Difference between revisions of "User:Artisticdude"

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'''-Who and/or what am I?'''
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'''WIP Links:'''
 +
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I am a student in high school who found BfW back in early 2009. Ironically, I downloaded one of the 0.x versions instead of the more recent ones, partially because I was unaware of how much the game had progressed, but mostly because the more recent versions were so much larger. After playing Wesnoth for a while, I decided to try writing my own campaign. Therefore I was determined to learn WML. *cue drum roll*
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* [[WML_for_Complete_Beginners|'''WIP template for future "WML for Complete Beginners" tutorial''']]
  
It was a long and difficult process, but I finally succeeded in creating a 14 scenario campaign that actually worked, which I called The Traitor. It was, of course, very much a newb campaign as far as map design went (nine leaders, all but the player's recruiting level 2's and 3's on a gigantic map), but in some respects it was rather advanced. I varied the objectives, and used some fairly difficult coding for a beginner (it was a pain to get right, but I did finally manage it). The storyline was poorly planned, and it kind of fell apart after the first couple scenarios. But I still thought it was something else, and even now I am still surprised that I got it working. Sadly, due to a computer crash, a dying motherboard, and other similar problems, the campaign died in its sleep, entombed forevermore on a dead Windows computer. Luckily I still had an earlier version, which I promptly fixed up when I got my mac. Yet somehow it wouldn't work... it gave the dreaded 'unknown scenario' error, despite all the id tags matching perfectly. Someday I might pick that campaign up and redo it, but until then I'll let it take up space on my hard drive, waiting for its hour to come.
+
--------------------
  
It was during this period I joined the Wesnoth community. I am currently creating Vix, my new sp campaign, as well as developing an RPG campaign with customized systems. The latter is on hold due to the difficulty I was having with juggling too many projects, so now I'm working on finishing Vix. Once that is done, I'll be free to devote my entire time to my RPG. (citation needed)
 
  
As an artist, I was nothing before I joined the Wesnoth forums. I've been here for 10 months now, and have been practicing pixel art steadily for the duration, and I have finally improved my artistic skills to mainline standard. I have also created art for several eras and campaigns, although, sadly, most of them are now abandoned.
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Template for future "Animating Running Cycles" tutorial
  
 +
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'''-What are my favorite games?'''
+
==Animating Running Cycles==
 +
by [http://forums.wesnoth.org/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=119614 artisticdude]
  
I have broad tastes, and enjoy a wide range of games on the computer as well as in reality. Among my favorite 'real' games are Risk, Heroscape, Scrabble, and Bingo (I was going to say hide-and-seek, especially since I was a world-renowned champion in that particular game once, but...). A few of my favorite computer games (besides BfW, which is a given), are Battlefield 1942, The Geneforge series, the Avernum Series, Eschalon: Book 1, Frogatto, The Tradewinds series, Mad Skills Motocross, and Lux, just to name a few.
 
  
 +
'''Note: This is a work in progress.'''
  
'''-What equipment do I use in my BfW projects?'''
 
  
I use a Mac Mini computer running OS X 10.6, and occasionally (okay, almost never) an HP laptop running Windows Vista. My other hardware consists of a Wacom tablet, mouse and pen, and a pair of headphones. Adobe Photoshop handles most of my art projects, but I use GIMP for utilities such as creating .GIF's, Artrage for concept art, and Paintbrush when I want to use a simple, uncluttered program. I also practice orchestral composing using Garageband, Logic Express 9, the Orchestral Jampack, and a variety of free soundfonts, although it's going to be a very long time before I can even begin contemplating making an attempt at mainline in this area. For coding WML I mainly use TextEdit, which, despite it's constant crashing, serves its purpose. I do also occasionally use Baufo's WML editor to program WML, and I'm thinking of switching to Baufo's editor for all my coding projects.
+
===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.
  
'''-What is my favorite genre of music?"
+
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.
  
Orchestral and Soundtrack. Classical music is okay, but it's not really my thing. Country music can be good, but a lot of it isn't. Rock and pop rarely have much going for them in my mind. Jazz is fine, but rather boring. Every other genre out there doesn't really have much going for it for me, so I'm mainly a fan of orchestral and soundtrack music (think LoTR, Indiana Jones, etc.).
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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===
  
'''-What is my favorite academic subject?'''
+
====Poses====
  
English and writing, hands down.
+
Wesnoth running cycles are split into four distinct poses. Not frames, ''poses'', as in anatomical positions. These positions are:
 +
* Contact
 +
* Recoil
 +
* Passing
 +
* High Point
  
 +
====Rotation====
  
'''What projects am I currently involved in/working on?'''
+
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
  
My mainline work to date consists of the following:
+
====Bobbing====
  
-Animated the Merman Warrior's se/sw attack
+
====Movement Arcs====
  
 +
===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.
  
I'm working on the following projects for mainline:
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====Anatomy====
  
-Animating the quintain's se/sw attack
+
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.
  
-Animating the Merman Warrior's south attack
+
====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:
  
Currently I have two ongoing personal projects, the Dark Dagger Wars (http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=29117), an ambitious Wesnoth RPG, and Vix (http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=28516), a complex campaign aiming at non-linear objectives and scenarios, also featuring saurians as the player's side. In addition to these two projects I am always creating more art for various 'employers', personal use, or just for fun. I am also contemplating creating a Wesnoth version of the popular Tradewinds games, but I haven't really committed myself to the idea yet. so we'll see.
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*'''What exactly is 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 the three-dimensional shape of each piece of equipment?'''
 +
*'''What is each piece of equipment made of?'''
 +
**'''How flexible/rigid is that material?''' Obviously a cloth tunic will have different dynamics than a solid metal breastplate.
 +
*'''How much does weight is the subject carrying?'''
 +
Weight is a huge factor in animations. How you convey that weight in your animation can either make your subject look light and etherial, or heavy and ponderous. If you're animating a fairy, chances are the subject's movements will be swift and graceful. Likewise, if you're animating a troll warrior, the subject's movements are likely to be clumsier and more ponderous. The movement of your subject will also be heavily influenced by the weight of their equipment; for instance, an elf in lightweight leather armor will be able to move much faster and easier compared to a human wearing a suit of heavy steel armor. In order to produce a convincing animation, you will need to make sure you know approximately how much weight your subject is dealing with.
  
Some of the projects I've been Involved in:
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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.
  
-The War of Terrador
+
===Chapter 3: Direction and Perspective===
  
Graphics and WML assistance, balancing suggestions. Currently under development.
 
  
-Fossil: The Great Journey
+
====Direction====
  
Graphics, WML assistance. Currently under development.
+
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:
  
-Brent
+
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/6304/atob.png
  
Graphics, code suggestions. Currently abandoned due to the disappearance of the author. My art never even made it in. :(
+
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:
  
-The Promised Land (a.k.a The Anarchist)
+
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/5393/73920527.png
  
Graphics
+
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.
  
-The Wesnoth Forum Faction (personal project)
+
So this is the path we want our unit to take during the animation:
  
Graphics, WML coding, balancing
+
http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/7556/howtogetthere.png
  
-Vix (personal project)
+
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:
  
Creation, coding, balancing, story... okay, pretty much everything except some recall code that Gambit created for me. Currently under development.
+
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/1418/pixelangleinstance.png
  
-The Dark Dagger Wars (personal project)
+
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:
  
Creation, coding, balancing, story... in short, everything. Currently on hiatus due to my inability to juggle multiple projects at once.
 
  
-The Traitor: Resurrection (personal project)
+
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/9810/thickerline.png
  
Everything. Currently on hiatus for the same reason as above.
 
  
 +
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.
  
'''Miscellaneous links and further reading'''
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====Perspective====
  
My Blog (outdated & abandoned): http://thehallofego.blogspot.com/
+
===Chapter 4: Planning Your Animation===
  
My Gallery: http://wesnoth.dbzer0.com/blog/wpg2?g2_itemId=10628
+
===Chapter 5: Details, Details, Details===
  
My Art Thread in the Wesnoth Forums: http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=28143
+
===Chapter 6: Testing Your Animation===
 
 
 
 
'''Clipboard- the place of all sorts of Wesnoth-related odds and ends'''
 
 
 
I was browsing through the oldest posts in the Art Contributions forum (yes, some of us do occasionally venture into those desolate reaches of cyberspace), and I came across an interesting description of orcs, copied exactly as the author wrote it:
 
 
 
 
 
Orc is not guy who read books and gets smart, goto school, is sentimental and buys rose for his gf and lits romantic candles and who eat steak and fries.
 
 
 
Orc is stupid guy who never take a bath, he burp and fart and eat rats and snakes, he shout and yell.
 
 
 
 
 
Here's the thread: http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6346&hilit=orcs+with+two+swords%3F&sid=34a85c41f9194ebf576b2edd0b3d4ae8
 
 
 
 
 
I'll think up some more useless information about myself later, but for now this will have to do. I update this page regularly, so be sure to come back again soon for more of my egotistical ramblings... if you dare. :P
 

Latest revision as of 20:10, 5 May 2023

WIP Links:




Template for future "Animating Running Cycles" tutorial


Animating Running Cycles

by artisticdude


Note: This is a work in progress.


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.

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 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

Poses

Wesnoth running cycles are split into four distinct poses. Not frames, poses, as in anatomical positions. These positions are:

  • Contact
  • Recoil
  • Passing
  • High Point

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

Movement Arcs

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

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

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?

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 the three-dimensional shape of each piece of equipment?
  • What is each piece of equipment made of?
    • How flexible/rigid is that material? Obviously a cloth tunic will have different dynamics than a solid metal breastplate.
  • How much does weight is the subject carrying?

Weight is a huge factor in animations. How you convey that weight in your animation can either make your subject look light and etherial, or heavy and ponderous. If you're animating a fairy, chances are the subject's movements will be swift and graceful. Likewise, if you're animating a troll warrior, the subject's movements are likely to be clumsier and more ponderous. The movement of your subject will also be heavily influenced by the weight of their equipment; for instance, an elf in lightweight leather armor will be able to move much faster and easier compared to a human wearing a suit of heavy steel armor. In order to produce a convincing animation, you will need to make sure you know approximately how much weight your subject is dealing with.

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

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:

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. 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:

73920527.png

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:

howtogetthere.png

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:

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. 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:


thickerline.png


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

Chapter 4: Planning Your Animation

Chapter 5: Details, Details, Details

Chapter 6: Testing Your Animation

This page was last edited on 5 May 2023, at 20:10.