Animating a character

[guiti20000]

Hi guys!
I'm pretty new to Game-Editor etc. I've been through some of the "tutorials for newbies" and I've learnt some stuff. However, I haven't found out how to animate my player(s) for example: I want to add a realistic walk for my player, instead of having him slide across the screen, each time I move him with the right or left key in 'game mode'.
How do I make key frames so my character will walk/ run/ jumping frames etc??

Can anyone make either a video tutorial? or a text one should do for me, as long as it's explained well

I have being using inkscape to draw my characer. I have made 3 different frames of the character: 1= standing still.. 2=lifting the leg.. 3=stepping forward.
PLEASE could anyone tell me what I have to do from here. Do I have to use a flash animator or something? I have no clue.

I have attached my x3 frames... I have also attached an example gif animation of what I'm looking for.

Thanks very much for you time!
(u may hear from me again on this topic... I'm a newbie)

The attachment xonii 3x walk.png is no longer available

[savvy]

you have to space your characters perfectly apart for them to be smooth and not jumpy.
i advise using the box method, make a box big enough for your character, copy it for the amount of frames and put the character into the boxes, that way thyre all evenly spread, also remove the boxes after completeing. click add animation and it should do it automatically, if not just put hoe many frames there are then it will do it.

that help?

[guiti20000]

Hi savvy, thanks for the quick response!

What exactly do u mean by "the box method?"
Bare in mind I'm a real newbie (2days)... So do you mean i should creat a box around my characters using the inkscape, or in the Game Editor?
How close/ far apart should I align them? Will it matter if I align the vertically or horizontally?
Sorry bout all the questions, I'm trying to prevent sending tons of replies on the same topic... (newbie)

Now this may not have much to do with amimation but it's very, very important: how do you change the size of "tile, players/actor, background etc etc. and is it posible to zoom closer to see specific animations?"

sorry guys!


thanks again

[DST]

I have tried the box method, but it has a shortcoming - if you ever want to add more frames, you have to re-do all the boxes.

Try this instead:

Inkscape>file>document properties

And change the document size to the proper size for your character sheet, so they will be evenly spaced. (usually the width is the size of the widest frame).

Then make the height of the document the vertical size of all the frames added together (height).

If you drew them huge or small in relation to your final image, scale them to the proper size (you can click an object and it's width/height will appear in the toolbar at the top). If you used outlines, you can go to file>inkscape preferences>transform>scale stroke width (check the box, then shrink them to the right size, then go uncheck the box).

For the most part, inkscape works best if you uncheck scale stroke width. But nevertheless it is best to make your images the same pixel size that they will be when exported as png.

Next, still in the document properties, go to the grid tab and start a new grid, with the x and y spacing of the 1/2 the width and 1/2 the height of your single largest animation frame.

Now, arrange all the objects vertically down the page, using the gridlines in the center as your point of reference to line each one up. If you need to, go to edit>snap to stop snapping (snapping more often messes things up than helps). Therefore, each frame will be in the center of 4 grid boxes.

Now, the reason for the vertical....to make him walk the other direction, just select everything, flip horizontal, and export again! easy peasy.

When you export, just click the 'page' button at the top to export the entire page, thus keeping your spacing intact.

If you ever need to add more frames, it's simple to add more height to the document, then just select everything and drag where you need to, thus keeping the existing frames still in alignment to each other.

Here is a sample of an image i made; these come together to form a spaceship. In game editor, i import this as one animation, and simply change frames mid game. Each part has its normal animation, and it's damaged animation. But you can see how i've aligned them, and you can view the grid/document properties, and see how easy it is to flip them all horizontally to output the other side of the spaceship.

If this made sense, let me know. If it's too complicated, also let me know. I may have a strange way of doing things, but i assure you i made stuff FAST in inkscape. This whole spaceship probably took a total of less than one hour.