Adventure Game Studio

Creative Production => Critics' Lounge => Topic started by: Jayel on Wed 10/09/2003 20:03:00

Title: Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: Jayel on Wed 10/09/2003 20:03:00
(http://members.rogers.com/j_l/stuff/sigh.gif)
Another test character animation done with my software.  again copy& paste isn't fully functional, so the lines seem wobbly most of the time..
Any criticism and comment would be appreciated!

ps.  I tried loading this animation into AGS, and noticed I have to import individual PCX files as opposed to selecting a whole bunch of files.  I find that a bit time consuming.  Is there another way to load long animations?
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: BOYD1981 on Wed 10/09/2003 20:23:05
that's a pretty damn good animation you've made yourself there, the only thing wrong with it i can see is the way his hair moves back when he brushes it back, it kinda looks like it's springing back... i love that wobbly style, it makes things seem more alive
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: 12431 on Wed 10/09/2003 20:40:18
you're good! how did you create that anim.?
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: Chicky on Wed 10/09/2003 20:43:34
sweet,

really nice animation , the only prob is that i cant sew what it is he is doing. Is he ducking somthing then checking to see wether its been thrown?

-a chicken
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: TheDude on Wed 10/09/2003 21:06:57
Quote from: oversizedchicken on Wed 10/09/2003 20:43:34
really nice animation , the only prob is that i cant sew what it is he is doing. Is he ducking somthing then checking to see wether its been thrown?

Topic: Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning. :P
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: Cerulean on Wed 10/09/2003 21:39:00
A sort of a "Wait not THAT button-- D'oh. Well, crap."
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: Scummbuddy on Wed 10/09/2003 22:15:51
His arms get really thin at the beginning, and I think that detracts from the beauty of this art.
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: Jayel on Wed 10/09/2003 22:22:27
Thank you all for your c&c

Scummyb: I'll be sure to fix the arms.

Cerulean: I was imagining my cat knocking over a vase when I was making the animation, but I think your description is more fitting.

12431: I drew extreme poses first, then started filling in-betweens whereever necessary until the timing started to seem right.

Anyway, heres a screenshot of the program in case anyone is interested.  I opened the same file twice so I can display the onion-skinning feature and the final look at the same time.
(http://members.rogers.com/j_l/stuff/sescreen2.png)
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: MrColossal on Wed 10/09/2003 23:08:26
i think the extreme positions are too noticeable

maybe it's just me but it's like there are 3 times when i can imagine that is where the extremes are and all action seems to stop for a little too long

the flow is interrupted

also [it doesn't bother me in the slightest but just pointing out] his legs morph from fat to thin to fat and his feet kinda slide around towards the end

just letting you know

i enjoy it muchly

eric
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: jason on Thu 11/09/2003 00:09:34
Another great animation! I like this one much better than the first.

Jayel: Your app looks sweet... any chance us AGSers might get a demo or something?  8)
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: Moresco on Thu 11/09/2003 02:34:09
Right on! Heh, but it looks like his hair almost comes clear off for a second.  Maybe the lift goes too far, you could try shortening it, it's all up to you though.  The scrawnyness of his arms etc...I like that alot.  If he's supposed to be scrawny. :)  I dig that scrawny limbs style in the animation.

Yah yah, the app looks sweet, I want one! ^^
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: Evil on Thu 11/09/2003 02:43:52
Wow, I cant wait for it to be finished. These are amazing animations. The program looks a bit like photoshop 3 and 16 colors combined... Looks promissing...
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: Jayel on Thu 11/09/2003 03:45:03
MrColossal: You're right - though it was in a deliberate attempt to emphasize his expressions a bit more clearly.  I wish I could do it without breaking the flow of motion, but I'm not that good an animator ...yet.   ;)

Evil: heh, that's not surprising because I tried to model it closely after Photoshop.  A lot of little useful UI-related features in PS are also available in my software, such as
Space Bar for scrolling
Alt key for eyedropper
Tab key for hiding pop-up windows
etc.

Thank you once again for your input.
My program will be freely available once it's done (within few months hopefully).  I'm hoping that many AGS users will find it useful.
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: Scummbuddy on Thu 11/09/2003 17:19:22
Woa, woa, woa! This is your[/i] program!  Could you please do us allll a favor and put your game and your animations on hold and just finish the program.  ;D   I mean, don't be selfish.  ;)

No, really, I'm positive this would be a great inclusion for 90 percent of all AGSers to be using along with their game.  Being able to see your animatoins is one of the things I miss most with the Windows version of AGS.  But, I do say, that there have been advances in the Windows version that I would never give up.
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: on Thu 11/09/2003 17:27:25
Yeah, i'd love to use the program. Seems like a really nice interface and if it doesn't take years to load like PS6, then that's another benefit.

It'd probably be nice if CJ would put in a little preview next to the loops...but we will just have to wait it out until then. heh. :)
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: dagooh on Fri 12/09/2003 19:57:31
Nice!, I really like the wobbly style, it reminds me of Dr. Katz, you should keep that!
I've never seen an adventure with that style, you can be the first!  ;)
anyways, great work, on the animation and on the software
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: Igor on Fri 12/09/2003 20:45:33
Fantastic- great animation and your program looks really nice too.
I must say i like a bit extreme poses. Bravo!
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: Evil on Fri 12/09/2003 21:29:29
I just realized, is there going to be an AA feature? An AA feature would be so much help. Do you plan on selling this program? I would be plenty happy to buy it.

Edit: Oops, missed the freely avalable part. I would still pay for it though...
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: Jayel on Fri 12/09/2003 23:17:12
Thank you for your comments!
Keiko: on my p233 loading time is... well about 1 second.
On a side note, I spent a lot of time optimizing the drawing algorithms so it runs reasonably well even on old pentiums.  Originally it crawled on my P4-2.0ghz (especially with  onionskinning)

Evil: sadly, no.  I thought about it, and I decided to go with 50% resize option (just an option) with bilinear filtering instead.  It's much like supersampling AA algorithm 3D apps use.  The downside of it is that:
1. you have to draw at 200% of the intended sprite size
2. since intermediate colours are picked from the palette, your palette must have good range of colours for a nicer result.

Plus side is that with my program, transparent (ie colour key) areas are taken into consideration when being filtered, so you don't get colour key ghosting effect you'd typically get when you resize your sprites in, say, photoshop or paintshop pro.

example:
(original)
(http://members.rogers.com/j_l/stuff/original.png)

size-reduced and filtered (right one is from my software):
(http://members.rogers.com/j_l/stuff/comparison1.png)

How they may look against a game background:
(http://members.rogers.com/j_l/stuff/comparison2.png)
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: Evil on Sat 13/09/2003 00:34:44
Better then none at all I guess. Another thing that may come in handy that I didnt notice is a magic wand tool. That may be nice. Another good thing would be a bar snap-to option, but it isnt a real need, just maybe something nice to have... :)
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: Jayel on Sat 13/09/2003 03:58:36
D'OH!!!!
Magic wand.  of course.  what was I thinking.  Thanks for the suggestions (it's unlikely I'd be adding snap-to feature though - sorry.)
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: edmundito on Sat 13/09/2003 08:42:54
Looks pretty good.. that's a lot of animation, at least for amaetur/independet :)
where'd you get that so-called "sprite editor"? :P
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: on Sat 13/09/2003 09:34:31
Quotewhere'd you get that so-called "sprite editor"?
He's developing it Netmonkey. :P
Title: Re:Animated character looking surprised then sighing/groaning.
Post by: Erwin_Br on Sat 13/09/2003 12:25:26
Great animation! Of course there are a few things wrong with it (as mentioned) but remember that it's easier to spot the mishaps when you can look at the animation in an infinite loop. I mean, this animation would look almost perfect if you'd use it in-game playing the cycle only once. (mistakes would be really hard to notice then)

Oh, and I'm really interesed in your sprite editor. It's looking very promising!

--Erwin