Get used to dissipatement

Sometimes it's the small things that make the difference. Take a look at this:

That's not a clever blend of several different renders. That's pure Moviestorm, generated in a single take from one scene. We now have the ability to make objects disappear (and reappear) during the course of a movie. This is the sort of thing that you might not immediately see a use for. The longer you have it in your arsenal, though, the more useful it begins to appear.

All I've done here is set up two barrels, one on top of the other. The burnt barrel is hidden at the start, with the rusted barrel visible. I use the show/hide functionality on both objects, using the explosion to cover the transition. Silly, yes, but fun and potentially very useful.

This new bit of functionality is already working in our current development code. Hopefully, we'll be able to ship it to you as part of Moviestorm version 1.1.7. As always, our usual get-out-of-jail-free disclaimers apply, but I'm reasonably confident about this one.

Incidentally, version 1.1.7 is shaping up to be a massive release. It's straining at the seams with tasty good stuff. I think it's our most exciting release for a long time.

You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain

I use Moviestorm every day, often running through the same few test sequences each time. Although I love it, it's sometimes hard to get excited or inspired when I'm so familiar with Moviestorm that I regularly dream about it and see the interface swimming in front of my eyes when I wake up in the morning. Nonetheless, every once in a while something I've thrown haphazardly together to test a bit of functionality will remind me that, actually, Moviestorm is a storytelling tool above all else.

Here's a bit of silliness that started as a test of the Pyro pack and ended up as quite a cool short sequence.

I know it doesn't fit on the page, but dagnamit, it's so pretty I don't want to butcher it into a smaller size. Watch the full version on my Moviestorm page.

I've no idea who the hooded pyromancer might be, or why he's attacking the cameraman in an art gallery, but that doesn't matter: from such initial fragments are big stories woven.

Now then. The disclaimers. I know we always throw in the usual "when it's ready", "development code", "your mileage may vary" disclaimers, but in this case I really do have to emphasise: the mobile fireballs are something that we're trying out at the moment and they still have some bugs. You - hopefully - won't see any in this video, but that's more by good luck than good management. Rolling balls of fiery flaming death might not make it into the Pyro pack at all. Certainly, I wouldn't be surprised if they were only static objects by the time the pack is released, with mobile fireballs scheduled for a future update. We'll try and get them ready, but I can't promise that we'll manage it.

Don't worry. They'll still be balls, they'll still be great, and they'll still be - most emphatically - of fire.