C&C for seige equipment sprite(s)

[Issyl]

It's a pretty solid animation now, although I would personally add an intermediate frame and speed it up.

[stimj]

The momentum doesn't seem right. I think you need to add in some follow through. The arm comes up, releases the load, and then stops in your animation. What stops it? If it's stopped by something in the structure, then the whole structure should tilt forward as it slows the arm down. If your trebuchet operates more like real ones did, then the arm will continue (If you need inspiration, watch the siege of Minas Tirith from LOTR 3). Also, I think it would help if you showed the boulder in one more frame after it leaves the arm (at the very edge of the frame maybe). The first time I saw this I thought the boulder had just changed color. Otherwise this looks pretty sweet

[Frogger5]

To be truthful, the lighting is still all over the place, if I were you, then I'd fix that before animating... meh your choice.

[Peter the Great]

The momentum doesn't seem right. I think you need to add in some follow through. The arm comes up, releases the load, and then stops in your animation. What stops it? If it's stopped by something in the structure, then the whole structure should tilt forward as it slows the arm down. If your trebuchet operates more like real ones did, then the arm will continue (If you need inspiration, watch the siege of Minas Tirith from LOTR 3). Also, I think it would help if you showed the boulder in one more frame after it leaves the arm (at the very edge of the frame maybe). The first time I saw this I thought the boulder had just changed color. Otherwise this looks pretty sweet

I was going to say this but he beat me to it. He did forget to mention that trebuchets don't have a solid piece of wood holding the projectile, instead they have a sling of sorts that ties around the rock.
ALSO he forgot to mention that a trebuchet doesn't start with the end of the arm that far back. Most are a lot taller than that and some have the projectile actually being held in front of the counterweight.

A few references
One in mid swing
One loaded and ready to fire

[SkyOne]

Thank you, Neilarmius, so much. They seem pretty good. I appreciate them.
However, installing their animations on the events is currently impossible. I am able to remove image, but the next image does not show. It probably causes to other animations for the halo in the same events, but I am not sure. Therefore, I only use the standard image at this moment. (sorry about it)

About the facing; I did the this way to suit the scenario setting (in whch it fires in the south-west direction). It's Skyone's call whether to use it as scenery or unit.

Thanks for considering my scenario.
I use an unit for this one.

I will upload the new edition with the new Thunderthrow in less than a week.

[Daxion]

Two things that I noticed:
One: it suddenly stops, as already mentioned
Two: it seems that most seige equip as reference used a sling like end of arm to hold the projectile.

http://www.dr-bernhard-peter.de/seite75.htm (unfortunatly it's in german)
http://www.hirschfelder-blide.de/blide31.mpg (one Trebuchet in action)

I just thought I throw it in.

[thespaceinvader]

TBH, it's not really a trebuchet. It's more of a catapult. But kind of in between.

However yes, even a catapult type siege engine will have a little follow-through, and some reaction from the rest of the machine to the momentum and movement.

[artisticdude]

The bucket on the bottom would swing behind more, causing the arm to surpass a vertical angle. And once fired, the arm would swing back and forth a bit and end up completely vertical. You'd have to wind it up in order to fire again, though an animation of this may not be necessary. Good work so far though, I've always wanted a sprite like this but have never been able to create a satisfactory one. Congrats on doing so.

[Neilarmius]

RE mechanism design
Sorry for the red herring- I know its not technically a trebuchet any longer. It's a thunderthrow. I did use treb. references initially. I had to make the structure short to fit in 72x72px and still look bulky relative to beings, simplifying of the mechanism. The space that that height allows the box to drop in to limits how far round the swing arc the arm can go.

Its meant to be the first prototype of a new invention by a dwarf in the aforementioned campaign. (explaining the lack of wind mechanism and roughly cut wood. It looks like it would throw something effectively- which is all that's important to me.

RE lighting: Thanks for re-iterating. I'm not a good enough artist to immediately know what was wrong in that respect but I think I see what you mean now.

Sadly I'm not a perfectionist by a long shot. I like spiriting but four evenings or so on a project is about all I can face. All I wanted was to add to the Brave Wings champaign which it appears I've achieved. Please feel welcome to add another frame of the follow through or stopping shudder, re do it heavily or even start afresh. If some one makes this into an actual unit in a campaign with ranged attack I'd be very happy!

Images inc .xcf/gimp file and missile.

Thunderthrow.zip

(53.95 KiB) Downloaded 244 times

However, installing their animations on the events is currently impossible. I am able to remove image, but the next image does not show. It probably causes to other animations for the halo in the same events, but I am not sure. Therefore, I only use the standard image at this moment. (sorry about it)

I think it can be done but don't know near enough WML. Is there a way threadheads?

Finally, if any UMC creators want me to apply my short attention span to a custom sprite please pm. Thanks all.

[artisticdude]

Will you be making more siege equipment? I'm sure many UMC artists will have a lot of interest in this sort of thing, including myself.

[Neilarmius]

Alright. Battering ram on wheels with a roof? Any other ideas? I see Issyl's got a few bits underway on the Setanesh thread.

[SkyOne]

However, installing their animations on the events is currently impossible. I am able to remove image, but the next image does not show. It probably causes to other animations for the halo in the same events, but I am not sure. Therefore, I only use the standard image at this moment. (sorry about it)

I think it can be done but don't know near enough WML. Is there a way threadheads?

Yes! I can post to ask on the forum after uploading it. I have left the code on the scenario.

What I am trying to do is to hide the real thunderthrow image of the unit, then using its image as halo or items for the animations. They show before and after the shot, but not during the bullet-shooting because there will be another halo (actually, a fake unit) at the same hex. If I use the regular unit image of the Thunderthrow, of course, the image show, but no animated because it is not a battling condition. (the standing animation is possible though)

It is a kind of complicated situations in the event, but I keep trying it.


Oh, one more minor thing.

Because it used to be Watchtower, there is still a weapon, ballista, on the Thunderthrow unit.cfg. Would you like me to remove it? In this case, I have to increase its HP or resistance really high. Or you can add something on it. Maybe, Dwarf-Minor as an operator? (P.S. the last one is not serious)


EDIT: I have finally found out what wrong is to make animations after struggling for two days. I might be able to do it.
But please give me a break. I am so tired...

[Neilarmius]

Are the proportions,scaling and perspective correct? Obvious WIP.

Battering Ram proportion.png (15.29 KiB) Viewed 3465 times

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Because it used to be Watchtower, there is still a weapon, ballista, on the Thunderthrow unit.cfg. Would you like me to remove it?

It doesn't make sense for it to have a pierce attack. I would make it a unit that can't attack (other than in your custom WML event). It should be possible to attack but have such hp that the bomb has to be used. That said; I don't mind if it keeps the attack while you have a break from coding.

[Vendanna]

The perspective is not correct, trace a line (imaginary or not) between the skeleton legs and you will notice that your batering ram orientation isn't the same as the skeleton one.

[Neilarmius]

Are you implying that the front of the ram should be parallel to a line between the legs? Surely different units all have slightly different orientation or is mine simply too far from the average?