WhiteFantom on 15/1/2005 at 05:38
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
An animated Thief would most probably suck. Just look at TDS-- they went for the cartoony look there vs the proverbial gritty realism of the originals, and AFAIK very few people considered it an improvement.
Live action is the way to go. Anyone else here seen Name of the Rose? That sort of art direction would work pretty well for Thief (with a dash of Brisco County Jr. thrown in for good measure).
The Rustmonkey cutscenes in TDS were basically the same as the ones they did in the first two games; they weren't "more cartoony" at all. However, TDS did what the first two games never did--used game engine cutscenes using the animated polygon meshes of the in-game characters. Those were definitely...erm...ill-considered, in my opinion, and could have been much better served with short Rustmonkey cutscenes instead.
The Rustmonkey cutscenes in TDS were wonderful and fit the feel of the first two games, and they should have stuck with those cutscenes rather than trying to jump on the bandwagon other games are on and do in-game cutscenes using the game engine.
--Jennifer
godismygoldfish on 15/1/2005 at 14:47
Except many of the cutscenes were not at the usual rustmonkey standard, especially the ones that had garrett looking like a ten-year old with a bad case of pink-eye.
Marlow on 15/1/2005 at 15:54
I wouldn't say they weren't at Rustmonkey standard. It's just Garret's face that looked really stupid - but still it was better than in the non-Rustmonkey cutscenes.
Apart from that - the cutscenes were perhaps even better than in TDS and TMA.
As for the idea of a Rustmonkeyish feature-length animated Thief - not gonna happen. Too good to be true :cheeky: .
godismygoldfish on 15/1/2005 at 16:02
Good things come to those who wait. ;)
Marlow on 15/1/2005 at 19:36
Yeah, I'll be waiting all right, waiting like no one has waited before...
Doc_Brown on 16/1/2005 at 05:46
*chuckles* Basically, everyone's positing the reasons I made my suggestion in the first place. The Thief look is animated, and that's what we expect, but at the same time we'd like to see it given the expansive treatment that only live action entails. Hence the reason I suggested, in a sense, doing both.
Subtlety isn't exactly your strong point, is it goldy? ;)
We get it, big announcement soon about an animated Thief movie, official or fanbased. Just deliver the goods when the time comes, k? :joke:
Doc_Brown on 20/1/2005 at 08:01
Alright, alright, there's no official Thief movie in the works. :p
Slip of the thumb...
str8g8 on 20/1/2005 at 13:02
Quote:
However, TDS did what the first two games never did--used game engine cutscenes using the animated polygon meshes of the in-game characters. Those were definitely...erm...ill-considered, in my opinion, and could have been much better served with short Rustmonkey cutscenes instead.
The Rustmonkey cutscenes in TDS were wonderful and fit the feel of the first two games, and they should have stuck with those cutscenes rather than trying to jump on the bandwagon other games are on and do in-game cutscenes using the game engine.
While I agree with you, I think the devs would have stuck with them if they could, but the fact is that Rustmonkeys cut scenes would be far more expensive and time-consuming to produce. Remember that there were only a handful of really polished cutscenes in the first two games ... the rest of the briefings were just static b+w illustrations and screengrabs, which are kind of analogous to those poorer quality cutscenes in ThiefDS.
For the record I think the polished cutscenes in ThiefDS were of the same high quality as the original games, but the briefings, as you say, lost something. I particularly missed the quotations - sticking them on the loading screen might have conformed to the microsoft design textbook of giving players something to do when loading, but it was at the expense of atmosphere.
As for the movie, for my money it would have to be Rustmonkey animation. Live action would almost certainly be dreadful, though abviously it would depend on cast and director etc ... Linklaters style is interesting, and I'm looking forward to A Scanner Darkly, but I'm just not convinced it would suit Thief. Thief already has a unique visual landscape created by rustmonkey.
BTW: while you are wating for the Thief: the motion picture, you can make your own Thief movie; just create a VideoCD or DVD of the first two games movies and you can watch them on your TV ;)
(I've done this and it's quite cool...)
cheers
str8g8
ZylonBane on 20/1/2005 at 18:48
Quote Posted by str8g8
As for the movie, for my money it would have to be Rustmonkey animation.
Hell. No.
Their animations look amazingly stylish, but technically are only barely more advanced than Terry Gilliam's old Monty Python cartoons. The actions you can depict by moving around static cutouts are extremely limited. Note that in any of the T1/T2 cutscenes that involved a human doing anything more elaborate than talking or moving a hand, they had to resort to very obvious live-action footage.
