Lasers, how to animate

[Simon]

Hi,

Lasers, a permanent fire trap in geoo/construction, have been in Lix since geoo created the popular Construction tileset in 2011. I'm at a crossroads about how to animate the lasers.

Lasers in Lix ≤ 0.9.10 -- complaint: Looks like terrain, especially like red abstract pipes.
Lasers in Lix = 0.9.11 -- worry: Animation is too glaring, induces epilepsy.

Both are understandable. What to do? Keep one of the above? Animate differently? Submissions or prototypes welcome!

-- Simon

[Akseli]

From #lix IRC channel:

[01:04] <Akseli> SimonN: the latter but a lot slower anim
[01:11] <Akseli> then it would be clear that it's lethal, but the animation doesn't need to be epilepsy-causing
[01:11] <Akseli> one cycle per second or even slower

[zanzindorf]

You could try adding a little turbulence. However, if this animation has to be contained within a 16x16 square, that may be difficult to pull off. I worked a little on this example:

https://i.imgur.com/NnMsQEJ.gifv

My goal was to be subtle enough it doesn't look weird when tiled, but dramatic enough to give a fluid impression.

I don't know if that helps, but I'll attach my graphics if you want to mess around with them. I feel like the colors I chose aren't quite right. My color pallet could definitely be revised.

[Simon]

Akseli, yeah, if the brightness should really differ by this much, then yes, the blink should be far slower.

zanzindorf, this is a lovely idea and fits with the cartoon physics. The wobbling makes it obviously different from terrain and we can ditch the flashing of the 0.9.11 lasers. I'll see how this fits in th game. Thanks!

-- Simon

[geoo]

Just as a remark, there's also a 64-px long laser pieces which could be animated with a bit less repetition.

I certainly like zanzindorf's idea, the color and cartoonishness would fit the occult tileset especially well.
The concrete set is a bit more austere and less cartoonish, but I think it might still fit there as well.

[Simon]

I'll merge these into Lix 0.9.13 that will release next week.
Video: Zanzindorf's lasers in Lix

Zanzindorf: Are you okay with public domain for this animation? All Lix tiles are released in the public domain, it would be super handy if you agree on this. (The exact copying conditions are CC0, i.e., waive all rights possible if country doesn't allow public domain.) You'll get credit in copying.txt.

geoo: Please give feedback on the emitters. I've changed them so that they look reasonable no matter whether they overlap lasers or are merely next to lasers.

-- Simon

[mobius]

a definite improvement on the old laser

[geoo]

The lightning on the laser emitters looks much better than before, the two red bars look very strange though.
You said it's mean to look like those guns from cartoon laser guns, but the way it overlaps with the old emitter looks very weird. I think it should be one or the other, either just the emitter in the old style, or the disk from the cartoon laser gun. Usability-wise, the old emitter is fine, you can just put it in front of the laser beam and it'll cover the excess part of the laser beam.
The other style could be cool too though, not sure it could be made to look good when just floating in air though.