Hi all! I am new here, so introductions are in order. :) I'm Groucho, I'm 25 and live in Croatia. I stumbled upon this place a few days ago and I'm addicted to it since then. First of all, I'd like to congratulate author(s) of AGS on making such an excelent and fun tool and for bringing back memories of good times. Nuff said.
The reason I am posting in the first place is because I found a fast and easy way to create (generate) animated characters for AGS games. I think this may especially come in handy to those who aren't very skilled in drawing. The basic idea is to use some nifty tools made for "The Sims" game series. So, here it goes:
To create character's face use FaceLift Gold (http://www.mallofthesims.com/resources/GoldFaceLift.exe) tool. This tool is pretty useless for "The Sims" game because it generates faces that look more like cartoon charicatures. But that's just what we're looking for. :)
To create character bodies you need meshes and matching skins. There are already thousands of meshes and skins on the Internet, you should be able to find what you need. There are also tutorials on how to make your own 3D meshes and skins. One usefull tool that you can use to edit existing meshes and export UVMap template to create custom skins is BodyWarp (http://tnlc.com/eep/sims/BodyWarpB04.zip).
The main tool we use is called SimPose (http://www.pygott.demon.co.uk/simpose/simpose6u.exe). This tool allows you to import head and body (and all other sorts of) meshes and skins to combine the whole character. You can rotate and zoom your character, set the background color (transparency!) and even animate your character. Once you find a way to extract animations from one of "The Sims" game series you can start opening the champagne. This is where we use FarOut (http://d2689768.u40.infinology.com/FarOut156.zip). From the original Sims game (file name is Animation.far) I managed to extract 2685 different animations (including walking, talking, etc.) that you can combine with every character in SimPose. ;D The only problem is to convert your animations from SimPose to .bmp or .pcx files which is required for AGS. The only method I know so far is to play the animation step-by-step and use PrintScreen button to copy each frame to clipboard and paste it in Photoshop or any other image editor of your choice. Mabe there's a better way, I don't know. Suggestions are welcome.
I can even provide some screenshots and a sample animation so you can see what I'm talking about. I will need someone to put them on the net though, because I don't have a place to host them. If you want to know more details, feel free to ask.
Hope you find this helpful.
Cheers!
hey, this sounds pretty nifty. I got some webspace to spare for hosting stuff, and can hook you up with your own site.
PM me
edit: 1000th post! w00t!
I'm not very good with YaBB. I think I've sent you PM, but I'm not sure. Give me your e-mail address and I'll send you a few screenshots (in zip file, 332 kB).
Never mind, I managed to find some space. Thanks for the effort though.
FaceLift screenshots:
(http://www.inet.hr/~jnadih/facelift1.jpg)
(http://www.inet.hr/~jnadih/facelift2.jpg)
SimPose screenshots:
(http://www.inet.hr/~jnadih/simpose1.jpg)
(http://www.inet.hr/~jnadih/simpose2.jpg)
Sample animation:
--edit-- Won't work if I upload .gif, download .zip instead --edit--
download animation (http://www.inet.hr/~jnadih/larry.zip) -> use right-mouse button and "Save Target As..."
That's incredible, Groucho! If everyone who joined this community brought something new then it would be an awesome place!
Heh, I think we're going to be seeing a lot of sims-resembling character graphics in ags games soon...
Edit: do you require The Sims on your computer to rip these graphics off?
You only need The Sims if you want to extract animations, oderwise not.
I could probbably upload all animations in one zip file (cca 9 MB), but I'll need someone to host it this time, cause I don't think I have enough space on this crappy account of mine. :)
For almost a year ago I worked with this, and also made some own objects in blueprint for the sims... but in my opinion, are the characters not very suitable for an adventure, but you could ofcourse trace the pictures in photoshop, and edit them that they dont have the "the sims" look anymore. Nice idea anyway!
I agree with minimi. It is a bit boring but I would only use it for tracing. Than again, it wont be speical as like if I did it myself... Though I'm shure other people are glad to have this... :)
I agree with you to an extend. The thing is though, that Sims characters are nothing more then 3D objects with textures on them. What makes them all look alike is the fact that they are all using a limited number of meshes and the same pre-made animations.
SimPose allows you not only to import pre-made animations, but also to make your own animations by virtualy moving every part of your character's body (including toes and fingers). Also, SimPose lets you import two characters so you can animate interactions between them.
I agree, this is probably not the best and the most professional way to create your characters, but I'm sure people who are not good with drawing will find it useful. Also, this is a good replacement if you want to create 3D characters for your game and can't afford to buy commercial programs like 3D Studio MAX or professional plugins like Digimation Illustrate.
This is another character made with SimPose:
(http://www.inet.hr/~jnadih/singer.jpg)
I'm sure it would be hard to recognize any resemblance with The Sims if I didn't tell you before. This character has all custom made meshes and textures and also a custom made pose.
I, for one, am really interested in this. I can just about handle backgrounds on my own, but character sprites are simply out of my league. I know I could probably learn to make convincing people if I practiced and studied it enough, but I simply don't have the time. The idea of tracing these models is even more appealing to me. I'll definitely check it out. Thanks Groucho!
This is wonderful. You had a great idea and I hope you will use your skills also to make wonderful AGS Games.
Could someone quickly give the man 9mb webspace so we could all benefit from the animations he got ;D
This is still just an idea with great potential IMHO. I am fairly inexperienced with AGS and unfortunately don't have too much time on my hands to dig deeper into it. I think it would be most useful if someone could demonstrate a practical application of this method in a AGS game. Everybody are welcome to contribute with new ideas cause there is still lots of room for improvements IMO.
Hi,
after checking my server, I think I could host the 9mb myself, but I am a bit sceptical... how much bandwith can I expect? How many people are going to download stuff like this? Who has experience hosting popular files for AGS and did anyone get in trouble for it? I really would like to host but a bit scared to get a bill at the end of the month for 100s of Euros :) Any advice?
Totoro
EDIT: Some people gave me feedback and I used my brain cells to calculate (not that I would have lots of brain cells ::) ) and I think I will host that. Unless you did not find someone else in the meantime please get in touch with me. totoro AT gmx DOT de .
We are proud to announce that those animation-files are now available for download ;D
http://www.totoro.de/ags/anim.zip
In case I should cut my bandwith, I would have to take it away again, but I am not really that worried. Thanks again to Groucho for sharing this idea with us.
Totoro
Where can we find meshes or programs to make meshes? Sorry if this should have been obvious
Also, since I do not have The Sims, is there a point to me trying these methods? Ie, will I actually be able to use what I make?
First of all you should download
http://www.pygott.demon.co.uk/simpose/simpose6n.exe
and not the file mentioned above. There is just one letter different, but if you download it the first time you will need that file. It contains the basic sceleton files.
When you download skins from Sim-Pages, most of them contain meshes too. Meshes are referred too as SKN-Files. The SKN-files go to the Gamedate/objX/Body folder (put f for female, m for male, g for girl, b for boy instead of X), the graphics go to the TexX/body folders. If you downloaded a face, of course put them to the Head folders, not the body ones. Putting the files correctly is a bit confusing at the beginning, but I managed too.
Sometimes the downloads only include the textures, then you should find a mesh somewhere, but I have no idea where either.
You don't need the sims to use this method. I don't have the Sims myself but created characters for my game with it.
Have fun :)
Totoro
Hi Groucho!
Awesome idea! That really helps people out who are not so skilled at drawing and animating by pixel pushing and also it seems that there's a big boom for 3D rendered adventure games now. Nifty.
I myself prefer the 2D pixel animating way though, maybe I'm just a bit old fashioned. ;)
no inferno, you are the master! hehehe ;D
I've been using The Sims for a while to do the characters for Darkness Falls... but my copy of Simpose was screwing up and wouldn't allow me to pose the characters or use animations from the game... :(
Ho ho ho Satan Claws is here! ;D
I´m using the sims models too. It became a very useful tool when I was trying to make a isometric game, and my lameness of doing 2d isometric brought me to it.
Besides the sims, you should take a look in WC3 editors that are very good too.
Hello out there - long time nothing's been posted in here...
I just restarted using AGS after pausing for about 2 Years and I am trying to make Character-Animations with Simpose V9...
I attempt to make a better Walk-Cycle than the Original with seperate Poses in a Pose-Library but my results do look crappy...
Now I wonder, has anyone done something like this before???