Standing and idle animations?

Post by **zookeeper** » September 18th, 2006, 8:26 am

Vendanna wrote:If you are going to make the wind blowing on the units... remember to select the default (wind blows in this direction) for the units, if not you may end with two units that for a coincidence the wind blow on them on different directions.

I don't think we should make the animations such that it's visible where the wind blows from - remember that units facing to the left are just mirrored from the default stance (which is to the right), so even if all units were animated as having the wind blow from the same direction, we'd still get the capes of about half of the units on the map to have that direction reversed for them.

I think it's entirely possible to make movement in the capes, hair and whatnot to be such that it doesn't imply a certain wind direction, and IMHO we should make the animations like that too.

Post by **Boucman** » September 19th, 2006, 8:04 pm

still nothing commited to trunk...

kbaskin, do you need any help setting things up ?

Post by **kbaskins** » September 20th, 2006, 3:57 am

Boucman wrote:still nothing commited to trunk...

kbaskin, do you need any help setting things up ?

Sorry, Real LifeÃ¢â€žÂ¢ got in the way. That, and the fact that I've never done an animation commit before so I've been trying to figure out the animation WML commands. I was just reading the forum to see what the latest scuttlebutt is, then I'm gonna hunker down and give this animation stuff a shot. If you or zookeeper (or both) want to look at my file before I commit it, that would be great. Once I get a couple under my belt, things will go much more quickly.

--

Karen

Post by **zookeeper** » September 20th, 2006, 7:40 am

kbaskins wrote:Sorry, Real LifeÃ¢â€žÂ¢ got in the way. That, and the fact that I've never done an animation commit before so I've been trying to figure out the animation WML commands. I was just reading the forum to see what the latest scuttlebutt is, then I'm gonna hunker down and give this animation stuff a shot. If you or zookeeper (or both) want to look at my file before I commit it, that would be great. Once I get a couple under my belt, things will go much more quickly.

This stuff will go to trunk anyway, so there's no great need to get them perfect on the first commit. I at least will check the commits in any case, and if I then want to make some changes to them I can PM you with some explanations of what and why something should be done differently.

I'll probably commit the swordsman idle animation in a few hours, BTW, so no need to bother with that one.

EDIT: Swordsman idle animation committed (I might clean it up a bit more in the future, but it looks good in-game to me).

Post by **Redeth** » September 21st, 2006, 12:42 am

zookeper wrote:I think it's entirely possible to make movement in the capes, hair and whatnot to be such that it doesn't imply a certain wind direction, and IMHO we should make the animations like that too.

True. Besides, no matter where the general direction of the wind is on the 'big scale', there's the chance of a small breeze coming from the opposite direction at any given time.

Zhukov wrote:As for the Dwarf, I really don't think he should jump quite so high. He is jumping nearly his own height. It would be like a person who was 1.75m tall jumping about 1.5m into the air.

I know, but at the sprite level Wesnoth works on, these kind of movements must be exaggerated in order to be noticeable. The dwarf jumping in a "realistic" way would make that animation irrelevant.

XJaPaN wrote:Here is my nervous Naga Fighter

Not bad! Please keep working on it as Jetryl suggested, or at least post the .pngs so I can try my hand at finishing it. Same goes to you and your dragon animation, Flametrooper, don't let them become dust in the wind

Enough talking. Here's a simple one of my own. The shadow needs to be slightly modified and the head cleaned up (just one of his ears, actually). Other than that I think it's finished, but opinions are welcomed before I post the .zip

XJaPaN · Post by **XJaPaN** » September 21st, 2006, 12:47 am

Tried to enhance it but it now looks like a mixture between a dog and a naga ....

anyway here is a zip of the frames.

Post by **Jetrel** » September 21st, 2006, 1:11 am

XJaPaN wrote:Tried to enhance it but it now looks like a mixture between a dog and a naga .... anyway here is a zip of the frames.

You posted a non-animated version of the gif. Repost.

XJaPaN · Post by **XJaPaN** » September 21st, 2006, 1:26 am

Here you go...

Post by **Redeth** » September 21st, 2006, 11:35 pm

Thanks for the .zip! Please let me know if this reflects your original intention for the creature.

Post by **Jetrel** » September 22nd, 2006, 4:56 am

Redeth wrote:Thanks for the .zip! Please let me know if this reflects your original intention for the creature.

Chop out one of the "looks; to the front" and it's perfect.

Post by **Redeth** » September 23rd, 2006, 11:04 am

Jetryl wrote:
Redeth wrote:Thanks for the .zip! Please let me know if this reflects your original intention for the creature.
Chop out one of the "looks; to the front" and it's perfect.

Done. No comments on the elf archer so I assume it was good, I cleaned it up and here it is.

11 animations completed. This is what we have in the idling department, so far:

-Peasant
-Swordsman
-Fencer

-Dwarf Fighter
-Dwarf Warrior
-Dwarf Runemaster

-Elf Archer

-Skel Archer

-Goblin Spearman

-Ogre

-Naga Fighter

Post by **Jetrel** » September 24th, 2006, 6:22 am

As an effort at nailing down nomenclature, the distinction between idle animations and standing animations is a bit vague. We need a non-ambiguous vocab, so:

I'm thinking of calling the "doing something like swinging around the sword" animations "bored animations". Sound good?

I'm thinking of the simple "cape swaying in the wind" animations "standing animations", since the unit is only standing there during it.

("idle animation" raises the question of whether it is something triggered when the unit is idle, or whether the unit stays idle while doing it).

Post by **Boucman** » September 24th, 2006, 8:42 am

do I keep the WML tag as [idle_anim] like it currently is, or do you want me to change that too ?

(question adressed to zokeeper, kbaskin, and jetryl)

Post by **kbaskins** » September 24th, 2006, 1:44 pm

Boucman wrote:do I keep the WML tag as [idle_anim] like it currently is, or do you want me to change that too ?

(question adressed to zokeeper, kbaskin, and jetryl)

I'm easy either way, but if we're going to change it, we should do so now. I only have a couple of units done, so it wouldn't be much trouble to change those.

--

Karen

Post by **Redeth** » September 24th, 2006, 2:06 pm

To celebrate the creation of the longbowman portrait, lets give him a nice animation, shall we? This guy has got an attitude, definitely...

Before you jump at my throat telling me it makes no sense or asking me "why?", let me share what I had in mind while creating it... What I imagined was this longbowman at a castle wall or tower, watching over the battlefield. His amazing eyesight allows him to see the enemy forces first, so he points at them and shakes his fist in a threatening manner, while shouting and giving the alert.

Since archers very rarely (if ever) are alone on the field, this could also be interpreted as the vet longbowman reprimending one of the young bowmen... those rookies never learn, do they?

Now please go and create another cool portrait to inspire me

edit: made his gesture more obvious...