Knightmare.com

Noooooooo!  :)

anyone actually tried making their own version of the life force  8)

In my early days when I had waaaaaaaaay too much time on my hands I made a flip-book type thingy with the skull lifeforce but that's about it.

Must ... destroy ... quiches!!!

Great idea Ark! The flaming pastry thing really really made me angr.. hold on - flaming pastry?? FESTUS! STOP BREATHING ON THE FOOD!! Sorry coulndt resist Anyway, the skull is what i remember most of Knightmare - i remember as a Kidsie my dad had to watch it with me - in fact he misses it too - because i was scared of Mr Grimwold, the Goblins when in Dwarf Tunnel, and the Life Force - still creeps me out now, but excellent idea!

Arcengal wrote: Did you become a biology major or something?

I personally do not enjoy seeing skin peeling off skulls. I don't know whether you have some kind of kick out of it, or you thought it was "cool" because it was gross, but I don't like it. Especially the bit where the camera passes through the eye of the skull.

Woooh... that's one of the things I didn't like about the LF clock... *shiver* The whole skull on its own is creepy, too...

I liked the skull, but life-force doesn't seem to matter in the later series (except that time when they got their health back from a drop of water)

What about a quiche slowly rotting away until there's only the crust left...

It's a pie, not a quiche or anything else that was used in series 8.

to many people seem to say the old life force was sick/disgusting/scary and even dark.. i for one way BAH.

It was none of them, it was 'real' in the scene of what real is when it comes to life and the world of knightmare/imagination and tv. Maybe a little difficult to watch for younger views, but it was true to it form.

i think the pie is far more in the 'darker' side because it doesn't resemble human life when thats exactly what it represents. plus it crap.

I thought the old life force was one of the things that made Knightmare even more special for me, very much so in the death sequence when the eye balls rolled past you and you heard the bell chimes. Unforgetable.

The sound effects that went with the original life-force really kicked. I thought some of the most chilling death sequences were in series four - because of the way the life-force was used.

The Mogdred sword death was great.
They didn't use a knell, just a slowing heart-beat and cracking bone. Awesome.

The original Life Force clock was great!

I don't think it was scary by itself...but it helped to build up the tension. And it's such a vivid image, that most people can remember it years after the event.

I agree. Some of the deaths you never forget, and seeing them again you can see why.
Has anyone noticed that most of the deaths in series three involve falling off of things? The ones that don't (a lightning bolt to the head/captured by goblins) were the ones I remembered best.

I reckon the Life Force animation was generated frame by frame on an Amiga or something. It might have taken a while to render each frame of the animation, (remember how long it used to take to 'floodfill' an area on an Amiga paint program) but they might have recorded it frame by frame into a digital framestore, or a supercomputer - then output the final animation to videotape from there.
Perhaps they even used the digital framestore in the actual episodes, so it could be easily fast forwarded or cut when the life force got damaged by an enemy or magic.

I reckon we should find someone who worked on the programme and see if they still have the original source for the animation. Or even a 'clean' version of the tape with just the full-screen life force animation on it (i.e. without the credits running over it)

The Life Force animation (original face/skull) is one of the things that I remember vividly about the early series of Knightmare. I was only about 8 when I first saw it on CITV, but the Life Force death sequence remained lodged in my mind from that very first death!

We have been able to run a full Life Force animation RPG-wise, was taken from a smaller on-screen picture, and pieced together (as no team had a full run-down of the life force within a quest (at once), the frames were made by gathering several quests together).

It came out rather well, too.

The clock was certainly the reason why I wanted to watch the second episode after watching the first.

ah the life force. Its just the bell thats gets me when they run out of life, the eyes comin out of the skull, yeah as a kid it scared me. and as an adult it scares me!

I loved the rotting skull lifeforce Yeah it was creepy, but then so was a lot of Knightmare...and that certainly is one of the things I remembered from having watched it as a kid. The walking dude was ok...but the pie, ye gads, the pie, what deranged person had the idea that a pie would be good to show the life force?! What on earth has a pie got to do with anything, it just doesn't fir in with the atmosphere of KM, it looks like something out of My Little Pony (which was great in its own right, just not mixable with KM). Nope, the pie was a mistake, I'd take the rotting skull anyday