2D Blender animation tests

Hi all,

I was messing around with Blender 3D for 2D animations. It's not that difficult at all, but consumed a good time of mine, since i had to plan the cutouts, and learn about rigging, uv maps, weight painting... Anyway, i think it might be a good solution for spritesheets, or maybe for a realtime 2d skeletal animation (blender can export the whole thing as a .fbx file, dunno if it's possible to parse it back using Construct).

First test - Bending an arm using two bones and an armature deform:

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9g_fhDFpHs[/tube]

Second test - A traditional walking cycle, using some old sketch i had here:

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ0l6H540hU[/tube]

Hope you like it :)

frpnit

hi i really like it thanks for sharing.. love the second test, your sketch is really good. Just getting my head around animations at the moment. I use paint.net; cutting each section and rotating to get the right angle.

its not perfect though and i choose a difficult sketch to work with

Hi Mineet,

Indeed, manual interpolation (traditional frame by frame animation) can be such a pain. Every tecnique has it's pros and cons, and thus, limits. Cutout animations requires a bit of planning before, so that all character parts fits well together during the moviment.

If you are doing this kind of stuff, rotating limbs and such, i really recomend you to use some software that automatizes it for you. I've created a post a long time before about free tools, there are two apps for animation that could help you in there, besides blender - they are Cool Motion, and Tisfat. Check the post out at:

http://www.scirra.com/forum/free-tools-and-resources-for-game-development_topic42219.html

If you are interested in learning what i've done in Blender, you could read this tutorial:

Part 1

Part 2

Good luck with your work :)

frpnit

hi thank you for the reply, the kind words and the links. I've bookmarked the old thread so I can go back to it..

I have recently started to use Inkscape, but I'm finding it hard to understand how to use it properly, and to its full potential, and went back to paint.net.

I will go through the old thread and read up on them.

Thanks for the link to the tutorial aswell.

You should really check out Spriter. Frame based animations are just way too heavy for web use.

The file size comparison can be absolutely astonishing.

newt

hi, thanks

is 'spriter' the same as brashmonkey.com

or something different?

Yep thats it.

newt

hi thanks just downloaded it. Have you used it?

Yes, its pretty easy, then again, its pretty hard to screw up a time line.

newt

just having a go now, but not a clue what I'm doing, maybe I should read up on it first.

mineet

Oh, Inkscape (nice free software) is a vectorial program, so things aren't the same as paint.net, as you works with math/bezier curves, the workflow changes considerably.

The reason i've not mentioned Spriter before is that i thought it's not free at all, but it seems even when in final version, will be there a free version. It's a good way to go, because there is a plugin that loads spriter format on Construct. As for animation, things works much like the Blender tests, but as it's directly made for 2D, will be easier to setup.

frpnit

hi thanks again for the reply

just working with spriter now, I've got so far but want to take a part and move the angle.. just trying to figure it out.. I'm not very quick lol..

there is a tutorial that i watched and thought i had taken it all in but can't remember how to do the angle bit,, I will go back and watch it again

Thanks for this thread frpnit its been really helpful

frpnit

newt

hi been playing around in spriter. Can you tell me if it is possible to save the animation strip in spriter and import the whole of the finished animation to C2. Up to now I have managed to save it but it saves each frame separately in the program I originally took the drawing from ie paint.. and then I have to put each frame back in C2 separately..

mineet: You should probably check Spriter's website and ask questions rather there or on Spriter's thread.

Kyatric

hi sorry I posted in the wrong place again.. I did a search first and came up with just really old posts.

I've been on here daily, and never noticed the thread you have given me, maybe I didn't type the correct words in the search..

I even went on your thread-[How do I]Frequently asked questions, to find a link (which i couldn't)and not to post in the wrong place..

I posted my question on here because it is already a conversation between the other members and myself about animations, and using software including spriter that another member brought to my attention first.

Thanks for the link, I will be more cautious next time in asking questions.