Adventure Game Studio

AGS Support => Beginners' Technical Questions => Topic started by: SSH on Tue 09/05/2006 22:37:47

Title: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10
Post by: SSH on Tue 09/05/2006 22:37:47
SSH's Walkcycle generator
Makes walkcycles easy... and can be used as a Paint program too.

Now loading walkcycle details from an XML file that you can edit yourself

Download Walkcycle generator here (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=download&game=720)
Download Princess Marian's body parts and XML here! (http://ssh.me.uk/dev/PMWC.zip)

For the unsupported broken hi-res version, see further down the thread

Please comment and make suggestions for improvements!

Screenshots
(http://ssh.me.uk/wcgenss.png)(http://ssh.me.uk/wcgenssfw.png)
Examples that somehow got their heads chopped off... :(
(http://ssh.me.uk/Right.gif)(http://ssh.me.uk/Forward.gif)

VERSION HISTORY:
v1.01 bug fixes
v1.02 with Undo and a small palette of colours
v1.03 tooltips and bug fixes
v1.04 fixed DeepHitz's problem
v1.05 fixed AJA and pslim's bugs and a few others I found in the process ;)
v1.10 added XML import and provided Right and Front walkcycle XMLs

INSTRUCTIONS

Animation

The program starts with an walkcycle animation running. You can turn on the "skeleton" of the walkcycle by clicking on the button under the animation with the white figure on it. You can also toggle the sprites by clicking on the button beside it. The buttons next to those are Play/pause and Single-step. These allow you to stop and start the animation, or look at individual frames.

You can save the whole animation as a series of bitmaps by clicking the "Save Walkcycle" button which is down in the bottom-right of the screen. You can change the animation speed by opening Animation properties: just click on the animation. On the dialog that opens, you can enter a frame delay for the animation. You can also choose an image to be used as the background of the animation display, or with the properties open, move the RGB sliders in the bottom-left of the screen to adjust the BG colour. Here you can also load a new XML file from disk. The default XML file loaded at startup is called WCGen.xml.

Bone Select/Info

In the top-middle of the screen, you can select a "Bone" of the skeleton. The information on the bone appears to the right. The bone length is the size of the skeleton bone. Width and height describe the sprite, which you can see too. If you click on the sprite you can edit it in the bottom half of the screen (more later). The sprite is drawn in the animation centred on the bone, but you can also change the X and Y offsets in the info pane.

Sprite Editor

You can edit sprites here that you have loaded in from the Bone Info or from a file. Once edited, sprites can be saved or applied to the currently selected Bone. Note that with all sprites in the editor and loading from disk that AGS Runtime treats pure magenta (R=255, G=0, B=255) as transparent, so paint any areas that you want to to be transparent with this colour. AGS Runtime can also only handle BMP and PCX file formats.

The tools available are a brush (select circular or square, and the size in the GUI above the Paint tools); Dropper (click to pick up colour from image); Flood Fill; Line; Select; Cut; Copy; Paste; Colour Replace. Note that with all operations, dragging doesn't really work: e.g. select an area by clicking and then clicking again, rather than dragging.

NB: The undo button only undoes Paint operations.

XML

TO BE CONTINUED...  ;)
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.00
Post by: on Tue 09/05/2006 22:50:50
Cool! It looks nifty, nice work SSH. I tried it but didn't know what the heck I was doing.

I imagine a lot of people will find it very useful. Perhaps you could include a readme or tutorial or something?

:)
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.00
Post by: magintz on Tue 09/05/2006 22:51:01
Wow, this sounds interesting, not sure how it is goign to work.

Taking a look now, will report back ASAP

EDIT: Wow this is awesome, it took a moment to work it out but it seems great. For people who are interested:

Draw all the individual body parts using the current images so you know basic sizes and shapes. Load the images into the application. The apply each one to the bone structure under the different areas. Then just click the "save walkcycle"... nice and simple!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.00
Post by: Candle on Tue 09/05/2006 22:55:52
Thats really cool SSH. can you do up and down cycles?
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.00
Post by: Kweepa on Wed 10/05/2006 00:34:17
Pretty cool!
I got a few crashes just clicking on buttons initially (eg when nothing assigned, or trying to resize a non-image), but I sort of see how it works now. Awesome!
The walkcycle itself could do with some tweaking - the feet stretch forward too far.
Trying to change the cycle offset also is odd - it keeps changing the number I type in.

[EDIT]
Another crash pressing the paste button without copying first (I guess).

---------------------------
Adventure Game Studio
---------------------------
An internal error has occured. Please note down the following information.
If the problem persists, contact Chris Jones.
(ACI version 2.72.913)

Error: run_text_script1: error -6 running function 'goToolPaste_Click':
Error: Null pointer referenced
in Paint (line 191)
from Global script (line 547)
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.00
Post by: SSH on Wed 10/05/2006 08:15:34
Quote from: Candle on Tue 09/05/2006 22:55:52
Thats really cool SSH. can you do up and down cycles?
Yes, I hope to make the Bone structures and Cycles fully load/save/editable, but I thought it was already useful now.

Quote from: SteveMcCrea on Wed 10/05/2006 00:34:17
I got a few crashes just clicking on buttons initially (eg when nothing assigned, or trying to resize a non-image), but I sort of see how it works now. Awesome!
Ooops, I'll try and track these down. Please let me know exactly what you are doing  when they happen, though!

Quote
The walkcycle itself could do with some tweaking - the feet stretch forward too far.

Well, once I make it editable....

Quote
Trying to change the cycle offset also is odd - it keeps changing the number I type in.
Ah yes, it might work better if you pause the animation first. Or not. That needs some work...   ::)

Quote
Another crash pressing the paste button without copying first (I guess).

---------------------------
Adventure Game Studio
---------------------------
An internal error has occured. Please note down the following information.
If the problem persists, contact Chris Jones.
(ACI version 2.72.913)

Error: run_text_script1: error -6 running function 'goToolPaste_Click':
Error: Null pointer referenced
in Paint (line 191)
from Global script (line 547)

I'll get this cleared up, thanks for the detail.

I'll try and remember to turn off debug mode, too  :=
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.00
Post by: Haddas on Wed 10/05/2006 13:23:12
I had a problem with it.

Should using the fill button fill the whole square with random TV Noise?
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.00
Post by: SSH on Wed 10/05/2006 13:26:39
No, but I've fixed that bug now. It only happens on sprites that are an odd number of bytes wide!

However, it seems that my hosting's ftp server is down (hajo, AGA: fix it!) so I can't upload it yet...Ã,  :-[
EDIT:
Uploaded...

Also fixed Steve's copy bug and added a colour replacement tool
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.02
Post by: Ubel on Wed 10/05/2006 21:34:18
This is so awesome :D

(http://koti.mbnet.fi/paapeli/buna.gif)
¬¬
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.02
Post by: lo_res_man on Wed 10/05/2006 21:36:10
this would be good for making "crowds" without doing as much work.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.02
Post by: MrColossal on Wed 10/05/2006 22:33:37
This is pretty cool except I have one major problem with it...

There's no floppy hands option.

Please please please make a Colossal-izer button that makes the hands very floppy!

MY LEGACY IS AT STAKE!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.02
Post by: Haddas on Wed 10/05/2006 23:01:41
Your genes are FLAWED!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.02
Post by: Afflict on Wed 10/05/2006 23:03:32
Kewl. Havent used it but kewl!

Will check it out ASAP

Anyway maybe you guys can build into ags ;)
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.02
Post by: Kweepa on Thu 11/05/2006 00:23:35
Pablo! Quick - post it in the Critics' Lounge!

SSH, I haven't had time to try to repro the bugs I mentioned earlier.

But I was thinking... How about an option to drag bones to make keyframes for some other animations than just a walk cycle? I guess you're entering MoHo territory, but without (hopefully) the learning curve.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.02
Post by: Steel Drummer on Thu 11/05/2006 03:51:41
cool program. A bit glitchy though, but with some improvement in the program and bug fixes it would be awesome.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.02
Post by: fovmester on Thu 11/05/2006 05:22:57
I say: WOW! What a great idea! To be able to make a walkcycle in seconds!

I guess an improvement would be to have several kinds of walkcycles reflecting the personality of the character; normal, nerdy, hunk, bad ass, old, etc etc.

Great work, SSH!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.02
Post by: SSH on Thu 11/05/2006 06:01:48
Quote from: yodaman11111 on Thu 11/05/2006 03:51:41
cool program. A bit glitchy though, but with some improvement in the program and bug fixes it would be awesome.

Can you be specific, please? What bugs did you find, and what improvements would you like: I'm not psychic!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.02
Post by: Candle on Thu 11/05/2006 07:01:51
Up and down cycle would be good.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.03
Post by: SSH on Thu 11/05/2006 13:00:36
v1.03 uploaded with tooltips and minor bug fixes.

The front/back walkcycles will come from the features I'm working on:
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.03
Post by: Helli78 on Thu 11/05/2006 14:07:39
its an very interesting proggy. i 'found' a bug: when i click onto the right-above corner of the program-desk i will always get this error-message:

(http://img351.imageshack.us/img351/4668/error6fc.png)
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.04
Post by: SSH on Thu 11/05/2006 16:38:15
Fixed!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.04
Post by: pslim on Thu 11/05/2006 17:10:00
Wow, this is amazing. Brilliant idea. I haven't had time to look at it really closely yet, but I can already tell that it's got the potential to eliminate a lot of headaches, especially for noob animators such as myself. ;)

I'm kind of not as excited about the fact that the tooltips fade in instead of just appearing. I feel like they're teasing me.  :=

Also, is there any way to resize the windowed version? Running it in a window makes it easier to move between programs, but it's kind of hard for me to see that way.

Anyway, I think this is a really neat program and the fact that it was actually made with AGS just reaffirms how powerful the engine really is.  :D
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.04
Post by: SSH on Thu 11/05/2006 17:16:32

Quote from: pslim on Thu 11/05/2006 17:10:00
I'm kind of not as excited about the fact that the tooltips fade in instead of just appearing. I feel like they're teasing me.  :=
I'll have to add a "Tooltip fade disable" option somewhere ;)

Quote
Also, is there any way to resize the windowed version? Running it in a window makes it easier to move between programs, but it's kind of hard for me to see that way.
Run the setup and turn on the 2x or 3x graphics filters...

Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.04
Post by: AJA on Thu 11/05/2006 17:17:32
Some bugs:
-When I change the values in the resize image dialog, the values in the "background windows" change too.
-The whole program also crashed when I tried to save the walk cycle (when I had typed the filename):
in Global script (line 72)
from Global script (line 92)

Error: String.Substring: invalid length

(I didn't put the extension to the file name.)


This seems like a very handy program, although it could benefit a lot from a higher resolution. Very nice work, SSH!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.04
Post by: pslim on Thu 11/05/2006 22:34:33
I crashed it when I was trying to use the pick color function on part of the transparency section of the bmp I was working on in the generator.

"

in RawGetRGB (line 21)
from Paint (line 349)
from Paint (line 398)
from Paint (line 456)

Error: DynamicSprite.CreateFromBackground: invalid co-ordinates specified
"
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.04
Post by: Steel Drummer on Thu 11/05/2006 22:45:02
yes, up and down would be good. it would also be good if you could get body parts from folders rather than just the one, and if you didn't have to overwrite the old ones, etc. I also found that you needed to make the custom body parts larger for them to fit on the body and look good.   
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.04
Post by: SSH on Fri 12/05/2006 09:27:22
v1.05 uploaded to fix these bugs...

Quote from: AJA on Thu 11/05/2006 17:17:32
Some bugs:
-When I change the values in the resize image dialog, the values in the "background windows" change too.
Fixed... in fact the module that handles this will be released as a separate thing...

Quote
-The whole program also crashed when I tried to save the walk cycle (when I had typed the filename):
in Global script (line 72)
from Global script (line 92)

Error: String.Substring: invalid length

(I didn't put the extension to the file name.)

Aaargh! Took me ages to work out this one: String.CompareTo return 0 if it matches, not 1!

Quote
This seems like a very handy program, although it could benefit a lot from a higher resolution. Very nice work, SSH!

Well, its down to AGS that it can't support highers resolutions. I was initially doing it at 640x480 but realised that AGS just can't handle pixel precision at that resolution. Maybe I can make a 640x480 version that just allows imported sprites and doesn't have the Paint functionality

Quote from: pslim on Thu 11/05/2006 22:34:33
I crashed it when I was trying to use the pick color function on part of the transparency section of the bmp I was working on in the generator.

Error: DynamicSprite.CreateFromBackground: invalid co-ordinates specified

Ah yes, I should have fixed any of these kind of bugs, now in v1.05

Thanks for the bug reports, guys!

Quote from: yodaman11111 on Thu 11/05/2006 22:45:02
yes, up and down would be good. it would also be good if you could get body parts from folders rather than just the one, and if you didn't have to overwrite the old ones, etc. I also found that you needed to make the custom body parts larger for them to fit on the body and look good.   

Well, AGS cannot access files outside the current folder (to stop people writing Viruses in AGS!) so nothing I can do about that!

As for making sprites bigger than the bones (assuming that's what you mean), yes of course you do. A person with bones bigger than their flesh would have bits of bone protuding, wouldn't they!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.04
Post by: pslim on Fri 12/05/2006 12:07:18
QuoteAs for making sprites bigger than the bones (assuming that's what you mean), yes of course you do. A person with bones bigger than their flesh would have bits of bone protuding, wouldn't they!


What I think he means is that, for example, if you have a bmp of a complete side view of your character sprite and you cut it into pieces to import into Walk Cyclist, the pieces won't line up properly. Rather than making them larger, I found it makes more sense to make them overlap one another. That is, when you cut out the thigh, make sure the lower boundary includes a few pixels that will also be included when you cut out the shin. The only exception is the foot, which needs to be just the flat part at the bottom or the bending will look strange. :)


Also, a question: the x and y offsets... I can't figure out what they're for. Initially I thought it was to help line up the parts but when I changed the values nothing seemed to happen. It would help if we were able to move things around a bit. It would also be cool if there were an option to save the walkcycle in body parts (although this would be a ton of bmps to save) because they require a bit of editing and it's easier to edit them in pieces than merged with what's below them (for example if the arms are chunky in one frame but the torso looks fine it would be a real help to be able to edit the arms and leave the torso intact). Just a thought. :)
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.05
Post by: Cownip on Sat 13/05/2006 12:23:18
This things awsome, I was trying to figure out how to do a walkin person/creature a lot last week and having some difuculty(makeing my first game). This thing saved me, right in time. The only problem I ened up having on this was that I coulden't find the way out(lol), so I altf4ed. Is there another way out and I'm oblivious as usual, or do we need to alt f4 out?
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.05
Post by: Haddas on Sat 13/05/2006 13:18:35
As with all AGS programs, Ctrl+Q should bring up an exit dialog
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.05
Post by: SSH on Sat 13/05/2006 19:34:44
Why woudl you want to quit?  :=

Sorry, I always ran it windowed so I just used the X... I'll add a quit somewhere sometime
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.05
Post by: Hammerite on Sun 14/05/2006 15:44:43
this is fantastic. ive always had problems doing walkcycles but this has really helped.
although its a shame that it cant to up/down cycles. but hell, they're the easiest to do anyway.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10
Post by: SSH on Tue 16/05/2006 10:30:50
Quote from: Hammerite on Sun 14/05/2006 15:44:43
this is fantastic. ive always had problems doing walkcycles but this has really helped.
although its a shame that it cant to up/down cycles. but hell, they're the easiest to do anyway.
Thanks. Your wish is my command... v1.10 now up with front walkcycle capability. Just click on the animation and hit the "Load XML" button, select Front.xml and there you are.

Also, I can confirm that Ctrl-Q has always does the normal AGS quit in this program.

Quote from: pslim on Fri 12/05/2006 12:07:18
Also, a question: the x and y offsets... I can't figure out what they're for. Initially I thought it was to help line up the parts but when I changed the values nothing seemed to happen. It would help if we were able to move things around a bit.
The offsets do work, the front walkcycle uses them, but they haven't changed from previous versions...


By the way:

The program has about 3550 lines of code over 10 modules and the global script...
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.04
Post by: Toefur on Tue 16/05/2006 13:05:14
Quote from: SSH on Fri 12/05/2006 09:27:22
Well, its down to AGS that it can't support highers resolutions. I was initially doing it at 640x480 but realised that AGS just can't handle pixel precision at that resolution. Maybe I can make a 640x480 version that just allows imported sprites and doesn't have the Paint functionality

I think a 640*480 version would be extremely helpful. I don't plan on doing any of my painting in their anyway, I'm no pixel artist.  :'(

Awesome little program you've got here, though.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: SSH on Tue 16/05/2006 15:18:32
OK, this is really just the same program with the resolution changed, so I make no promises and won't support it. If you have a bug in it, please see if the same thing happens in the proper version before asking me...

..but.. here's the 640x480 one. (http://ssh.me.uk/WCGHiRes.zip) You can see I haven't even bothered stretching the default sprites...
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: on Sat 03/06/2006 14:30:26
Thank you for this awesome program!

I got one quiestion is there a way to make the character smaller?
I have choosen the 320x200 en i made smaller bodyparts, and adjusted the x and y but now the character walks funny.
I want to make a game with the resolution 320x200 so the character must be around the 60 high.

;D

Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Kweepa on Sun 04/06/2006 04:43:30
I think you can just change the bone lengths.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: SSH on Sun 04/06/2006 18:20:57
Yes, you'll need to change the sprites and bone lengths to be shorter
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: on Mon 05/06/2006 19:18:46
 ::) of course. Thanx for the quick respons!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: lo_res_man on Thu 15/06/2006 23:54:48
Could you make a back walkcycle? or could you do that anyway with the front walkcycle function with the generator
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Penguinx on Fri 07/07/2006 16:13:31
(http://penguinx.org/wp-content/themes/frenden/images/smilie_surprise.gif) Wow! This is great!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: joelphilippage on Tue 11/07/2006 15:45:02
I really need a back walkcycle. Are you planning on making one or will you just make an editable bone structure.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: SSH on Tue 11/07/2006 15:54:16
There already is and editable bone structure.

I will do a back walkcycle at some point, but don't hold your breath...
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: joelphilippage on Wed 12/07/2006 01:41:15
Oh! thanks.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: TerranRich on Sat 09/09/2006 14:18:04
I haven't DLed the prog yet, but it looks awesome. One question: Is it possible to make the character bounce when he walks forward? In the example provided he kinda stays in one spots and does aerobics with his legs :P Just curious.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: SSH on Sun 10/09/2006 21:50:26
Forward/back walkcycles shouldn't bob. it looks silly when they are static, true, but when they are moving in AGS it is fine. I think.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: He-Man on Mon 11/09/2006 12:46:27
Thanks alot SSH!
I know people have said it before but this thing is really great. It's really going to make game making a lot easier from now on.
Keep up the good work!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: theatrx on Tue 13/02/2007 05:07:03
SSH!Ã,  You never cease to amaze me!

I bought Poser 6 to do walk cycles and to build characters for just this purpose... meanwhile 400 dollars later... you come up with this!Ã,  Ã,  Still I like what poser can do and it's working really well with the 'photographic' characters I am working with... but gosh!Ã,  this is truly fantastic. Great Work!Ã,  Again!Ã,  Steve (theatrx)
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Kweepa on Sat 17/02/2007 01:18:30
Finally got around to using this. Awesome!
(http://www.kweepa.com/step/ags/images/DixieSSH.gif)

Is there a manual somewhere? Is there some way to edit the parts' x and y offsets in the xml? I'd like to be able to keep my setup. A "save xml" option would be nice! So would a single step backwards button.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: SSH on Mon 19/02/2007 09:58:32
Thanks for the suggestions Steve. Yeah, a save XML would be nice and backwards step... I'm not sure what you mean, but only because its ages since I used this myself.

In fact, I'd love to be able to let you edit frames by dragging around the points of the skeleton and various other things: scaling the whole set of angles, etc. But even what I was thinking of is actually producing the whole walkcycle dynamically in-game and letting the user script up commands to make an arm stretch out or up and so on, and to automatically foreshorten and so on. The front/back walkcycles are pretty dodgy when actually used in AGS, and I want to work on that too.

Perhaps I can build up some momentum to work on this some more. It would be great if I coudl work out how to do it nicely in 800x600 mode, as its all very small just now.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Kweepa on Mon 19/02/2007 18:21:41
I did some work on an animation editor with point dragging at the weekend. Perhaps we can collaborate on it, because I'm having trouble writing neat xml reading and writing code.

Here's what I have so far (note that some of the menu items don't work, but the keyboard shortcuts they refer to do). Source is included.
http://www.kweepa.com/step/ags/tech/NM8R20070218.rar (http://www.kweepa.com/step/ags/tech/NM8R20070218.rar)

And a screenshot for the curious:
(http://www.kweepa.com/step/ags/tech/nm8r.png)
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Rui 'Trovatore' Pires on Mon 12/03/2007 12:07:39
Whee, Steve and SSH get together! I'll really enjoy checking up on the development of an already extraordinary program, now that another extraordinary coder has come up!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Dualnames on Fri 20/04/2007 17:42:45
I don't want to sound like I don't appreciate all your work on the program but the front walkcycle needs many adjustments. It doesn't stack with the others. Your program though it's perfect.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Javin on Fri 04/05/2007 16:36:45
LMAO!  I just took the test to become a member of the forum.  What a riot.  Any way to find out what score I got?

Anywho, I haven't installed your app (I'm no artist) but it looks like you're using some sort of 2D skeleton for it?  I'm a 3D programmer, and I have well over 1000 motion capture animations.  Perhaps I could be of some assistance, writing a program that sits from a static angle (which can be adjusted) and "builds" skeletal data for your app?  Respond if interested.

-Javin
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Dualnames on Mon 07/05/2007 02:23:00
By the way I withdraw my previous comment. With some adjustments I made back walkcycle.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: vertigoaddict on Tue 22/05/2007 11:56:43
Praise is always welcomed right? Great stuff here!
My first try, just for fun...

(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y271/dagaran/Sim-walk.gif)

I just took parts from my 'Sims 2' character and 'cleaned up' and resized and outlined the parts. If the head was smaller, it'll look more realistic...but I like it this way; I think it's kinda cute.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: NRasool on Fri 08/06/2007 10:48:38
This is a great utility, Thanks for providing the templates, I drew over them using Gale, and it was quite quick
Quote from: Dualnames on Mon 07/05/2007 02:23:00
By the way I withdraw my previous comment. With some adjustments I made back walkcycle.
Please could you provide the XML for this, as it would help fellow members here. It would be greatly appreciated :)
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: vertigoaddict on Wed 13/06/2007 13:10:53
Quote from: slasher13 on Fri 08/06/2007 10:48:38
This is a great utility, Thanks for providing the templates, I drew over them using Gale, and it was quite quick
Quote from: Dualnames on Mon 07/05/2007 02:23:00
By the way I withdraw my previous comment. With some adjustments I made back walkcycle.
Please could you provide the XML for this, as it would help fellow members here. It would be greatly appreciated :)

I think you just make 'back-view' parts and then reverse the animation and you get a back-walkcycle.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Kain on Fri 27/07/2007 08:28:24
Cool! Since I draw my sprites with pen & paper I didn't have much problems with walking, but this will make it a LOT easier. Just one problem, though: I downloaded both the LoRes and HiRes versions, but none of them has the "Front" XML, they only have the "Right", "WCGen" and "Forward" ones.  ???
Also, I think there should be an XML Library somewere so we can choose and download XMLs made by members ech.

Keep up the good work!

You do good!  ;D

Peace.  >:(
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: dirk delshire on Mon 01/10/2007 15:56:02
Not sure if someone already said this or not but are there different walk cycles for male and female? If not you should think about adding it to your next update. As you may well know females walk differently than males because of anatomy. Also thanks for adding to the AGS community, and keep up the good work.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Kweepa on Thu 04/10/2007 02:58:36
I added editable curves to this, and the ability to save walkcycles.

(http://www.kweepa.com/step/ags/tech/Walkcyclist.png)

Click on "Edit Curves" then click on a bone to select it.
Left drag to rotate a bone, right drag to move a bone with IK.
Left drag the red highlighted graph nodes.

Click "Anim Props" to get to the load and save dialog.

http://www.kweepa.com/step/ags/tech/Walkcyclist20071004.zip (http://www.kweepa.com/step/ags/tech/Walkcyclist20071004.zip)

Comes with a couple of example walkcycles.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: SSH on Thu 04/10/2007 09:24:57
Hehe, Steve showed me this ages ago, but I didn't want to pre-empt! Actually, now that CJ has added the RawDraw-to-sprites and ability to use hires co-ordinates when doing so, then I think I may soon be improving this further.

N.B. 2MAX stands for McRea and MacCormack ;)
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: SSH on Fri 19/10/2007 09:32:26
I've now got a mainly-working version of this in glorious 800x600, and with resizable and draggable windows and menus. Please can I have some volunteers to beta-test v2.0?

Also, I've had to disable the cut/paste from the drawing tools as I can't get it to work properly at high res: did anyone ever use those?
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: NRasool on Thu 15/11/2007 10:55:16
Hey SSH, One strange thing is that recently, when I tried to save the walkcycle, it only saves the 1st frame as the bitmap file 6 times, but it is animating the whole sequence, on preview. Any clues on why this is happening?
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Dualnames on Fri 16/11/2007 22:59:36
So you can import it more easily to the AGS?
Don't tell me you wanted a GIF?
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: NRasool on Sat 17/11/2007 12:32:02
Hi Dualnames, Sorry but that doesn't make sense, For me, the outputted walkcycle (When you click on save walkcycle button) is just the 1st frame created 6 times as a bitmap file, It does not export the 2nd frame, 3rd frame etc etc

Nope don't want a gif file :)
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Dualnames on Sun 18/11/2007 20:41:55
Oh.. Sorry if I misunderstood you.. Well, contact SSH..
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Evil on Fri 14/12/2007 07:20:53
Well, other than being very hard to navigate, it's pretty cool. I don't think a mass export wouldn't be bad. Export all of the frames at once.

Only major bug I found is when you edit curves and then go back to edit images, the image stuff doesn't load.

Edit: Also, the reason I bring this up is because it's awesome and I'd love to see it in a "non-improvable" form. It'd be SUPER helpful to Noobies, and even people like me who haven't animated crap.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Robbie on Tue 05/02/2008 12:17:19
I've just started toying with AGS (after looking at it for years), and I have to join in the congratulations to SSH for this great program! It looks like it will be really useful.

Slasher13 is right, though. Saving the walkcycle just saves the first frame six times under six different names.

By the way, I don't understand the XML at all. What would it be used for, apart from internally to this program?
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: NRasool on Tue 05/02/2008 14:33:57
Thanks Robbie, Glad it is not only me who is getting this bug. I did PM the author, but afraid I didn't get any reply which is a shame.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: SSH on Tue 05/02/2008 15:06:13
Which version are you guys using?
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Robbie on Thu 07/02/2008 11:13:44
I'm assuming I've got the latest version. I downloaded it just a few days ago from the beginning of this thread.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: SSH on Thu 07/02/2008 11:20:02
I just downloaded that version, loaded up the program and hit "save walkcycle", entered "test" as the name, and it created test00.bmp to test09.bmp, all different. Did you change anything before trying it?
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: robotsquid on Tue 12/02/2008 22:44:53
this program is amazing!  maximum respect to SSH & SteveMcCrea.  a backwards xml and my life is complete. ;)
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Robbie on Wed 13/02/2008 13:34:55
Quote from: SSH on Thu 07/02/2008 11:20:02
I just downloaded that version, loaded up the program and hit "save walkcycle", entered "test" as the name, and it created test00.bmp to test09.bmp, all different. Did you change anything before trying it?

I wouldn't know how to change anything if I wanted to! I'll try re-downloading a fresh version and see what happens.

EDIT: Well, it's working fine now! It doesn't seem to be the same as the one I downloaded the other week, strangely enough. So, Slasher13 and anybody else having problems, try again with a fresh version.

Many many thanks, SSH!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Nagania on Fri 29/02/2008 02:39:18
it says that the front walkcylce is included, but it isn't.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Nagania on Tue 04/03/2008 02:33:27
whoops!!!! it does.
i'm really sorry ssh, i just couldn't find the front walkcycle option at first.
really sorry!
on a postive note,
this walkcycle generator is awesome!!!
geez people are picky...
like...
an option that the fade on the text can be disabled?
just be glad that such an awesome program exists!

thanks ssh,
your generator is going to save me so much time on my game  :)
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Angel Dust on Mon 14/04/2008 05:46:13
What a fantasic program! Would there be any way to make it so you could create an animation from scratch, adding frames as you need them etc? I could just make an xml file where all the joints are some starting position and have as many frames as I want I guess but it would be quite a cool functionality to add. You could  then use this program for more than just walk cycles!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Stasko on Wed 16/04/2008 21:05:17
This little programm is eally usefull but there must be one huge glitch, somebody els in this topic told it allready that when you export your walkcycle, only frame one will be exported! Not one but ten times frame on instead of frame 2 3, 4 ,5 , etc.

It is very irritating because i have to export frame one, delete nine copies of frame one, then i have to export frame twe etc.

The programm is great thanks!!!!!! But please tell me how to handle this problem

;D
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: SSH on Wed 16/04/2008 22:10:26
Make sure you download the latest version
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Stasko on Thu 17/04/2008 11:24:11
I use Version 1.10 now i don't know if it is the newest version? but i downloaded different versions but it does not work for me, i also use Vista mayby that is the problem?
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: SSH on Thu 17/04/2008 12:36:50
Can you try downloading v1.10 from the beginning of this thread, and then straight away without changing anything export the default animation and see if it works, please?
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Stasko on Thu 17/04/2008 17:18:28
This version works well, so dont be afraid, but why does the newest version not have the bone menu were you can create your own way of walking?

Still thanks for your quick response!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: SSH on Thu 17/04/2008 17:21:08
You can still create the XML in that bone version and export it back out to 1.10...

I have a new version in the works, but although stuff works better in some ways, a lot of this have got messed up and I may need to start again.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Stasko on Thu 17/04/2008 19:47:36
I have to say the Walkgen is a welcome little programm, just like in maya you can create movements easy now! Good job

Bt hopefully the front and back walk with the right and left will be standard in a new version, also will there be new options in a newer verion? so you can create movements much more like you want it
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Stasko on Thu 17/04/2008 20:39:16
O yeah one other item: Will there be an option to resize your chararcter when exporting him from the walkgen? Because i have to resize every frame before i can use it in ags, i cannot resize them in AGS so mayby anice feuture?

Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: red runner on Sat 10/05/2008 16:15:24
How do I use the front/back walkcycles?
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: SSH on Sat 10/05/2008 16:23:29
Load the XML file
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: skuttleman on Tue 13/05/2008 21:19:42
Hey,

Lovin' this program!!!! Is it possible, in a later version, to increase the frame size so we could animate bigger characters or other kinds of animations (like jumping or something)?

Thanks!
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Jakerpot on Wed 07/01/2009 04:52:43
Good program, but, how can i make a walkcycle up? i make a side an down, but i need up too. Thanks.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: on Wed 07/01/2009 10:02:32
Quote from: jakerpot on Wed 07/01/2009 04:52:43
Good program, but, how can i make a walkcycle up? i make a side an down, but i need up too. Thanks.

That's not yet included, but it's not too hard to create one based on the "down" cycle.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10 - Now with front walkcycle
Post by: Fritzi on Sat 17/01/2009 15:30:13
This is a great program. It seems to me that it would become even better with some sort of extension to modify the .xml files. It is actually not that hard to edit those files manually with a text editor,
but it would be simpler and more convenient to have a graphic editor.

Then it would not be hard to make a "up" cycle, and it would also be easy to incorporate
whatever silly walks you could come up with. Or even to modify the template to
animate a dog or an  octopus.

The current beta version does go a long way to do this, but it seems to have several bugs, and I could
not make it work for me.  It would be wonderful to have a version that was as reliable as version
1.10 of the  program and could roll the bones like the beta version!
Title: A back walkcycle XML file
Post by: patbob on Wed 06/01/2010 01:46:23
Thanks, this was very helpful, but even the most recent version seemd to lack a walkcycle with the character walking away from the camera (ie. upscreen).  I couldn't use the forward walkcycle because then the knees and elbows bent in a disconcerting direction.  So... I hacked on the Forward.xml file one evenring to create a passable walkcycle for this.

I can't attach it to this post, and its pretty long (so I didn't want to inline it in this post),  It can be found at http://mysite.verizon.net/~patbobw/Back.xml.

Sorry, I'm not very web-tech savvy, so browsers won't follow the link and display anything meaningful.  You can wget the file from the link, or open it in a browser and view the page source to see the XML, then cut-n-paste that into a file.  The one thing you can't do is open the link in a browser and save it to a file -- the browser seems to mangle the file because its trying to interpret it somehow.

Hope this helps.

SSH: feel free to bundle this with the generator if you want -- a back walkkcycle is the last significant bit of functionality that's missing.  Mine's not perfect, but its pretty close.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10
Post by: Construed on Sun 23/01/2011 10:10:28
Yea, What i did was a just rendered it all normally then made a copy of the forward frames and edited one of the heads to be the back of a head then pasted the back of head on all the copies.Works pretty good.Also flip the frames to make it seem diffrent than down.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10
Post by: LocutusofBored on Sun 13/02/2011 20:28:16
I really like this program. Steve McCrea's version really helps to fix some of the walk cycles. I had one error though, you can edit the front view on Steve's but can't save the xml without getting an error. If anyone knows how to do this let me know.

I also like to use SSH's 320x240 version at 640x480 because it adds some extra space in between everything and I can use larger sprites in there.

Please continue this program guys, its a nice simple program that's easy to use.
Title: Re: SSH's Walkcycle generator v1.10
Post by: SSH on Wed 27/04/2011 05:16:33
As suggested, I'm releasing the source code (http://ssh.me.uk/dev/walkcyclist.zip) for this, so that anyone can take it and make something better. Please give me some acknowledgment if you re-use any parts!

I haven't looked at this for nigh on 3 years, so apologies if its broken or rubbish!