The Mana World Forums

this should make i easier to work with...should have all walking and attack frames ...i think all it needs is death frame and stray pixel clean up ...im not sure how i should put lighting in or if i should leave it for the dev,s to do ...


-------------skipy

Oh I also realized, it needs a death frame or maybe a death sequence if multiple frames for death are allowed.

For now I will use the empty frame for the death...

skipy: keep lighting separate. Please provide a complete sheet for it, though.

nmaligec: Multiple frames are allowed. Some kind of animation is preferred. The butterfly uses one frame in a falling animation.

clean up it done !!
lighting is done!!

and now just needs death frame

----skipy

I finally figured out how to test it on a local server, thanks to a lot of help on irc. I still have to get the lightning done, I just have to figure out what entries need to be modified to add a monster to the database. I was told the eA server has to be done separate, any doc links or pointers on this would be much appreciated.

A few things I noticed right away:

1. The down walk animation is jittery with only 2 frames. its mirrors of a 'slightly off center step' or something where its lower body is shifted to the side. Switching between the two is much too harsh, it needs a neutral standing straight frame, like the up walk with 3 frames. This would also give a nice standing down frame, for now I took the first frame of the down attack animation.

2. The walk right sequence of frames are misaligned, both vertically and horizontally I think. This causes a jittery walk. The left walk is fine. The up attack is misaligned, like above. The sequence jitters. Similarly the left attack is also misaligned.

I can easily take care of simple aligning if its too much of a chore. The only problem is keeping synchronized.

Lastly, skipy do you have a your own local test server to check the animations? If so, I can send you the xml files.

One thing I was thinking about was to add a glow to its eyes and maybe even inside its hood. Now that I know how the animation script and layering works, I think it can be done using the lightning sprite sheet. I figure it should go out when it attacks, so there would be no conflict in frames used for the zap attack and all other actions.

I thought I would mention it now, since that might be able to be incorporated into its death sequence to make it more spectacular. Either as part of the reaper sheet or lightning.

The reason to keep it separate: maybe can add a script to change the colour of the lightning and its glow to a deep red after it gets to 1/4 health. Traditionally a lot of bosses kick it up a notch when they are near death! Maybe doing more damage too.

Just my thoughts.

skipy wrote:i have no clue how to get a xcf posted on here

When saving it in GIMP, save it as .xcf.gz. This automatically compresses it nicely and .gz is allowed as an attachment.

nmaligec wrote:I finally figured out how to test it on a local server, thanks to a lot of help on irc. I still have to get the lightning done, I just have to figure out what entries need to be modified to add a monster to the database. I was told the eA server has to be done separate, any doc links or pointers on this would be much appreciated.

A few things I noticed right away:

1. The down walk animation is jittery with only 2 frames. its mirrors of a 'slightly off center step' or something where its lower body is shifted to the side. Switching between the two is much too harsh, it needs a neutral standing straight frame, like the up walk with 3 frames. This would also give a nice standing down frame, for now I took the first frame of the down attack animation.

2. The walk right sequence of frames are misaligned, both vertically and horizontally I think. This causes a jittery walk. The left walk is fine. The up attack is misaligned, like above. The sequence jitters. Similarly the left attack is also misaligned.

I can easily take care of simple aligning if its too much of a chore. The only problem is keeping synchronized.

Lastly, skipy do you have a your own local test server to check the animations? If so, I can send you the xml files.

(1)can be fixed..
(2)if you want to align it up,feel free... that would save me a big head-pain and give me time to do the death frames done..
(lastly) i do have my own local test server to check stuff ,but only use it for item test and barely know how to use it at all...

Rotonen wrote:

skipy wrote:i have no clue how to get a xcf posted on here

When saving it in GIMP, save it as .xcf.gz. This automatically compresses it nicely and .gz is allowed as an attachment.

here is the xcf finely

------------------skipy

ok I realigned the problem frames, everything looks great, the down walk still a bit rough though. Remember to use this file when adding the death frames.

About the death sequence, should it maybe be only facing forward? Bosses usually have an extravagant death BUT usually more like a cut scene (ie 1 direction)

Also I noticed a few almost transparent garbage pixels lying about. Are you not using the hard edge on the eraser? If you dont select hard edge in the toolbox eraser options, you will get a soft edge that only partially deletes pixels near the edge.

Skipy,

About testing it in your client, I zipped all the required files. I kept the file structure so you can just unzip it to the directory containing tmwdata.

If will overwrite monsters.xml. This is to replace the maggot animation with the reaper's. To test just go somewhere with maggots.

The other two files are the png and the xml for the reaper animation.

Hi,

Now it's up to Wombat.

Thanks a lot for the work done Skipy.
And thanks a lot for the config work done nmaligec.



Best regards.

lots of thanks for the config work nmaligec.
i will test the reaper tonight after RL work..and get started on the death..
""About the death sequence, should it maybe be only facing forward? Bosses usually have an extravagant death BUT usually more like a cut scene (ie 1 direction)""--- i agree ..maybe a sucked in to a crack in floor or a shaft of light from the sky over comes him...or....both if i can work it out..

thanks for the support all who have given interest and time..

-----------------skipy

i started its dieing frames ...im not sure i like them..

----------skipy

looks great, though would it be possible for like only the bones to explode and disappear, leaving the cape to crumple/float to the ground?

Also I got an updated version of the config files that added in the lightning attack and a shadow. The first thing I noticed was a layering problem, where the player is above the lightning attack if the reaper is attacking down at him. Not much can be done about this for now, I will see if there is anything I can do. One other thing about the lightning, it doesn't reach the player or goes past the player, because of the fixed length.

One small detail became noticeable when I added the shadow. For all the frames with the reaper's back, the cape is a bit shorter than side or front view. The rest are about 77 pixels from top to bottom, the ones from the back are only about 67 pixels.

Well the best way to notice what I mean is to see it all in the client. I zipped all the files again. Just copy them stright to your tmwdata folder and overite the originals. Then go find a maggot to fight, its animations will be replaced with the reaper's.