Need Urgent help with shelf animation

[Jakerpot]

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 ( kidding, but if you want to... i accept your help), or anything to help, please.
Thank you.
i want this:


turned to this:

(The last image is just an example, not a fixed final frame)

[Takyon]

surely just pull it down a bit each time? You don't have to redraw it each time.

Like this

[Spike4072]

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.

[Takyon]

Oh yeah true, still he could move it down and adjust the top bit everytime.

[Jakerpot]

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.

[SpacePaw]

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

[Babar]

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).

[ThreeOhFour]

How many frames are you planning to use? Just use a few frames, it's not going to matter really .

[Jakerpot]

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...

[Takyon]

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.

[EdLoen]

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.

[SpacePirateCaine]

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.

[Jakerpot]

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...

[None]

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.

[Jakerpot]

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!  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  now i just have to animate the character 
Thank you all

[SpacePirateCaine]

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'.

[bog]

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.

[Nikolas]

One idea would be to have the library "slide" sideways instead of going into the floor. Or not? :S

[Jakerpot]

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

[Trent R]

I know everybody here has read Eric tuts, but why not use blurred motion?



~Trent