Friday, August 23, 2013

Sheets for AnimEDS.

The set of animations for the school zone is quite full now (here, you don't see the spongebop, for instance).
Some of them could be dropped in specific levels, but I just don't want to lose things I've crafted so carefully, especially if I know I might use them later on.

So, just like you have "sheets" of sprites in SEDS, there will be some "sheets" of animations in AnimEDS asap. I love thinking of "sheets" for that because i) the DS display is too small to show them all and ii) scrolling through linear large set has never felt comfortable when working with RSD game-maker.

On dirait bien que j'ai quand-même rempli le jeu d'animations auquel AnimEDS me donnait droit. Je vais donc introduire des 'planches d'animation' tout comme il y a eu des 'planches de sprites' dans SEDS. J'aime bien penser en terme de planches. Ca s'adapte assez bien à l'espace limité de l'écran DS et c'est plus confortable que les interminables listes déroulantes de l'éditeur RSD.

Ce n'est pas forcément la chose la plus urgente à faire là-maintenant, mais le fait que la page soit pleine n'aide pas à ajouter des choses comme "Bilou-dans-l'encrier", "la gomme tournée dans l'autre sens" ou "le crayon assommé". Du coup ...

RSD map editor: you had to scroll
in a flat list to get another tile.
Random thoughts:
  • there are 8 columns per sheet, and less than 8 lines. That suggest using octal numbers for animations in game script could mean 226 is natevly translated into "page 2, row 2, column 6".
  • [done] We'll need a way to move things around pages. It would be useful to consider the last two lines as belonging to a sticky page (e.g. page 7) that can be used as buffer space to move things between "structured" pages.
  • [done] We'll need an input to dismiss one animation completely.
  • [done] preserve ongoing animation while switching page
  • [done] keep an "undo" for deleted animation, recall them pressing "DELETE" again.
  • [wish] sticky page remains sticky across loads (implies content wouldn't be saved :-/)
  • [done] avoid additional issues with LEDS' monsters rendering.
  • [done] some random replacement still occur, apparently when coming back from the editor window
  • [fixme] restoring deleted animation on another slot randomly makes source slot show an animation again.
  • [wish] find some way to flip to the next/prev sheet (preferably without the stylus). 
  • [wish] I can live with pendat's hands not having pendats colors on the thumbnail, but body's color reflecting the real choice could be important for level editor.
  • [wish] flipped limbs rendered flipped on the thumbnail.
It might not be the most critical thing to do to progress on the project, but it might also be that none of the monsters have progressed this summer because this sheet is full. No room for Bilou-in-inkjet... No room for swapped bopping eraser ... No room for stunned pendat ...

4 comments:

owen said...

I donot like sprites sheet because they take too long to make :(

interesting video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-chi097uV4

PypeBros said...

I knew ubiARt framework already, but the video is stunning. Thanks for sharing.

As far as the "sheets take too long to make", I'm not sure what you'd use instead. I haven't got the tools to use concept art directly (not to mention that DS-like hardware wouldn't handle it), and I quite suck at 3D models, so it's still my best option.

Hopefully, the stylus and the DS screen make it almost natural to work with ;)

PypeBros said...

What do you use instead of sheets ?

owen said...

I suck at sheets and 2d so I do not better solution than sheets! lol.

Sheets are the only way. Maybe I am too much programmer.