Sprite Swap Tips/Suggestions

Discuss issues pertaining to the Creature Animation Editor here.
chong
Posts: 1178
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 2:21 am

Re: Sprite Swap Tips/Suggestions

Post by chong » Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:53 am

Hello,

No worries, those are all good reports of UI issues. I am currently in the process of working on the Mac port for the new feature set just published. And then it will be onto to documentation and new video tutorials for the new features.

I will note these down and take a look at them ( they are important, don't worry ) when I get the cycles.

Cheers

Pixel Mush
Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2017 3:58 pm

Re: Sprite Swap Tips/Suggestions

Post by Pixel Mush » Wed Aug 30, 2017 1:05 am

Image

If you look at this gif of my exported animation (timings for the flames/walking need to be changed a bit still) do you know what is causing the grey circle around the torch during export?

EDIT: If you click the link is doesn't shadow image like the preview.

chong
Posts: 1178
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 2:21 am

Re: Sprite Swap Tips/Suggestions

Post by chong » Wed Aug 30, 2017 1:32 am

Hello,

The GIF export can only work with limited number of colours so some of the transparency might not be able to be encoded out properly.
If you want the full range of colours preserved ( and in GIF ), you should export it out as full PNG frames ( frame by frame )
Then use an external program that has a fancier GIF encoder ( there are lots of free ones online ) to process the GIF.

Here is some FAQ online:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/368 ... peg-images

Cheers

Pixel Mush
Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2017 3:58 pm

Re: Sprite Swap Tips/Suggestions

Post by Pixel Mush » Wed Aug 30, 2017 1:52 am

That's fine, not a big deal. I was just curious if I was doing something wrong. Thanks.

Pixel Mush
Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2017 3:58 pm

Re: Sprite Swap Tips/Suggestions

Post by Pixel Mush » Wed Aug 30, 2017 8:23 pm

Image

There's and updated walk :) ^

But I actually have a question for the animation below. So I have this guy throwing a bomb, now I was wondering if it is possible for the bomb to be removed from the animation part way through the animation? For example; he throws the bomb, once it hits the ground it is removed from the animation (and it rolls via a separate animation in game) so I can have follow through in motion and the belly jiggle. What I tried to do is start a separate animation from the end so for example; At frame 101 of the bomb throw animation it ends and a new animation starts at frame 101 with a new skin swap removing the bomb. But the problem with that is it no longer has the follow through from the mesh motors for the bag, belly, hair, and head jiggle. Is there either a way to remove the bomb mid animation so I can have follow through on one continuous animation (and save the programmers some work) or two start a second animation without the bomb (via skin swap or another method) but keep the secondary motions active? Thanks again -Pixel

EDIT: Once again click the thumbnail for a non-shadowed look.

EDIT: I think I have a solution, you tell me if you think this is the best answer. After the bomb reaches its destination on the ground simply shrink it and move it behind the other layers of the character? Then it's still technically on screen but just wont be seen. This will still allow my secondary motion to finish what it needs to.

Image
Last edited by Pixel Mush on Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Pixel Mush
Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2017 3:58 pm

Re: Sprite Swap Tips/Suggestions

Post by Pixel Mush » Wed Aug 30, 2017 8:51 pm

Also one other thing I forgot about. In game engine all of our skin swaps seem to be working great except one. I was hoping maybe you could give a little insight. The default "walk" skin displays the the rectangle placeholder for the bomb. I don't have it set as an active region for the skin in Creature.
The first image shows what the skin looks like inside of the game.
Second image shows a different skin (which works perfect)
The third image shows the code
Fourth image shows what is active for the walk skin inside of creature.
Any tips or suggestions as to what may be wrong would be great. I don't do the coding myself. So if you need to see something or need more info about that just let me know. And I will see what I can send you.
EDIT: The fifth image is what the coder said to also tell you.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

chong
Posts: 1178
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 2:21 am

Re: Sprite Swap Tips/Suggestions

Post by chong » Thu Aug 31, 2017 1:50 am

Hello,

If you want to make the bomb disappear, you can click on the bomb region, then set its opacity to 0 ( key it for that particular frame ). Opacity how transparent it is ( 0 to 100 ). So a 0 keyframe on it will make it not visible.

I am not sure what you mean in the second question but I am assuming you just want the bomb to not show up? Then just key its region opacity to 0. The opacity will show up in the Animation Knots timeline.

Thanks

Pixel Mush
Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2017 3:58 pm

Re: Sprite Swap Tips/Suggestions

Post by Pixel Mush » Thu Aug 31, 2017 2:07 am

In the second question/post. The purple rectangle is showing up in game along with the open hand instead of a closed fist. The last screen shot shows what is actually set up for that "skin" in Creature, but in game it isn't using that skin even though the coding in unity is set for the "walk" skin, which in fact is the skin shown in the last screen shot. So skin in creature is called "walk" it's in the last screen shot. But in-game using the same "walk" skin doesn't show the same.

chong
Posts: 1178
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 2:21 am

Re: Sprite Swap Tips/Suggestions

Post by chong » Thu Aug 31, 2017 2:28 am

Well off the top of my head I am not quite sure why this is happening ( lots of Studios are using SkinSwap + sprite swap right now with no issues... I need to double check with them )

Maybe one thing you can do is to explicitly swap in the image of the hand you want in the default walk animation ( so make it Sprite Swap active and force swap in an image you want for the hand and see if it works. )

Or make a new skin, same as walk and swap it in there ( yes redundant but see if it works since your code works for other skins)

Pixel Mush
Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2017 3:58 pm

Re: Sprite Swap Tips/Suggestions

Post by Pixel Mush » Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:05 pm

Great video on the update btw, very helpful :)
I was asked by the programmer to ask you this;
(First picture is his question, the other two are his screenshots.)

Image

Image

Image


Thanks again - Pixel

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