Help wanted! Creating animations for L2 objects.

[IchoTolot]

As most of you know there are quite a few objects in the L2 tilesets that can fool the player, so that he thinks they are solid.
An easy solution would be creating little animations for those objects, but as i mentioned a few times I am not very talented in drawing and animating stuff.

So I will make a "job-list" of objects that could use an animation + my proposals for a fitting animation.
Everyone can help! Everything can be done "easily" even in MS paint
Sent it back in png format and post it here into the topic so that other people can see it.
Opinions on these are welcome!

Please notice:

- Sending me an animation does not mean I will automatically accept and use it. I will look at it, decide if it is good-looking and fitting, then finally decide if I put it in. Also if multiple people send in animations for the same object, I also will have to decide which one to take.
- You don't need to 100% follow my proposals! If you can think of sth better try it out and we will see if it fits.
- Some pictures are in Lemmini heights/lenghts (Shadow/Egyptian). It will be half as big in the actual game. So single pixels in the game will appear as 2x2 brackets in your editing-program.
- Please tell me how many frames your final animation does include!

How to make an animation + some tipps:

- Take one of the attached pics in the 2nd post.
- Increase the height of the picture by a multiple >1 of the original height. The multiplyer depends on how many frames your animation should have (2 times ori height = 2 frame animation , 10 times ori height = 10 frame animation.....).
-Example: For a 32 pixel high picture the first 32 pixels of the animation should include the original picture. The next 32 pixels will have your first animation frame and so on.
                 An easy start would be to copy-paste the current frame (starting with the original picture) below itself so that you start with a copy of the last frame to work on the next.
- Notice! The last picture of your animation should go fluent into the original picture, or even be the original picture!
- The pink color means that this will be a transparent area. Please use for everything that should be transparent this pink color (color mix is 255 0 255 as I recall)
- If your animation shall be stagnant for a few frames: Copy-paste the same frame a few times under itself.

Edit: namida informed me via IRC that the animation can also go horizontally:

<namida42>IchoTolot: two things in regard to that topic:
<IchoTolot>yes
<namida42>1. transparent color doesn't have to be 255,0,255. it can be anything (just click on a pixel of that color when importing)
<namida42>also, for 32-bit PNG files, they can also use the alpha channel directly, rather than a key color
<IchoTolot>yes but i already used that color
<namida42>2. it also supports importing strips that are arranged horizontally rather than vertically; i don't know if some people might feel more comfortable working this way
<IchoTolot>I never worked horizontally before
<namida42>i find it particularly useful when creating the one-way-down arrows from one of hte other directions
<namida42>no need to rearrange; just rotate the entire image them import as a horizontal strip
<IchoTolot>currently preparing the 2nd post
<IchoTolot>will mention it

Also you can make a experimental version of the tileset you are working on using the Graphic-set-tool from namida, to see your animation in action inside the game!
Get it here, load the tileset with it and replace the object with your full animation + save under a different name: http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=2098.0

[IchoTolot]

Curent job list:

L2 Shadow (Lemmini conversion):

1.+2.)





Proposal:
The leaves could move in the wind. Apart from recoloring, moving the transparent tiles can help here + the dark red fruits could glow a LITTLE bit.

3.-6.)












Proposal:
Again some lighting effects. Also thought about some eyes flashing out of the trash can, but this would look like a trap

7.)


Proposal:
A slight glowing that is still inside the lamp.

L2 Egyptian (Lemmini conversion):

1.)


Proposals: 
- Lighting effects.

2.)


Proposals:
- the heart beats a little
- the feather glows
- again lighting effects

3.)


Proposals:
- change the color every few frames like   blue-red-green-blue..... 
- as usual   some lighting effects

Jobs may be removed/added over time.

[Gronkling]

Shadow phone box





(12 frames, horizontal alignment)

Transparent outdoors eyes

Under a spoiler because it's a long vertical strip

(18 frames, vertical alignment)

[IchoTolot]

Shadow phone box





(12 frames, horizontal alignment)

This looks already really great

[IchoTolot]

Oh I did not see the outdoor eyes until now

This looks great aswell! I did not expect to recieve 2 reworked animations so soon

[IchoTolot]

I crossed out the animations that already have been done, so everybody is better informed over the overall process.

[IchoTolot]

Removed the finished animations from the job list

[IchoTolot]

Ok, it seems I need to put a little motivation here to get the list shorter

For every entry that I am going to implement the person will have a little free wish from me

That could be:

- helping with the creation of a level
- improving a level
- testing levels

Hope this will give some motivation

- removed the shaking proposal of one of the egypt object as I decided to preserve the original size.