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[TUTORIAL] Getting started with Sprite Animator

Started by Choto, September 09, 2012, 10:16:15 am

Choto

September 09, 2012, 10:16:15 am Last Edit: September 17, 2012, 05:11:52 pm by Choto
To Start, it should be mentioned that effects made with Sprite Animator cannot be imported into a FFT Iso. However, the program is still very useful for creating any kind of animation - especially monster animations. The program also has FFT Type 1, Type 2, Mon, Arute, Cyoko, and Kanzen formats built in (I think).

This will be a tutorial about learning the basics of how the Sprite Animator works. It can be quirky as it's still a work in progress, but once you know what to do it's off to the races. One thing to note as you work the the animator, if something appears with an extremely small window, just resize it to view everything.

Step 1: Create your Effect-Sheet

To begin, you must have all frames and graphics on one Effect-Sheet. It seems to take pretty large files, so I usually start with a 500x500 pixel sheet so that you can put whatever you want in the sheet. Here's an example:



Step 2: Begin new format

Once Sprite Animator is open, go to File-->Formats-->Begin new format.


Here is a description of each Line:

File Type - The Sprite Animator loads a format by reading the name of the effects-sheet you open. This line assigns an extension that will define your animation. Ex: File name " Name.Meteor.bmp"

File Description - This is what will appear in the dropdown menu when you go to View-->Available Formats... For simplicity I usually name them the same name. If this causes your animator to crash, download the latest version.

Format Status - Self explanatory. I usually set it to new and forget it, but It can be useful for organization.

Frame Width/Height - These define how big the scene will be for the animation.

Rows/Columns - These define how many frames will be loaded into the main screen. They are arranged in rows and columns so that's pretty self-explanatory.

Start/End Frame - This sets the default length of the animation. This can be changed pretty easily on the main screen as well.

Target MS - This is the length of your animation in milliseconds(?). Less makes it go faster and more makes it go slower.

On Load, Zoom - Upon opening the effects-sheet, this will change the zoom by the shown amount. This is good for larger scenes as it will zoom out for you to view things easier. 1.00 is normal size, .50 is half-size, 2.00 is twice size.

Source Image - Click Browse and load your effects sheet. This defines where we will cut our frames from.

Use No Image Sampling - Just uncheck this.

So fill all that out. Now there are 5 sections of display-area. Clicking on the headliner will collapse the viewable area. Basically this is where you define everything that you're gonna use when you make your animation frames. To start, lets cut our frames out of our effects-sheet. Right-Click in the viewable area under "Frames---------------". Click Add new frame.


Click and drag the box over what you want to cut out. The numbers will fill in the fields on the left. Give it an ID number and click Save. Note: You cannot put anything but a number as an ID.


Repeat until you have all of your frames cut out.

Click Save on the begin new format screen.

Go to File-->Load Image... Navigate to your effects-sheet and you can edit the name in this window. If the sprite animator simply loads the effects sheet into the main window, the file is not named correctly. If you need to, reference what it should be in the View-->Available Fomats dropdown menu.



If the Sprite animator gets really small, resize it. Look for the "Display" headliner on the left. Under that headliner should be a box called "Keep aspect Ratio on Resize". Make sure that's unchecked.


Now we can start editing our animation. In the main window, navigate the frame marker to the first frame. Right-click it and select "Edit Selected Frame".


Resize the window that pops up so that you can see the whole Big white square. If you right-click you will see a list of things you can do to edit the picture. For now, just go to add new frame and select the ID number of the frame you want. It should appear in the upper left corner of the white square. If it's above the white square, its bugged out and you have to start over.


Now with the frame on the page, you can press "S" and move the mouse around to change the scale. You can press "R" and move the mouse around to rotate the frame. You can move the frame by clicking and dragging it. Once your finished adding/editing the frames you want, right click and select "Update Frame".

With the frame selected you can right click and go to Change Selected Blending. There is a list of blending options to choose from. Try them in different effects to understand what they do a bit better, as they all are very useful at different things. Blending things well can help you achieve the effect that you desire a bit better, so try to play with them.

X out the window and you'll see the changes reflected in the Main window. Navigate the frame marker to the next frame, right-click and select "Use previous frame". This will make a duplicate of the previous frame so that you don't have to start from scratch again. Thanks Lirm!

To Add Color/Opacity:

With your format/Image loaded, go to File-->formats-->Edit Loaded Format. In the Display area on the bottom, right click in the area under "Available Colors and Guides" (left side is colors, right side is guides). Select add new color and a window will pop up. Create your color and opacity and save. Then right click the area under "Color and Motion Tweens" and add new tween. Name it the same name as your color. Right Click under Color Name and add entry. Name it the same name as your color.



Save in the edit format window and X it out.

Now, when you're editing an animation frame, select the object you want to color and right click. Mouse over Change Selected Tween, and select the color.


That's pretty much the basic info to get started. Once you feel comfortable with how to do what you want, things get much faster and easier... and a lot more fun. You may experience some crashes, but try to document exactly what's causing it to crash if you can so that it can be fixed or avoided. Hope this helped!