12-21-2011, 03:05 PM
Hello tSR! First post, so I apologize in advance if this has been discussed elsewhere.
First off, if you'll indulge me, I want to thank you for being my number one resource. I'm a game designer, not an artist, in my first year of uni, and you guys are by far the best I have found. That having been said, I do have one suggestion regarding the way you make sprite sheets. It would be really great if, when you submit a sheet, you make sure each frame of animation is evenly spaced between all the others. I say this because unlike in animation, where I imagine you simply choose what frame you want to use ahead of time and simply make sure everything lines up as you go along, games need to dynamically switch between animations. How we were taught, and what I imagine the standard is, is to identify a cell based on its upper left-hand pixel and define its width and height (in C# anyway). In order to switch frames, you simply add a predetermined amount to either the x or the y coordinate of the cell on the sheet. While this works fine if all the sprites are perfectly aligned with each other, if they aren't, you get sprites bleeding into each other, sprites jittering back and forth, and if the cells vary greatly in height or width, you cut off any details that don't fit into your predetermined values.
While this is manageable if the sheet is small enough, with bigger sheets you end up having to rearrange all the cells yourself. I know it seems like its nitpicking, but you guys work to pixel point perfection anyway, why not extend that to the entire sheet? It really is one thing that exponentially decreases the amount of work necessarily to get animations to play smoothly during runtime.
Once again, I apologize if this has been brought up before. I'm new to the community, and plan on sticking around for a long time (may even start spriting
just downloaded Graphics Gale for SnG's) so if you could direct me to where this was brought up, I'd be eternally grateful. Additionally, if any of you are programmers and know what I'm talking about, and know of an easy way of dealing with this problem that I didn't consider, that would be even better .
Once again once again, thanks for being my one stop shop for all my sprite needs
. You will of course be individually and collectively credited with anything I produce, and I look forward to taking a larger part in the community.
First off, if you'll indulge me, I want to thank you for being my number one resource. I'm a game designer, not an artist, in my first year of uni, and you guys are by far the best I have found. That having been said, I do have one suggestion regarding the way you make sprite sheets. It would be really great if, when you submit a sheet, you make sure each frame of animation is evenly spaced between all the others. I say this because unlike in animation, where I imagine you simply choose what frame you want to use ahead of time and simply make sure everything lines up as you go along, games need to dynamically switch between animations. How we were taught, and what I imagine the standard is, is to identify a cell based on its upper left-hand pixel and define its width and height (in C# anyway). In order to switch frames, you simply add a predetermined amount to either the x or the y coordinate of the cell on the sheet. While this works fine if all the sprites are perfectly aligned with each other, if they aren't, you get sprites bleeding into each other, sprites jittering back and forth, and if the cells vary greatly in height or width, you cut off any details that don't fit into your predetermined values.
While this is manageable if the sheet is small enough, with bigger sheets you end up having to rearrange all the cells yourself. I know it seems like its nitpicking, but you guys work to pixel point perfection anyway, why not extend that to the entire sheet? It really is one thing that exponentially decreases the amount of work necessarily to get animations to play smoothly during runtime.
Once again, I apologize if this has been brought up before. I'm new to the community, and plan on sticking around for a long time (may even start spriting
just downloaded Graphics Gale for SnG's) so if you could direct me to where this was brought up, I'd be eternally grateful. Additionally, if any of you are programmers and know what I'm talking about, and know of an easy way of dealing with this problem that I didn't consider, that would be even better .Once again once again, thanks for being my one stop shop for all my sprite needs
. You will of course be individually and collectively credited with anything I produce, and I look forward to taking a larger part in the community.