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Best way to do 2D animation

Started by Doolwind Jun 23, 2010 at 5:11 AM 4 replies 3.5k views

Original Post

Jun 23, 2010 at 5:11 AM

We are looking at our options for creating 2D animations for our current indie game. It's a superhero themed strategy game with units about 120px high that move along the screen somewhat like Plants vs Zombies.

My question is, if we want to have an art style similar to Shank what would be the best option. We see two main options:

1. Frame by frame drawn animations
2. "boned" animations created in flash

Do any artists out there have recommendations? We would love to do the boned flash animation if we can as it would save us time and money, but are unsure if this has the power to look good for character animations. Any links to tutorials or examples would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Doolwind

Oluseyi

Jun 23, 2010 at 10:34 AM

Do Flash. Shank was done using a Flash-like workflow - motion tweeks, bones and inverse kinematics.

zer0wolf

Jun 23, 2010 at 11:47 AM

Flash would be easiest route. If you don't have the money for Flash, then try Anime Studio, Toon Boom, or the free Synfig. Synfig unfortunately doesn't have bones, but has cutout, morphing, and onion skinning capabilities.

Doolwind

Jun 23, 2010 at 11:41 PM

Awesome, thanks guys. Flash is within our price range so that looks like our best option.

Do you have any recommendations for places to grab tutorials I can give to our artist?

Oluseyi

Jun 24, 2010 at 12:00 AM

Quote:
Original post by Doolwind
Do you have any recommendations for places to grab tutorials I can give to our artist?

Tragically, most tutorials really, really suck. Flash has moved further and further away from being a "pure" animation tool and more toward games and application development. That said, my recommendation is to grab Adobe's Flash CS Classroom in a Book and use that to get familiar with Flash features. Hopefully your artist has a basic grounding in animation principles.

Doolwind

Jun 24, 2010 at 12:08 AM

Quote:
Original post by Oluseyi
Tragically, most tutorials really, really suck. Flash has moved further and further away from being a "pure" animation tool and more toward games and application development. That said, my recommendation is to grab Adobe's Flash CS Classroom in a Book and use that to get familiar with Flash features. Hopefully your artist has a basic grounding in animation principles.

Thanks Oluseyi. Our artist has a great grounding in animation principles, just little flash experience. I'll grab one of those books.

Doolwind

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