Skeleton (assuming it uses the same assets as the Human Male. There are some offset errors I have not corrected yet, but those exist in the original skeleton anyway)
And some that can be replaced if you make some easily automated adjustments to the clothing:
Human Male Muscular (assets for Walk North should be shifted up 1 pixel)
All Pregnant bodies and animations, except the lizard (assets for Walk North should be shifted up 1 pixel)
I made no edits to the Zombie base, so the generator should already have the most recent version of that.
The remaining bodies break compatability too much to work with existing assets, or are likely to have compatability breaking updates in the future.
And moreover, imagine one creates new items, eg a new shirt, based on the new bodies you submit here. Will that still work with the old bodies?
Other than position shifts, I think the only issues would be with the Female and Teen bases. Pants would not be compatible on the Thrust and Shoot animations, and shirts would need to be fixed on 1 or 2 frames where the arm position is different.
submitted by Rhimlock, based on work by Johannes Sjölund (wulax). Rhimlock was unclear how much they contributed, but said there was no need to credit them. https://opengameart.org/content/lpc-skeleton
Wolfmen
Matthew Krohn (makrohn) is credited because of the female thrust/shoot animations.
Thanks Eliza, I enjoyed working on these with you.
Evert, one other difference to note between these and Durrani's original is that we removed a slight head tilt in the side-view frames, and I think we also adjusted the eye position in the front-view to match the death/hurt animation.
I think it would be useful to have a version of the shell tools with a graphical interface. Even if it is literally just a "Load Image" button. That way, someone who doesn't want to use the command-line can still draw over a template and replicate their head/hair/whatever to a full sheet easily.
On a related topic, I'd like to see the tools have more support for exporting separate animations, instead of having everything in a single image. Having everything in a single spritesheet is useful for passing improvements back and forth in a thread like this, but it discourages adding new animations because modifying the sheet breaks compatibility with existing assets.
We could also use the lower body from the "run" animation for this, combined with arms as Basto and BenCreating have proposed; TheraHedwig's run animation has the torso tilted diagonally forward, and the legs slowed down could be kinda kicking for swimming. That way it would work for underwater levels, or with a semitransparent overlay for swimming at the surface.
If we tilt the swim forward then we probably also need a non-tilted Idle animation.
At least for the "push", this could also borrow from the "run" animation---maybe the torso and lower body are the same and the arms are just held out in front of the character, pushing. Not sure about pulling.
Pulling would need a new backwards tilted torso. Probably not tilted as far, so the arms don't have to be really long.
If I have time, I'll make a quick proof-of-concept for these.
I'm having a hard time understanding Daneeklu's/BenCreating's animation here... Can you show an example of how it would be used?
A nod animation could be done with a head from the death animation, and the tilted head from the run animation. Sadly, this wouldn't give us a "look up" frame.
Looks like you're just missing the run animation. Also, the left-facing bow and thrust animations have the wrong head.
All the animation fixes have been to the female sheet so far. ElizaWy fixed the jawline in the thrust. Pvieger corrected issues with frame 2 of both the thrust and bow animations, and frame 12 of the bow animation. I posted a sheet very early in this thread that included all of their changes.
You may not want to do too much work on the existing non-standard animations until we've had a chance to clean them all up. No one is using them, so this is the best time to make larger modifications (like making frames duplicates of existing animations) that would break compatibility later.
Speaking of cleaning up the animations, I've made some changes to the grab. I've removed several errors, swapped the side-view torso so it matches the other animations, and changed the side-view arm in frame 1 and 3 to match one of the arm positions in the walk animation.
I don't know how you define shape, but I know that in sidewalking the second (not black) torso is one pixel shorter in height than the first. the fourth and sixth (this one is marked as duplicate, but isn't one) one have definitely different shapes
I think I made this a year or two ago, but if I remember correctly, I defined something as the same shape if it could use the same clothing asset. Texture/shading doesn't matter as much in that case, since the clothing is often just duplicated without taking it into account.
And you're right, those frames are incorrectly marked as duplicates.
I went over Bluecarrot's list of animations, tried to figure out which ones could be combined, and added a few more. I've included the existing set of animations in the list because I have some thoughts on them. I've broken them down into a few categories.
Locomotion:
Carry
Probably two-handed. This could be in front of the character, or above the head. If it is in front it could double as a push for light objects.
Climb
Are there any LPC ladders that this would need to match?
Crouch
If this gets made, a lot of other animations might have a crouched variant as well. I would limit any crouched animations to 3 or fewer frames.
Jump
Push/Pull
I think these should be for heavy objects. The character really needs to lean into/away from the object to make this feel right. Like pushing a block in a Zelda game.
Run
Swim
I attached a concept for this, using only frames from the cast, and one frame from the grab by Daneeklu. We should probably do something with the legs too, so it can be used for underwater levels.
Walk
Melee Combat:
Bite
Not a super important one, but it would be nice for vampires.
Charge
Running, but with the thrust arm position.
Chop
Two-handed downward swing. The size of the head makes this difficult, so it probably needs to start above one shoulder and descend at an angle. Could possibly double for casting a fishing pole.
Guard/block
This should work with and without a weapon. It should also work with weapons of any size.
Hurt/impact
The first few frames of this should be the guard/block animation. Otherwise, we would need a second version of this for blocking.
Kick
I imagine a chest/head height kick. If the pull animation is leaning back, we could use the same torso.
Lunge/Stab (one handed thrust)
Parry
Does this need to be seperate from the guard/block?
Punch
We can likely just use the lunge/stab, or the slash if we use Eliza's.
Slash
We should consider using Eliza's animation (probably simplified) in addition to the original. It can be used for a lot more combat animations.
Thrust
Two-handed swing
Do we need/want a horizontal two-handed swing, or could this be combined with the chop?
Ranged Combat:
Shoot (bow)
It would be nice if we could reduce the number of frames.
Shoot, one-handed (pistol)
Could possibly use frames from a one-handed thrust/stab.
Shoot, two-handed (rifle)
Possibly use the thrust arm position for carrying, and move it to the bow position for firing.
Throw
Combine with slash if we use Eliza's.
Other:
Cast
Craft/Interact/Work
If the hand motion is kept minimal enough, this could be used for typing on a keyboard.
Die
I would really like to see this extended to the other three directions. It could share frames with a crouch animation.
Give/present/hand object to
Grabbing one or two frames from another animation (the original slash or Daneeklu's grab) is probably sufficient for this.
Grab
Daneeklu's grab needs some cleanup to be useable. There are some missing pixels, and the head and torso do some weird things. It could possibly use frames from the thrust for the side view.
Handshake
I don't think we need a dedicated animation for this.
Sit
This needs to work well with the furniture.
Sleep
Standing with eyes closed works for the front view, but a few modifications could make it a lot better. It wouldn't hurt to have this for the other angles either. Like sitting, this needs to work with the furniture.
Bluecarrot, I think we agree, but I haven't been expressing myself very well. I only see value in completely re-doing an animation when we can add functionality.
For something like the walk cycle, I wouldn't want to see any modifications that change the outline. It would break compatibility with old assets, without adding a lot of value. Small changes to the shading, maybe, but nothing beyond that.
I would like to see them go in the opposite direction---fewer frames (the walkcycle being the most egregious example), minimal extranous motion, frames re-used where possible, etc., to make it as easy to contribute as possible.
I think I agree. Eliza's animations are good (and I'm excited for their release), but if we can get the automation tools in place then simpler animations will be better for the community. As Eliza pointed out, the precision needed for the current animations makes flaws more visible, but if we duplicate frames automatically it won't be as much of an issue.
Speaking of automation, I'd really like to see tools with a UI. The shell scripts we have are great, but in my experience, many artists won't use anything without a visual interface.
Baŝto, I don't know if it's helpful, but I just found a sheet I'd drawn awhile back when I was thinking about automation. I was analyzing the sprites to see how many torso shapes needed to be drawn, but I was also looking for duplicate frames. Each color is a torso shape, silhouettes are duplicated frames (some need to be mirrored), outlines are either unique torso shapes or frames I hadn't finished analyzing. Frames inside a white box probably should be duplicates, but aren't.
That's pretty close to what I imagined for a swim animation. I'm going to look over that list of animations and come back with some other thoughts later.
Thanks, blancaster45. The Attribution Notice on this page is all you need to put in your credits.
I'd love to, but I won't have time for awhile. Making an LPC bear is pretty high on my personal list, though.
I've replied to your forum thread with a few other animals you might be able to use.
You've already found my boar, but here's a few others you might be able to use.
Redshrike made a rabbit you could definitely use, and you might be able to get a quail or partridge out of bluecarrot16's birds.
There's also a goat and a ram that could work, especially near mountains.
There are several you can safely replace now:
And some that can be replaced if you make some easily automated adjustments to the clothing:
I made no edits to the Zombie base, so the generator should already have the most recent version of that.
The remaining bodies break compatability too much to work with existing assets, or are likely to have compatability breaking updates in the future.
Other than position shifts, I think the only issues would be with the Female and Teen bases. Pants would not be compatible on the Thrust and Shoot animations, and shirts would need to be fixed on 1 or 2 frames where the arm position is different.
I don't know about the recolors, but I can help with the others.
Human Female Shoot/Thrust
by Matthew Krohn (makrohn) https://opengameart.org/content/lpc-ladies
Skeleton Shoot
by Johannes Sjölund (wulax) https://opengameart.org/content/lpc-medieval-fantasy-character-sprites
Skeleton Thrust
submitted by Rhimlock, based on work by Johannes Sjölund (wulax). Rhimlock was unclear how much they contributed, but said there was no need to credit them. https://opengameart.org/content/lpc-skeleton
Wolfmen
Matthew Krohn (makrohn) is credited because of the female thrust/shoot animations.
William.Thompsonj is credited for commissioning/contributing the wolf I took the head from. https://opengameart.org/content/lpc-wolf-animation
You should also credit castelonia for commissioning the Wolfmen.
Thanks Eliza, I enjoyed working on these with you.
Evert, one other difference to note between these and Durrani's original is that we removed a slight head tilt in the side-view frames, and I think we also adjusted the eye position in the front-view to match the death/hurt animation.
I think it would be useful to have a version of the shell tools with a graphical interface. Even if it is literally just a "Load Image" button. That way, someone who doesn't want to use the command-line can still draw over a template and replicate their head/hair/whatever to a full sheet easily.
On a related topic, I'd like to see the tools have more support for exporting separate animations, instead of having everything in a single image. Having everything in a single spritesheet is useful for passing improvements back and forth in a thread like this, but it discourages adding new animations because modifying the sheet breaks compatibility with existing assets.
If we tilt the swim forward then we probably also need a non-tilted Idle animation.
Pulling would need a new backwards tilted torso. Probably not tilted as far, so the arms don't have to be really long.
If I have time, I'll make a quick proof-of-concept for these.
Daneeklu never made an example, but I assume it would be used like this: https://i.imgur.com/97yDgHj.gif
A nod animation could be done with a head from the death animation, and the tilted head from the run animation. Sadly, this wouldn't give us a "look up" frame.
Looks like you're just missing the run animation. Also, the left-facing bow and thrust animations have the wrong head.
All the animation fixes have been to the female sheet so far. ElizaWy fixed the jawline in the thrust. Pvieger corrected issues with frame 2 of both the thrust and bow animations, and frame 12 of the bow animation. I posted a sheet very early in this thread that included all of their changes.
You may not want to do too much work on the existing non-standard animations until we've had a chance to clean them all up. No one is using them, so this is the best time to make larger modifications (like making frames duplicates of existing animations) that would break compatibility later.
Speaking of cleaning up the animations, I've made some changes to the grab. I've removed several errors, swapped the side-view torso so it matches the other animations, and changed the side-view arm in frame 1 and 3 to match one of the arm positions in the walk animation.
I think I made this a year or two ago, but if I remember correctly, I defined something as the same shape if it could use the same clothing asset. Texture/shading doesn't matter as much in that case, since the clothing is often just duplicated without taking it into account.
And you're right, those frames are incorrectly marked as duplicates.
I went over Bluecarrot's list of animations, tried to figure out which ones could be combined, and added a few more. I've included the existing set of animations in the list because I have some thoughts on them. I've broken them down into a few categories.
Locomotion:
Melee Combat:
Ranged Combat:
Other:
Bluecarrot, I think we agree, but I haven't been expressing myself very well. I only see value in completely re-doing an animation when we can add functionality.
For something like the walk cycle, I wouldn't want to see any modifications that change the outline. It would break compatibility with old assets, without adding a lot of value. Small changes to the shading, maybe, but nothing beyond that.
I think I agree. Eliza's animations are good (and I'm excited for their release), but if we can get the automation tools in place then simpler animations will be better for the community. As Eliza pointed out, the precision needed for the current animations makes flaws more visible, but if we duplicate frames automatically it won't be as much of an issue.
Speaking of automation, I'd really like to see tools with a UI. The shell scripts we have are great, but in my experience, many artists won't use anything without a visual interface.
Baŝto, I don't know if it's helpful, but I just found a sheet I'd drawn awhile back when I was thinking about automation. I was analyzing the sprites to see how many torso shapes needed to be drawn, but I was also looking for duplicate frames. Each color is a torso shape, silhouettes are duplicated frames (some need to be mirrored), outlines are either unique torso shapes or frames I hadn't finished analyzing. Frames inside a white box probably should be duplicates, but aren't.
I used the sleeveless shirt as a mask to define the torso area.
That's pretty close to what I imagined for a swim animation. I'm going to look over that list of animations and come back with some other thoughts later.
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