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balancing code with artwork

Started by neonstar Jun 30, 2000 at 7:40 AM 8 replies 350+ views

Original Post

Jun 30, 2000 at 7:40 AM

I was going through my animation engine for my game last night and realized just how much damn artwork will have to be done. Think about it: artwork for each moving or still state of the player or any other character, also with whatever weapon they would be carrying at the time. Also for any other extra action they''d do. ALSO, there would have to be artwork for each action in 8 DIRECTIONS... My biggest question is, would it be just as easy to have the artwork all generalized, meaning the hand positions for each character be in the same place, so i could have masked weapon sprites that correspond with each frame so the end result looks correct? i really don''t want to put that much strain on my artist, plus that''s gonna amount to some huge-ass sprite bitmaps! thanks, david -- davidw@heehaw.com neonstar entertainment

-BacksideSnap-

Jun 30, 2000 at 12:56 PM

I think you just figured out why 2D games are a pain. That''s the reason I scrapped this iso tile game I was working on (well, that and finding 3D more interesting). That''s also the reason BioWare gave as to why rangers can''t wield two weapons in Baldur''s gate - they said there would be so much extra artwork it wouldn''t be worth it. Sounds like a cop out to me, but it shows you how much art is required, and the strain it puts on development.

-BacksideSnap-

Jun 30, 2000 at 1:07 PM

I''m finding that out too. I estimate that just to have a decent walking/standing/shooting/dying character I''ll need I think 37 frames of animation. This would be a character that can be seen in eight directions, either walking or standing, only fires from one direction(front), and only dies in one direction (front, in 4 frames). I''m currently thinking of trying to make some non-organic character that doesn''t have moving parts. Would cut out all the walking frames and be a big time-saver. Like a tank or something.

Ut

neonstar

Author

neonstar

Jun 30, 2000 at 1:32 PM

BacksideSnap:
Yep, i''m either gonna have to figure out some way to do it in 2D, or i''ll just fucking do 3D models for characters, which in my opinion, would be the easiest damn way to do it. I''ll probably keep the 2D tile engine, but have 3D chars, sorta like how Square did FF7/8... Seems the most reasonable thing to do. That would be easier than scrapping the 2D engine and trying to learn 3D from the ground up and dragging my artist the whole way through it.

What are the best 3D model file formats to use in D3D? Could MD2 files be easily ported to D3D?

david

--
davidw@heehaw.com
neonstar entertainment

neonstar

Author

neonstar

Jun 30, 2000 at 3:05 PM

yeah, that''s an option, but to tell you the truth, i think i''m going to go ahead and try to do it fully 3D. maybe that''s the best way to go anyway...

thanks all,
david

--
davidw@heehaw.com
neonstar entertainment

-BacksideSnap-

Jun 30, 2000 at 3:43 PM

quote:
Original post by neonstar

yeah, that's an option, but to tell you the truth, i think i'm going to go ahead and try to do it fully 3D. maybe that's the best way to go anyway...

thanks all,
david

That's what I like to hear. I think you'll like the versatility you get. I've got my 3D demo up and running, the character animates and everything. I don't have to render out 9 pics for each frame of animation now either. I think a methamphetamine addiction is required for small teams to write tile based games.

-BacksideSnap-

Edited by - -BacksideSnap- on June 30, 2000 4:44:08 PM

Shannon Barber

Mod

368

Shannon Barber

Jul 2, 2000 at 3:01 AM

How about character & weapon each define a meeting point & blit the weapon before you blit the character. One art work for each (unless they move.. need one animation for each one of those... - in which case you will need a (2) 2d points & a 2d vector & need to rotate the weapon tiles.)

SPAR

Jul 2, 2000 at 11:20 AM

I agree with Magmai,

Take a look at Ultima Online, they just have a sprite of a naked person, then a sprite of clothes, then a sprite of weapons, etc.. Each of this sprites are painted over eachother just like a paper doll (hence the "Paper Doll" feature in UO).

Instead of drawing a different pic for each setup of a character, have a default character that you can add possessions (sprites) to and layer them.

Say the coordinates of the player''s hand is x=20 y=20 on the character''s bitmap (the picture of the character''s body). To change the weapon, simply redraw the character''s body and draw a new weapon sprite that meets at the 20x20 coordinates of the character sprite.

hope i could help

neonstar

Author

neonstar

Jul 5, 2000 at 6:44 AM

well, looks like i''m just gonna layer the character sprites like I had thought before. 3D looks like it''s a bit over my head at the moment. i know for a fact that I could complete this game. maybe i should just keep it simple for now, then try 3D after I''m done with this. i''m ready for 3D, it''s just that i''m scared that I won''t understand 3D game logic as well as I do 2D game logic. it''s a bit of difference there, folks. if I was as sure of my algorithm-creation skills in 3D as I am with 2D, i would have been doing that all weekend rather than playing FF7...

oh well, thanks for the suggestions folks...

dw

--
davidw@heehaw.com
neonstar entertainment

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