Critter frames offsets (solved?!?)

S

Sirren67

Look, Ma! Two Heads!
I'm working on a new critter, and I already managed to put together a few test animations.
The point is the offset of the very first frame in a given chain: following frames DO NOT get properly aligned. As far as I can understand the reason lies in the different frame size. I make renders of the various frames and than adjust manually the .BMP sides. Is this opinion of mine correct?
If so, what can I do to get an omogeneous size for my frames? Is there any program/program tool which can get the job done?
See you and thanks in advance.

EDIT
That was a stupid question, Frame Animator 2.51 has all the tools. :?
 
It's best to use frames all of the same size and then once you have completed all of the movement offsets (use the scripting ability of Frame Animator, I uploaded some sample scripts to NMA I used).

Once you have loaded the offsets the last thing you should do is use the "autocutting" tool in Frame Animator to optimise the FRM.

There shoudl be a tutorial I made here at NMA somewhere. I think its on the website rather than the forums.

http://www.nma-fallout.com/content.php?page=fo-modding-fo-frms

I cant remeber how up to date this tutorial is though.
 
Hi there! :D I had no hope to hear about you soon.
Anyway, this is the situation:
I made a new critter model (a single wheeled bot) using anim8or.
I made the basics animations (one death only) and rendered them into .bmp's. Anim8or only supports .avi, .bmp and .jpg. I didn't want to convert my pics from jpg to bmp.
I processed the frames using msPaint... This means I resized pics canvas to the precise size of the critter, so my frames do not share the same size.
I used Frame Animator 2.51 to concatenate my frames... Uhm, let me see... I downloaded your scripts and tried to use them through the automate feature... I keep getting error messages all the time, still the tool put together nice "walk and run" animations.
I couldn't use the autocenter feature (because of the different frames sizes?) so i unchecked it and centered my 600+ frames manually.
I was never able to convert anything into .FR0/5. I get a message stating that the chain isn't complete (now that I think of it that's a silly mistake from my part: first you put together all orientations, then you can convert, right?).
I was unable to use the autocutting tool: my stand idle animation is some 248 kb, 11 frames per orientation...
Now I'm having troubles with *animation* centering: my DEAD_LYING_BLEED_ animations fall some three hexes far from the one the critter is standing on, just to give an example...
Apart from this "slight inconvenience" my new bot is ready to be uploaded :?
Any leads, oh arts master? Pleeease...
Seriously, any help is appreciated and needed. See you, and thank you in advance.
 
So let me get this correct

When FO2 switches between different FRMs (such as changing a weapon or die) the critters 'hops' across the screen instead of staying centered?

If thats the problems its easy to fix (stop me if thats not the problem). The FO2 engine maps the center of the new FRM automaticaly to the Center of the Previous FRM, so the centre's need to match.

1) The only FRMs that you have to line up to the hex in Frame Animator is the 'AA' default FRM. If you have manually centered any other FRMs it will causing 'hopping' so take a backup copy and remove all the 'Frames Offset' (not Frame Offset) from any of the FRMs that appear to hop

2) Because the engine auto centres the next FRM you need to provide a "smooth transition" in the sprite. The animations of the critters in FO2 changing weapons are not there to just look pretty, they help align the FRM of the critter with the weapon out to the FRM of the critter with no weapon. This is because the images will be different sizes. This applies to any transition not just weapons, so when the player dies and changes from the standing animation to the dead animation it needs a transition animation, this is normaly done by the first frame of the new FRM being the same as the last Frame of the previous FRM

Solution:
Since the standing FRM (AA) is your 'master' or 'default' FRM its generally easiest to just copy the last frame from this and insert it as the first frame of the new FRM. Then align the other frames to the new first frame.

hope that make sense :)

I think the last version of the critters I made have a good example of a two frame transition for changing weapons. Download the 'hero attack animations' pack I think it includes the latest version of the environmeantl armour.


dont worry about the errors when running the scripts, the errors only appear if the number of frames you are adjusting is different to the number in the script. As long as the script has the same amount or more than the FRM it should be fine. Just open the scripts with notepad or wordpad and you'll get the idea
 
O.k. you're correct, you got the problem.
I didn't get properly that the game engine handles stuff automatically. I'll add a frame from the standing idle animation to the hopping .frms.
I hope I'll be able to get a solid result soon, my project is in bad need of scripting :?
Thank you for your help, Wild_qwerty. See you soon.

EDIT: I added the frame and I got *some* results, even if animations are still hopping. The worst problem seems to happen during the transition from FALL_ to BLEEDING_. Lying is centered with fall, and it's made from the last frame of it.
A lesser curiosity: I made FALL_FRONT and BACK animations. When creating a new proto you're prompted if the critter can be knocked back at all... And this is the only fall animation I've seen performed up to now. Odd.
I'll try to remake fpr/frm from scratch, without using the existing ones. Whish me luck....
 
okay if you need anything else just ask, if I dont respond email me on michaelt AT pihms DOT ac DOT nz and I'll respond sooner :)

Do you have any tutorials for anim8or? I might give it a crack
 
Hi Wild_qwerty.
First of all thanks for your help.
Second, an update: I managed to properly use the automate feature (at last!!) and to fix the FALL_, HIT_ and EVADE animations. Now the engine can automatically align them. On the other hand nothing to do with the punch one: the situation gets worse. Currently I'm testing the GET_UP ones via script, and I think they'll behave just like punch... At this point I start to think I made some serious mistake during the making of the frames (or the animations). I don't know if I can properly phrase this, but...
The original critters seem to behave just like granite columns. It's not their animation are stiff or unnatural... It's arms are always close to the trunk, feet are usually steady on the ground and so on... What I mean to say it's the original animators knew how the engine behaves and they exactly knew what they could do or not with animations. I'll see what I can do.
About Anim8or: you'll find the 95% of the available tutorials directly linked to or at the home site. You can find some more stuff in the arts forum at Gamedev.net or at Anim8or.org, though.
If you simply want to give a try to the tool, then simply download the Eggplant tutorial at the homesite: it is meant to teach you about the interface. The Robin is a similar tutorial for animation.
Is your request related in any way to FIFE arts making? The tool is free, easy to operate and there's a major update coming (0.95 beta 3.0, download link in the beta test forum). There's better free stuff around though, expecially as far as render quality goes.
See you and thanks again.
 
With a 'get up animation' it will need to be the oposite way around.

The first frame of the it needs to be the last frame of the laying down animation (not the standing one). You would need the first frame of the standing animation to be the same as the last frame of the getting up animation.

Yea, I downloaded anim8tor and made the hand and the eggplant :)

I've got a few other projects I'm playing around with, Mutants Rising is dead. But a few of the team want to carry on with other projects.
I'm liking the stratagus enigine (really easy to mod, and its free). Of course I need to make new art, so its time for me to up-skill and learn 3D stuff.
Some of the others are looking at making an adventure game of the point and click varity using the Adventure Game Studio engine.

I really enjoy modding and making new stuff, but lets face it, my ability to pixel edit BMPs and rip graphics from one game to another is not that usefull, so I plan on making my own graphics one day ....

Do a google on 'stratagus' and 'wargus'

cool engine, really easy to use, the new version will add a lot of new features I'm told.
 
I'm remaking the stand idle animation, I realized it's a few pixel huger then the others... This is probably the main reason behind the hopping affair :roll: I hope I finally got the basics. I'll fix my other animations and upload the damn tin can soon.
I got a look at stratagus and wargus: it's not my kind of game anymore... but I'm looking for my original cd :D
A word about 3d: *if* you can't draw a stickman it's easier than 2d.
You're undertaking a long, difficult journey. Your ability to pixellate bmps (and to operate the Gimp) will come handy quickly, trust me. Youn have my sincerest best whishes for your new projects.
Please DO update us in any way.
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Wild_qwerty, is this official? Mutants Rising is dead? Neither undead or on hold?!? Sad news....
 
Officaly dead? maybe not, buts it not alive at any rate.

I resigned from the mod about a year or so ago because I didnt have the time, but I've still been in the forums every now and then. The team basicaly ran into to many problems with the scripting side of things, we had most of all the new art completed (we have an awesome 'girl child' critter thats matches the boy child critter perfectly.

We had a the intro movie done, the sounds and music mostly done, the story done, lots of mapping. The scripting killed us. It get to hard to script a whole game in the FO2 engine, I imagine FIFE will resolve this issue.

The writters has to re-write the dialogs at least 3 times for the scripters (drove SNorth nuts I'm affraid)

I'm not a programer so scirpting is beyond me, but if an egine is designed to be easy even I should be able to script events and variables. It should be basic to make a working dialog, it should be easy to make a quest.

Plus we ran into a few problems of not being ablt to contact some people (I hope they are allright...)

We had a really good core group of people, but after a fews years of hitting the wall I think it was just to much.

When you start lossing team members who are incredably talented and commited to the the team then you know things arent working. They toyed with the idea of chaning to the torque engine.

We also had a few forum and hosting problems that broke out momentum (we really should have stayed with the sub hosting on NMA, Odin and NMA rule!). There were a couple of times when we were kicking butt, huge amounts of quality work was being completed by all departments, but then the forums went down for a few weeks, the team would lose contact and the momentum would be killed. Mods are fan based 'free labour' enterprises things only get done when people are inspired to do them, its incredaby hard to rebuild that momentum once its gone, SNorth really pulled the team together with several rousing speaches a few times.


Which is one reason why I see FIFE as having a damn good chance of being completed, MVBarra is always around telling people about it, he's keeping it fresh and existing with open and honest updates. It's hard for anyone to forget about FIFE while MVBarracuda is around.

So to sum it up, yes I suspose MR is dead.
 
I hope they will save all the stuff that has been created. maybe someone will pick it up sometime or place it to FIFE when its done
 
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