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Mike at BrashMonkey

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  1. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from turosteel in Need help with level design methodolgy   
    Hi SymboliC,
     
    I say this with absolute respect and in an attempt to protect your time, energy, and sanity.  This is a common and terrible beginners mistake/misconception.  Levels should be bade out of small, reusable segments (which you can create with anything you'd like)...otherwise you'll cripple the games performance, take much longer to create each level or heaven forbid change a level,  and drastically increase the games overall file-size. Hint, if the graphics program is limiting a max size, its for a reason.
     
    I just recently had to talk a beginner game artist friend of mine (who was trying the same thing with Photoshop) down off of that same ledge. Photoshop was slowing to a crawl on his system, but he expected a game, with lots more additional art (animations), a ton of math, collision detection, game logic etc to not crawl while displaying the same image?  Yes, you can chop up the full level to more manageable chunks (for game performance), but level editing and reediting is still just as big an issue or bigger, because the chopping up and putting back together in game is now another step.
     
    Ironically, my friend, who was resistant to reusing art then showed me his finished giant hand painted level, and there was tons of reuse anyway.
     
    Please look into level editors and tile map editors that work well with Unity ASAP. A Game level can look 100 percent hand painted and still be made out of carefully crafted and reused (with scaling, flipping and rotation..and even color tinting) small segments.
     
    PS, Rayman Legends uses the same system of tiling art and reusing small chunks of earth, grass, platform, etc etc.
     
    I hope this comes across as helpful and not annoying or pushy.. I've just seen fellow artists exhaust themselves due to this very "idea", only to end up having to redo all the levels they made later, the right way...because not only did it prove to take far too long (especially because there will ALWAYS be constant needs to redesign levels) but because the games performance became absolutely terrible.
     
    So, my two cents as an over decade long professional game artist... measure twice, cut once.. do your research and force the programmer to do very realistic benchmarks to make sure you're not making a game in a manner that will destroy itself. I highly recommend you research all your level creation options for Unity.

    Again, my alarmist arm waving and hyperbole comes from a strong desire to protect a fellow artist from something that will cause much pain and exhaustion (and typically depression)....This very thing has destroyed countless game projects in their tracks.
     
    Sorry if this comes off as abrasive.
     
    cheers,
    Mike.... but speaking as a pro game artist, NOT as a representative of BrashMonkey in this case.
  2. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from SymboliC in Spriter R4 Bug Thread   
    This is as intended and not a bug. There's a difference between the current pivot point you set in a key frame on canvas, and the default pivot point you set in the file palette.
     
    cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
     
  3. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from SymboliC in Cloning Animations between Entities   
    Also, currently you can not yet drag or copy an animation from one entity to another but it is a planned feature for a future update.
     
    Cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  4. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from LukeLanFaust in Please post feature suggestions here.   
    Spriter Pro already offers lots of custom tween speed-curve options.
     

     
    Cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  5. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from SymboliC in Please post feature suggestions here.   
    Spriter Pro already offers lots of custom tween speed-curve options.
     

     
    Cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  6. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from AlisaMesy in Welcome to Brash Monkey's Spriter forum   
    Hi everyone,
    Thanks for trying Spriter. I look forward to feature suggestions and bug reports.
  7. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from LukeLanFaust in Please post feature suggestions here.   
    Thanks for the great suggestions everyone.  Keep 'em coming.
     
    Cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  8. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from SymboliC in Please post feature suggestions here.   
    Thanks for the great suggestions everyone.  Keep 'em coming.
     
    Cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  9. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from SymboliC in Question regarding folder structure..   
    Editing the html in a text editor is indeed the only way to alter the folder structure after the fact.  Eventually we'll add the ability to rename and move images right within Spriter, and most likely a way to point Spriter toward the new location for folders etc.
     
     
    cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  10. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from rainbox in Quick questions - Guides and Sounds   
    Hi rainbox,
     
    1) Just left click and drag them back to the ruler.
     
     
    2) They will automatically attempt to import along with the images. One event must be manually added to your event sheet for the sounds to play in your game, BUT there is currently a bug in the Spriter plug-in preventing the sounds playback from working. This will hopefully be fixed within the next week or two, so I suggest you work without sound for now and once the bug is fixed you'll just have to add one event and then all the sounds in your animation will appear.  I'll make a quick tutorial video showing how to make this sound triggering event in C2 for Spriter animations once this bug is fixed.
     
    Cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  11. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from LukeLanFaust in Please post feature suggestions here.   
    Hi, LukeLanFaust,
     
    Pretty much everything you've requested/suggested is planned. We just can't say exactly how soon each specific feature will appear. The reference implementation will definitely come first, though. Thanks again, everyone, for your patience.
     
    Cheers,
    Mike
  12. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from SymboliC in Turning and Perspective animations?   
    No, any actual perspective, or any change that would require "new visual data" needs new art by the artist.  Something that any time something moves in a way where we are now seeing a new part of it, or new side of it, you'd need to use the image swap feature.  If you are working on a game that requires a log of animations in perspective, I highly recommend you create your characters first in 3d, animate them in 3d, then export the frames.  At hat point you can decide to either import them as sequential image animations ore take the time to break up each animation into parts for each frame that requires perspective, then reassemble all the frames in Spriter, reusing parts is much as possible.
     
    There's no getting around it, once perspective is involved, a LOT more work and expertise is required.
     
    Cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  13. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from SymboliC in Animations inside Animations with respective timelines?   
    There's barebones support for this, but I don't think this feature is supported yet in any of the current Spriter implementations/plug-ins. 
     

     
    cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  14. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from TristanFat in Welcome to Brash Monkey's Spriter forum   
    Hi everyone,
    Thanks for trying Spriter. I look forward to feature suggestions and bug reports.
  15. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from Ddyrinsyk in Please post feature suggestions here.   
    Hi everyone.
    Please use this thread to post any suggestions you might have for features.
    cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  16. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from XRumerTest in Welcome to the new Spriter forums.   
    Hi Everyone,
     
    As you might have noticed, we've upgraded to a totally new forums system.  The migration seems to have gone off without a hitch, but there's the possibility that if you posted during the 30 minute window in which we were migrating that your post ended up in the old forums and didn't make it over here. 
     
    For anyone with a missing post, for a limited time you can actually access the old forum by going here: http://www.brashmonkey.com/forumOLD and copy the text from your post so you can easily repost it into the new forum.  If this is required I apologize for the inconvenience.
     
     
    cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  17. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from ridjam in Create New Blank Key   
    Hi again ridjam,
     
    Here is a fast tutorial I made. Sorry its not the highest quality, between a cold, fatigue, no time to script, or edit, and the requirement to not speak at full volume because my children are asleep nearby, its not the best..but hopefully it will explain the features and how to use then adequately.
     

     
    Cheers,
     
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  18. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from jokderdeus in How to edit several keyframes ?   
    We love honest feedback and realize the great value of it.  What we want to hear about most is when anything can complicate, prolong or frustrate any aspect of workflow or creativity.  The worst thing would be if out of the sake of politeness any member of our community undersold how important their feature-request could be.
     
    In this case, I understand and completely this is a very important feature and we know we should get it in Spriter as quickly as possible. Especially due the the low time cost (to implement) VS very high reward (much better workflow for many users) nature of this specific feature request.
     
    Cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  19. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from ridjam in Create New Blank Key   
    linear is the standard, it tweens evenly and smoothly from one key frame to the next. Instant keeps one keyframe static on the screen until the next keyframe, like page-flipping traditional animation. Custom allows you to add speed curves, to ease in or out the tweening.
     
    I suggest you play with them to get a better understanding.
     
    It seems you're right about there not being a tutorial video yet for this topic. I'll put in on my to-do list...but it might take a while, so don't wait for the video..experiment yourself after reading my description above.
     
    Cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  20. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from JohnnyType in Please post feature suggestions here.   
    Hi everyone.
    Please use this thread to post any suggestions you might have for features.
    cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  21. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from DarrenOl in Animated GIFs work in the forums now.   
    Hi Everyone,
     
    I found the system setting to allow animated GIFs for avatars etc and have switched it on.  If your avatar isn't animating as it should, just choose to change the image in your user control panel and then re-upload it and it should then be animating as expected.
     
    cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  22. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from RunnerPack in Please help us create the official Spriter FAQ   
    That is indeed a tough one...but one that will become much easire shortly after Edgar finishes the full featured generic Spriter implimentation and its ported. I'll post a more generic answer to that question until that time.
     
    Thank much for the suggestion and general aweosme level of helpfullness to the community RunnerPack!
     
    Cheers,
    Mike
  23. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from JohnnyType in Welcome to the new Spriter forums.   
    Hi Everyone,
     
    As you might have noticed, we've upgraded to a totally new forums system.  The migration seems to have gone off without a hitch, but there's the possibility that if you posted during the 30 minute window in which we were migrating that your post ended up in the old forums and didn't make it over here. 
     
    For anyone with a missing post, for a limited time you can actually access the old forum by going here: http://www.brashmonkey.com/forumOLD and copy the text from your post so you can easily repost it into the new forum.  If this is required I apologize for the inconvenience.
     
     
    cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  24. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from 4yBa40K_Zitle in Welcome to the new Spriter forums.   
    Hi Everyone,
     
    As you might have noticed, we've upgraded to a totally new forums system.  The migration seems to have gone off without a hitch, but there's the possibility that if you posted during the 30 minute window in which we were migrating that your post ended up in the old forums and didn't make it over here. 
     
    For anyone with a missing post, for a limited time you can actually access the old forum by going here: http://www.brashmonkey.com/forumOLD and copy the text from your post so you can easily repost it into the new forum.  If this is required I apologize for the inconvenience.
     
     
    cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
  25. Like
    Mike at BrashMonkey got a reaction from RunnerPack in Nomenclature question   
    An animated character is not necessarily a Sprite... in fact, typically a sprite represents a single image at a time being moved around by a game.  We used the term object in the generic sense within the spriter properties title because it can mean a sprite (image) OR a bone, both of these objects have properties than can be edited in the "object" properties palette.
     
    So, a fully animated Spriter animation playing on screen is not a sprite, and depending on the context you  an call it a Spriter object, a Spriter entity, or a Spriter animation.
     
    A sprite is simply an image being controlled and moved around in a game.
     
    Most Spriter animations involve multiple sprites being moved, rotated etc to create an animated object or character.
     
    That's about as clear as such a convoluted topic can be I think. ;)
     
    Cheers,
    Mike at BrashMonkey
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