How would you..

[hopoo]

How would you go for animating top-down legs? I've been wanting to make this game, but i really couldn't find a tutorial for top down legs; just mostly side-view. The way i tried is to animate the bottom part of the foot going foward, then the other going foward, but it looked like he was just shuffling along. So; How would you animate, lets say just normal legs, but also like backward legs (Kinda like a goat's hind legs) and a 4 legged animal's legs? Thanks alot

[Gil]

Show us your shuffles, and we'll help you turn them into walks...

[hopoo]

Sorry, don't know how to make it loop. I think the reason it looks like it's shuffling is because the bottom part of the feet dont turn..?

[crab2selout.png]

id download another gif animation program to get that to loop if you want any help. Make it easy for us to help you. I cant even see that image in graphis gale, because the program you used odes something to the colour table that GG doesn't understand and won't open the image.

I don't know why a mod hasn't moved it, but this should be over in the critique section of the board. I think you should take the opportunity right now to work on the readability of your image. MY best guess is you've got a mech. Even with that I can't figure out what the rectangles above the feet are supposed to be. Arms? weapons? knees? legs? I guess the thing in the middle is supposed to be the cockpit then. I'd like to see the hit area you intend to use for this. So I can see what kind of area you have to play with the edsign.

I'm sending an email ot a mod to get this moveed, as I'd like to see some tips and answers on this myself. I'm working on some top-down animations, and its a challenge trying to suggest movement and form from that perspective.


Here's a test I'm working on. I don't know how much help it can be(get your image working and I'll tkae a look at it), but it think its an important step towards figuring out effective motion. One thing I'm starting to learn is to limit the upper range on colour values as you go further down the y height of the sprite. This way arms get separated from the head, and feet will be separated from arms. For your animation, you could increase the size of the circle thing moving forward to show that they are moving up and down along the y/hieght level. That's relevant only if I got the mech guess right.

[Xion]

Okay, so, you've got what looks to be the chassis and feet of a mech. You've got nice, smooth movement of the feet, but now you need to add some rotation. I mean, it'd be wierd if things walked with their feet parallel to the ground. And some hip movement, too. And some legs. I see a hip-pole and feet, but nothing attaching them!

And yeah, I would suggest a new animation program.

[hopoo]

I can't seem to find the english version of graphics gale.. the download and the installer all says it's a US version, but it still comes out japanese 

[shaheen]

Are your regional language settings set to Japanese by any chance? I do it quite a bit to play certain independent games, and found that GraphicsGale adapts to the region you're set to.

Otherwise, I'm not sure.

[Kyle]

http://www.gifworks.com/image_editor.html

I'm guessing you made that in GameMaker. And just use this site to loop it.

[hopoo]

Yeah i do use GM, and yeah again it was set to japanese. Thanks.

With middle piece:

Without:


Not really going for looks, trying to see if i can get a good animation. Looks better then befores ;P For the person that was confused;

If it was looked from the side from now, it would look like:, just better. Also, in the game, you can swap out parts and stuff, so i have the legs , cockpit, weapons, etc drawn seperate.