Arbiter - Monthly Recap - October 2021

Good morning gamers! 

Hope everyone's doing well and got plenty spooped yesterday! I spent the day binging a horror show and while I didn't get tooooo scared (he says, face hidden under the covers), it did make every little ambient sound that night just that bit more unsettling. Oh I also carved a pumpkin and enjoyed a calming power fantasy as I removed its innards and set it aflame. Good times!

Anyways, this month was all about WOLF! For those just tuning in, Wolf is one of the main bosses of the game and in this case, one of the transformations you unlock for defeating him. By transforming, you combine Ashe's soul with Wolf's, creating something of a fusion between the two. The result? Combos.

*Note:  After animating I'll be adding LOTS of effects and movement to really make his attacks feel special! I might even learn to record gifs that don't look like shit!

Each form has several themes that dictate their design, and Wolf's is all about combos. The boss character, Wolf, is a competitive spirit who prides himself on being one of the strongest in the world. While the other spirits are usually hyper-focused on regaining their humanity, Wolf wants one thing and one thing only: power. 

When combined with Ashe, who's a bit of an arrogant kid, the two become a fast, stylish monster who want nothing more than to hone their skills in battle and look sick while doing it. 

The keywords that define Wolf's form are Fast, Feral, Mobile, and Stylish. These are the words I keep in mind while animating him, and they've done a pretty good job to keep me on track. The blend together to make a very flashy and erratic character that indulges himself at every opportunity.

One of the defining characteristics of the form is that his basic combos string together infinitely. This means you can quite literally keep hitting the attack button and he will not ever really "finish" his combo. There's some levers to balance this of course, one being that stronger enemies will perform certain attacks when they've been hit enough times (KH fans will recognize this as revenge value). The other balancing factor is simply that Wolf's form does not deal a lot of damage compared to the others. His goal is to perform combos and style on his enemies, and hey, what's more fun than playing with your food?

This form's attacks also deal electric damage, which mean they will chain a bit of damage between nearby enemies, but also: attacks against electrified enemies will deal reduced revenge value damage. This basically means that Wolf's form is the absolute best at performing long combos without interruption. He can also do all sorts of other fun stuff like drifting, breakdancing, howling, and sitting like the good boy that he is.

I'm finished with the meat of his animations (70~), but his base combos took a bit longer than I expected. Wolf has the longest combos in the game by far, at 10 Attacks for his land combo and 9 Attacks for his air combo. He also has some hold inputs and a unique special attack that changes based on how long his combo is. I had to really push myself creatively to get the look I wanted, but I'm extremely happy with the results and can't wait to throw some effects on them and get them in-game!

All that's left animation-wise is some small interactions and his ability variants. The ability variants are essentially the same as Ashe's normal abilities, but with slight-to-major changes to really make the forms feel special. In Wolf's case, a lot of the abilities will now deal electric damage, and in many cases change to be a little more useful combo-wise (or just to look a little more stylish). Once all those are done, I'll move onto getting him properly in-game!

Suffice it to say I've had an absolute blast animating Wolf's form. It's also really pushed me creatively as an animator in trying to make all of his moves feel unique in spite of having so many different attacks. Lastly, it's been a great guinea pig to better plan out my workflow for the other forms as well. I'd like to explain my animation process for the forms a little more in-depth, but this will likely come in the form of a Patron-Only behind the scenes post. I've been itching to start doing these and will get to them soon, I swear!

Anyways that about wraps me up for this month! Thanks again everyone for taking an interest and supporting the game. I'll be making combo videos again once I start getting Wolf's form in-game, so please look forward to it!

Cheers,
Jordy