Mudcrawlers

[DranKof]

I'm sure for non-faction units, this isn't a priority, or might even be a conflict of policy, or a horribly gaudy artistic mistake, but...could the eyeballs be team-colored?

LordBob, those animated multi-colored blobs (not the mudcrawler, but the body parts), are those assigned by a program made for animation-making or something like that? Or is that just how you draw your frames before you color them in as you design the animation? It looks really cool, I'd like to learn a little about how to make good animations on my own.

[LordBob]

It might not be all this obvious, but the eyes are team colored already. Or meant to be. If it doesn't work, then I messed up the magenta palette and should fix it.

LordBob, those animated multi-colored blobs (not the mudcrawler, but the body parts), are those assigned by a program made for animation-making or something like that? Or is that just how you draw your frames before you color them in as you design the animation?

The later. They're my sketch, if you prefer. Each color blob corresponds to one or several body parts (or blobs of mud) that must move together consistently. I do this because I find it a lot easier to visualize the movement of brightly-colored shapes than it is to work with a fully-rendered sprite.
Experienced animators can probably go straight for the target color palette and get away with it, but this is year 0 for me...

[Iris]

I'm a bit concerned that the puddle probably expands beyond the hex occupied by the unit, even briefly. Does this cause problems ?

Generally not. Units with large standing animation frames tend to conflict with the terrain layering system, but if my memory serves all other animations (including attack, defense, and death) are forced to be rendered on a higher layer than all terrains to avoid these issues.

LordBob, those animated multi-colored blobs (not the mudcrawler, but the body parts), are those assigned by a program made for animation-making or something like that? Or is that just how you draw your frames before you color them in as you design the animation?

Experienced animators can probably go straight for the target color palette and get away with it, but this is year 0 for me...

Well, the approach isn’t actually new (see Blocking in the “From Base Frame to Full Animation” tutorial in the wiki).

[DranKof]

It might not be all this obvious, but the eyes are team colored already. Or meant to be. If it doesn't work, then I messed up the magenta palette and should fix it.

You're right, and the palletes are correct and work (attached an image). I was being an asinine newbie.
(This is a topic for another forum, but it's slightly related:) I did notice that the (1.11.4) giant mudcrawler data file doesn't have the {MAGENTA_IS_THE_TEAM_COLOR} in it. I'm not sure if this is an accurate reflection of the up-and-coming-version, but that might be something that needs added! But yeah, this looks awesome.

Well, the approach isn’t actually new (see Blocking in the “From Base Frame to Full Animation” tutorial in the wiki).

Wow, one can learn just about anything on game development here. Someone needs to open the Wesnoth School of Higher Gaming.

[LordBob]

Well, the approach isn’t actually new (see Blocking in the “From Base Frame to Full Animation” tutorial in the wiki).

Indeed. Just to make things clear, this isn't me trying to claim I invented gunpowder. It's from this very tutorial that I learned the method.

In other news, finished attack and death anims. If they're okay, I will commit them along with the animation WML.

[artisticdude]

LordBob, everyone here knows you're wicked good at creating portraits and story art, but at this rate, I can also see you becoming a top-notch pixel artist very shortly. I especially love the "inverse-morphing" recovery in the attack animation.

Just one small thing I'd like to point out: during the extension in the attack animation, the shadow under the arm/hand appears to change color in places.

[DranKof]

I especially love the "inverse-morphing" recovery in the attack animation.

Great googly mooglies! I didn't even see that until you mentioned it... DOUBLE EXCITEMENT!!

[em3]

Just one small thing I'd like to point out: during the extension in the attack animation, the shadow under the arm/hand appears to change color in places.

Seems to be shadow motion blur.

[LordBob]

Indeed: opactity gradient for some shadow motion blurr. The effect's a lot less obvious in game where the anim has a higher framerate, but if it doesn't turn out well I will edit it out.

In other news, after a short chat with Jetrel, the animation WML, baseframe and SE animations for ranged, melee, defense and death have been committed.

I might do the remaining N, S, NE animations at a later date, but consider them by no means reserved: anyone can give them a shot if you please.

[homunculus]

(Oh, just been ninja-ed)

There are some things that I am suspicious about:

Left: the side of head does not have enough shadow (not that I would be completely convinced by my own edit, but I hope it helps to understand what I mean).
Even if the head is meant to merge into body more there must be something strange about it, because it looks like the shoulder and head are too much in the screen plane. Also, the left eye not being higher might enhance the effect. And, does it look off-balance to its left?

Right: when something is twisted, it seems unnatural to have the folds in the other direction than the green lines.

About the ranged animation, I don't think it needs an extra frame, as it looks very readable.

[LordBob]

I would rather not touch the base frame because this might induce subsequent edits of every animation, but goddammit you're right about the twist... I'll have to fix this.

[thespaceinvader]

Looking nice. I'm glad someone else had time to take a look at these. If you can make something which could look like it forming out of a puddle, too, that would be awesome - I'm not sure the death anim reversed would work given the very cool part of the eyes staying in place then dropping a moment later.

Great stuff.

[Adamant14]

Yes, great stuff.
The new Mudcrawler is really amazing.
Thank you LordBob