, replaced with "reds" later on. (I'm at Ep. 11, btw.) Will check out the "Devs Play" series.

Nor Treblig - Aug 01, 2016 at 18:48

Yes that's right, what I actually meant was that it's not just some video-podcast, it's the actual documentary.

There are a lot of hours of material, but I watched it distributed over several years, so it didn't seem that much.
The final release of the documentary will be on three Blu-rays (and it's *nearly* done; they recoloured it, added subtitles and also two commentary tracks (DF/2PP), it will be interesting to watch it again!).

Big Red Button - Aug 02, 2016 at 16:58

If you want to listen to more stuff with Ron, just listen to the latest unconsoleable podcast. I think, it's quite interesting:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/esnfm/uca-097.mp3 - "Doom Killed Adventure Games"

Big Red Button - Aug 03, 2016 at 03:38

Okay, it's a matter of opinion, because the hosts tell more than Ron does, so that the interview takes no fewer than about 90 minutes, but there are nevertheless some interesting anecdotes about Lucasfilm and adventure games.

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Aug 01, 2016 at 16:37

Cool animation!

longuist - Aug 01, 2016 at 17:08

Thanks for sharing, Octavi. Animation is something i waited for (because i dont know beep about it)
The leap is a bit over the top (or right), nice :)

Andrew - Aug 01, 2016 at 17:45

That was awesome I love seeing the game progress

Bogdan Barbu - Aug 01, 2016 at 20:00

Boy, I will never be able to animate anything.

Zombocast - Aug 01, 2016 at 20:20

"Roofies" are in Ransoms other jar. *Ba dum tiss

Zombocast - Aug 01, 2016 at 20:20

"Roofies" are in Ransoms other jar. *Ba dum tiss

Zombocast - Aug 01, 2016 at 21:23

Blog post requests.

1. Steve Kirk (Behind the music of Thimbleweed Park Interview )
2. Budget (#2. Maybe once backing is over)
3. Another Fan submission put in-game (Drinking Fountain, Occult Books, Thimblecon 87, Spec of dust)
4. Another Mark Ferrari Pod Cast (#2)

Bogdan Barbu - Aug 02, 2016 at 01:56

3. A few more of those and the game will be designed by a committee. :)

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Aug 02, 2016 at 04:27

Yeah, we'll have our names in the credits under "written by", and on the bottom lines a "Special thanks to Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick for the initial idea" :-D

Ben Jackson - Aug 02, 2016 at 04:31

Damn Octavi is fast. If he keeps up this pace, you'll be done in no time.

KJL3000 - Aug 02, 2016 at 04:57

Some photoshop layers ...

A. - Aug 02, 2016 at 08:05

This music.
Catchy stuff.

Tom - Aug 02, 2016 at 09:09

That's all done in one Photoshop layer, right? ;-)

Christopher Griffin - Aug 02, 2016 at 09:30

Octavi, I love looking at all of your works and I found myself wishing that more of your designs were available as a T-shirt on Red Bubble. Any possibility of adding the T-shirt option to more of your designs there? Specifically, I really like "The Flood", "The Fisherman's Daughter", and "Close the Gates!".

Again, just wanted to say that I like these large-format pixel pieces, because they all seem to be telling a story with many different facets. Keep up the amazing work!

Diego - Aug 02, 2016 at 14:59

Hi Octavi! what is the name of the software you are using to make the animation? or its just a plugin of the engine of Thimbleweed?

Thanks!
Great job!

Someone - Aug 02, 2016 at 17:17

It's Adobe Photoshop

Zuckerberg - Aug 03, 2016 at 14:10

...which is a plug-in for Ron's engine. Trust me. John Knoll wrote version 1 of it for the MM engine.

Nor Treblig - Aug 03, 2016 at 14:59

...which he created using Graphics BASIC.

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Aug 03, 2016 at 16:46

...inside a C64 emulator!

Big Red Button - Aug 03, 2016 at 17:29

...which is a plug-in of the engine of Thimbleweed Park.

A. - Aug 04, 2016 at 09:55

The animation is great!

The real reason I keep clicking though: this music. Jesus!

Wild guess: It is played in a shop?

Mister T - Aug 04, 2016 at 11:08

I am a bit surprised that it is painted almost chronologically and not by choosing keyframes and filling the gaps with tweens afterwards.

Big Red Button - Aug 04, 2016 at 11:54

It might make it easier to make sure that the movements look fluent.

Mister T - Aug 05, 2016 at 04:23

Makes it a lot more difficult to control and to define the physical attributes. Also problems usually show in the last frames, making it necessary to trace them back several states.
But in the end, the best method is always the one which suits the artist best. Sometimes a less technical approach just feels more like an adventure and invites being more creative instead of engineering towards the optimal result.

Jordi - Sep 10, 2016 at 07:48

What is the speed multiplier factor of the video?

Zoerrvivor - Oct 31, 2016 at 16:21

Hey ocatavi, great work. I just want to know about the software you're using. is it only adobe photoshop? for real?