User:Artisticdude - Revision history

Egallager: heading cleanup

2023-05-05T20:10:53Z

heading cleanup

Artisticdude: /* Introduction */

2013-04-04T18:29:36Z

‎Introduction

Artisticdude: /* Direction */

2013-04-04T18:22:03Z

‎Direction

Artisticdude: /* Chapter 2: Understanding Your Subject */

2013-04-04T18:10:43Z

‎Chapter 2: Understanding Your Subject

Artisticdude at 16:48, 8 February 2012

2012-02-08T16:48:52Z

Artisticdude at 21:03, 7 February 2012

2012-02-07T21:03:12Z

Artisticdude: Began working on template for future "WML for Complete Beginners" tutorial

2012-02-07T19:46:43Z

Began working on template for future "WML for Complete Beginners" tutorial

Artisticdude at 15:56, 3 February 2012

2012-02-03T15:56:25Z

Artisticdude at 15:15, 3 February 2012

2012-02-03T15:15:40Z

Artisticdude at 16:34, 2 February 2012

2012-02-02T16:34:32Z

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 --------------------
-*[http://wiki.wesnoth.org/WML_for_Complete_Beginners '''WIP template for future "WML for Complete Beginners" tutorial''']
+* [[WML_for_Complete_Beginners|'''WIP template for future "WML for Complete Beginners" tutorial''']]
 --------------------
@@ Line 17: / Line 11: @@
 --------------------
-=Animating Running Cycles=
+==Animating Running Cycles==
 by [http://forums.wesnoth.org/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=119614 artisticdude]
@@ Line 24: / Line 18: @@
-==Introduction==
+===Introduction===
 I've heard some people say that running cycles are the hardest animation to create. Personally, I disagree with the idea that running animations are ''harder'' to create than any other kind of animation. It's true that creating running animations generally involves more ''work'' than creating most other animations (attack, death, defense, etc.), but usually running animations also follow a very strict set of rules. Once you understand these rules, creating running animations should be little more than investing enough time to see it through.
@@ Line 32: / Line 26: @@
 In this tutorial, I will demonstrate how to create a standard south-east/south-west facing run cycle by using the Goblin Impaler unit from mainline. Running animations for the other directions (north-east/north-west, south, & north) are drawn at different angles, but the concepts and theories discussed here apply to running cycles in all directions.
-==Chapter 1: The Theory Behind Running Cycles==
+===Chapter 1: The Theory Behind Running Cycles===
-===Poses===
+====Poses====
 Wesnoth running cycles are split into four distinct poses. Not frames, ''poses'', as in anatomical positions. These positions are:
@@ Line 42: / Line 36: @@
 * High Point
-===Rotation===
+====Rotation====
 As you may have noticed in the poses example above, there is a a certain amount of rotation happening over the course of the animation in the hips and shoulder areas. If you
-===Bobbing===
+====Bobbing====
-===Movement Arcs===
+====Movement Arcs====
-==Chapter 2: Understanding Your Subject==
+===Chapter 2: Understanding Your Subject===
 This is the most important part of the animation. You can come up with eight beautiful frames for your animation, but if those frames don't read as a realistic and fluid motion when played together as an animation, you might as well have just doodled random scribbles instead. Understanding your subject's anatomy, equipment, and weight will help you immensely in creating a realistic and fluid animation.
-===Anatomy===
+====Anatomy====
 It is vital to any animation that you understand your subject's anatomy: where their joints are located, how far and in what direction those joints can bend and/or twist, whether there is a bone beneath the surface of a certain area or whether that area is composed of flexible membrane, etc. etc. This is especially important if your subject is not humanoid, but even for humanoids with non-human appendages or modified human appendages (tails, enormous ears, an extra set of arms, etc.). Before you even open your graphic editing program, study the baseframe of your subject and learn as much as you can about its anatomy. Find and study references, both still images and videos, if possible. Even creatures that don't have any real-world counterparts to study often have anatomical structures similar to those of real-world creatures.
-===Equipment===
+====Equipment====
 In addition to anatomy, it is paramount that you understand the equipment your subject is wearing/holding, since this will have a significant impact on how the character actually moves. I follow a list of simple steps to help me understand the equipment of the subject, in the form of a series of questions:
@@ Line 71: / Line 65: @@
 Note that these questions are only to assist in drawing the motion of the object, not in drawing the object itself. To successfully draw and shade an object well, you must ask many additional questions which I won't go into here. If you do not know how to shade an object, I suggest you stop reading this page right now and do more reading up and practice on the subject before continuing.
-==Chapter 3: Direction and Perspective==
+===Chapter 3: Direction and Perspective===
-===Direction===
+====Direction====
 So now that we understand how the character should move, it's time to start planning the direction of the movment. In this case, since we're doing a south-east running animation, we have to have the subject move from one hex to the neighboring south-east hex:
@@ Line 102: / Line 96: @@
 So, now we've established the direction in which our subject will be moving and the path the subject will be taking. We've even set up a helpful guideline to make sure the subject doesn't accidentally wander off that path at some point during the animation. Having gotten this step out of the way, let's talk about the perspective of your animation.
-===Perspective===
+====Perspective====
-==Chapter 4: Planning Your Animation==
+===Chapter 4: Planning Your Animation===
-==Chapter 5: Details, Details, Details==
+===Chapter 5: Details, Details, Details===
-==Chapter 6: Testing Your Animation==
+===Chapter 6: Testing Your Animation===

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 ==Introduction==
-I've heard some people say that running cycles are the hardest animation to make. Personally, I disagree with this notion. Running animations involve a lot of work, more so than most other animations (attack, death, defense, etc.), but generally running animations follow a very strict set of rules. Once you fully understand these rules, creating running animations should be little more than investing enough time to see it through.
+I've heard some people say that running cycles are the hardest animation to create. Personally, I disagree with the idea that running animations are ''harder'' to create than any other kind of animation. It's true that creating running animations generally involves more ''work'' than creating most other animations (attack, death, defense, etc.), but usually running animations also follow a very strict set of rules. Once you understand these rules, creating running animations should be little more than investing enough time to see it through.
-Note that I assume at least some level of competence in pixel art and animating throughout this tutorial. I also assume that the graphics program you are using supports layers and transparency, although those features are not strictly necessary in order to create a running animation. If you haven't already, I suggest reading the [[Basic Animation Tutorial]] and [[From Base Frame To Full Animation]] before reading this page further.
+Note that I assume at least some level of competence in pixel art and animating throughout this tutorial. I also assume that the graphics program you are using supports layers and transparency (while those features aren't ''strictly'' necessary in order to create a running animation, they are huge time savers and will make your life a heck of a lot easier). If you haven't already, I suggest reading the [[Basic Animation Tutorial]] and [[From Base Frame To Full Animation]] before following this tutorial any further.
-In this tutorial, I will demonstrate how to create a standard south-east/south-west facing run cycle by using the Goblin Impaler unit from mainline. Running cycles for different directions (north-east/north-west, south, & north) are drawn at different angles, but the concepts and theories discussed here apply to running cycles in all directions.
+In this tutorial, I will demonstrate how to create a standard south-east/south-west facing run cycle by using the Goblin Impaler unit from mainline. Running animations for the other directions (north-east/north-west, south, & north) are drawn at different angles, but the concepts and theories discussed here apply to running cycles in all directions.
 ==Chapter 1: The Theory Behind Running Cycles==

@@ Line 76: / Line 76: @@
 ===Direction===
-So now that we understand how the character should move, it's time to start planning the direction of the movment. In this case, we have to have the subject move from one hex to the neighboring south-east hex, from point A to point B.
+So now that we understand how the character should move, it's time to start planning the direction of the movment. In this case, since we're doing a south-east running animation, we have to have the subject move from one hex to the neighboring south-east hex:
 http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/6304/atob.png
-So what now? Obviously we can't have the unit running at the wrong angle, otherwise it will look like he's sliding when the animation plays in-game. So let's draw a three-dimensional graph to visualize the direction in which the unit will be running:
+So what now? Obviously we can't have the unit running at the wrong angle, otherwise it will look like he's sliding when the animation plays in-game. In order to help us avoid that potential pitfall, let's draw a three-dimensional graph to visualize the direction in which the unit will be running:
 http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/5393/73920527.png
-As you can see, we want our unit to run down the X axis (the red line) in order to reach the adjacent hex. If we were creating a north-east/north-west running animation, we would want the unit to run up the Y axis (the pink line). For now, however, let's stick with the south-east/south-west animation down the X axis.
+Viola! When in doubt, draw a graph. As you can see, we want our unit to run down the X axis (the red line) in order to reach the adjacent hex. If we were creating a north-east/north-west running animation, we would want the unit to run up the Y axis (the pink line). For now, however, let's stick with the south-east/south-west animation down the X axis.
 So this is the path we want our unit to take during the animation:
@@ Line 90: / Line 90: @@
 http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/7556/howtogetthere.png
-In terms of individual pixels, the line we used has a pixel angle of "two over, down one, over one, repeat", that is to say, over two pixels, down and over one pixel, then over two pixels, down and over one pixel, etc. To illustrate:
+In terms of individual pixels, the line that shows the path our subject will take has a pixel angle of "two over, down one, over one, repeat", that is to say, over two pixels, down and over one pixel, then over two pixels again, down and over one pixel again, etc. To illustrate:
 http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/1418/pixelangleinstance.png
-It may be helpful for some to have the line be two pixels tall rather than only a single pixel tall, as I did in the first three images above. The same angle still applies, however. Think of it as just placing another single-pixel-tall line on top of another single-pixel-tall line, like so:
+It may be helpful for some to have the line be two pixels tall rather than only a single pixel tall, as I did in the first three images above. Note that the same angle still applies. Think of it as just placing another single-pixel-tall line on top of our existing single-pixel-tall line, like so:
@@ Line 100: / Line 100: @@
-You have now established the direction in which your unit will be moving and facing. You have even set up a helpful guideline to make sure you don't accidentally stray from that direction at some point during the animation process. So now that you have determined the direction, let's talk about the perspective of your animation.
+So, now we've established the direction in which our subject will be moving and the path the subject will be taking. We've even set up a helpful guideline to make sure the subject doesn't accidentally wander off that path at some point during the animation. Having gotten this step out of the way, let's talk about the perspective of your animation.
 ===Perspective===

@@ Line 51: / Line 51: @@
 ==Chapter 2: Understanding Your Subject==
-This is the most important part of the animation. You can come up with eight beautiful frames for you animation, but if the motion of those frames doesn't read as realistic and fluid when played as an animation, you might as well have just doodled meaningless scribbles instead. Understanding your subject's anatomy, equipment and weight will help you immensely in creating a realistic and fluid animation.
+This is the most important part of the animation. You can come up with eight beautiful frames for your animation, but if those frames don't read as a realistic and fluid motion when played together as an animation, you might as well have just doodled random scribbles instead. Understanding your subject's anatomy, equipment, and weight will help you immensely in creating a realistic and fluid animation.
 ===Anatomy===
-It is vital to any animation that you understand your subject's anatomy: where their joints are located, how far and in what direction those joints can bend and/or twist, whether there is a bone beneath the surface of a certain area or whether that area is composed of flexible membrane, etc. etc. This is especially important if your subject is not humanoid, but even for humanoids with non-human appendages or modified human appendages (tails, enormous ears, an extra set of arms, etc.). Before you even open your graphic editing program, study the baseframe of your subject and learn as much as you can about its anatomy.
+It is vital to any animation that you understand your subject's anatomy: where their joints are located, how far and in what direction those joints can bend and/or twist, whether there is a bone beneath the surface of a certain area or whether that area is composed of flexible membrane, etc. etc. This is especially important if your subject is not humanoid, but even for humanoids with non-human appendages or modified human appendages (tails, enormous ears, an extra set of arms, etc.). Before you even open your graphic editing program, study the baseframe of your subject and learn as much as you can about its anatomy. Find and study references, both still images and videos, if possible. Even creatures that don't have any real-world counterparts to study often have anatomical structures similar to those of real-world creatures.
 ===Equipment===
@@ Line 61: / Line 61: @@
 In addition to anatomy, it is paramount that you understand the equipment your subject is wearing/holding, since this will have a significant impact on how the character actually moves. I follow a list of simple steps to help me understand the equipment of the subject, in the form of a series of questions:
-*What exactly is each piece of equipment?
+*'''What exactly is each piece of equipment?'''
-*What is the three-dimensional shape of each piece of equipment?
+Most of the time it will be fairly obvious what each piece of equipment on your subject is (it's really hard to mistake a properly-drawn sword for a toothbrush), but there will be occasions where you won't be able to decide what that blue dot at the side of the subject's waist is.
-*What is each piece of equipment made of?
+*'''What is the three-dimensional shape of each piece of equipment?'''
-**How flexible or rigid is that material?
+*'''What is each piece of equipment made of?'''
-*How much does each piece of equipment weigh individually?
+**'''How flexible/rigid is that material?''' Obviously a cloth tunic will have different dynamics than a solid metal breastplate.
 Note that these questions are only to assist in drawing the motion of the object, not in drawing the object itself. To successfully draw and shade an object well, you must ask many additional questions which I won't go into here. If you do not know how to shade an object, I suggest you stop reading this page right now and do more reading up and practice on the subject before continuing.
 ==Chapter 3: Direction and Perspective==

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:48, 8 February 2012
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	'''~~Template for future "WML for Complete Beginners" tutorial~~	+	'''WIP Links:'''
		+	--------------------

−	~~Note~~: ~~this is a work in progress~~.~~'''~~	+	*[http://wiki.wesnoth.org/WML_for_Complete_Beginners '''WIP template for future "WML for Complete Beginners" tutorial''']
−	~~-------------~~
−
−	~~Hey there!~~
−
−	.~~..blahblahblah random intro rhetoric, explain what WML stands for, what it's used for, etc. Then:~~
−
−	~~==Syntax==~~
−
−	~~First things first; let~~'~~s go over the~~ ''~~syntax'' of WML.~~
−
−	~~For those of you who might not know what the "syntax" of a language is, think of it as a set of rules for how WML needs to be written in order~~ for the game to understand it. This concept may sound a bit confusing, but whether you realize it or not you have been using the concept of syntax your entire life! Think of the structure of a sentence in English: "I like to eat jelly and cheese sandwiches." That sentence uses a certain set of rules, or ''syntax'' in order to make sense to people who hear or read it. If you said instead, "Like cheese I and sandwiches jelly"~~, that would make no sense, and no one would understand what you were saying. Likewise, if you said "I like cheese sandwiches and jelly", that would change the entire meaning of the sentence!~~
−
−	~~Just like the syntax of the English language,~~ WML ~~syntax also requires proper capitalization, spelling, grammar and punctuation in order~~ for ~~others to understand what you're saying or writing. For example, if you decided to ignore the syntax of the English language and wrote something like this:~~ "~~won day mary and i had went to seen the elefant at the zoo it~~'s trunc was reely long", chances are people would not understand much of what you wrote. On the other hand, if you used the correct syntax and wrote: "One day Mary and I went to see the elephant at the zoo. Its trunk was really long!", people can easily understand what you wrote because it is written in the syntax they recognize and understand. Just as people would be unable something if it were not written in the correct syntax, the Battle for Wesnoth game is unable to read any WML that is not written in the correct syntax.
−
−	~~So now let~~'~~s go over the basics of WML syntax. Later on you will be gradually introduced to more complex WML syntax, but for now we~~'~~ll just go over the basic stuff, enough to get you started.~~
−
−	~~===Basic Components===~~
−
−	WML, as one can infer from the meaning of the acronym, is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markup_language markup language]. This means that the syntax of the entire language consists principally of four distinct parts: tags, keys, operators, and values.
−
−	~~====Tags====~~
−	~~A tag is a string of text encapsulated by two square brackets, one at either end. This is an example of a campaign tag:~~
−	~~[campaign]~~
−
−
−
−	~~====Keys, Operators & Values====~~
−	~~Okay, you might be wondering, "Why the last three parts all being shoved at me at once?" Simply because keys, operators and values are almost always used together.~~
−
−	~~The usual~~
−
−	~~[tag]~~
−	~~key=value~~
−	~~[/tag~~]


		+	--------------------

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 ...blahblahblah random intro rhetoric, explain what WML stands for, what it's used for, etc. Then:
 First things first; let's go over the ''syntax'' of WML.
@@ Line 12: / Line 14: @@
 For those of you who might not know what the "syntax" of a language is, think of it as a set of rules for how WML needs to be written in order for the game to understand it. This concept may sound a bit confusing, but whether you realize it or not you have been using the concept of syntax your entire life! Think of the structure of a sentence in English: "I like to eat jelly and cheese sandwiches." That sentence uses a certain set of rules, or ''syntax'' in order to make sense to people who hear or read it. If you said instead, "Like cheese I and sandwiches jelly", that would make no sense, and no one would understand what you were saying. Likewise, if you said "I like cheese sandwiches and jelly", that would change the entire meaning of the sentence!
-Just like WML syntax, the syntax of the English language also requires proper capitalization, spelling, grammar and punctuation in order for others to understand what you're saying or writing. If you decided to ignore the syntax of the English language and wrote something like this: "won day mary and i had went to seen the elefant at the zoo it's trunc was reely long", chances are people would not understand much of what you wrote. On the other hand, if you used the correct syntax and wrote: "One day Mary and I went to see the elephant at the zoo. Its trunk was really long!", people can easily understand what you wrote because it is written in the syntax they recognize and understand. Just as people would be unable something if it were not written in the correct syntax, the Battle for Wesnoth game is unable to read any WML that is not written in the correct syntax.
+Just like the syntax of the English language, WML syntax also requires proper capitalization, spelling, grammar and punctuation in order for others to understand what you're saying or writing. For example, if you decided to ignore the syntax of the English language and wrote something like this: "won day mary and i had went to seen the elefant at the zoo it's trunc was reely long", chances are people would not understand much of what you wrote. On the other hand, if you used the correct syntax and wrote: "One day Mary and I went to see the elephant at the zoo. Its trunk was really long!", people can easily understand what you wrote because it is written in the syntax they recognize and understand. Just as people would be unable something if it were not written in the correct syntax, the Battle for Wesnoth game is unable to read any WML that is not written in the correct syntax.
 So now let's go over the basics of WML syntax. Later on you will be gradually introduced to more complex WML syntax, but for now we'll just go over the basic stuff, enough to get you started.

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:46, 7 February 2012
Line 1:		Line 1:
		+	'''Template for future "WML for Complete Beginners" tutorial
		+
		+	Note: this is a work in progress.'''
		+	-------------
		+
		+	Hey there!
		+
		+	...blahblahblah random intro rhetoric, explain what WML stands for, what it's used for, etc. Then:
		+
		+	First things first; let's go over the ''syntax'' of WML.
		+
		+	For those of you who might not know what the "syntax" of a language is, think of it as a set of rules for how WML needs to be written in order for the game to understand it. This concept may sound a bit confusing, but whether you realize it or not you have been using the concept of syntax your entire life! Think of the structure of a sentence in English: "I like to eat jelly and cheese sandwiches." That sentence uses a certain set of rules, or ''syntax'' in order to make sense to people who hear or read it. If you said instead, "Like cheese I and sandwiches jelly", that would make no sense, and no one would understand what you were saying. Likewise, if you said "I like cheese sandwiches and jelly", that would change the entire meaning of the sentence!
		+
		+	Just like WML syntax, the syntax of the English language also requires proper capitalization, spelling, grammar and punctuation in order for others to understand what you're saying or writing. If you decided to ignore the syntax of the English language and wrote something like this: "won day mary and i had went to seen the elefant at the zoo it's trunc was reely long", chances are people would not understand much of what you wrote. On the other hand, if you used the correct syntax and wrote: "One day Mary and I went to see the elephant at the zoo. Its trunk was really long!", people can easily understand what you wrote because it is written in the syntax they recognize and understand. Just as people would be unable something if it were not written in the correct syntax, the Battle for Wesnoth game is unable to read any WML that is not written in the correct syntax.
		+
		+	So now let's go over the basics of WML syntax. Later on you will be gradually introduced to more complex WML syntax, but for now we'll just go over the basic stuff, enough to get you started.
		+
		+
		+
		+
		+
		+
		+
		+
		+
	Template for future "Animating Running Cycles" tutorial		Template for future "Animating Running Cycles" tutorial