Wing Commander II Art List

The Terran Knowledge Bank
Revision as of 00:30, 28 March 2020 by LOAF (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search
Wing Commander II Art List
WC2ArtListPage1.jpg
Creator Origin Systems Inc.
Download Download
Filesize 23190499 kB
Date November 29, 1990
Pages 7


Wing Commander II Characters is a development document created during the making of Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi. It is dated December 3, 1990 and is an early description of Wing Commander II's characters and their planned story arcs. The document is part of the Warren Spector Papers at the University of Texas at Austin's Briscoe Center for American History (box 2008-091/6).

Much of the material planned in the document is significantly different from the finished game including plans for significantly more missions to take place before the arrival of the Concordia. Some of the characters were ultimately cut or referred to only in dialogue; others, like Bear and Minx, would reappear in other forms in the Special Operations missions. The role planned for Iceman would largely go to Stingray in the finished game. Other notable changes include early references to Hobbes as "Tomcat" and different first and last names for many of the secondary characters.

Text

WING COMMANDER II
ART LIST November 29, 1990

The following is the character animation and "standing sets" graphics list for WC2. The 3-D graphics list will be written separately.

CHARACTERS

PILOTS:

Bluehair: talking closeups, standing at attention for court martial, standing for Generic Office/Concordia bridge scenes, piloting in various ship cockpits, tailgunning as a bomber crew chief

Angel: talking closeups, cockpit vidscreen, standing or sitting in her Generic Office/Concordia bridge, sitting in Concordia Rec Room, standing on Flight Deck

Maniac: talking closeups, cockpit vidscreen, sitting in Peel Rec Room

Spirit: talking closeups, cockpit vidscreen, sitting in Concordia Rec Room, standing in Generic Office and Concordia Flight Deck

Iceman: talking closeups, cockpit vidscreen, sitting in Concordia Rec Room and O-Deck, standing for Generic Office, lying (and talking) in bed in Concordia Sickbay

Shadow: talking closeups, cockpit vidscreen, sitting in Peel Rec Room and Barracks.

Minx: talking closeups, cockpit vidscreen, sitting in Peel Rec Room and Barracks, standing in Generic Office

Cirocco: talking closeups, cockpit vidscreen, sitting in Peel Rec Room and Barracks, standing in Generic Office

Bogey: talking closeups, cockpit vidscreen (as a bomber crew chief, not a pilot), sitting in Peel Rec Room and Barracks, standing in Generic Office.

Turbo: talking closeups, cockpit vidscreen, sitting in Peel Rec Room and Barracks, standing in Generic Office

Downtown: talking closeups, cockpit vidscreen, sitting in Concordia Rec Room and O-Deck, standing in Generic Office

Hobbes: talking closeups, cockpit vidscreen, sitting in Concordia Rec Room and O-Deck, standing for Generic Office, lying (and talking) in bed in Concordia Sickbay

Jazz: talking closeups (while playing piano), cockpit vidscreen, sitting in Concordia Rec Room playhing piano, standing in Generic Office

Dallas: talking closeups, cockpit vidscreen, sitting in Concordia Rec Room, standing in Flight Deck and Generic Office

Bear: talking closeups, cockpit vidscreen (as a bomber crew chief, not pilot), sitting in Concordia Rec Room and O-Deck, standing in Generic Office

Doomsday: talking closeups, co ckpit vidscreen, sitting in Concordia Rec Room and O-Deck, standing in Generic Office

CONVERSATION SCENES ONLY:

Admiral Tolwyn: talking closeups, seated in courtmartial and his Generic Office, standing on Concordia bridge, Tolwyn punching out Jerry Rivers

Colonel Laramie: talking closeups, sitting in his Generic office

Paladin: talking closeups, seated in Peel Rec Room, standing in Laramie's office

Dr. Sayers: talking closeups, standing in Concordia Sickbay

Jerry Rivers: talking closeups, plus the small view of Jerry on the television set, Jerry in invisibility suit, Jerry getting punched by Tolwyn - see JERRY RIVERS category

Prince Thrakhath: normal talking closeup and cockpit vidscreen only, except for Throne Room midgame

Sparks: talking closeups, standing on Flight Deck

Major Jan "C.J. Cherryh" Edmond (Tactical and comm officer): cockpit vidscreen visual only, and animation as a BG figure on the Concordia Bridge.

LOCATIONS AND ANIMATION

Generic ship wall BG for talking closeups (unusual rooms, like the Concordia O-Deck, will need a non-generic background for taking closeups.) This could be a basic battleship grey with rows of rivets, as on an aircraft carrier.

Non-generic ship wall for Concordia O-Deck, with a starfield for the wall

EXTERNAL SHIP VIEWS

We'll need the external view of the individual ships, as used in the launch sequence animation

INTERNAL SHIP VIEWS

In addition to the cockpit views, an extreme CU on Bluehair in Rapier, look of horror on his face (for Prologue, when the Tiger's Claw is destroyed) Can this be drawn so we can reuse the generic Bluehair talking closeup animation?

TIGER'S CLAW (prologue)

Reuse endscene from WC1, the large view of Tiger's Claw moving aweay from POV...maybe overlay this with jump animation?

Tiger's Claw - Briefing Room (reuse from WC1)

Modified animation for "dismissal" (different pilots, basically)

Funeral (definitely re-use from WC1)

COURT MARTIAL

Pan across court room to the formal bench with seven officers (including Tolwyn as chief of court), Bluehair and his counsel sitting to one side.

Animation: Bluehair rising to stand before the court, speaking in longshot

Animation: Tolwyn speaking in longshot

Animation: camera drones with Klieg lights aimed at various people, flitting around the room

SIR ROBERT PEEL

Rec Room: seating room for two and Bluehair, with computer console for saving games and a "television" screen. If possible, please draw the television set so we can reuse the TV animation from Ultima 6. (Please refer to the CHARACTER POSITIONS chart at the end of this file.)

Barracks: seating room for two and Bluehair, with one or two generic views of sleeping pilots in BG). Computer console for saving games. (Please refer to the CHARACTER POSITIONS chart.)

Generic office: One person either standing near (as in WC1) or sitting at desk, one person standing beside Bluehair. Maybe set this up like the Debriefing in WC1, where we pan to show how many people are in the room. Different door plaques for Laramie's, Angel's, and the Admiral's office.

CONCORDIA

Concordia Bridge (with several officers at work in the BG) standing room for two and Bluehair in foreground. We'll also need the computer console for saving games in this location.

O-Deck (Observation Deck): sitting room for two and Bluehair, plus a position at the viewport where a third person can stand alone. (Please refer to the CHARACTER POSITIONS chart.) Also some extra animation for missions 6-B and 7-D, spiderweb cracks forming in Observation Window as the attacking Kilrathi ships fire at the Concordia. This room has a computer console for saving games. Also we'll reuse this room for the Awards ceremony, but we'll need to add a group of generic pilots in the BG.

Concordia Rec Room: sitting room for three and Bluehair. This room will have the television set (as in the Peel Rec Room) and the computer console for saving games, as well as a very modern upright piano off to one side (which Jazz will play in various scenes.) If possible, please draw the television set so we can reuse the TV animation from Ultima 6. (Please refer to the CHARACTER POSITIONS chart.)

Sickbay: Standing room for Dr. Sayers, one other person and Bluehair, bed space for two NPCs (Tomcat and Iceman, at one point), plus several generic (removable!) victims lying in beds in BG. We'll need conversation BG for the NPCs to talk against when they're lying in bed. Also, a computer console for saving games.

Flight Deck/Spark's Workspace - standing room for two people and Bluehair, next to a ship that's obviously under repairs. In every scene but one, there'll only be one person in this in addition to Bluehair. Also, maybe disguised as a diagnostic computer, we'll need a computer console for saving games.

Briefing Room: sitting room for multiple characters, as in WC 1. We'll use this in specific briefing and debriefing scenes. I don't think we really need the "Dismissed" animation, though.

Generic office: reused from the SIR ROBERT PEEL.

MIDGAMES

(We haven't scripted these yet, so I don't know exactly what artwork will be required! But figure 2-3 separate animations for each sequence. - Ell)

Midgame #1 - Prince Thrakhath's throne room (reuse this for game ending, the "I'll be back" last statement?)

Midgame #2 - Traitor scene #1, when the traitor is discovered whilst communicating to the enemy, and shoots the guy who discovered him.

Midgame #3 - Traitor, broadcasting to enemy ships

Midgame #4 - Angel and Bluehair talking on O-Deck, this ends in a clinch (with standard talking closeup animation as well)

JERRY RIVERS

In addition to his talking loops:

Jerry Rivers in the "cloaking suit"---a dark shape outlined in a faint glowing blue light, set in a completely black background.

Admiral Tolwyn breaking Jerry's nose with a single good punch

We also need a small animation of Jerry talking on the television set, so the player willl know when a Jerry Rivers episode is airing, as opposed to the Ultima 6 program filler.

OTHER ANIMATION

Computer console screen (logbook) for saving games feature

CHARACTER POSITIONS

This may not be necessary---Steve B. thinks we won't need specific seating positions in WC2, but just in case...

PEEL REC ROOM Left seat: Shadow, Cirocco, Maniac, Turbo Right seat: Minx, Paladin, Bogey

PEEL BARRACKS Left seat: Shadow, Cirocco, Turbo Right seat: Minx, Bogey

CONCORDIA REC ROOM: Left seat: Iceman, Dallas, Bear Middle seat: Doomsday, Hobbes Right seat: Spirit, Downtown Seated at the piano on left side of screen: Jazz

CONCORDIA O-DEC: Left seat: Downtown, Iceman Right seat: Hobbes, Doomsday Solitary figures standing at the viewport: Bear, Angel (they turn to look at Bluehair as he walks into the room)

ART_LIST_WC2