Animation Frame Questions

[Pete Holland Jr.]

I'm figuring this is the more appropriate forum for my situation. And those who saw it under General, another question or two has been added.

I'm starting out with the animations, making animated GIF's. This was going pretty well, until I tried importing them into Game Editor. Now, it does weird things with the first frame of animation, sometimes flashing a white background, or sometimes just displaying a black frame.

I tried creating animated GIF's with a transparent background, but that isn't working, the frames don't animate then. So I need to think of something. Here's a raft of questions:

1) I noticed the demo has bmp files instead of gif's. bmp's don't support animation. When I look at the demo, though, it lists the number of frames the bitmap uses. I'm guessing I can use this to turn bmps into animation. My first attempt still gave me a flashing white background and two characters on the screen instead of one. Any advice?

2) Are there other formats that support both animation AND transparency?

3) Is transparency necessary, or is there some color that Game Engine will see and automatically replace?

4) If transparent gif animation is what it takes, what am I doing wrong that I can't animate it? I'm using GIMP.

5) How does animation from multiple files work? I can't select more than one at a time when I try. Do I need to include the full path (C:\frame001.bmp; C:\frame002.bmp) in order for it to work?

[makslane]

1) I noticed the demo has bmp files instead of gif's. bmp's don't support animation. When I look at the demo, though, it lists the number of frames the bitmap uses. I'm guessing I can use this to turn bmps into animation. My first attempt still gave me a flashing white background and two characters on the screen instead of one. Any advice?

If you use a single file with all frames, make sure have the frames with exactly size, side by side, like in this image with 8 frames (32x37):



In this case (less than 32bpp image), the first pixel of the image will inform the trasparent color.

If you need tell to the Game Editor the exactly transparent amount of different image areas, you need to use a 32bpp image that will informs the image alpha channel (the first pixel don't will be used to get the transparent color):

I don't think all browsers will show this image right, so, download it and put in Game Editor.

2) Are there other formats that support both animation AND transparency?

You can use any of this formats:
jpeg, gif, png, bmp, pcx, tga, xpm, xcf, lbm and tif

The Game Editor will assembler the animation for you. You don't need to use only animated gifs.

3) Is transparency necessary, or is there some color that Game Engine will see and automatically replace?

- If the image file has a color depth lower than 32 bits, Game Editor understands that the color of the first pixel (upper left corner) is the color that should become totally transparent in the image.

- If your image has 32 bits color depth, Game Editor will consider the alpha channel (transparency channel) of the image.

- If your image is a gif, Game Editor will consider the gif transparent color.

4) If transparent gif animation is what it takes, what am I doing wrong that I can't animate it? I'm using GIMP.

I need to see your image.

5) How does animation from multiple files work? I can't select more than one at a time when I try. Do I need to include the full path (C:\frame001.bmp; C:\frame002.bmp) in order for it to work?

Game Editor will looks the file sufix and extension, so, if you have the files frame001.bmp, frame002.bmp, frame003.bmp... just select one of this files and Game Editor will get all for you:

frame*.bmp

[Pete Holland Jr.]

I want to say I appreciate the long answer. You actually helped me figure out a couple of things. I'm now doing animation with bmp strips, no flashing background or anything like that. I now have a little cartoon crocodile shuffling in place.

Understand, my goal at the moment is simple. The easiest way to test an engine out is to code something for it. As a new engine ALWAYS requires a learning curve, I decided to try for a simple game during the trial period, as actually working on something keeps me from getting bored. If I successfully complete it before the trial period is over (or come really close), I'm going to buy in.

Question: For a test project, what will let me practice things like animation, input, backgrounds, and such without being overly complex or demanding?

Answer: a virtual pet. Limited logic and lets me focus on learning the interface.

Now that I have making animation down enough to be practical (I need to spritz the croc up a little, Don Bluth has nothing to worry about from me), it's on to the next phase, moving him around. I'll explore other stuff in detail later, I'm still seeing what this can do. I'm going to see if I can figure it out first, but trust me, if I get stuck, I'll ask questions.

Thank you again.