character animation process

this is my character animation progress so far. The first set is a few shots of Hao's expressions and reactions to Zhuang's random crap and excuses and such. The first is the initial 'oh hey there', the next is after Zhuang refuses to let him past, so Hao offers to move aside. The third is Hao responding to Zhuang's "you'll push me off" with a "what do we do then?"

As for the fight animation, this is a simple loop of the first 2 strikes. From then on it's a left hook kick from Zhuang and then 2 quick punches, both blocked, and then countered by Hao with a shove to a big ol' special punch. I might add more moves as I consult the friends.

Problems encountered so far are limited to the bridge now. I need to find a way to render off the PNG's, while allowing for progressive transparency. I'll be trying several plain white floors that represents clouds, and have various degrees of translucency between each plane. Creating a cloud cylinder, rather than a sphere will stop the weird sucking in at the top, and since they're high in the sky, it's easy enough to stop the clouds halfway up and add the sky coloured roof, making all of the cylinder immune to lighting effects like the bridge.

woot.