just look at the character and...

i just created a character just for fun (no, it's not ripped that time ^^).
if it looks like an existing one it's not intentional, i didn't have any reference sprite for it...

as the title sais, what kind of game will fit that character the best?
platform, fighting game? maybe you'll end up with a quite original game at the end...?

i'll probably add other characters or animations in the future, why not... btw your opinions are welcome ^^

size 1x
http://www.marmotte.levillage.org/_exchange/64.gif

size 2x
http://www.marmotte.levillage.org/_exchange/128.gif


*edit*
mmh, i didn't thought the size 1x sprite was so big. maybe i'll add some more gradient

looks nice and professional...

I wish i could draw =)

its looking a very nice, a very nice.

Nice work. He looks like a fighting kinda guy. might be good for a double dragon type of game...

Olorin

Great work marmotte, I like it alot, fancy working on any sprites for my game??

RipX

Rip and marmomette should team up. While marm is a friggin awesome coder, it would be a helluva lot easier if he just had to do graphics ;)

Marm, helping Rip would rock!

I could throw in a hand or two if needed ;)

thanks for your comments!

short update, still nothing more interesting to do now...

size 1x
http://www.marmotte.levillage.org/_exchange/64.2.gif

size 2x
http://www.marmotte.levillage.org/_exchange/128.2.gif

Olorin
a double dragon-like game? mmmmmyes, i was thinking doing a game like that one day...

RipX and DarkMagicHacker
well, i'm not too good with actionscript (i'm good, but not too good; for example i'm not able to do a tile-based engine like RipX one's...

RipX, i was wondering; how do you create your characters? i mean, do you draw them on a paper first, or do you directly work with photoshop? i'm asking because creating animations directly from photoshop seems to be near impossible for me (too long, too hasardous). BUT if i can draw them first, then re-work them with photoshop, i can surely do some great animations. is it hard to pixelisate a sprite from a scanned image?
about forming a team, i'm not surte, i'm so busy, so lazy (never finishing my games, etc...) but thanks for the offer. btw i'm not better than you to draw sprites, so... ^^

ok, well the way I started doing it is draw my pictures I want to animate an I took a really bad quality picture with a digtal camera, then reduce the size using smart size and add a new layer, I'd go over the lines with green getting rid of any doubled lines or stray pixels. Then i'd make the outline black and kill the photo, shade each one and import them into animation shop. Now i'd find the errors and tidy them up!! - This is how I was doing it till I found it too much work!! :)

Now on the version I'm doing now which is looks far far better, I made a sheet with Registration points for the different parts - Head, hands, feet. I drew the first frame until I thought it was perfect - I found using very contrasting colors gave a much more professional look. Anyway, I then cut up the pieces and set them out using animation shop until the animation looked right, then just using the first frame as reference, fill in the gaps and work out what would shift around during the movement, another thing I'm doing is looking at 100's of other professional sprites to see how good animators like capcom, sega, nintendo, neo-geo etc made their good sprite animations. I found refernceing my points off Mario is great cos he also has a cape like my character and is physically pretty similar.

Hope this helps a little, but it is very tedious and boring work doing the animated version, but much more rewarding. I only drew my first animated gif yesterday night and the one i'm doing now is looking great, so if I can do it I'm sure anyone can with a little practice and determination!

RipX

thanks for your help RipX

to animate a drawing on a paper isn't too complicated for me; it's just the pixel conversion that was annoying me... about registration points, i was thinking the same, of course...
the real problem was more paper to pixel conversion for me in fact. or animation directly from the computer. anyway, i'll surely find my dedicated and favorite method one day ^^

http://www.marmotte.levillage.org/_exchange/64.4.gif

ok, what do you think????

http://www.mastersystem.org/misc/stan_ani.gif

I still have some work to do on the legs and arms but?!?!?

RipX

here's my first walk animation attempt, directly done with photoshop without reference, just with my head.
it's cool, more skiing than walking but... cool attitude ^^

arrow keys to move, tell me what you think:

http://www.marmotte.levillage.org/_exchange/running.swf

about your frog, RipX, i see directly the reference with SMW ^^
some animations are still missing, right?
btw your touch with the hat is important, it gives something very interesting that i don't have with my character...

Marmotte, your getting there, that looks quite similar to the first one I did, keep at it dude! :D

This is my slightly updated animation:
http://www.mastersystem.org/misc/stan_ani_02.gif

I'm quite pleased with it and think it's more or less finnished.

Marmotte, that is all the frames, I know it seems a bit wierd but it's how mario is animated and it looks fine when there a backdrop?!?! Don't ask me why?

RipX :smoov:

oh, and just a little note, it aint a frog, it's a one eyed alien! :D lol

i see what you mean RipX...
i just published my walking animation into .swf because... it was a little bit lame in animated gif ^^

sure, if you character is moving on the screen, things look better.

one eyed alien! i thought it was its profile.
oh, there's something you should add to your... one eyed alien; make its head turn a little bit while walking (like i did with my character in fact). with it's hat animation the result will probably be good.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by RipX
oh, and just a little note, it aint a frog, it's a one eyed alien! :D lol

---

Not a one eyed one horned flying purple people eatter? ;)

Marmot your character looks like he's skipping more than running, you need to add more vertical weight to him.

Other than that he's cool. I like the smaller versions rather than the X2 versions :)

I'd like to see it in a game. Whats happening with your site btw? Is it finished yet? Are you still doing that community thing?

here's the sprite sheet of it; as you can see, there's something wrong in the last ones... i'll correct it later

http://www.marmotte.levillage.org/_exchange/64.5.png

about my site, i have 9 screens done (only, but it's so long). the engine is quite developped though. the fact is, you are wandering but ther's nothing rellay interesting now. it will not be a community-like game, more a RPG-adventure without storyline, just with little quests and mini-games...

i'll try to add more vertical height, thanks ^^
i'll also add a "stop" animation, so that he doesn't stop brutal like that. like i did with my old bobby game.

Yeah, I know most animations rotate the head, but It kind of looked a bit weird last night when I tried it, I may have a go tommorow and see what it looks like :D

For now though Marmotte my man, check this:

http://www.mastersystem.org/misc/run_ani.html

it looks better, that's right...

btw i didn't noticed that the "rear" foot of mario acted so... weird.
damn, all that animations still missing for us (jump, attack...etc) :-(

lol, as if anyone didn't see this coming:

You may need to clear your cache....
www.mastersystem.org/misc/run_ani.html

:rolleyes:

Hey Guys,

Try doing something like this to start off with, it's a good way to work out angles and how to space out the animation.

http://www.mastersystem.org/misc/star.gif

^ These are the stars that you need to collect to stay alive in my game, so no-one steel it! :D - It took me about 15 mins to do this animation so was much simpler and a better place for people to start I guess! It consists of just 4 frames.

RipX

Quote:

---

Originally posted by RipX
Hey Guys,

Try doing something like this to start off with, it's a good way to work out angles and how to space out the animation.

http://board.flashkit.com/board/

^ These are the stars that you need to collect to stay alive in my game, so no-one steel it! :D - It took me about 15 mins to do this animation so was much simpler and a better place for people to start I guess! It consists of just 4 frames.

RipX

---

You could have done it in about 3 minutes in a 3D program :) It would require some slight touching up to make it perfect though.

Nice star though. Why the black BG? :)

you are right RipX, it's not that easy to write something like that (without 3D prog, but what about the pixelisated look if you use a 3D prog, you still have to convert it...)
i'm curretly redoing my character, adding some details, correcting the walk animation by myself..

i have something in mind, RipX you should know what i'm talking about, master system man; a shinobi 1-like game.
(maybe your engine is perfect for that :-)

Well, thanks for the comments, I know it would look far better done in a 3d program but I haven't got a damn clue how to use those damn things, I mean look at Donkey Kong Country!!! Anyway, It looks good and I suppose it shows more work has been put into the sprites! :p

Anyway, I put it on the black background cos I knew the flashkit forum color would clash and look daft, my version is transparent!!

RipX

Quote:

---

Originally posted by marmotte
you are right RipX, it's not that easy to write something like that (without 3D prog, but what about the pixelisated look if you use a 3D prog, you still have to convert it...)
i'm curretly redoing my character, adding some details, correcting the walk animation by myself..

i have something in mind, RipX you should know what i'm talking about, master system man; a shinobi 1-like game.
(maybe your engine is perfect for that :-)

---

Sure marmaotte, the shinobi game sounds like a good idea and would work well with my engine, and yes I do have the original Master System version, I don't know if you mean for us both to do it or not, If you mean for us both, then I'd have to decline in favour of my game, but if you need help with your tile engine or testing etc, just shout me and i'll surely try to help you!

RipX

ok, i think it's better than before ^^
now even with an animated gif it looks good. some tiny pixel changes are missing though, but i'm satisfied of the movment.

http://www.marmotte.levillage.org/_exchange/running.gif

That looks much better than last time!! :D

I just updated my swf too: we seem to time everyupdate together! lol

http://www.mastersystem.org/misc/run_ani.html

RipX

lookin good marmotte, though i think it would be a little more realistic if the arms didnt extend so far.
[m]

good sprite art and pixel skill

yeah really nice marmotte :) .. Ripx, I like your one eyed alien :D

Yeah, someone got it right! Thanks. lol - I've sat tidying it up even more today, cos I'm a perfectionist saddo, anyway, I don't know if anyone has reaslised they can now make the character move in my swf!!! :)

RipX

thanks people ^^
it will be better animated with a background i think.

RipX, i have a question: how do you manage to put your enemies in your tile based game?

are they attached depending on your position in the stage? how do you check that? i know how to do it, but it's a little bit cpu intensive, no?
or maybe it's just me, i never created a tile-based interactive world...

Quote:

---

Originally posted by marmotte
ok, i think it's better than before ^^
now even with an animated gif it looks good. some tiny pixel changes are missing though, but i'm satisfied of the movment.

http://board.flashkit.com/board/

---

A thousand times better :) That weight thing looked as though it did the trick, he has much more realism now.

Ripx, I think your little fella moves to slowly, other than that hes cool :)

Well cos the engine uses gotoAndStop I won't load them straight in when the initial map is generated, this will cause problems later with things appearing again once the screen is scrolled off and back on, So what i'm going to do is make a seperate array to hold the stars and enemy plotting data.

Now i'll use the new array to load the enemies and stars etc into the container clip in their relevant places and basically use the _visible method for the enemies and stars. If I pick up a star for example, I'll make it goto to a totally empty frame and because this won't change, it wont reappear! :)

RipX

markp.com, thank you ^^

here's another running animation, with several pixel changes, it looks a tiny bit better i think.

RipX, i wish i could draw an engine as "perfect" as you. i always did art based games, that's why i'm not too good with tile based... i have to improve ^^

http://board.flashkit.com/board/

http://www.marmotte.levillage.org/_e...nning_back.png

ok, the reason it doesn't look quite right is because it's all so perfect and squared off! Try to use the bevel tools to soften out some of the edges and hard lines. Also those tiles you have in your example arn't the best, If you think about the essence of tile engine games, they were all trying their best to eliminate monotonous looking levels. This meens that using the same tile over in a row wouldn't look as good as adding a tile with a cracked crate for example, now on the cracked crate you may but a piece of newspaper in front of it to add some variety?!?!?

On that point, the most of each different tile, should be exploited to the fullest. One thing that I would totally notice on your example is the wall in the background, you need to make some broken bricks/grafiti or windows! It does look so much like a Master System game!!!

I'm not saying I can do it but i've been looking at tile games and worked this out!! :D

RipX

oh, no prob RipX, it was just here to have a background environment, i'm aware it's not good for now ^^
but thanks anyway, of course if i use such a background later it will be infinitly more detailed, believe me. my goal now is to have a functional character.
btw, that's right it look so much like a master system game, but... mmmhhh, why not after all?
i'll see when the character will be finished...

about the character, i added a stop and stand animation to my swf, i'm satisfied with it (semi-awful background included also :-D)

http://board.flashkit.com/board/
http://www.marmotte.levillage.org/_exchange/stand.gif

http://www.marmotte.levillage.org/_exchange/running.swf

The new animation looks great but the character seems to "grow" when you stop running in the swf!

RipX

well, not really growing, but stopping... look at his legs...

Quote:

---

Originally posted by marmotte
well, not really growing, but stopping... look at his legs...

---

Yeah looks good! Looks like he's looking up, getting ready for some action, or sussing out the situation :)