Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: nessx007 on June 19, 2016, 03:44:49 am

Title: [C+C] Block "Pop" Animation
Post by: nessx007 on June 19, 2016, 03:44:49 am
Title pretty much says it! Here it is:

(http://i.imgur.com/ZWTghhS.gif)

I'm doing the art/animation for a multiplayer puzzler and this is the second attempt at a block "pop" when it disappears from the board. My first attempt was more like an explosion with yellow/orange colors, but for something that is repeated very very often (since the player is constantly matching blocks) it felt overly intense and too long. The goal here was to get something lighter and faster. Just curious to see what you guys think and to get some fresh eyes on it, thanks!
Title: Re: [C+C] Block "Pop" Animation
Post by: MysteryMeat on June 19, 2016, 04:43:09 am
It's hard to tell what's exploding here, the block seems to just vanish while this happens. Might help to put in some debris from the block spreading out and falling.
Title: Re: [C+C] Block "Pop" Animation
Post by: Probo on June 19, 2016, 08:04:59 pm
I like it! all the different particles moving away at different speeds is cool. has a kind of magic vibe, I can imagine it being satisfying. Have you put it in game? that often lets you see it in a new light, the best light really, as that's where it will end up!

I might add one or two more frames at the start, with the block swelling and its straight lines becoming curves, and also maybe try drastically lightening up the block's colours on a frame or two as if its being overcome with the magic energy that pops and disintegrates it.
Title: Re: [C+C] Block "Pop" Animation
Post by: Atnas on June 19, 2016, 09:45:43 pm
Hm, I would disagree with adding debris for a few reasons. Probo's advice is good, but I have an addendum for it.

Since this asset is meant for every block color and type, you would probably be best just making the block completely white for a frame before the pop. If you have the option of 2 frames, you can have it shrink and swell just before the pop, and reuse the animation for every type of block.

Particles are in general well done, however the bubbles on the outer rim (more so the ones in the lower half of the animation) jump around in a staircase movement, try to imagine their center when moving them, as they change shape. That should get rid of the staircase, which I think might be an artifact of your process - which looks like you were moving the final sized bubble first, and then changing the shape after.
Title: Re: [C+C] Block "Pop" Animation
Post by: nessx007 on June 19, 2016, 09:56:36 pm
I like it! all the different particles moving away at different speeds is cool. has a kind of magic vibe, I can imagine it being satisfying. Have you put it in game? that often lets you see it in a new light, the best light really, as that's where it will end up!

I might add one or two more frames at the start, with the block swelling and its straight lines becoming curves, and also maybe try drastically lightening up the block's colours on a frame or two as if its being overcome with the magic energy that pops and disintegrates it.

Thanks! The magic vibe was what I was aiming for, glad to hear it. We haven't implemented this version yet (I would if I could myself, but alas, having one programmer means he's always busy!) but if you're curious to see what we had before (and why we're changing it) here's a little cropped view of actual gameplay with a couple combos going off.
(http://i.imgur.com/jzUYduK.gif)
And you mentioned adding some brightness before the explosion, and I agree! We do have some programatic flashing but the problem is it settles on a non-brightened frame before the actual "pop". So that will be worth revisiting. But yeah the old "pop" was very large and overlapping and too long (blocks would fall into a just-exploded blocks space and part of the residue would still be animating on top of it, not very elegant imo.
Title: Re: [C+C] Block "Pop" Animation
Post by: nessx007 on June 19, 2016, 10:05:45 pm
Hm, I would disagree with adding debris for a few reasons. Probo's advice is good, but I have an addendum for it.

Since this asset is meant for every block color and type, you would probably be best just making the block completely white for a frame before the pop. If you have the option of 2 frames, you can have it shrink and swell just before the pop, and reuse the animation for every type of block.

Particles are in general well done, however the bubbles on the outer rim (more so the ones in the lower half of the animation) jump around in a staircase movement, try to imagine their center when moving them, as they change shape. That should get rid of the staircase, which I think might be an artifact of your process - which looks like you were moving the final sized bubble first, and then changing the shape after.

Gotcha, thanks for the catch about the movement. And yeah you've already guessed it, the key was to get an explosion that works for all block types, and a fully white-frame-before-pop (with some kind of scaling) would probably look pretty good! I'll mention it to my cousin (the brains of the project) because we could probably do that programmatically too (he's all about saving sprite sheet space whereever/whenever)