Animatio: How to do amazing animation with GS.

trandzien

Hello,
I have been working with GS for about 8 months now with no development skills. Just looking at videos and buy template to do games. Nevertheless, the competition on AppleStore is very agressive and you need really to provide top quality app to be market by AppleStore. So here is the 1 million dollar question, how easy it is to do amazing animation? I have in mind top sell app using coco2d like api's. I wonder if how the GS salad team will support us in that direction? Thanks in advance for for feedback's. Regards Tran

JustMe74

What do you consider "amazing animation?"
What is it that you want to do in GS?

trandzien

my reference is what shape-minds has done so for Nighty Night, LittleFox Music box. We would like to reach this quality with Gamesalad.

RP

Animations are not solely dependent on a game engine, they are built outside the SDK in their own proprietary software. Amazing animations need to happen there first.

You can do animation like effects via timers, moves, constrains and interpolates, but that would be a lengthy and tedious process in GameSalad's current form. I'd suggest getting real familiar with Flash, Anime Studio, Toon Boom or the likes.

trandzien

We have flash but gave up at end because we have to transform the swf fike into png files. This is too huge and maje GS instable. We have try to put video as well but this type of fike is neither accepted in GS. How do you do it with the tools you mention? regards Tran

RP

Yeah, I know, that is all part of the process. That was the right track.The animations have to come out as keyframes as .png with alpha preserved. Drop the FPS when possible (both in Flash and in GS). Unfortunately GS is easily taxed by animations. I had to reconsider what was going to be keyframed animation and what was going to be done strictly via GS code. A little combo of both seemed to be the sweet spot.

romma

Download "ImageAlpha" and ImageOptim simply the BEST compressing software .png I've reduced files up to 90% original size with very little lose. They're free btw.

old_kipper

Some find flash great for built the components of a character and then export the animated sprite. In both the title you mention and after a quick look on youtube I would say that both these projects are largely done with bitmap artwork scanned from paper or drawings that have been scanned and then coloured on computer. At a guess I would say that they were probably animated in After Effects with parent and child linking and some 'puppeting'. Puppeting allows objects to be distorted over time so you can animate them. The engine used might have a joints system to allow easier connection of parts but I have not seen it used with physics in either title. So in reality you should be able to put something of this quality together with GS if you put in the effort and have the drafting and programming skills.

As actual animation within the titles, there is very little use of more than loops of simple actions. A lot can be done in this way if you keep the actors small as it won't eat too much memory, but you do have to keep an eye on it and be sparing with the animation. It is often better to use fewer frames of good animation than lots of frames of weak animation. So convincing animation helps. I have a few projects in development and all are animation heavy, so I keep an eye on the memory as I work. I set things up to use strong artwork for backgrounds and enough elements to give it life. Then I consider how I can breakdown animation into the most efficient components to give movement, control memory use and allow flexibility of the characters.

10 to 12 fps is fine and you can work out the number of frames for any movement by timing yourself with a stop watch. If you repeat an action say 10 times and the time in seconds will define the action in frames. Check out RIchard WIlliams' animators survival guide as a source to learn animation from.

The titles you list both look like the art was by a children's illustrator. There are many out there and you should be able to track one or two down if you wish to find someone who produces quality art work of this nature. It may well cost money but you might strike lucky and find someone who is willing to cooperate with you on trying something out. But remember they are pros and need to pay the mortgage. If they are good they will be busy. If you can produce good artwork yourself then you have a start, but animation is a different art to illustration or graphic design. Its about performance. Think of it as such and it will help. You might look at out of copyright illustrations and books for children but these have already turned up and 'converted'.

I have posted the video below before but it is animated entirely in GS apart from the sprite animation of the deer.

The later scenes have character animation in as well. and are as animated as much as the scenes I've seen in LittleFox Music box. The title I hope will be ready for xmas and will have months and months of work in. The programming is not difficult, and only is about a 1/6 of the work involved by the time I have narration and music in. And it is all down to a story I believe to be worth putting the work into. I would look to make a project that is the best you could possibly make and somewhat beyond so you stretch yourself. Hopefully it will be recognised as something worth more than the price on the store. Good Luck. Kip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Pw-QOXnv7i0

trandzien

Dear all, thx so much for all your advices. So this is possible and rmenber a guy named Steve saying Stay Hungry Stay Foolish ;-) @Kip I wish the best because from what you demo this is just amazing ! I wish one day I can reach your skill in GS. Regards Tran

beefy_clyro

@old_kipper Thats looks awesome, I have no idea whats going on but man I'm intrigued! Love the dramatic change!

LiquidGameworks

@old_kipper always mesmerized by your work...

old_kipper

Thanks @tran, @beefy, and @liquid. It's a new fairytale set in the very north of Europe, amongst the Sami people, and tells the story of a boy, the sessions and an underworld where Summer retreats to during Winter. The open scene above is the background to a narration that tells the first part of the story. The story can be read, narrated and watched, or the artwork can be looked at and played with as there are elements programmed so that a child can play while being read to, or just for the joy of it. In the scene above the sessions can be 'wound' back and forth with a finger on the Moon or Sun, and the deer can be herded into a corral which closes once they are all inside and something then happens within the page...

The artwork for this is a mix of watercolour and photoshop work and is loosely based on stone age and Sami traditional artwork, but softened into a style to work for children. Elements also reflect Sami folklore, their nomadic cycle of life through the sessions, and Shamanistic beliefs such as the World being organised as a tree. In all I am trying to make it feel like a classic fairytale that will delight those who view it. I was very fortunate to visit Lapland and be able to do research for this story, but I have never been so cold in my life (-35 degrees C), and never fully light as it was December. They refer to it as the 'Blue Time', but in fact my impression was mostly almost blood red light lighting snow on trees... That and the strange sightings of Russian car headlights shooting over a huge ice lake to pick up fish from fishing hole nets in the ice, and kids in the local coffee shop hanging out in Kylie and AC-DC t-shirts and Skidoo Pants.

kip

GLGAMES

OMG!! absolutely stunning.

simo103

@old_kipper ... your talent is awesome and inspiring ... that project is just beautiful!