Advanced Animation Tutorial - Revision history

Xudojnik: Added a link to AnimationWML page in "how to write animations" section

2014-10-18T06:40:08Z

Added a link to AnimationWML page in "how to write animations" section

Alem: Undo revision 46959 by BettyMorgan (Talk)

2012-08-05T22:02:01Z

Undo revision 46959 by BettyMorgan (Talk)

BettyMorgan: minor updates

2012-08-05T17:17:50Z

minor updates

Sgt. Groovy at 19:40, 21 February 2008

2008-02-21T19:40:41Z

Esr: Updated to describe current reality.

2008-02-21T03:26:19Z

Updated to describe current reality.

Esr: Remove DevFeature

2008-02-19T17:15:51Z

Remove DevFeature

Zookeeper at 09:09, 11 May 2007

2007-05-11T09:09:02Z

Zookeeper: Added some new guidelines on macros as well as poison and slows sounds

2007-05-11T09:03:56Z

Added some new guidelines on macros as well as poison and slows sounds

Zookeeper: A slight tweak to melee animation recommendations

2006-11-28T21:13:07Z

A slight tweak to melee animation recommendations

Turin: /* Sounds */

2006-07-03T03:35:07Z

‎Sounds

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 == How to write animations ==
-This page deals with how to write the animation WML when you got the frames drawn and ready as well as general guidelines for animation lengths and timing. Proper timing is in many cases almost as important in getting an animation to look nice, smooth and consistent with the rest of the game as the actual frames are.
+This page deals with how to write the [[AnimationWML|animation WML]] when you got the frames drawn and ready as well as general guidelines for animation lengths and timing. Proper timing is in many cases almost as important in getting an animation to look nice, smooth and consistent with the rest of the game as the actual frames are.
 === Timing ===

@@ Line 157: / Line 157: @@
   [/animation]
-The FRAME_ON_POISON macro makes whatever sound you specify inside the enclosed ''[frame]'' (so you could give different poisoning sounds t ... \n
+The FRAME_ON_POISON macro makes whatever sound you specify inside the enclosed ''[frame]'' (so you could give different poisoning sounds to different units, for example to make magical poisoning sound different from traditional poison, like that on poisoned knives) to be played when the attack hits and the target is not already poisoned, with no sound played if the attack misses or the target is already poisoned. The FRAME_ON_SLOW macro is used in an identical manner, except of course with a different sound (slowed.ogg) as the standard one to use.
-== A Savior At the Grocery Store ==
+[[Category: Art Tutorials]]

@@ Line 157: / Line 157: @@
   [/animation]
-The FRAME_ON_POISON macro makes whatever sound you specify inside the enclosed ''[frame]'' (so you could give different poisoning sounds to different units, for example to make magical poisoning sound different from traditional poison, like that on poisoned knives) to be played when the attack hits and the target is not already poisoned, with no sound played if the attack misses or the target is already poisoned. The FRAME_ON_SLOW macro is used in an identical manner, except of course with a different sound (slowed.ogg) as the standard one to use.
+The FRAME_ON_POISON macro makes whatever sound you specify inside the enclosed ''[frame]'' (so you could give different poisoning sounds t ... \n
-[[Category: Art Tutorials]]
+== A Savior At the Grocery Store ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:40, 21 February 2008
Line 158:		Line 158:

	The FRAME_ON_POISON macro makes whatever sound you specify inside the enclosed ''[frame]'' (so you could give different poisoning sounds to different units, for example to make magical poisoning sound different from traditional poison, like that on poisoned knives) to be played when the attack hits and the target is not already poisoned, with no sound played if the attack misses or the target is already poisoned. The FRAME_ON_SLOW macro is used in an identical manner, except of course with a different sound (slowed.ogg) as the standard one to use.		The FRAME_ON_POISON macro makes whatever sound you specify inside the enclosed ''[frame]'' (so you could give different poisoning sounds to different units, for example to make magical poisoning sound different from traditional poison, like that on poisoned knives) to be played when the attack hits and the target is not already poisoned, with no sound played if the attack misses or the target is already poisoned. The FRAME_ON_SLOW macro is used in an identical manner, except of course with a different sound (slowed.ogg) as the standard one to use.
		+
		+	[[Category: Art Tutorials]]

@@ Line 52: / Line 52: @@
 For the vast majority of attacks it is important that it has different sounds for when the attack hits and when it misses. Especially important are "normal" weapons, such as swords, bows, spears and so on. Magical attacks don't necessarily need a different sound when they miss, but if one is available, it should naturally be put to use. Absolutely never leave an attack without any sound altogether! If there isn't a fitting sound available for that weapon or attack, use the second best fitting sound. No attack, unless it's by a silent psychic assassin perhaps, should ever be without an accompanying sound.
 One common way to create hit and miss sound variations is by creating two separate ''[animation]''s for the attack and filtering them by the ''hits='' condition, like this:
@@ Line 129: / Line 127: @@
   [/animation]
-In case you're wondering, the ''{SOUND_LIST:MISS}'' is a simple macro that just expands to ''miss-1.ogg,miss-2.ogg,miss-3.ogg''. A comma-separated list of sounds can be given to all ''sound='' keys, making the game pick one of them at random whenever the sound is triggered, and the macros (you can find them in ''data/sound-utils.cfg'') exist simply to make writing them more convenient.
+In case you're wondering, the ''{SOUND_LIST:MISS}'' is a simple macro that just expands to ''miss-1.ogg,miss-2.ogg,miss-3.ogg''. A comma-separated list of sounds can be given to all ''sound='' keys, making the game pick one of them at random whenever the sound is triggered, and the macros (you can find them in ''data/core/macros/sound-utils.cfg'') exist simply to make writing them more convenient.
 === Slows, poison and other special situations ===

@@ Line 131: / Line 131: @@
 In case you're wondering, the ''{SOUND_LIST:MISS}'' is a simple macro that just expands to ''miss-1.ogg,miss-2.ogg,miss-3.ogg''. A comma-separated list of sounds can be given to all ''sound='' keys, making the game pick one of them at random whenever the sound is triggered, and the macros (you can find them in ''data/sound-utils.cfg'') exist simply to make writing them more convenient.
-A new {{DevFeature}} way of doing this would be by using the HIT_MISS_SOUNDS macro. Using that, the animation above would be somewhat more comfortable, quick and less error-prone to write:
+The newer way of doing this would be by using the HIT_MISS_SOUNDS macro. Using that, the animation above would be somewhat more comfortable, quick and less error-prone to write:
   [animation]
@@ Line 153: / Line 153: @@
   [/animation]
-=== Slows, poison and other special situations {{DevFeature}} ===
+=== Slows, poison and other special situations ===
 Attacks with the slows or poison specials should emit appropriate sounds when they successfully slow or poison an enemy. We have two ready-made macros, FRAME_ON_SLOW and FRAME_ON_POISON available for this which should make the task trivial. Below is an example of how FRAME_OF_POISON is used on mainline units (also note the use of the above-described HIT_MISS_SOUNDS):

@@ Line 139: / Line 139: @@
           image=unit.png
       [/frame]
-      {HIT_MISS_SOUNDS axe.ogg {SOUND_LIST:MISS (
+      {HIT_MISS_SOUNDS axe.ogg {SOUND_LIST:MISS} (
           [frame]
               begin=-150

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 This page deals with how to write the animation WML when you got the frames drawn and ready as well as general guidelines for animation lengths and timing. Proper timing is in many cases almost as important in getting an animation to look nice, smooth and consistent with the rest of the game as the actual frames are.
 === Timing ===
 As a general rule, a melee swing should last at least 300ms and at most 400ms: about 200ms before and after the moment when the swing hits, to keep the speed at which the unit slides back and forth somewhat constant. Naturally there can be exceptions to the "normal" animation lengths, like woses, which have much slower attack animations than most. With ranged attacks, the length of the animation isn't quite as important, since the units aren't taking turns in sliding back and forth (as is the case with melee combat), which makes different animation speeds much more visible. With ranged attacks, however, you have an additional animation to consider: the missile itself. Most normal missiles such as arrows, knives and spears should fly for 150ms. Magical missiles, big rocks or other unusual projectiles can fly longer, but 150ms is the unofficial standard for normal missiles.
 === Filler frames ===
@@ Line 44: / Line 42: @@
 This makes most melee attack frames look much more natural, since this way it seems more like the attacker is hitting the enemy he's approaching, instead of hitting air where he stands and then sliding towards the enemy and back. The same technique can and should be used whenever you have less than 3 drawn attack frames, whereas animations that have more than that would probably benefit very little from this.
 === Simple way of getting new drawn frames ===
@@ Line 51: / Line 48: @@
 ...
 === Sounds ===
@@ Line 134: / Line 130: @@
 In case you're wondering, the ''{SOUND_LIST:MISS}'' is a simple macro that just expands to ''miss-1.ogg,miss-2.ogg,miss-3.ogg''. A comma-separated list of sounds can be given to all ''sound='' keys, making the game pick one of them at random whenever the sound is triggered, and the macros (you can find them in ''data/sound-utils.cfg'') exist simply to make writing them more convenient.

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:13, 28 November 2006
Line 6:		Line 6:
	=== Timing ===		=== Timing ===

−	As a general rule, a melee swing should last ~~about~~ 400ms: 200ms before and ~~200ms~~ after the moment when the swing hits, to keep the speed at which the unit slides back and forth constant. Naturally there can be exceptions to ~~this~~, like woses, which have much slower attack animations than most. With ranged attacks, the length of the animation isn't quite as important, since the units aren't taking turns in sliding back and forth (as is the case with melee combat), which makes different animation speeds much more visible. With ranged attacks, however, you have an additional animation to consider: the missile itself. Most normal missiles such as arrows, knives and spears should fly for 150ms. Magical missiles, big rocks or other unusual projectiles can fly longer, but 150ms is the unofficial standard for normal missiles.	+	As a general rule, a melee swing should last at least 300ms and at most 400ms: about 200ms before and after the moment when the swing hits, to keep the speed at which the unit slides back and forth somewhat constant. Naturally there can be exceptions to the "normal" animation lengths, like woses, which have much slower attack animations than most. With ranged attacks, the length of the animation isn't quite as important, since the units aren't taking turns in sliding back and forth (as is the case with melee combat), which makes different animation speeds much more visible. With ranged attacks, however, you have an additional animation to consider: the missile itself. Most normal missiles such as arrows, knives and spears should fly for 150ms. Magical missiles, big rocks or other unusual projectiles can fly longer, but 150ms is the unofficial standard for normal missiles.

@@ Line 55: / Line 55: @@
 === Sounds ===
-For the vast majority of attacks it is important that it has different sounds for when the attack hits and when it misses. Especially important are "normal" weapons, such as swords, bows, spears and so on. Magical attacks don't necessarily need a different sound when they miss, but if one is available, it should naturally be put to use. Absolutely never leave an attack without any sound altogether! If there isn't a fitting sound available for that weapon or attack, use the second best fitting sound. No attack, unless it's by a silent psychic assassin perhaps, should never be without an accompanying sound.
+For the vast majority of attacks it is important that it has different sounds for when the attack hits and when it misses. Especially important are "normal" weapons, such as swords, bows, spears and so on. Magical attacks don't necessarily need a different sound when they miss, but if one is available, it should naturally be put to use. Absolutely never leave an attack without any sound altogether! If there isn't a fitting sound available for that weapon or attack, use the second best fitting sound. No attack, unless it's by a silent psychic assassin perhaps, should ever be without an accompanying sound.
 Many sounds have changed since 1.1.2 and even more since 1.0, so it's a good idea to check the mainline units in newer versions as reference to what sounds to use for which weapons.