How do Anim Files Work for Things Other Than Characters?

[Scoobie101]

As of now I've only worked on textures for characters and items, but how do anim files work for creatures other than characters? Like, how does the code know to use a certain portion of the texture file for one thing and another part for another thing. Like, if you have a creature that sleeps and runs and yawns, how does the code/game know what parts of the .tex to use for each one? I'm asking because I wanted to make a tiny, Chester-sized, sheep-like creature that has a pick able corn stalk growing out of his/her wool, and I'm not sure how to go about setting up the anim files...

[rezecib]

@Scoobie101 The build.bin ("build") is what divides the tex into pieces ("symbols") and gives them names. The anim.bin ("bank") is what specifies the animations; the location of each of the symbols and their orientation, size, and whether they're showing.

When deciding if you can use existing game builds/banks, size should not be a concern. Instead, you should look at things that are made up in similar ways. In your case, you may be able to use the ewecus or beefalo builds for your sheep, but only if the corn stalk is small enough to fit inside the masks for each symbol (the mask specifies what parts of the tex are shown for a particular symbol, usually this is a somewhat-tight polygon around the existing art).

However, based on your description I suspect you will have to create a build and bank from scratch in Spriter, which is under the Mod Tools. What you'll want is this setup:

mod_folder/exported/anim_name/anim_name.scml -- the spriter project
mod_folder/exported/anim_name/symbol_name/image.png --the image for that particular symbol

Then in Spriter you'll have to pull in the images and arrange them into animations. You should probably look at the single-player forums for more information on this, as the pipeline hasn't changed and I haven't done anything beyond creating equippables so far.

You can also decompile existing anim.zips from the game into Spriter project using ktools. This will help show you how existing anims are set up at the Spriter level.

[Scoobie101]

Uhh, sounds complicated, but is it possible to use Chester's anim as as base and just replace the open/close animation with the corn stalk that I can some how put on the rest of the sheep? Cause the sheep needs a picked and unpicked state...

Edited June 16, 2016 by Scoobie101

[rezecib]

@Scoobie101 I don't think that would work, no...

[Aquaterion]

I guess you could kinda copy the beefalo since he has the sheared state, and then just scale him down

[Scoobie101]

4 hours ago, Aquaterion said:

I guess you could kinda copy the beefalo since he has the sheared state, and then just scale him down

Yeah... I could make his shear state the sheep's picked state... Hmm...

Edited June 17, 2016 by Scoobie101