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Project: The Venging
Project Started: 1st August, 2010 Last Update: 9th January, 2011
Project Owner: HorrendousGames Project Members:
Project Type: Action Adventure Project Progress:

I have conquered animations!
Posted 26th Dec 10, by HorrendousGames  
Sorry, the new sprites aren't ready, but I've done some extensive testing with an animation engine that is really simple and quick.

Riding on the coattails of Sketchy's genius, I've created a system that will allow me to shove all of the frames of one character into a single animation, and animate perfectly to my specifications with only about 5-10 lines of code. The system I used before was similar, except I had to create 2-4 lines of code for each animation (and with 18+ animations, that can get pretty bulky).

So in other words, once I finish all the movements of a single character, I will be able to literally throw in millions of different armors, weapons, body types, etc without really even having to think about it. Also, I can set it up to use a single active for a specific body part, rather than a different active for each piece of armor, weapon, whatever, so that's a headache that will be forever removed.

Some of you might say "hey, how is that different than loading each animation into their own animation and then controlling it with MMF2's built in editor?" Well, first off, I won't have to load each individual animation into each respective animation slot, that really eats up a ton of time. It's way easier to say "load animations frames 0-whatever" and forget about it, than it is to go to stopped and "load frames 0-30" go to run and "load frames 31-65" blah blah blah. Second, I would end up having to have a separate active for everything that I create, rather than being able to throw all the different sets of body armor into one active, all the leg armors into another, etc. Plus, I can play all my animations backwards as well as be able to create different animations using the frames already loaded in, without having to create new frames.

The only downside to having this kind of power is that I can get the file size of the game up pretty quick, but I really don't care too much about that. This game will rock your socks off, (especially with what I've got planned) so file size really shouldn't matter. I've already planned in some pretty clever aspects that will keep the frame-rate in tiptop shape, while being visually stunning.

Also, it's not important, but if anyone does any kind of art and you're good at it, feel free to drop me a line. You won't have to do ANY and I mean ANY animation what-so-ever, they are all static images. The most you'll have to do in terms of backgrounds are tilesets, and the best part is I will be working with you, it's not one of those "okay, you've got it so I'm not going to worry about it". Oh and even better, I'm not like most of the cheapskates (no offense to anyone) that ask for help around these parts, you will be compensated for your efforts. But the only catch is, you have to be able to make art that looks better than mine (which isn't really that difficult). If no one gets back to me, fine, no biggie, I'll continue on myself, but just to let you know, you'll be missing out!

The next task I am going to work on before I tackle any animation or other art is a good level editor, except I have no idea where to start, so if anyone has any good ideas, let me know.

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