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[Could you make it possible to "export" the animation skelettons]

Could you make it possible to "export" the animation skelettons

That's easy enough. It'll be in the next release (probably a few weeks, free-time pending).

These are pretty good results Jwalt.

Agreed! I really like the skirt.

I'm going to have to rethink the way I've been doing hands and feet, since they're used on both sides.

You don't HAVE to use the same image for left and right hands, that's just how I do it for my characters. You also could create separate "bones" for the hands if you wanted to animate them differently.

I eliminated the unused area in the images, and things started working normally. I'm wondering if this was expected, or intentional?

I suppose the best answer is it's intentional. The thought process being that someone could create larger animations if they wanted without the images being cut off, so I made the tool export a frame larger than I would ever likely need. In a future version, I'm planning to add the ability to define an "export rectangle" so it will pre-crop the images before you export them. For now, you'll just have to crop them manually.

Also, is there any way to change the colors used in the background screens?

I'm redoing the interface anyway, so I'll see if I can't fix the color scheme.

Maybe with this I can push a little bit further and maybe finish the damn thing

Every time I was faced with needing to create new animations for my game, I put it down for six months. It's nice to know people are using this tool!

Version 0.9.1 is available here!

See the list of changes in original post. This is still beta, so backup your character and animation files before loading and editing them in the new version.

If anyone is using this, I'd love to see any animations you've made!

Looks interesting. Can you make a sample animated gif of some example output?

Done!

Also, when I run the program, everything is listed twice; I'm seeing two identical entries for "Old Man" and for "Woman", and each view is also listed twice. Is this how it's supposed to be?

Ha! That's what I get for doing a last minute change before uploading it. This has been fixed and the linked zip file contains the correct number of files (and notice the sexy new screen shots!) - quick fix instead of re-downloading, delete all the files in the main directory that have 5-digit numbers in the filename, and leave the ones that have 6-digit numbers.

Notice also, I've added a warning in the main topic entry for anyone using this tool.

Cheers!

[2D Character Creator/Animator/Manager/Pending Title]

2D Character Creator/Animator/Manager/Pending Title

Description:

I can't draw. Plain and simple. And more importantly, I don't like to draw. I keep hoping that if I close my eyes real tight and click my heels together three times, my game will draw itself. When I discovered SSH's Walkcycle Generator, I thought my problems were solved. But for too long I've been pushing the limits of that tool beyond what it is supposed to do, and I finally decided to build what you might call a "spiritual successor" to that program which lends itself to more powerful control over animation with an emphasis on multiple characters.

It looks a little something like this:


This is the character editor.


This is the animation editor.

Here are samples created with this tool (all of which are included in the download):


Features:

  - Create tens of thousands of animations for tens of thousands of characters.
  - Up to 30 body parts per character
  - Up to 50 frames per animation
  - 8-directional character prototypes for each character to be used in creating their animations
  - Any sprite in the sprite pool can be assigned to individual body parts for individual frames
  - It utilizes a bone structure to connect body parts (move or rotate a part, and all parts connected to it move!)
  - Bones that connect to the central bone (typically the torso) connect at a radius and angle relative to the center of the central bone (so if your characters lean over, connecting bones will move accordingly)
  - Watch your animation animate, to make sure it plays the way you want before you export it for easy importing into your game.

Status:
v0.9.1 is now available.

Download v0.9.1 here!

This is still in beta, so backup any characters or animations you made before trying to load them into the new editor.

Change list:
- Bones can be moved/deleted/added in the Character Editor without ruining the animations. (You must update any characters and animations made with v0.9 by loading them with v0.9.1 and then saving them)
- Click and drag body parts in Animation Editor will move the body part. Hold <CTRL> to rotate the body part. Hold <CTRL> and <SHIFT> to rotate the body part and all parts connected to it and all parts connected to that, etc... (Useful for rotating the entire leg, or rotate the entire graphic from the torso, or whatever bone you setup at index 0.) The body part you click on is selected based on the rectangle it's drawn in, and whichever one is drawn on top (highest Z-order) so you might accidentally click a body part different from the one you're aiming to click. I hope to fix that in future versions.
- Reload Sprite Pool from Animation Editor, so you can easily edit or create new graphics in you sprite folder and use them immediately. (This can already be done in Character Editor by selecting the box to change the sprite folder, and hitting enter)
- Characters and animations made with (or loaded and saved into) v0.9.1 can now have the same name without causing problems.
- Using cursor keys and pg/pg down to navigate through list boxes. Enter/Esc will respond appropriately to input boxes.
- Ability to set a "ghost" frame while editing an animation to more easily line up subsequent frames (hollow version of ghosted frame appears behind animating character)
- Added ability to identify any bone as an "origin" bone in the Character Editor. This effects whether bones connecting to that bone connect at the endpoint (based on what it connects to, it's length, and it's angle) or to connect to a relative angle and radius from the center of this bone (the way you must connect to bone 0) This allows you to connect multiple bones in multiple places to the same bone (for example both upper legs connect to different spots of the hip bone, or both upper arms connect to different spots of the shoulder bone)
- Ability to create templates from animations that can be used to make animations for new characters you create with ease!

If anyone has actually used this tool, I'd love to see some animations you've made. And please let me know if you find any bugs or errors.



If you're scared of change, you can still download v0.9 here.

Features planned for future versions:
- A comprehensive menu system and more tools for editing animations (instead of a single gui cluttered with buttons...)
- Make a character move while previewing an animation (useful for testing walking animations)
- "Undo" feature
- More accurate selection of body parts while moving or rotating them with the mouse
- Ability to create animations with multiple characters (if you want to animate them fighting, for example)

Ah man! I was hoping this game would be about Steve Guttenberg...

It's more about Steve Guttenberg than you know....

Any relation to the Gutenberg Project?

Absolutely none.

It's been a while, but there is a DEMO of a fighting sequence that will appear in the game 2 or 3 times. Check it out!

[Controls]

Here is a DEMO of a sequence that will - unless I receive overwhelmingly negative feedback - appear 2 or 3 times throughout my spy themed point-n-click adventure game (verb coin interface).

I know the graphics are bad. I cannot draw. I find that if I spend 2 hours on something it doesn't look any better than if I spend 5 minutes on it, so I have no intention of improving the graphics by myself. Please do not leave comments on the graphics unless you are volunteering to help out.

//edit
This sequence is about 75% FoA Fighting, 20% SoMI Insult Sword Fighting, and 5% Street Fighter. This is not a fighting sequence that you'll run into 20 times (like FoA or SoMI), instead, this is more akin to a "boss battle". A special occasion that is relevant to the plot. But rather than showing a fight via cutsequence, I thought I'd try to make it playable.

It is impossible to "lose" this sequence. You can win it by filling the "action meter" or just waiting it out. The purpose is not to add a new layer of difficulty or trick the player into suddenly playing a completely different style of game, but rather to break up the repetitive point-n-click game-play, and add an element of excitement during important part of the plot. Try to hold that in your brain when you play this and let me know how you think you might react when you get to this part 20 - 40 minutes into gameplay.

Here are the things I am most curious about.

- Controls: The controls are operated by keyboard and are listed in-game. They may or may not be too complicated and I'm concerned that - after acclimating to a point-n-click adventure game - the average person might be confused and feel put off by the abrupt change in gameplay. There is a pdf included if you can't figure out what's going on. Hopefully that will help.

- Difficulty: Is this too difficult? Too easy? People who like side-scrolling fighting games will undoubtedly find this very easy, but for people that are looking forward to the slow paced adventure game, this might be frustrating and kill the fun. How do you feel?

- Errors: If you run into any weird things, like a character freezing, or the buttons temporarily not responding, or anything else that seems like it shouldn't be happening, please let me know.

Any feedback you have about this (except my inability to draw) is appreciated. THANKS!!!

[Controls]

Here is a DEMO of a sequence that will - unless I receive overwhelmingly negative feedback - appear 2 or 3 times throughout my spy themed point-n-click adventure game (verb coin interface).

I know the graphics are bad. I cannot draw. I find that if I spend 2 hours on something it doesn't look any better than if I spend 5 minutes on it, so I have no intention of improving the graphics by myself. Please do not leave comments on the graphics unless you are volunteering to help out.

It is impossible to "lose" this sequence. You can win it by filling the "action meter" or just waiting it out. The purpose is not to add a new layer of difficulty or trick the player into suddenly playing a completely different style of game, but rather to break up the repetitive game-play, and add an element of excitement during important part of the plot. Try to hold that in your brain when you play this and let me know how you think you might react when you get to this part 20 - 40 minutes into gameplay.

Here are the things I am most curious about.

- Controls: The controls are operated by keyboard and are listed in-game. They may or may not be too complicated and I'm concerned that - after acclimating to a point-n-click adventure game - the average person might be confused and feel put off by the abrupt change in gameplay. There is a pdf included if you can't figure out what's going on. Hopefully that will help.

- Difficulty: Is this too difficult? Too easy? People who like side-scrolling fighting games will undoubtedly find this very easy, but for people that are looking forward to the slow paced adventure game, this might be frustrating and kill the fun. How do you feel?

- Errors: If you run into any weird things, like a character freezing, or the buttons temporarily not responding, or anything else that seems like it shouldn't be happening, please let me know.

Any feedback you have about this (except my inability to draw) is appreciated. THANKS!!!

Nope. Not the same. The audio is completely unaffected unless, the volume of the channel in question is set to 0. If the volume of the channel is set to 1 or any other value from 1 to 100, it stays right where it should.

Has anyone else experienced the following problem with the audio system:

The volume of one or more audio channels or one or more audio types has to be set to 0, but System.Volume is NOT set to 0. Then if you get to a skippable cutscene and SKIP it, the volume of any channel or audio type that is set to 0, will jump to the value of System.Volume.

Has anyone else run into this?

I think you need something like this (untested)

Code: ags

  Hotspot* mouseoverhotspot = Hotspot.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x, mouse.y);
  Object* mouseoverobject = Object.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x, mouse.y);
  if (mouseoverhotspot != null)
  {
    if (mouseoverhotspot.GetProperty("UsesText") == 1)
    {
      // do something first
    }
    else
    {
      // do something else
    }
    ProcessClick(mouse.x, mouse.y, Mouse.Mode);
  }
  else if (mouseoverobject != null)
  {
    if (mouseoverobject.GetProperty("UsesText") == 1)
    {
      // do something first
    }
    else
    {
      // do something else
    }
    ProcessClick(mouse.x, mouse.y, Mouse.Mode);
  }

I hope that helps.

Something like this might help you. It doesn't take into account the inventory items are worth different values, and it assumes that every inventory item is worth something, but hopefully it will be enough to get you started.

Code: ags

int inventorycounter=1, money=0;

cFence.Say("Let's see what items you have.");
while (counter <= Game.InventoryItemCount)
{
  if (player.HasInventory(inventory[counter])
  {
    cFence.Say("You have the %s.", inventory[counter].Name);
    money = money + 100;
  }
  counter ++;
}
if (money == 0) cFence.Say("You don't have anything.");
else if (money == 100) cFence.Say("I'll give you $100 for it.");
else cFence.Say("I'll give you $%d for everything you have.", money);

When CJ added the ability to add regularly compiled code within the Dialog editor, I felt like this module became immediately obsolete. Did you check out this topic?

Controls snap to other controls left and top (press ctrl while dragging to not snap)

This is all awesome! I think it might be better to make it so dragging controls without holding <ctrl> does not snap to other controls, and holding <ctrl> makes it snap to other controls. Only because moving items without them snapping to everything is the way people are used to the editor behaving.

Also, how hard would it be to add a zoom slider similar to what is in the room editor? I would find that very useful.

The System.Volume property does not effect the MIDI file I have playing as music, but it does effect the ambient sound playing. Is there some trick to making sure that no audio files or audio types remain uneffected by setting the System.Volume property?

Did you make sure the mouse cursor's hotspot was set correctly?