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Sprite Animator - Thrust Animation

Started by thechancellor, July 24, 2013, 03:28:57 pm

thechancellor

I noticed that in a previous thread, lirmont has posted some screens of sprites being animated with a weapon in their hand. This is something I've been looking for for quite some time. I was wondering if it was possible to create a similar feature where the spear animation is shown, along with choosing the weapon that the sprite is holding in the preview.

Basically, is there any way to create custom named animation sets?
Don't really have anything witty or interesting to put here...

lirmont

By all means, you can create your own named sets. That feature is located in the edit format screen (right-click in the named sets list view area):



And then you have to add a frame call that calls the named attachment point you want (I chose Weapon.1, but it really ought to be like Long-Weapon.1) and pick an actual image to use:



10 minutes tops for the whole process.

thechancellor

Excellent information. I was exploring the program but didn't realize I would have to call the frame. That's where I got lost.

Extremely flexible program, by the way. Thank you so much. This should be posted in the sprites section too, because I had been asking for something like this and nobody knew that this program was capable of what I wanted to do with sprite work.

Another question... Is there any way to expand the frame size that each sprite is on? I'd like to prevent the weapons being cut short when I export the gif.
Don't really have anything witty or interesting to put here...

lirmont

On the edit format screen, there are these two settings: "Frame Width" and "Frame Height". Those are the ones you want to increase. However, you will also probably have to tell the program that it needs to slide all the frames to the right and down by how much you change those. For example, if you increase the width from 48 to 60, you'd probably have to tell the program to slide all the composite frames right by 12 pixels. You do that by right-clicking in the composite frames list view area and selecting the "Slide Range of Composite Frames" option. Position coordinates (X, Y) are from the upper-left corner (positive X is right, positive Y is down). Do that, then save the format, and then go export your stuff.

thechancellor

Gotcha.

Sorry to bombard you with questions, but I'm gonna be playing with this program all night. I'd just like a foundation of information laid before I take the plunge.

The frames and the order they're in... Do they follow the same order as ShiShi? I'm wondering because a lot of the frames look almost identical but with subtle differences that can only be detected when you're animating them. I'd like to make sure that when I make a new frame set, I have the correct order of frames to make an animation identical to what's shown in-game.
Don't really have anything witty or interesting to put here...

lirmont

They were copied out of that program verbatim. I altered the program's code to spit out the XML my program would need for the FFT formats that Shishi could read (i.e. everything except monsters). The bottom half doesn't actually exist in Shishi. Those are just mirrored versions of the two directional poses provided by the game's spritesheets. And, of course, there is no concept of named sets or named attachment points in that program, and the ones I added are purely of my own doing with no respect to what the actual game does. I also cannot guarantee that using my program's paint-to-texture feature to edit your sprite in-program will result in an immediately usable image in Shishi. My program does not respect palettes, because the way that Shishi/FFT uses palettes is completely specific, whereas my program is completely general. Also, the program comes with a help file that includes copious amounts of pictures if you'd like to discover even more features that you might need at some point. It is available in the "About" menu. Thanks.

thechancellor

Wonderful.

Looks like the ShiShi is one frame behind based on the starting frame count. This is excellent information lirmont. Thanks for your time. I've also tried to look at the help document initially before posting, but I get an error saying "Navigation to the webpage was cancelled".

Don't really have anything witty or interesting to put here...

lirmont

Would you mind telling me what operating system you're running on? I'd like to fix that problem if I could. Here's a static copy of the help: Sprite Animator Documentation.

thechancellor

I'm on Windows 7. I've checked both the stand-alone version and the installer version. Same issue.
Don't really have anything witty or interesting to put here...

lirmont

Okay, I think I see the issue. It deals with the fact that Windows blocks downloaded content from doing certain things. For instance, when I download that file from the link, I get the same error message. I have to tell Windows to unblock it forever (because it links to itself) for it to work. If you don't mind, check to see if the executable (SpriteAnimator.exe) and the documentation (Documentation.chm) is currently blocked by right-clicking the EXE and the CHM, selecting "Properties" (or whatever Win7 does), and checking for a button that says "Unblock" ("This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer.") The executable needs to be unblocked if you want to use the color picker's documentation, as it's an involved form.

Thanks.

thechancellor

July 24, 2013, 10:20:29 pm #10 Last Edit: July 25, 2013, 10:31:30 pm by thechancellor
Sorry for the late response. Had something to take care of. Everything works after following your instructions.

EDIT: So far, I have animations for Unarmed {Punch}, Spear {Thrust}, and Talk. Just in case anyone stumbled on this thread and wants the format file to save themselves some time.
Don't really have anything witty or interesting to put here...