Melting

[Olothontor]

Let me start off by saying that I've only ever animated sprites once before, and it was years ago. So suffice to say I'm quite new to this, though I'm no stranger to spritework in general.

Old:

What I'm going for is the gem melting out of the socket and flowing into the letters inscribed on the plinth, and so far it's not going well. I was trying to keep an eye on the timing of the frames to make the liquid feel thick and viscous, and it sorta worked, but it also looks... ugh, it just looks gross.

If anybody has any tips or edits, please. Feel free!

Most Recent:Edit:

[Zia]

Unless the gem's colour has significance, I'd change it to something much brighter. Perhaps a bright red, purple, or green. Something a little higher contrast and saturation instead of a muddy brown colour.

I'd slow the animation down even a bit more. Right now, it sort of "plops." Perhaps start with a few drips and then have it melt a little more thoroughly.

[PsylentKnight]

I'd choose something other than red... gooey red stuff brings blood to mind. As for timing, for something thick, I think I'd do it opposite the way you have it. Start relatively fast and end slow. Things with a high melting point don't stay liquid for long. They flow a bit and then they harden.  Make the whole thing slower.

[Olothontor]

It's intended to evoke blood, actually, so glad to hear it's doing the job.



Made some edits, saturated the red a tad and shifted it just slightly more towards orange to help make it pop, and made the animation overall smoother. It plops less, but still feels... off? Made the most recent edit before your post, Psylent. I do think it needs to go slower- on the other hand, as a game asset that will play the animation when "activated," it needs to not take too terribly long to play out. Can definitely afford a handful more frames, though.

[BlackTerror]

It seems to fill the letters entirely when the whole gem has just started to flow. Maybe slow down the text-filling part of the animation so it takes twice as long to fill them?

[Probo]

cool. I think the main body of the jewel melts too quickly, id make it slide down the stone like a scoop of ice cream on an inclined frying pan, shrinking as it goes and leaving a wide trail. it could slow down as it reaches the letters and then with one last burst of magic or what-have-you completely melt and go into the top line

[Olothontor]

It seems to fill the letters entirely when the whole gem has just started to flow. Maybe slow down the text-filling part of the animation so it takes twice as long to fill them?

Good point, I'll tweak that a bit.

Edit: Here you go, Black Terror. The letters fill slower now, also felt like it needed a bit of flare. Needs something more.

cool. I think the main body of the jewel melts too quickly, id make it slide down the stone like a scoop of ice cream on an inclined frying pan, shrinking as it goes and leaving a wide trail. it could slow down as it reaches the letters and then with one last burst of magic or what-have-you completely melt and go into the top line

That's what I thought I might do when I first started this, but I felt like that would look really strange. In the same way that I was dissatisfied with the gloppiness of it in the first attempt. I'm willing to give it a shot if you think it's the best way to go, but I wanted more of a flow than a plop. It's not intended to be that thick.

[Probo]

thats what id try, but you dont have to do that of course. if you keep what you have, id at least change one thing about the shading though, the way the specular highlight on the jewel remains exactly the same even as its pretty much entirely liquid is a bit strange to me, its like the highlight has its own mass

[Olothontor]

thats what id try, but you dont have to do that of course. if you keep what you have, id at least change one thing about the shading though, the way the specular highlight on the jewel remains exactly the same even as its pretty much entirely liquid is a bit strange to me, its like the highlight has its own mass

Dealt with the highlight weirdness and cleaned a few stray pixels. Any better, you think?

[Probo]

yeah looking good, but i think that when the main bulk of the melted jewel hits that fork in the channels of fluid, it would break the banks so to speak and just go right down the middle covering that little gap.

quick edit (i added a bg colour to make it easier for my eyes when editing, thats the extra colour)

[Olothontor]

Good point! Fixed. It's coming along!