Thursday, October 26, 2006

i got another one for ya

make the root in the middle of the body or make it wave up and down in more than one plane. because... you often want to adjust charcter's realtioponship to the floor-most often, i'd say. And you can't select the root if it's sticking throught the floor.

notes about rigging

make the wrist joints really big. You'll be selecting them a lot. Also the foot controllers. Make them big and hopefully multiplane. (i.e. wiggly)

The root controller also has to be very big and easily recognizable. Don't make it small.

Also, and i don't know if this is possible, can someone make a control or something that selects everything? Every controller anyway, so we can key them all at once. Without having to individually select everything?

i'll look into this.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

more about icons and how they suck

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say youre an orc warrior. you might have a hotbar that looks like this. if you'll look to the right side of the hotbar, you'll see what i call the 'shouty skills'.

what do any of these do?

Yarr! Wyeah!! Waaa!!! Wrooo!!1!
WROAR!1!!1

-a little suggestion about what you might do as an alternative (i don't like to criticize without suggesting alternatives (it's what makes criticism constructive( and allows me to mock more mercilessly(hehehe)))-
Think about the effects of the spells, not the cause. try to depict those in an icon.

i dont mean that the art is bad

-looking. I think some of the art for the icons looks good, in terms of what its representing. I think it's used badly, and in a way that can confuse players and affect gameplay negaatively.

it's not just the repetition

Though that is the most easily ridiculable. It's that they use the same piece of art for things that are very different conceptually. Take this little glimmer thing for instance.Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

It's used for an attack spell for Mages, (Arcane Explosion i think) but if youre a hunter, it's a switch that shows which of your aspects is currently 'on' Also, for Warlock's pets subtoolbar, it shows which pet ability is currently active.

Those are two different uses of that piece of art, two completely different concepts. You should never use the same art for things so different.

While i'm at it, i don't like the use of a piece of art as a switch to show that an ability is on. not only does it make the icon different, but it covers up what is there. You can't tell what's on, you can only tell what's not on. Do you see?

A better way already exists in the game. In the hunter's pet toolbar, there's a little animated marquee border that appears when an ability is on. This is a good solution, it does its job, tells you the ability is active without occluding the ability.

Now how come the hunter's pet toolbar uses this method, while the Warlock's pet toolbar uses the occlusion method? The only thing i can think of is that they were done by two different people.

Consistency. consistency is important for an interface.

a greatly belated example

Say that you are a troll (with racial ability ...that speed thing) warlock (able to summon imps)on the quest for Zalazane's Head. Your hotbar would look something like this...
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