The movement is happening because you see the frames being shown after each other. More exactly, an action figure doing an awesome punch (from some old game you probably never played). Look at the following animation, hastily made by me to get the point across: Now you probably wonder why I mentioned these three words, what is the connection between them? It is worth to note that for a "smooth" animation you generally need at least 20 frames per second, which means if you want a detailed work done it will take a lot of time (and pictures), imagine even only a 10 second long stunt! Fortunately making simple and effective animations doesn't require that effort, so you can let out a relieved sigh now.Ī Layer probably needs no introduction, if you are using Gimp or any other more serious photo editing program, you are already familiar with the term. The rate of showing the images is measured in "frames per second" or fps for shorts (DUH!), and naturally it means how many frames you are shown within a single second. The faster the frames follow each other and the less difference there is between two frames, the smoother the animation looks. It holds the whole scene, and the series of frames shown fast after each other is producing the sense of movement. Why is this important? Because most of the animation in computer games have been done with sprites for quite a long time, and they are pretty easy to use for beginners too even today!Ī Frame is a single moment of an animation, just like in movies. When you see a picture that has a background with only one color (typically white, pink, or transparent), it is likely a sprite or can be used as one. Let's do it!īefore we start, though, there are three words we should talk about:Ī Sprite is a two-dimensional graphical entity in computer world, pretty much "a bitmap", or a series of it (animation). I'm sure the basics of movie creation will be covered, eventually.īut enough with the pep-talk. gif image has a limited palette of colors, so you will likely lose on that too! If you are in the process of making a great animation anyway, you may want to add some sound, and do an animated movie instead. There is a limit to hosting them too, as they generally eat more bandwith. gif will be likely oversized, which means you can't keep too much of them around. Let's face it, the animations you can make as. In rare cases a friendly warning for "epileptic trigger" could help too. If it is really necessary to be done, consider putting it in a spoiler tag. Noone likes to look at animations that go too fast or change colors too often or are generally a pain to look at. If you find yourself in such situation and you feel you can't finish the task, then select the key pictures of the already done scene and use them like a comic, one after one, just like you would have done anyway. Unless you are a veteran animator, have good tools to speed up production, or don't mind the time at all, you will likely find yourself wasting too much time in creating an animation if it is any longer than, let's say, 10 seconds, especially if there is a lot going on. Maybe the animated thing is totally irrelevant to anything, but you had a lot of fun creating it? Or you are just bored of all the staticness? Make some small and easy animations, and you (and your players) will likely have a blast DMing. Your players do an epic battle that is a must-see in motion? You have set up a room with moving items that are important but the timing is hard to convey with words? Just make an animated scenery and surely everyone will understand (and probably will be in awe for) what is going on. small details that would make the otherwise boring scene vivid. Your players stand in front of a machine, and the plot requires explanation? Why would they look at it? You could animate the lights blinking, hinges opening or closing, pumps moving up and down. By the time you get to this lesson you are likely mastering the basics (and intermediates) of manipulating pictures, and you are spreading your wings towards greater goals, such as - for example - animation.
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