animation: is it possible to make a charecter appear to "hover?"

[RedRock911]

I have a character I am working on, that generally hovers or flies instead of walking. I thought I might be able to exchange all the leg and foot parts to make her look as if she is hovering, but it didn't work to well on my first attempt, SOOOOOO...... I thought maybe i'd ask general population if anyone has ever attempted or tried to do this before. And if it's even possible to create the animation myself piece by piece (which I started to begin to do) 

 

I started, then I thought, I'd better ask before delving too deep into the project, only to be slammed down by reality that is impossible to do....hmmmmm.....might as well as this too.

 

Is it feasible to spawn a creature in the ocean tiles? or is that also impossible, for a completely separate problem. 

[Mobbstar]

Ocean tiles are,... there for a purpose. If the player was to walk off the map, that'd be disastrous! Which kinda implies: yes it is possible, only items and small animals sink in water, the rest magically stands on it.

[Corrosive]

Shadows are key to making hovering effects look real.  The shadow should be placed a little bit down and away from the object. The higher something is, the smaller the shadow should be.

[RedRock911]

Ocean tiles are,... there for a purpose. If the player was to walk off the map, that'd be disastrous! Which kinda implies: yes it is possible, only items and small animals sink in water, the rest magically stands on it.

Not so much for the player, I wanted to make a creature spawn up when my character appeared close to the water for a sanity boost. I wan't sure if it was possible to create something like that, or how difficult it might be.

 

Shadows are key to making hovering effects look real.  The shadow should be placed a little bit down and away from the object. The higher something is, the smaller the shadow should be.

 Oh yah! i got that part! , but for the character,  and this is more for addvice really, how should I make her legs to appear that she isn't "walking/running" in the air? Just go through all the current leg pieces and align them so they don't appear to move? or should I try and create an "fly_idle" animation or a "fly_foward animation" ? 

I think I can use this tutorial here for reference on getting started. I'm just not sure which way to go with it. (i'm voting for the path of least resistance!)

[Corrosive]

@RedRock911,

 

I'd say that's really just a stylistic decision, and all that matters is how you want them to look while flying!   IMO completely still legs (when in the upright "standing" position) give more of a sense of either "eerie" or "mystic"-styled flight. (Think like a classic looking vampire floating toward you.)  It also implies an effortlessness.

 

You could also opt to tilt the character toward the direction of flight to give a slightly more active looking flight (not superman style, but not street-magician-levetation-trick style either ).

 

I also kinda like a flight that makes the character look like they're being pulled around the midsection by some external force, which I think it looks hilarious. (Imagine attaching a string to the bellybutton of a cloth doll and yanking forward so the head and legs snap backward when they launch off.)

 

 

Do you want the character to be able to walk at all?  If they're always flying, you can just replace the run and/or walk animations.  If you want both options available, of course, you'll want to make a new set of animations.

 

As for linking them up to the stategraph, you can go two different ways depending on how you need/want.  You can either make a new flying state based off the walk state, or you could just use the walk state, but check for some sort of flag that you store on the character's prefab (e.g. inst.isflying = true when enabling flight mode, then on the stategraph on the walk/run states, check for inst.isflying).  Keep in mind though, that the more things you want the character to be able to do while in the air, the more work it's gonna be for you.

[RedRock911]

tweening is killing it for me, after i finished everything. anyone know if your supposed to use the key selected option "before" AND "after a change in the animation? i'm saying yes, but its proving rather difficult to know for sure. either way, i'm having alot of fun with it. 

 

[Corrosive]

@RedRock911,

 

Wait... what?

 

"Tweening" refers to "what happens (be)tween keyframes"

 

More specifically, it defines how to interpolate between two keyframes' respective values.  Interpolate is just a fancy word for "change from one value to another over time."

 

"Key selected" adds a keyframe (at the current time) on the timeline for the object that is currently selected.  You should click "key selected" at the exact time that you want the object to START moving(or rotating/scaling/changing in any other way).  I'll call this "Keyframe 1". Once the keyframe is on the timeline, you can move to the spot where you want that "tween" to end, and add another keyframe. I'll call this "Keyframe 2".

 

Now, when you change the properties of Keyframe 2, Spriter will automatically interpolate between the properties of Keyframe 1.

 

 

It helps a lot if you do this in Spriter though:

 

*edit: whoops, forum doesn't like webm files. Have a link:

 

http://gfycat.com/HeavyImperfectBuckeyebutterfly