Sorry for the lack of updates, so lets just get right to it. POW is kicking some ass with Bot Stoppers; adding new features, artwork for enemies, backgrounds, effects, and animations. Currently our hotshot programmer is coding an enemy AI, a femme robot capable of flipping around the player and shocking him with a bolt arm.

Below the video are some Pros and Cons of making 2d animation within a 3d program

Pros and Cons of making a 2d animation in 3d software package:

Pros:
1. IK tools for limbs and skeleton, very handy and fast
2. Smooth deformations of bodyparts if painted correctly
3. No need to redraw every frame like flash or hand animation
4. Easy editing of keyframes and graph curves, fine tuning animation
5. You can build your own rig, a toy doll for you and others to use
6. Mel scripts and "Set Driven Key" for custom switches and details
7. With clever constraints and texturing, you can store a whole sprite sheet on a single textured object...
8. Copy pasting weights onto other limbs saves time
9. You dont have to model a full body, just flat cut out limbs

Cons:
1. render times
2. Complicated animations such as characters rotating might require extra sprites/angles of body parts. Hiding and unhiding these are a pain.
3. Can be rigid at times, all animation is mainly rotation that doesnt have Z depth
4. Weight painting can be time consuming
5. Bodyparts need to be cut out
6. Bending areas like elbows, knees, torsos and necks require special mesh flow/geometry
7. Additional effects like sparks, blood and smoke need to be added post to the render frames in another package IF you dont know how to use particles and etc within the main 3d package (we generally dont)
8. Polygons are still subject to shading anomalies like regular 3d objects if the mesh is twisted/compressed too much

9. Unless you have a sure fire way of importing into XNA, your custom rig in most cases will not work with XNA unless you built it with XNA in mind from the start. In many cases you might need to export each frame seperately and combine within XNA as a sprite sheet.

KEEP KICKING ASS!