Standing and idle animations?

[Dragon Master]

Try making Li'sar make faces at small intervals. Like the snooty little princess she is.

[TheLost1]

you know what?

I think that if Li'sar dies there should be a message that says: "Congratulations! You killed off Li'sar!"


I really hate her.

[Redeth]

I'm wondering if these standing animations will be implemented with the larger hex sizes and OpenGL

Will they?

Try making Li'sar make faces at small intervals. Like the snooty little princess she is.

I'm not sure if animated facial expressions in sprite level will be distinguishable enough... I guess the experiments must go on...

you know what? I think that if Li'sar dies there should be a message that says: "Congratulations! You killed off Li'sar!"

This post, though OT, gave me an idea. Victory animations. These would apply only to high level and special units and would be triggered once you cleared a scenario, finished a campaign or defeated certain foe/achieved certain goal. The screen would center on that unit (most likely your leader) and then he'd perform this 'celebrate!' animation, while some short victory music is being played along.

I for one am positively popping with ideas for this (goblin knight patting his wolf on the head, archer restringing bow, rogue balancing knife on fingertip, bird flying out of wose's foliage...the list goes on).

Good, keep these ideas coming, everyone. Through this experiment it's been made clear that 'idling animations' are a go, since Jetryl and everyone else gave the thumbs up, while 'bobbing' and continual loops have risen quite some controversy... Therefore, I plan to focus on the random animations first and leave the loops for debate and future decision of the devs.

Anyway, use your imagination and post your ideas for these random 'idle sequences', no matter how crazy they are. Please do try to be as specific as possible. For example: "swordsman fools around with sword" is ok, but "swordsman is showing off with his sword and then he accidentaly drops it, stabbing his own foot", is way better.

Enough talking... here's another possible way to go: cartoonish style. This one is even fit for a goblin. It looks better with proper background but this should do. C&C are welcome.

[Jodwin]

Skeletons (and archers) could have some of their bones fall off, and them attaching the bones back (like the other hand fall off).

Drake Flamers could have fiery burps.

Troll Whelps could hit their own head, or raise on two feet and drum their chest the gorilla-style.

Orc Archers could pull back the bowstring too much, breaking it.

Saurian Augurs could eat a hamburger.

[Dragon Master]

That one is neat, but maybe make the zzz's appear one a time.
Heavy Inantry could bang his mace in his foot to get some crud off it.
Li'sar could alternatively do some fancy sword spin.
Ulfserker could do some flexing.
A drake could pull out a pipe and light it with his breath, then smoke it with puffs coming out his nose.
Gryffon could preen itself.
Saurian soothsayer, herbalist, healer (whatever he's called) could skim through his spellbook.
WC could have limb fall off, then pick it up an reattatch it.
Dark Adept can do some sort of "energy charge" spell witha nice lighting affect.
Necromancer could examine his skull in a Shakespearian reference.
Orchish/Human asassin could pull out some knives and dip them in a poison bottle, Or juggle a knife in one hand.
That enough for now?

[Stilgar]

I'd say a white speech bubble like that is not a good thing, but the idea itself could work. Maybe if you had him snore and a little "Z" float up from near his mouth each time he does. Then he could jump and shake his head when he wakes up, like "oh my gosh! I fell asleep!".

Animation ideas, some more silly than others...
- Any drake that breathes fire could snort a puff of smoke out of its nostrils once in a while.
- Walking corpses could totter unsteadily and possibly lose their balance sometimes so they fall over and have to drag themselves to their feet, but that should only happen rarely.
- Silver mage could cross his arms, close his eyes, and start levitating.
- White Mage & Mage of Light could clasp their hands and close their eyes like they're saying a prayer/blessing.
- Skeleton units could grab their skull and rock it back and forth as if making sure it's set properly.
- Troll units could slam their fist/club on the ground impatiently.
- Elves could toss/adjust their hair in a vain sort of way.
- Duellist/Master at Arms could adjust his hat.
- Heavy Infantry line could pop off ther helmet for a moment and look around.
- Dwarvish Fighter and perhaps other Dwarves could quaff a mug of ale.
- Ulfserker / Berserker could wave their axe around threateningly, or flex their muscles.
- Orcish Grunt line could flex his muscles too, also they could pop their helmet off for a moment and look around with some ugly orc face.

The idea crossed my mind that the Goblin Pillager could light a cig on his torch and smoke it, but somehow I doubt such exist in Wesnoth...

Victory / Defeat animations would be cool too. Konrad could look at the player and flash the "V for Victory" sign on a win (I'd say have him smile too, but the sprite's probably too small.) Maybe have him jump for joy if a bigger effect is needed. On defeat, he could go down on one knee and cover his face with his hands.

Edit:

Necromancer could examine his skull in a Shakespearian reference.

I love it

[Redeth]

I'd say a white speech bubble like that is not a good thing, but the idea itself could work. Maybe if you had him snore and a little "Z" float up from near his mouth each time he does. Then he could jump and shake his head when he wakes up, like "oh my gosh! I fell asleep!".

humm... that might make it too long, but maybe this one, without speech bubble, is better. The shape and color of the z's are not final, the concept is what I'm trying to get right.

Keep those ideas coming, they're great and I'm writing down the ones I like the most.

[Dragon Master]

That's better, but the Z's look out of place. Maybe try doing it the japanese way, with a snot bubble that expands and contracts as he snores, then pops when he wakes up.

[Jetrel]

I'd say a white speech bubble like that is not a good thing, but the idea itself could work. Maybe if you had him snore and a little "Z" float up from near his mouth each time he does. Then he could jump and shake his head when he wakes up, like "oh my gosh! I fell asleep!".

humm... that might make it too long, but maybe this one, without speech bubble, is better. The shape and color of the z's are not final, the concept is what I'm trying to get right.

Keep those ideas coming, they're great and I'm writing down the ones I like the most.

Concept is not bad - I would not do it the way Dragonmaster suggested, mostly because that wouldn't work well at this size.

What I would do is make the Zs move, rather than just appearing in a fixed location and then disappearing.

[irrevenant]

That's better, but the Z's look out of place. Maybe try doing it the japanese way, with a snot bubble that expands and contracts as he snores, then pops when he wakes up.

Ugh. That be kinda gross.

[Ryorin]

It's a bizzare Japanese thing, I personally find it stupid, but hey...

[halleck]

I almost think his shoulders drop 1 or 2 pixles too far.

[kshinji]

I almost think his shoulders drop 1 or 2 pixles too far.

This, or the spear does not drop down enough.

[JW]

Keep those ideas coming, they're great and I'm writing down the ones I like the most.

This is perfect. Don't change it.

[Zhukov]

Regarding the goblin slump/sleep animation: his shoulders dropping three pixels is a bit too much. Just two would be more then sufficient IMO. Oh yeah, and definately what Jetryl said about the Zs moving. I like the way his head droops .
(Am I the only one who thinks having him fall asleep in the middle of a battle is a bit odd? Oh well, I won't complain.)

As for animation ideas...

EDIT: I moved the ideas so they're all in one place, just seven posts down.

...arg, I'm bloody tired. I'll post the rest tomorrow.
(It's 1am in the damn morning here.)