Need a full character sheet [Priority One, please read]

[Koopaul]

I was originally thinking of using a test character as well if things don't go right. Just some blocky stick figure thing to test everything right.

[Tonberry2k]

Why waste our time doing that when we can just get a character done?

[ectoBiologist]

I agree, but still. Squirtle isn't really a great idea for testing all of the engine.

[AuraPigOnStilts]

I just thought of a way to quicken the rate of animation: we sprite each limb for each character, (chest, head, shoulders, forearms, arms, hands, waist, thigh, foreleg, leg, foot, weapons) (like Solink did for Sukapon) because atm, Sukapon is getting done very quickly, so if we do the same for other characters then the other characters could get finished

[Shadowth117]

(04-02-2010 08:44 AM)Aurapigonstilts Wrote:  I just thought of a way to quicken the rate of animation: we sprite each limb for each character, (chest, head, shoulders, forearms, arms, hands, waist, thigh, foreleg, leg, foot, weapons) (like Solink did for Sukapon) because atm, Sukapon is getting done very quickly, so if we do the same for other characters then the other characters could get finished

Definitely agreeing with this. Community projects have an annoying habit of never getting done for one reason or another. Doing this would allow the sprites to get done much faster than they would if they were sprited traditionally. It probably wouldn't look quite as nice as doing each frame separately, but it should get things done a lot faster in the end.

[Iceman404]

(04-02-2010 08:44 AM)Aurapigonstilts Wrote:  I just thought of a way to quicken the rate of animation: we sprite each limb for each character, (chest, head, shoulders, forearms, arms, hands, waist, thigh, foreleg, leg, foot, weapons) (like Solink did for Sukapon) because atm, Sukapon is getting done very quickly, so if we do the same for other characters then the other characters could get finished

I want to rep you twice now.

Quote:It probably wouldn't look quite as nice as doing each frame separately, but it should get things done a lot faster in the end.

We could just put the parts together, then edit it to look clean and new afterwards.

[Alpha Six]

(04-02-2010 08:44 AM)Aurapigonstilts Wrote:  I just thought of a way to quicken the rate of animation: we sprite each limb for each character, (chest, head, shoulders, forearms, arms, hands, waist, thigh, foreleg, leg, foot, weapons) (like Solink did for Sukapon) because atm, Sukapon is getting done very quickly, so if we do the same for other characters then the other characters could get finished

Honestly, that doesn't work for human characters. Do you know how ugly rotating each limb will work on the characters? You'll have to clean up every rotation manually anyway... which means you may as well have just sprited every frame separately anyways.
Not to mention the complete loss of fluidity you get by working in pieces rather than doing every animation custom.

There are only certain things that using pieces will work for, but it definintely won't work for most characters. Unless you want them to look robotic.

Working in pieces will sacrifice the life of an animation for the fluidity of an animation. And honestly, as long as the animation looks like it has life, it will look fluid enough.

[Koopaul]

Well you could add motion blurs. That would create the illusion of fluidity. M&L used tons of motion blurs and ended up looking incredibly fluid.

[Iceman404]

Not too much motion blur to the point of eye-bleeds, but its a great idea Koopaul!

[Alpha Six]

(04-03-2010 04:42 AM)Koopaul Wrote:  Well you could add motion blurs. That would create the illusion of fluidity. M&L used tons of motion blurs and ended up looking incredibly fluid.

You missed my point. Working in pieces only works for certain objects, you can't do it for an entire character without it looking robotic.

[Jdaster64]

Yeah, just think of what unpolished rotation did for Scribblenauts' animation. Sprite rotation seems fine for Sukapon, but I would hate to see it implemented with any other characters (possible exception being G&W, but even that's a stretch). However, motion blurs might be useful (to a point) for the others, at least in really quick movements like Kirby's A-combo or Ness's down-tilt.

[Iceman404]

Wait, who said anything about rotating limbs? Aura sure didn't. He just said we should sprite basic parts of the character's body.

[Alpha Six]

So you have the basic parts. Now what are you going to do with them? Do an animation with one full set of limbs? You can't just have a set of limbs and expect them to flow on their own-- you have to rotate them or sprite them in a bunch of different angles, which is practically the same thing.

[AuraPigOnStilts]

there are certain animations that can work without looking too fluid (Mr Game & Watch and Wario spring to mind, not to mention some other moves that other characters have), but yes, I can see where this is going.

[Ran Master 27]

I'd say someone get a base sprite up for almost all the characters, and we'll then have animators animate them from there.
I could probably animate almost any smaller sprite to a certain degree that it'll look good.

But free spriting a whole new character with no base sprite is exceptionally hard.
So with that said, we should work out the first basic in-style sprites first, and then go from there.

That's basically what I did with Sukapon, and I think it looks awesome.