[Animation] Animation Nation

[TheDanaAddams]

As the unofficially official "Lead Animator" it strikes me that we should have a thread for the custom animation, in the interest of keeping things organised.

 

Custom animated creatures:

• Beanlet
• Skytrap (if implemented)
• Cheshire Cat
• Rainbowcoon?
• Antlion?

Custom animated items:

• Thunder tree
• Cauldron
• Eldrichest

---

Progress:

 

Beanlet:

Art: All complete!

Rigging: Side view complete.

 

Animation states required:

• Idle (Complete)
• Walk - side
• Walk - front
• Walk - back
• Run - side
• Run - front
• Run - back
• Hit
• Death

 

Skytrap:

Art: Still in concept phase.

Rigging: None.

 

Animation states required:

• Unknown

 

Cheshire Cat:

Art: ?

Rigging: ?

 

Animation states required:

• ?

 

Rainbowcoon:

Art: ?

Rigging: ?

 

Animation states required:

• ?

 

Antlion:

Art: ?

Rigging: ?

 

Animation states required:

• ?

 

Thunder Tree:

Art: ?

Rigging: ?

 

Animation states required:

• ?

 

Cauldron:

Art: ?

Rigging: ?

 

Animation states required:

• ?

 

Eldrichest:

Art: ?

Rigging: ?

 

Animation states required:

• ?

---

 

Remember, this is a dev thread, dedicated to keeping track of, and discussing what needs to be custom-animated within the mod.

[TheDanaAddams]

From here, just to be clear, mention anything that should be added to the list.

 

 

Didn't want to clutter up the main post with this, but I have completed an Idle animation for the Beanlet.

 

You'll have to use the Spriter files to check it out, so here they are in their present form:

Beanlets Idle.zip

[thelefthelix]

Are you going to animate the Antlion? If so, would you like my PSD of the atlas? If he's going to be custom I think I could add a bit more to him to make him more ant-y, but that may take a while. Either way, if you want the file (either current or updated) feel free to let me know and I'll get it posted for you ASAP.

[TheDanaAddams]

Judging by the "Lion Blob" I assumed it was already being custom animated.

 

I'd love to animate everything we want to put in here from scratch, but... I'm just one girl! I don't want to take on more work than necessary, and especially not more than I can deliver.

 

I don't actually know if anyone else has animation experience/training. I have a degree in this stuff, but I'm certainly a minority. Animation is an uncommon skill, and a difficult art. (And it's also bloody expensive... think I'm 50K in debt after college... but I'm rambling...)

[debugman18]

Judging by the "Lion Blob" I assumed it was already being custom animated.

 

I'd love to animate everything we want to put in here from scratch, but... I'm just one girl! I don't want to take on more work than necessary, and especially not more than I can deliver.

 

I don't actually know if anyone else has animation experience/training. I have a degree in this stuff, but I'm certainly a minority. Animation is an uncommon skill, and a difficult art. (And it's also bloody expensive... think I'm 50K in debt after college... but I'm rambling...)

The lion blob was me practicing. I'll probably take a crack at it, and see what I can come up with. Never done any other animation in my life, so this should be interesting.

 

 

Are you going to animate the Antlion? If so, would you like my PSD of the atlas? If he's going to be custom I think I could add a bit more to him to make him more ant-y, but that may take a while. Either way, if you want the file (either current or updated) feel free to let me know and I'll get it posted for you ASAP.

This would be useful.

[TheDanaAddams]

The lion blob was me practicing. I'll probably take a crack at it, and see what I can come up with. Never done any other animation in my life, so this should be interesting.

 

 

This would be useful.

Oh, don't worry about teaching yourself a complex new discipline for the sake of the mod.

I could do the antlion - I just remembered the Lion Blob, and assumed someone had been working on it.

 

The good thing is that custom animation means no dealing with atlas files - so all you have to do is create the art, with each section on layers...

But... well... I'm going to recommend the antlion not be custom animated, if possible... I mean, I can do it, but it's going to be an absolutely monumental task, and would take me a very long time to finish anything - especially with some of the features missing from Spriter. It wouldn't be TOO bad with a graph editor... but as it stands... there is no graph editor...

 

Edit: Oh yeah, and what does everyone think of the Beanlet's idle?

[debugman18]

Oh, don't worry about teaching yourself a complex new discipline for the sake of the mod.

I could do the antlion - I just remembered the Lion Blob, and assumed someone had been working on it.

 

The good thing is that custom animation means no dealing with atlas files - so all you have to do is create the art, with each section on layers...

But... well... I'm going to recommend the antlion not be custom animated, if possible... I mean, I can do it, but it's going to be an absolutely monumental task, and would take me a very long time to finish anything - especially with some of the features missing from Spriter. It wouldn't be TOO bad with a graph editor... but as it stands... there is no graph editor...

 

Edit: Oh yeah, and what does everyone think of the Beanlet's idle?

No worries; I enjoy learning new things. Even if I'm not sucessful, I can only gain from trying!

Also, I haven't forgotten about that key; I'm just waiting to hear that skeletonals will be supported (hopefully).

I haven't checked it out yet. Soon!

[lifemare]

Things i'd add to the list, that i don't see fitting in any atlases:

- Thunder Trees

- Cheshire Cat

- the Cauldron probably

- the Eldrichest (since it will have a static affected element that needs animation)

- Rainbowcoons

[simplex]

@TheDanaAddams

Just so I know what environment you have over there, could you type the following in a terminal and tell me if it gives you an error?

perl -e 'use XML::LibXML;'

(every UNIX system, including Mac OS X, comes with Perl, I just don't know which Perl modules are already bundled in)

[simplex]

Things i'd add to the list, that i don't see fitting in any atlases:

- Thunder Trees

- Cheshire Cat

- the Cauldron probably

- the Eldrichest (since it will have a static affected element that needs animation)

- Rainbowcoons

I think it'd be smart of us to focus on vegetation and other quasi-static elements of the world, since they are very important to us, and at the same time much simpler to animate (since there's barely any animation involved)

[MilleniumCount]

Ahhh,

I can say I got the next week some free days to finish the art of the Rainbowcoon....I wasn't able to work effectively the last days...

I just want to give a status update! ^^

[lifemare]

I think it'd be smart of us to focus on vegetation and other quasi-static elements of the world, since they are very important to us, and at the same time much simpler to animate (since there's barely any animation involved)

 

Those will be great gateway projects for people unfamiliar with Spriter and/or animation in general.

We should leave some of those open for that reason, and not try to start with the easy ones first unless we're sure no one else will be volunteering to animate...

[TheDanaAddams]

No worries; I enjoy learning new things. Even if I'm not sucessful, I can only gain from trying!

Also, I haven't forgotten about that key; I'm just waiting to hear that skeletonals will be supported (hopefully).

I haven't checked it out yet. Soon!

Well, if you want to learn how to animate... there's one book no animator worth their salt doesn't have - The Animator's Survival Kit.

Brilliant book - the Animator's Bible.

 

Oh, gosh, I almost forgot about that. o_o;

Alas, even the pro version lacks a graph editor. I contacted the Spriter devs, and they said they might implement it down the line... but it's certainly not happening soon. Speed curves will be implemented soon, which is really great... (and also why I've avoided keyframe easing.)

 

Things i'd add to the list, that i don't see fitting in any atlases:

- Thunder Trees

- Cheshire Cat

- the Cauldron probably

- the Eldrichest (since it will have a static affected element that needs animation)

- Rainbowcoons

How did I ever forget the Cheshire Cat?

Added everything to the list, but I have no idea what state they are in as yet.

I thought the Rainbowcoon was being based on the Monkey, actually.

 

@TheDanaAddams

Just so I know what environment you have over there, could you type the following in a terminal and tell me if it gives you an error?

perl -e 'use XML::LibXML;'

(every UNIX system, including Mac OS X, comes with Perl, I just don't know which Perl modules are already bundled in)

 

Dropping that into the Terminal didn't give an error. Didn't seem to do anything, actually. But no error is good, right? xD

 

I think it'd be smart of us to focus on vegetation and other quasi-static elements of the world, since they are very important to us, and at the same time much simpler to animate (since there's barely any animation involved)

Yeah, I was going to mention this - the more 'static' elements; things that don't require much fancy animation, I could easily finish very quickly. And I probably wouldn't even have to use bones for things like that.

(I mean, it would be nice, and make things a lot easier... but in the interest of getting assets in-game now, I could suffer without them.)

 

 

I'm flexible - I can work on whatever is needed... as long as I have the appropriate art assets. =)

If you don't know what parts you need to draw, post the concept art, and explain what it needs to do, and I will do a rig breakdown.

[simplex]

Dropping that into the Terminal didn't give an error. Didn't seem to do anything, actually. But no error is good, right? xD

It was supposed to not do anything. Great, this means if I write a Perl script to manipulate Spriter save files (maybe bone -> boneless conversion), you'll be able to run it without installing anything.

[lifemare]

Ahhh,

I can say I got the next week some free days to finish the art of the Rainbowcoon....I wasn't able to work effectively the last days...

I just want to give a status update! ^^

I thought the Rainbowcoon was being based on the Monkey, actually

 

Not meaning to be inconsiderate of Mill's work on the Splumonkey Rainbowcoon, that decision was made before the new pipelines came out, when that option was simply the lesser evil.

We have to be ready for the eventuality of remaking our work at every point of the journey with this mod. It's part of the process. Updates break things, better ideas pop up, bugs show up, better tools appear, we grow tired of our old art, etc.

I'm dying to see those Splucoons. But i think we should pursue the Spriter route with them, even if it's just for comparison, and give them a proper a raccoon's body and features. Very low priority anim i'd say, but i'd add them to the list.

[MilleniumCount]

Not meaning to be inconsiderate of Mill's work on the Splumonkey Rainbowcoon, that decision was made before the new pipelines came out, when that

 

No problem. I think I will finish the atlas anyway but not with high priority and the point is it would be a monkey with a racoon costume. This is shown the most in the moving/running animation.

 

I think we could make him 200% better if we give the rocoon his own body and soul!

[lifemare]

Beanlet:

Art: All complete!

 

I think the Beanlet art should be reworked to look good at the dimensions used ingame, Dana. I'd remake all the eyes and thicken some of the lines in other sprites. I could send you a new PSD, wich would force you to re-export all the PNGs, or you could send me the PNGs you did and i'll send you their new versions.

[thelefthelix]

Judging by the "Lion Blob" I assumed it was already being custom animated.

 

I'd love to animate everything we want to put in here from scratch, but... I'm just one girl! I don't want to take on more work than necessary, and especially not more than I can deliver.

 

I don't actually know if anyone else has animation experience/training. I have a degree in this stuff, but I'm certainly a minority. Animation is an uncommon skill, and a difficult art. (And it's also bloody expensive... think I'm 50K in debt after college... but I'm rambling...)

 

I agree it would be much more simple to use its animation with the spider queen, especially if it is intended to be scaled down anyways. I personally have a little experience in animation, though it isn't much, so I'm not sure I could get him away from the "I just shoved my face and legs into a meat grinder' look. I'll mess with it in my spare time and see what I can do about it.

 

The lion blob was me practicing. I'll probably take a crack at it, and see what I can come up with. Never done any other animation in my life, so this should be interesting.

 

 

This would be useful.

 

I'll post you the PSD as soon as I get the chance.

[ArcticFox789]

Things i'd add to the list, that i don't see fitting in any atlases:

- Thunder Trees

- Cheshire Cat

- the Cauldron probably

- the Eldrichest (since it will have a static affected element that needs animation)

- Rainbowcoons

 

Would Thunder Trees not fit the Spiked Trees of the Swamp?

 

 

[lifemare]

Would Thunder Trees not fit the Spiked Trees of the Swamp?

 

I thought about that, but the Thunder Trees have a life-cycle unlike those, which means we'd have to add the clouds growing out of them with a different method.

Might aswell go with Spriter and do everything from scratch there without sprite limitations, since this is a pretty easy atlas to animate (compared to mobs).

[thelefthelix]

@debugman18 Here is the link for the Lionant atlas PSD file as it stands currently. I won't have my tablet until later tonight, so I can't get it updated right away, but I'll post this for you in the meantime if you want to play with it.

[TheDanaAddams]

I think the Beanlet art should be reworked to look good at the dimensions used ingame, Dana. I'd remake all the eyes and thicken some of the lines in other sprites. I could send you a new PSD, wich would force you to re-export all the PNGs, or you could send me the PNGs you did and i'll send you their new versions.

I think it looks just fine at the current scale!

The older attempts at converting it to an in-game state looked bad because of the terrible scale filter.

 

However, if you absolutely must re-do it, you can find all the files in that download - they're organised into subfolders for each section.

 

In the interest of cutting down the amount of work required for all of us - and because animating the back and front views is going to be very difficult in Spriter, the way it's built - I suggest using the "side" view as both a side AND front view. I mean, the art is more "three-quarter" than a direct "side" and that looks better. If you made a matching three-quarter back view, it cuts the workload down a lot. (And in my opinion, would look better.)

 

If you do go back to the art, remember to keep everything aligned EXACTLY where it is in the existing PNG files. Otherwise, it'll mess up the alignment of the constructed creature.

 

I thought about that, but the Thunder Trees have a life-cycle unlike those, which means we'd have to add the clouds growing out of them with a different method.

Might aswell go with Spriter and do everything from scratch there without sprite limitations, since this is a pretty easy atlas to animate (compared to mobs).

Some growing animations would be quite easy, but it would require a lot of different pieces for the art. Someone's got a lot of work ahead of them, there, hehe.

[lifemare]

I think it looks just fine at the current scale!

The older attempts at converting it to an in-game state looked bad because of the terrible scale filter.

 

hmmm... i might've missed those latest screenshots...

 

However, if you absolutely must re-do it, you can find all the files in that download - they're organised into subfolders for each section.

 

In the interest of cutting down the amount of work required for all of us - and because animating the back and front views is going to be very difficult in Spriter, the way it's built - I suggest using the "side" view as both a side AND front view. I mean, the art is more "three-quarter" than a direct "side" and that looks better. If you made a matching three-quarter back view, it cuts the workload down a lot. (And in my opinion, would look better.)

 

If you do go back to the art, remember to keep everything aligned EXACTLY where it is in the existing PNG files. Otherwise, it'll mess up the alignment of the constructed creature.

 

If the art is looking good at the apropriate scale, i'd leave the PSD alone.

But cutting down on your work with Spriter is an even more important reason to edit them.

I'm going to have to take two days off the forum for work (i've been glued to this for too long and i've been postponing other projects i have. Not looking forward to read through 500 notifications when i get back... and i'm hoping i don't miss too many great developments... i might take a peek between wor-NO!!! sorry! I shan't weaken my resolve!).

But i'll try to have a new PSD ready for you before thursday with those new perspectives you want.

 

Some growing animations would be quite easy, but it would require a lot of different pieces for the art. Someone's got a lot of work ahead of them, there, hehe.

 

You think it will be hard? I still haven't found the time to try Spriter. But i was convinced those should be easy.

[TheDanaAddams]

You think it will be hard? I still haven't found the time to try Spriter. But i was convinced those should be easy.

The animation will be easy - it's just that there will need to be a lot of different pieces for a life cycle.

Not an especially difficult task, I suppose, just a lot of work.

[lifemare]

The animation will be easy - it's just that there will need to be a lot of different pieces for a life cycle.

Not an especially difficult task, I suppose, just a lot of work.

 

If we go with little pieces of cloud, they can just be resized incrementaly through the various life stages until they cover the whole treetop.

Then we just need to recolor each piece into a second sprite for a change of static state.

If you want to take it a step further each little cloud could have a very simple two-frame animation of puffing up and puffing down (again just a resize with a little distortion).

 

I'd stay away from the regular tree's growth animation. Those are indeed more complicated.

 

The thunder would be the most complicated to do by hand, but it already exists as an effect. I'm hoping it can be scaled down to appear like it's coming from the tree clouds. If that is possible, the ground shaking and the extreme burst of light would negate any need for further tree animation.