Animation Question

bluebyu25

So I'm just now getting into creating my own 2D art for games. I don't know the correct jargon or exactly how to ask this, but what I want to know is what program/ how do you make different .png files to use for the animate function in GS? For instance, let's say I've drawn a graphic of a stick man standing straight, but now I just want to move his right arm up and save that file for a wave animation. What program would allow to select part of the graphic and move it?

I hope I conveyed my question clearly. I've heard people say "anchor points" and don't know
the definition of an actor point but contexually maybe that's what I'm referring to?

Thanks all....really eager to learn how to do this so I can get to work.

QuinnZoneStudios

Well you could use this:
http://anime.smithmicro.com/index.php

Or you could use Photoshop, keep each limb in a layer and animate them in Imageready. Or you could animate the layers in After Effects and render the frames out from there.
No matter which route you go, you'll need to make sure all your frames and characters line up correctly within the square or rectangle as that needs to match your actor in GS.
Each one will need to be exported as .png 24 (with alpha) optimized for web to keep the file size down.
Also be aware of how many frames per second you will need. You can probably go as low a 6 FPS but that will look quite jerky. Usually anything from 15 up to 30 FPS is fine.

Hope that helps. Good luck with it!

Mike

old_kipper

You can download 'Pencil' at souceforge.net for free. Ths exports png and you can separate layers when exporting. It is pretty goof but a little buggy. If you have an iPad have a look at DoInk. This is good and you can use the pas to draw with. Flash is good for animation but expensive. There student versions available heavily discounted. If you would like to try animating with objects and photographing them look at bonix software. For cut out style animation I believe there is software available but it's not my thing.

You ask about anchor points in animation. You can use sets of animation in separate actors to build up a character, but currently joints are not natively available in gs. There are a few ways around this, but joints are due in a future release. Don't expect to be able to join a group of objects and have them work as a group for collisions until the joint function is available.

bluebyu25

All good info, thanks. I have a lynda.com account, for some reason I haven't looked there yet but I'm sure they might have some vids on it there.

Mike, you mention imageready. Is this a component of cs5 or something different.

QuinnZoneStudios

I just have Photoshop 9 (CS2) but Imageready has always been a part of PS. Not sure about now though as it's been years since I upgraded
Shouldn't be too hard to find out though. I used to do simple little animations in Imageready.

debugdesign

Anchor points are used in vector art. Try using illustrator or flash and use the PEN tool as this allows you to draw using anchor points

old_kipper

Are you are asking about moving part of a graphic to change its shape or are you are talking about moving a section of the character to animate it? The first if moving anchor points, and the second is moving things around a point of rotation. Both are used in animating characters.

kipper

waxgoggles

I recently got toonboom so I'll be animating there. I am working on a streetfighter styled game and I'm wondering will I have to animate every move an actor does as and import it as a separate actor? say for instance... Walking, jumping, kicking, uppercutting...would that be four actor imports or simply just a behavior tag for each action linked to the actor which would trigger each move? I hope that makes sense. lol

QuinnZoneStudios

One actor and multiple animation behaviors.

Here's an animation states demo that shows how to integrate different moves.
http://gamesalad.com/game/2185

You can also find it and open it up under the NEW + tab in GS Creator. Just type Fixed into the search box and hit the "Edit in Gamesalad Creator" button to poke around and see how it's done.

Good luck!

Mike

bluebyu25

Good deal. I am heavily considering buying a wacom bamboo pen tablet to draw. Anybody used this before?

old_kipper

I use a Wacom all the time and cannot recommend them highly enough. Last one did 12 years of everyday usage, and was finally retired when the old Mac ports disappeared off the back. Present one has done 5 years and not a single problem, and a joy to use.

kipper