Animation

Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Beginners Area/Animation

Shuffles(Posted 2008) [#1]
Okay I'm new to Blitz3D and want to learn NOT HOW TO PROGRAM ANIMATION ,but how I make it.I'm not the best drawler in the world but I have microsoft paint.How can I my picture have different frames of animation?If microsoft paint doesn't allow that please tell me a program that does.


mtnhome3d(Posted 2008) [#2]
you can do it in M$ paint, what you need to do is create an anim strip. here's an example



an anim strip needs to have every frame of the animation in it, setup like in the example. the frames need to be the same size also.
you then later use the
loadanimimage()
command: http://www.blitzbasic.com/b3ddocs/command.php?name=LoadAnimImage&ref=2d_cat


Kryzon(Posted 2008) [#3]
Painting animation is very very hard for begginers.
Also, you can do it in Microsoft Paint but it is so limited that you can't see any professional artisti using it. You're far better off Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Gimp and any other high-level image editing\creation package.
Just don't go towards vector stuff like Corel Draw, it's not up for the task.

Now, to draw animation, you need to know what cycles you wanna make. Is it an attack cycle? walking\running?
You need to separate the entire movement of that cycle into frames. Now comes a relation with time: the more frames, the slower the animation will be. The fewer, the faster.

You can google lots of free material about animation.
Here's a starter: http://www.idleworm.com/how/anm/02w/walk1.shtml

http://www.awn.com/qas/60.html
http://www.anticz.com/Walks.htm

And the best reference is, of course, real life. If you have a [crazy] friend, ask him to record you with a camera while you do the movements as clearly and purely as possible. Then load that into the computer or print into sheets and trace that to your character - that's how Prince of Persia's fluid lifelike animation was made.


InvisibleKid(Posted 2008) [#4]
to create animation strips i like to use
GlueIt

but you could also checkout
The Toolbox


Pongo(Posted 2008) [#5]
I would highly recommend Graphics Gale
http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/

the free version does everything you should need.


If you have a mac you can use Pixen
http://opensword.org/Pixen/