Sprite generator

[jdforce]

Hi Fragmo,
I just installed fragmotion 0.9.1, thanks for the upgrade.
There is a note I have about the sprite creator, because most apps which are likely to use sprites need the sprite sheet filled with same-sized tiles.
Fragmotion generates a one-after-the-other frame sheet, with a xml description but the positioning of each frame does not fall into a tiled matrix. At this time it is not very useful for most game engines,  like game maker.
Probably with darkbasic and some other the animated sprite can be read by using the xml description but is not as straightforward as the same-sized tile approach.
Another alternative is the generation of single bitmap per animation frame, which can be easily converted into animated sprite by various tools. GameMaker also generate animated sprites from multiple bitmaps.

I suggest to generate same size tiled frames, and have an option for (same sized) single frame multiple bitmaps in order for Fragmotion to be really used (and useful) as sprite generator from animations.

Another really useful feature for a sprite generator, would be just to take the 3d camera position and rotation as render view for the sprite set. Say, if I want to generate a sprite from some specific viewpoint, just place the 3d camera and render the sprite. That would take care of FOV, distance, whatever. Just add a "production frame" to guide on what will be present on the sprite set.


Julio

[jdforce]

This probably is a bug on the sprite generator (0.9.1).  I rendered the different types of sprite (grid, single row, single column and multiple file) . The single row option actually generates a strange split-in-half and longitudinally inverted sprite strip.
On the other modes, the sprite is correct, but with the previously mentioned uneven sized image space.

I attached here a jpg of the sprites for debugging purposes only. Since it is an ongoing project please do not use it for any other purpose.

Another small problem is the camera "yon". If I set the scale slider to a value of 1.00 or less, the character gradually dissapear behind some threshold (yon). For sprite games probably even that size is too big, so it is valid to have it as small as possible. Of course the resulting image(s) can be batch processed with irfanview or even with photoshop, but the less manipulation done with the sprites, the less noise it will have.

[fragmo]

I'm working on adding some more layout options.   The problem saving to a single row seems to happen when the resulting image is greater than 1024 pixels in width,  and also happens in the grid if it exceeds this width.  I'm still investigating this though.  The 'yon' problem can be worked around by changing the NearClip and FarClip values in the Camera/Settings tool.  If you want a really small image something like 2000 for near and 100000 for far should work.  The character will probably disappear in the 3d view though so when you're done with the sprites just click the Invoke button on CameraSettings::UpdateScale to reset the clip planes.

[jdforce]

Oki Doki.
The grid option would be fine for me if the tiles are same size, don't mind the empty space.

Thx,

Jd

[Slenkar]

hi i would like the option of laying out the anim frames by ANGLE
they are layed out by animframe at the moment.

[fragmo]

Alright, I'll try to work that into the next release

[Slenkar]

thanks, also it would be useful to choose the colour of the shadow, my game engine only allows black as the mask color, so I cant see the shadows.
thanks for this great addition to fragmotion

also I just thought, you could do an outline
(duplicate the character mesh, increase its size a little,color it black(or a choice of colours), and reverse the triangles)
to make the images look more cartoony

[fragmo]

I'll add those to the todo list

thanks,
dave

[Slenkar]

hi I tried to make some sprites from a static object but it didnt appear in the 'create sprites'window
is it possible to create sprites from an un-animated mesh?

[fragmo]

It should work,  have you tried adjusting the scale or overhead angle?

[Slenkar]

I tried adjusting the scale but I just got a blank screen

[fragmo]

In the Model pane, could you select the Mesh object and tell me the radius of the mesh.  There was a problem in a previous version where very small models would be completely clipped by the far z clip plane when creating sprites.

[Slenkar]

the radius is 61, pretty big

[fragmo]

Is the model positioned near the origin?

[Slenkar]

yes