Hey AGS Folks, i'm having trouble animating a shelf...
there is a hidden door behind it, and i wan't it to go down to the floor, you know, i want the shelf to lower through the floor, i'm posting here a image with the shelf in the position and the vanish point in the middle. I'm trying to re-draw it every frame, but it's too hard and awfull to draw all the shelf contents again and again, don't you, experts, have any idea, tip, inspiration, want to make it for me ( ;D kidding, but if you want to... i accept your help), or anything to help, please.
Thank you.
i want this:
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/shelf.PNG)
turned to this:
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/shelf2.PNG)
(The last image is just an example, not a fixed final frame)
surely just pull it down a bit each time? You don't have to redraw it each time.
Like this
(http://i42.tinypic.com/2lw4taf.jpg)
Quote from: J-MAN on Sat 28/03/2009 23:26:09
surely just pull it down a bit each time? You don't have to redraw it each time.
That wouldn't work because the angle of the shelf would have to change in each frame to stay in line with the vanishing point.
Oh yeah true, still he could move it down and adjust the top bit everytime.
yeah, the perspective would be worng if you do this way, and is not just the top, is all the shelves and contents of it... it's much time-wasting/hard to do.
There's no quick way. Lots of redrawing awaits - be ready for it. I would however move it down and make every next Shelf a top of the whole bookshelf when it's reaches it's level. If it's not smooth make one more level in the middle frame of every pair of shelves
All the parallel lines will stay unchanged (just move down), so you'd just need to redraw the horizontal bits (the shelves and the bases of the books).
How many frames are you planning to use? Just use a few frames, it's not going to matter really :).
i plan to make 5 or 6 frames, just a few frames. Yeah, now i realized that is not a easy or fast way to do it... I will try to make one frame per day, so i will not get mad with it (drawing aaaaallllll that stuff on the shelf is a f@!#%^# hard work to do, and i already have school, guitar class and all the game development process on my back, so if i draw one frame per day, probably i won't draw anything else in that day...
Or you could do the original idea I said with a lot of frames so it drops really fast. Maybe that way the player wouldn't notice the perspective problems doing it this way.
If you're game has narration, you can shortcut but just using a discriptive narration, and just go from the shelf there to the shelf in the floor. but that's the cheap way out.
If you really want to take a shortcut because animating is time-consuming, people are likely to notice, but you can use the existing z-axis lines to represent the top of your bookshelf in each frame. They're relatively evenly spaced, so it should fit.
You'll still have to redraw the faces of the books, but that shouldn't be hard at all. Besides, animating isn't an easy task and the more hard work you put in, the more people are going to appreciate the finished product. Of course - I'm kind of an extremist when it comes to trying to animate things convincingly.
yeah, it's much time wasting, not so hard, but time-wasting, if someone could do the animations for me i should have more time to spend on the rest (more important part) of my game. I already done some animations, they don't suck, but is still time wasting when you should be programming, designing, creating, making, changing, correcting and testing...
The simplest solution is to change it, and put the shelf on the backwall, where the perspective won't change.
Another option could be create the front of the shelf, then use photoshop to place it in perspective for each frame with the 'distort' tool.
i liked your idea, ShonenAiGuy, but i need a door behind it, so i think i will make a rotating shelf! yeah, one side a shelf and on the other a false door! :D Will it be more easy to animate? maybe i will make the shelf go through the backwall and then move to the right. Yes! The perspective won't change (ok, it will change, but no one will notice, it will be fast). Thank you! But help is still needed to do this.
I made it! I've done a stair behind it and just move it backwards ;D now i just have to animate the character :D
Thank you all
Time spent improving your game is never time wasted. A rotating door, if you intend to have proper perspective maintained in the room, is going to be far more complicated than one that slides down into the floor. If you don't want to put in the hard work, then your best bet is to go with using the different shelf fronts as a guideline, and removing them one-by-one from the top down, and changing the 'books'. It shouldn't take too much time, and will achieve the look you're going for.
The 'slide back into the wall and off to one side' idea works well, as would (in your current perspective), just sliding off to one side.
When you're a one man show, you really need to juggle all aspects - I wouldn't call any one of programming, designing, art or QA any more important than any other. They're all essential to creating a good gaming experience, and you should put as much effort as you can afford into each and every one of them if you really want to make a good product. I wouldn't hold your breath on finding someone else to do your animating for you - it's one of the hardest parts of the art process and very time consuming, but at the same time rewarding.
But it all comes down to 'how much of yourself are you really willing to invest in this project?'. Decide what level of quality you want in all of these, and what you're willing to sacrifice. As they say - 'if you want something done right, do it yourself'.
If this is too much trouble to draw, why not just make the animation really fast, like just one frame with the shelf in the middle position. I wouldn't mind it if i were playing the game.
One idea would be to have the library "slide" sideways instead of going into the floor. Or not? :S
yeah nikolas, i already done that, now my problem is making the character walk the stairs, they are in the bottom left corner of the screen, when i change the player room, how can i make him look like he is coming from the outside of the screen area? This will just work with animations? Thanks
I know everybody here has read Eric tuts, but why not use blurred motion?
(http://kafkaskoffee.com/images/games/tutorials/animate/15.gif)
~Trent
yeah i read that too (he helped me a lot) but the shelf slowly goes, not fast, sorry, but i cant... and now my problem is with the character.
I was bored so I made this. I hope it's any use to you.
(http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/1475/shelfanim.gif)
Oh and hi. This is this is my first post. :)
it's, it's... PERFECT! :o you i think nobody can see the wrong perspective of the vbooks because its too fast, i already done a shelf animation, but i can reconsider using that :D Thank you very much
Actually, the perspective is correct in 6 of the 11 frames. Every other frame is just the previous frame offset by 10 pixels to make the movement smoother. Of course that makes the perspective slightly off in those frames. But I don't think it's that noticable.
nah it's great :)
I think that the animation done by Kyrandiafan is great, and the off-perspective frames really don't matter, since they're displayed for such a short period of time - Kind of like skimping on unnecessary details on a character (unnecessary shading, etc) in a detailed movement animation.
However, I think you should keep on doing your own, Jakerpot. It's tempting to use the resources of people that have offered you assistance on these threads, but if you keep on just using whatever's handed to you, you won't progress as an artist yourself. I noticed that you used the bookshelf that I created in my short animated tutorial pixel for pixel. It's not a terrible slight on me or anything like that - I created it basically for you, but I did it to show you how to do it - not to give you something to use and move on.
I'd like to see what it is that you've done so far - learn from all of these very useful and informative responses that you've been getting, and make something that you yourself can be proud of. I believe you have a lot of potential to be very talented - you did a great job with the book faces, and much of the other room elements you've made, so you shouldn't be riding on the coattails of other artists.
Now, that said, maybe Kyrandiafan's happy to have you just take the sprite and use it - but make sure of that before you just take it. I still think you should try your own, though. You'll be surprised how much you learn by studying and trying to recreate, instead of just taking and using.
Here's a tutorial of how I would go about animating it.
1. First, in paint, make the bookcase blank, with no books. Save it as "back1.png"
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/drawken/Book_Step_01.png)
2. Now, make shelves half way between the existing ones.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/drawken/Book_Step_02.png)
3. Then erase the top of the bookcase and cover up every other shelf, keeping the ones you just drew.
The bottom of the bookcase should also be in the ground. Save it as "back2.png"
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/drawken/Book_Step_03.png)
So, now you should have two bookcases.
The normal one and the one in the ground.
4. In Photoshop, open "back1.png" In the layers menu, create a new folder and name it "Book 1". Copy and paste "back1.png" into that folder.
Underneath the folder "Book 1" create a folder named "Book 2".
Now File >Open "back2.png" Copy and paste it into the folder "Book 2".
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/drawken/Book_Step_04.png)
5. Copy the folders "Book 1" and "Book 2" and paste them under the originals renaming them "Book 3" and "Book 4". Do this a few more time until you have 11 "book" folders.
6. In the folder "Book 3", cover up the top shelf along with the backing (with the Pencil Tool). Do the same thing in "Book 4".
In "Book 5" and "Book 6" erase the top two shelves.
7 and 8, three shelves.
9 and 10, four shelves.
11, all of the shelves except for the bottom one.
You now have an empty descending bookcase. (You should also color the new tops a lighter brown, or whatever color the top should be. The right side should also be closed off with the pencil tool.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/drawken/empty_Bookshelf_animation.gif)
7. Now, open your original bookcase and put it above the folder "Book 1".
8. Make a copy of the layer. Hide the original. In the copied layer, erase everything but the 1st row of books. Click and drag that into the folder "book1". (Make sure it is on top of "back1") Rename it "1st row" Click and drag it so it's lined up on the bookcase correctly.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/drawken/Book_Step_05.png)
9. Copy "1st row". Hide the folder "Book 1". Paste into the folder "Book 2". (Make sure its on top.)
10. Click and drag it until the books are in the general area, of the shelf, they need to be.
With the selection tool, (M) select each book, and moved it (V) up or down to where it should be on the shelf.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/drawken/Book_Step_06.png)
11. Copy that "1st row", hide the folder "Book 2" and paste it into "Book 3". Repeat step 10.
12. Copy from "Book 3" to "Book 4". Repeat 10.
Copy 4 to 5. Repeat 10.
So on and so forth.
13. After that's all said and done, go back to the original bookcase, at the very top, and unhide it. Repeat steps 8-12 with each row of books naming them "2nd row", "3rd row", and "4th row".
14. You will also have to do this, to some extent, with the lighting in the top shelf.
15. Now is the time you can go back to each folder and edit the perspective of the book, weather it be erasing or painting with the pencil tool. (I just erased the tops of the books where they were overlapping the shelf. I didn't bother with the lines on the books.)
You should get something like this when you are all finished.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/drawken/Bookshelf_animation_2.gif)
Hopefully this will be able to help you to create it yourself.
:o helped. a. lot. thank. you.