Wanted - animated sprites

[codefire]

Hi,

I'm writing a simple Galaxian style shooter. In fact I've written a working game and am now working on Engine v 2.0. However, my progress is really hampered by lack of availability of good 2D animated sprites, as I can't test properly.

I need 32x32, animated characters. Ideally they'd be 16/24-bit and have several animation sequences per character, but would settle for a single animation sequence per character. I don't mind paying if the sprites are of good quality.

There have been some posts before about spritesets and I've checked them out but haven't found anything suitable.

At the moment I'm using the graphics out of the Waponez example provided with PB.

Has anyone written a Galaxian/Phoenix style clone out there who'd be willing to share their graphics?

Cheers,
Codefire

[Kaeru Gaman]

have a look at POV-Ray
(Freeware, GPL)

with only a few scripting comand you can create pictures of objects.
you don't need to create huge meshes in a modeller,
you just wirte some script to combine simple shapes.

this is an example I did two years ago to illustrate my animation-includes:


all frames, also rotations for flight-directions, are done with this code:
(took less than an hour to write)

Code: Select all

camera { location <0,0,-1000> up y right x angle 22 look_at < 0,0,0> }

light_source { <-1000,2000,-4000> color rgb 1 }

#declare Move = clock;

//*************************************

#declare Porz =
    pigment {
        checker
        rgb <1,0,0>
        rgb <1,1,1>
        scale 33
    }

//*************************************

#macro Ring ( Scalar )
    #declare Fact  = (Scalar+Move); 
    #declare Trans = Fact*20;
    #declare Subt  = Fact/10;
    torus { 20,5 rotate 90*z translate (100+Trans)*x
        no_shadow
        texture {
            pigment {
                agate
                color_map {
                    [0.00      rgbf <0.00,0.00,0.00,1.00>]
                    [Subt+0.15 rgbf <0.00,0.00,0.00,1.00>]
                    [Subt+0.28 rgbf <1.00,1.00,0.00,0.60>]
                    [1.00      rgbf <0.00,1.00,0.00,0.40>]
                }
            }
            finish { ambient 1.5 }
        }
    }
#end

//*************************************

#declare Pod =
    union {
        difference {
            sphere { 0, 16 scale <2,1,1> }
            box { <0,-20,-20><40,20,20> }
        }
        sphere { 0, 16 pigment { rgb <0.2,0.3,0.5> } } 
    }

#declare Tail =
    union {
        difference {
            cylinder { <160,0,-4><160,0,4>, 120 }
            cylinder { <210,0,-9><210,0,9>, 124 }
        }
        object { Pod translate < 164, 110,0> }
        object { Pod translate < 164,-110,0> }
    }

#declare Ship =
    union {
        sphere { 0, 32 scale <2,1,1> translate -64*x }
        cylinder { -64*x, 64*x, 32 }
        sphere { 0, 48 translate -33*x }
        difference {
            sphere { 0, 32 scale <2,1,1> translate  64*x }
            box { <95,-48,-48> <230,48,48> }
        }
        object { Tail }
        object { Tail rotate 90*x }
        torus { 22,6 rotate 90*z translate  99*x pigment { rgb <0.2,0.3,0.5> } }
        pigment { Porz }
    } 

#declare Steam =
    union {
        #declare i=0;
        #while(i<7)
            Ring (i)
            #declare i=i+1;
        #end
    }

//*************************************

union {
    object { Ship rotate  180*Move*x }
    object { Steam }
    translate -60*x
    rotate -315*z
}

it's everything in it. you need no external textures, material or anything.
the only Data added by the GUI is the Output-Format and the Output-Folder.

give POV a try.

[codefire]

have a look at POV-Ray
(Freeware, GPL)

with only a few scripting comand you can create pictures of objects.
you don't need to create huge meshes in a modeller,
you just wirte some script to combine simple shapes.

That's great. Thanks. If I get time I'll give it a try. At the moment I'm up to my eyes in PB code

Thanks very much for the help though. I think I can probably rotate that ship around and use it as one of the sprites.

Cheers,
Codefire

[Kaeru Gaman]

> I think I can probably rotate that ship around and use it as one of the sprites.

my rocket?
I have it ready rotated in 8 directions...
as I said, it was part of my AnimationInclude-Demo..

it was rotated as a model and schrinked afterwards, much higher qual that it would have if you rotate the shrinked version...

do you prefer a FrameTable, or would you rather like single-frame bitmaps?

let me have a look, I will provide it for you as soon I find it again...

PS:
found it...
8 Framesets 320x256x24, 20 frames on each..

I have an unshrinked version left, too.
8 directions, each 20 frames, each 512x512x24...
want it? ..or is it an overkill...

[codefire]

> I think I can probably rotate that ship around and use it as one of the sprites.

my rocket?
I have it ready rotated in 8 directions...
as I said, it was part of my AnimationInclude-Demo..

do you prefer a FrameTable, or would you rather like single-frame bitmaps?

Oh...no I meant I can rotate it to the vertical position. I'm doing a vertical shooter, so I want the rocket ship to appear to hover.

I prefer single frame bitmaps (.BMP) as otherwise I need to either chop the sheet up or write more code to pull out the sprites. Sorry to be a pain...thanks a lot!

[Kaeru Gaman]

> Sorry to be a pain...thanks a lot!

you're welcome... feels good somebody is interested in my old stuff..

I just uploaded the complete archive for you...
http://uploaded.to/?id=0hdpmv

note: the PB codes are ver 3.9x, I didn't update them, yet...
but you asked for the rocket not for the procedures, so I didn't bother for now...

> Oh...no I meant I can rotate it to the vertical position. I'm doing a vertical shooter, so I want the rocket ship to appear to hover.

oh.. so you want to make the rocket the Hero's ship?
what an honor for such an old, cheap model...

------------------------------------------------
PS:
download-counter tells me it was already downloaded twice...

of course you all can download it and use it for free, or I wouldn't have uploaded it posted the link...

just some feedback would be interesting for me....

[codefire]

OK I just downloaded. There were 7 downloads at that point.

> Sorry to be a pain...thanks a lot!

you're welcome... feels good somebody is interested in my old stuff..

It's very useful stuff. Appreciate you sharing the infos.

I think I'm going to turn the rocket upside down and have it coming down the screen as a bomb Should look pretty cool

Once I get the sprites into a decent demo I'll upload.

Thanks a million.

[Kaeru Gaman]

> I think I'm going to turn the rocket upside down and have it coming down the screen as a bomb

no need to do it manually....

rocket7xx.bmp are 20 frames upside down...
in the package are all frames, in the "rocket" folder in 512², in the "rocketsml" folder in 64².
better use the 512² to shrink it to 32² or 24², looks better...
I would use the BatchConvorsion function of IrfanView for that....

I think using it as a bomb is a appropriate use for that simple model..

[Brice Manuel]

*waves hand* I downloaded it. Its a nice lil' rocket.

[Kaeru Gaman]

*waves back* thanks for telling. have fun with it.

[codefire]

> I think I'm going to turn the rocket upside down and have it coming down the screen as a bomb

no need to do it manually....
..snip..

I think using it as a bomb is a appropriate use for that simple model..

Ah yes, I saw that already - that was what gave me the idea for a bomb

Thanks again,

Codefire

[whertz]

Codefire,

You should really draw your own graphics, it's much more satisfying. You don't even have to be artistic or anything, 32x32 bitmaps are small. Get a good pixel drawing application such as Pro Motion http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/ it is based on Deluxe Paint on the Amiga, it's not free though but it is an excellent program. Or if you are an Amiga fan, get WinUAE, and Deluxe Paint 5! You can't beat these programs for drawing 2D graphics.

I too am making a Galaxians type game, and all of the sprites are 32x32 in size. I tried to make the graphics look as 'retro' as possible, I use 15 colours per sprite: three 5-colour gradients, a grey gradient for the ship body, a blue for the ships window and another gradient for other decorations on the ship. Using this system is easy and the results look good.

[Amiga5k]

In addition to POVRay, I recommend Blender ( www.blender.org ) for free 3D software (a bit of a learning curve there, but quite powerful and well worth learning) or 'Gale Graphics' ( http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/ ) for 2D work, also free.

If you're working in 2D and you want high quality rotations, try to create the graphics at 2 to 4 times the resolution you will be using in the final output and resize after rotation. If using 3D, just make sure your quality settings are appropriate and/or use 'oversampling' (sub-pixel rendering).

Good luck!
Russell

[Kaeru Gaman]

You should really draw your own graphics

not everybody can do this that easy. some just don't have a hand for it.
another mate of mine is a exellent programmer but he just has no hand for grafix.
for me and you, it may be that easy like it sounds in your posting... for others it may not.

I recommend Blender ( www.blender.org ) for free 3D software (a bit of a learning curve there, but quite powerful and well worth learning)

Blender is a really poverful tool, no doubt, but it has a modeller.

my idea is, that people without a hand for creating graphics in an editor/modeller
may sometimes better cope with writing code to create grafics.

that's why I recommend POVRay that often. some people tend to forget it because it's a scripting language.
...btw.. MoRay meanwhile is avaliable for free, so POVRay has a modeller now if you need one...

[Amiga5k]

Hmm... For a person who's having trouble using a 2D or 3D graphics program to create their own graphics, I'm not sure how writing script code would be easier for them, although I suppose it's nice to have that option...

Blender also supports a kind of scripting language, python, which goes quite a bit beyond the capabilities of POVRay's if you want to go that route.

You can also find pre-drawn graphics here: http://www.flyingyogi.com (look for 'SpriteLib') or do a search on google for a file called "GameDev-InstallNoVBRun-1.4.6.zip" which is similar.

Russell