I came across this today: http://brashmonkey.com/spriter.htm (http://brashmonkey.com/spriter.htm)
A kickstarter vid explaining what it is intended for is here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/539087245/spriter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/539087245/spriter)
Don't know about you but I've wanted something like this for a while now. It would make the creation of great looking animation so much easier. Shouldn't be too hard to support it in GLBasic either.
[edit]
GLBasic loader here:
http://www.glbasic.com/forum/index.php?topic=7887.msg67801#msg67801 (http://www.glbasic.com/forum/index.php?topic=7887.msg67801#msg67801)
Yes Wampus it´s a very Nice tool, I try it, But I don´t understand too much how export the .png, I think you have only a one .png, and the you can make something whit load Animation... I think all this can be done whot after Fx whitout too much troubles... but well I don´t look the price, but I think have to be too much cheaper than AfterFX...
Nice tool, thanks for sharing...
Haven't used AfterFX. Hmm. Not sure what that refers to, to be honest. Can't find it online.
Spriter is useful for creating sprites from many individual parts. To animate you move, scale and rotate the parts. It means you can create a very large number of lovely smooth animations with relatively small amounts of space taken up in texture memory. The kind of animation seen in Plants Vs Zombies is an example. Developers usually have to create their own tools for handling sprites and animation using these techniques. Spriter would cut down a lot of the work needed.
Anyway, I'm contacting the developer to suggest I could create a GLBasic 'plugin' for Spriter. I will probably need it sooner or later and my art girl has mentioned wanting to use such tools as well.
I like the looks of this, it potentially could be a great util.
Raaaaaa
OK, got word back from the devs. This is on. As soon as I get documentation for the current Spriter format I'll put together some prototype support.
Looks pretty good, like moho (anime studio) but possibly working as an engine inside programming languages?
Looks really great! It seems they will get there.
Quote from: erico on 2012-Apr-03
Looks pretty good, like moho (anime studio) but possibly working as an engine inside programming languages?
Yes, that's basically it. Create animations in Spriter and you should be able to use them directly in your apps too. Most of what it asks for would be fairly straightforward 2D manipulation and math: Tweening is something well covered here and elsewhere, collision detection can be taken care of by a scalable rotatable version of boxcoll, etc.
One later planned feature that might be harder to implement is deforming parts by bending them. From the kickstarter page:-
QuoteFirst, we'd like to add the ability to bend and reshape each image into any amorphous curved shape, which can be used to create very organic, fluid characters. These shape would also be tweenable, which could be used for anything from complex and detailed facial expressions to fluidly flowing clothing or clouds of dust.
I like the idea but its more of a challenge to code.
I like the extra features too if they get over their intended price.
They actually seem like a must to me.
Reminds me of games like GLADIATOR back on the arcade days.
Yep the morphing seems hard to pull, maybe polyvector can help it somehow?
Oh, the morphing will have to be done in POLYVECTOR for sure. A morphing object will have to be split into triangles - how many might depend on a performance vs appearance scalar, then the deformation math applied to the co-ordinates.
@Wampus, After Effects, it´s like a Photoshop but for video, I´m sure can be done the same like this program... but well the price I´m sure it´s too much better this software and usefull than After FX... in After FX you have to put a lot of key and this things... not it´s nothing recomendable...
But looking this soft... I don´t look too much complicated for make a similar soft whit the same GLBasic... in fact this software basicaly, rotate , move and scales , a Big Sprite, splitted in parts... I´m sure can be done whit GLbasic...
But of Course... it´s a great , great tool, the price, I don´t look it, but very interesant... thanks for the advice...
@mentalthink ah yeah, I get you. After Effects. :) I don't use it but now I know.
Yes you are right about it not being too complicated for GLBasic. Rotate, move, scale and alpha blending are a 'piece of piss' in GLBasic. I'm going to aim to get proof of concept support in GLBasic within two days of them releasing the alpha dev file format, even if it means late night coding or throwing a sicky to get it done.
Spriter reached its minimum funding goal at Kickstarter with 22 days still to go. I knew they'd succeed. It was just too good an idea to fail. I can see it becoming as useful to me as my vital tools like Photoshop, CoolEdit and Notepad++.
I just came across Spriter and the first thing I thought of was writing a GLBasic interface - looks like you've beaten me to it! Not much point in reinventing the wheel if you're already working on it, though I might end up giving it a go at some point anyway for the fun of it.
Good luck!
Well, maybe my interface won't be very good. :) Never know.
I'm hoping to put in some good time on it tomorrow, so we'll see what results. The file format is still very much in its infancy. I'll be supporting the latest file format but it will change A LOT.
Ok, basic Spriter in GLBasic demo is up:-
You can download the demo here: http://www.mediafire.com/?qp9r589r89sgc82 (http://www.mediafire.com/?qp9r589r89sgc82)
Move the characters around with the arrow keys and joypad. Don't have a joypad? You'll be one character short then. :nana:
This is a long way from complete support. For the first release of Spriter I will have a lot of coding to do. What I want when the time comes is code that can:-
- Load native Spriter format
- Export a GLB specfic format for faster loading and performance
- Be as easy to use as possible, mirroring GLB's sprite commands
Are you going to be publishing source/a library anytime soon?
I am doing a 3D game just now but I can see this becoming incredibly useful long-term! :good:
Wampus, great work, and cool demo! :good:
How did you do your amazing 'sand storm' effect, that is awesome!
A bunch of semi-transparent sprites moving at different speeds?
Quote from: FutureCow on 2012-May-03
Are you going to be publishing source/a library anytime soon?
Not for a while yet. Spriter 1.0 has a planned release date somewhere in September. I wasn't intending to publish source/libraries until the first full version of Spriter is ready. I could be nudged to do otherwise. On the other hand I know you were thinking of having a go yourself.
Quote from: Slydog on 2012-May-03
How did you do your amazing 'sand storm' effect, that is awesome!
A bunch of semi-transparent sprites moving at different speeds?
Exactly it. I used three semi-transparent sprites. In theory only two should be needed for a good mist/storm visuals. I think there are some tricks to it I haven't found yet.
Quote from: Wampus on 2012-May-03
Quote from: FutureCow on 2012-May-03
Are you going to be publishing source/a library anytime soon?
Not for a while yet. Spriter 1.0 has a planned release date somewhere in September. I wasn't intending to publish source/libraries until the first full version of Spriter is ready. I could be nudged to do otherwise. On the other hand I know you were thinking of having a go yourself.
*Insert nudge here*
I am thinking of possibly having a go myself, but at the moment what time I have is devoted to trying to learn to do reasonable animations in Spriter. It'd be good to be able to throw that into my project in the short term and see my sprite "skillls" (cough) at work without having to write all the spriter code first.
If you end up waiting until the file format is finalised then I might end up working on it at some point in the interim.
It's looking good though - love the fog effect too!
Ok, I'll release source for supporting Spriter Beta. Since the current version is free to use, will always be free to use and is still very functional even without tweening I'm sure it will come in handy.
I will need to clean it up, make it work with any file (not just the reference example included with Spriter) and do away with the dependency on Texture Packer my code currently has. Unfortunately I won't have the time for that until next weekend but I'll get it done.
Wow this looks awesome, especially if you get a GLB lib going. It's too late for my current project but hopefully it'll be ready in time for the next one :)
I was meant to work on this during the weekend. Instead I was so tired I just lay around watching Anime. Will get on this now though. Might take until late Wednesday to complete. The native format for Beta version is a bit...awkward, if not converted.
Gasp, I missed the video!
Looks really great! It all looks soo smooth, congrat Wampus!
Any news ? Its looking so promising !!! I can't stop thinking about it ...
For a long time all my projects were put on hold, including this one. I was also kind of hoping a more definitive Spriter file format could be settled on before I wrote a complete interpreter and sprite handling routine. The file format could be a while. So, here is where I'm at: This weekend is Ludum Dare. I'm hoping to improve on my hapless first try in the last competition so can't do it too soon. Next weekend is free as far as I know so Spriter support (whatever version is current) is down on my calendar.
2-3rd of September.
+1
:O Wow I suck with my deadlines.
1st-3rd September was a long holiday weekend here in Canada so had family and friends visiting, keeping me busy. I wasn't free like I expected. Had no time to code then so instead I'll be coding Spriter support in the evenings this week until its done. I'll post a progress update each night.
New file format was released very recently with a new update to Spriter. I'm not going to try to add backwards compatibility with earlier versions of Spriter.
Update for 4/9: Making the current Spriter file format work well with GLBasic isn't optimal. For example, I want to use polyvectors without having to swap textures too much. That requires a conversion to something looking more like conventional sprite sheets. Writing the code to do that first, though it shouldn't be too hard since I've done this before. Packing the sprites and getting the relevant data in arrays is pretty much done. I now need to test it by writing the code to display the sprites.
Loading the new file format appears to be working. I'm going to use Texture Packer to create the sprite sheets for now, just for speed testing. Released code will include its own texture creation routine so you won't have to buy a third party tool to use it. I'm excited about this since tweening is now a feature, although very basic.
If anyone is interested here is the old spriter demo including the full source code (http://www.mediafire.com/?c5r95mhv6ri6y55).
Although this doesn't really demonstrate tweening that well you can get a glimpse from this video:-
This is looking really cool!
...gives me the urge to remake GLADIATOR!
I have a bad cold at the moment so struggling to get much done. A cold isn't exactly debilitating. It is highly irritating and tiring though. All I want to do is keep warm, stay in bed and watch zombie/vampire movies.
Entities are now displaying correctly with the new format. Tweening and whole-entity manipulations come next. I think whole-entity manipulations have to be done. Scale, rotation, mirroring and color tint of entity sprites will be essential for the flexibility to make interesting games. I want to include collision detection too but have to wait until its implemented in Spriter.
Can I prescribe 28 Days Later and a big dose of Walking Dead for you? :sick:
Just a note to say I haven't forgotten this project. I've been so busy with other things I've left it alone for a while. I will probably wait until the full version of Spriter is released to finish the first fully functioning support for it in GLBasic. Much might change and I don't want to duplicate effort since there will be a considerable amount of things to implement. In addition I'm sure I'll need to make several updates later too.