After stepping away for a while and coming back, I really wasn’t happy with the tank prototype, so I’ve gone and given it some tweaks. Here’s an adjustment to the design which I think feels much better:

The sloping adjustment to the top of the track created by the larger front wheel gives it a more dynamic, less stiff feel. I also made the exhausts smaller because they were competing with that gun barrel. Tut…tut…tut… This is a tank! It’s all about shooting, so I need to emphasize this!

I’m thinking of sloping the top of the body where it adjoins the turret a little, too. I think avoiding any purely horizontal/vertical lines adds more fun to a silhouette, which is something easily forgotten when wrestling with a methodology for making 2D tank tracks work properly. Have I mentioned how unfathomably difficult that is yet? Why must I engage that damned left brain hemisphere so often?

But…I still haven’t resorted to digging Maya out, so I’m not yet cheating. Still all 100% Adobe Creative Suite, vectors ‘n’ old fashioned painting. 🙂

I’m also toying with this flag design for the Crows. Perhaps I’ll add an eye. 😉

Random thought regarding game sound: What if all Stovey sound is 100% synthesized and all the Crow sounds are real recordings? If we treat them with a textural process, they can live in the same sonic place, but have a different vibe to them. Would anybody notice? Would it sound disjointed, or somehow add to the experience? Only one way to find out…

Also, it might be a good idea for me to stop posting animated gifs. It’s beginning to look like The Internet, circa 1997. 😉