New animations

[zookeeper]

Right, I'll start working on the assassin and see if I can come up with anything. Would you happen to have somesort of a picture which the assassin's model is based on? Drawing from a clear character would be a lot easier than just copying the pixeled details.

No, the sprites in the game are all there is. I'd actually also disagree that it'd be easier to draw animation frames based on some other reference...you'd have to copy the pixeled details anyway to make your work look identical enough in style. Of course external references like that can be useful if you need to figure out how certain body movements would in reality look like, but you could still only use them as a rough guide and paint over them using the colour palettes and patterns from the existing images for that unit. For the assassin you got the existing animations, particularly the death animation, from which you can grab some details not visible in the base frame.

And since shadows are supposed to be done with 60% opacity and blurred edges, they can be done with the brush tool, right?

The easiest method is probably just to paint a black hard-edged shadow with the pencil tool (on a separate layer), apply a bit of gaussian blur (1.5 I think) to it and then just set the opacity of that layer to 60%.

[Girgistian]

Alright, I think I have something to give now. The assassin got seven frames for it's melee attack, and I think I could create another sort of an attack for it or work on it's dodges or something. I'll just have to know if these are good enough first and what sort of an animation the unit would need the most at the moment.

[Boucman]

non artist opinion : looks good

if you like spriting and animations, don't worry, we'll find you something to do

[Jetrel]

Alright, I think I have something to give now. The assassin got seven frames for it's melee attack, and I think I could create another sort of an attack for it or work on it's dodges or something. I'll just have to know if these are good enough first and what sort of an animation the unit would need the most at the moment.

Well, you've had a stunning improvement since the last animation you made, so ... bravo!

You did manage to keep the vast majority of it clean, as pixel art, though there were a few cases where the thing was slightly blurred (the dagger in frame 7, and occasional bits around his legs, such as in frame 4). This is generally good enough, though.

The key issue that needs to get fixed is the motion, there are a few problems there that we need to resolve. When he does that swing, he needs to rotate his whole torso - the lack of this makes frame 5 look a little awkward, since the arm has swung back, but it's fulcrum hasn't - in that frame, his torso should be facing completely to the right. I would also take the swoosh of his weapon, and move it downward and make it larger (in both frames 4 and 5), since this animation will be only for attacks to the S, SE, and SW - we have north-facing frames we'll be using for all the northerly animations, thanks to Redeth.

Related to this is that his other hand, the one holding the poison darts, needs to move more during the animation. He'd have to move it to keep his balance as he jumps - holding it close to his chest like that would be a little awkward.

So, take one more pass over it, and if it's not ready then, I can finish it from there.

[Girgistian]

Thanks for the feedback, I tried to make the torso turn a bit, even though it makes the head turn in a "funny" way since this is also supposed to be the south attack, and I wonder if the torso's movement is even that much necessary, since it's after all just a dagger he's swinging. So I thought a simple slice might do instead of a more cleaving strike. Of course it does look a bit more theatretical though.
But anyway, I think I did what I could for now without changing the whole set of frames. It got one extra frame, and I'm not really sure if 4 and 5 are good enough, but I'll let you decide. There were some difficulties with this, I admit.

Note for those who already downloaded this: the 6th frame has been fixed later on and the better version is here.

[Girgistian]

Also, will there be different animations for units when they're defending and when they're actually being hit?

[Jetrel]

Also, will there be different animations for units when they're defending and when they're actually being hit?

There can be, but I have no plan to make unique frames for them, and I'd generally discourage others from doing the same - the engine feature could be used, and used well, to use existing frames instead - perhaps only showing the first of a two-frame defend animation when the unit actually gets hit.

Also, it could be used for 'impact splashes' (and in fact I plan to do so). These would be like what the wose has during the "smackdown" of it's death animation; right when it hits the ground. I think that a similar effect applied to most weapons when they hit - especially if they're impact weapons, but also probably for most other kinds of weapons, would have a good effect on things, and would be a good use of the attack/defend filtering code, without making more work for the artists. They'd be applied as overlaid animations, not as something burned into the actual unit images, so a tiny set of images would be useable across the entire game's worth of units.

[adromidon]

Wow love the game and would love to contribute to it but unless you need a stickfigure animation (best i can do) then I am of no help

[Girgistian]

might even work that way, if you can plan good animations. If you happen to come up with a good idea and make a stick-figure animation out of it, it could be used as a base for a real unit animation.

[adromidon]

really damn I may have to try that sometime

[Redeth]

really damn I may have to try that sometime

"No. Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try."

[Yoda Man]

really damn I may have to try that sometime

"No. Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try."

Wise, this one is, hmm?

[Tapsa]

I made a shadow death animation.

[Tapsa]

Idling Dark Adept

[pauxlo]

I made a shadow death animation.

I think a ghost wouln't fall down ... only the blade, maybe, the shadow itself should only fade out.