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Easiest method for creating animated 2D resources

by Steve D · in Torque Game Builder · 05/21/2010 (10:05 am) · 4 replies

Hi everyone! As the topic says, I wanted to explore what is the easiest way to create 2D animated resources, such as people. Personally, I don't have a lot of experience with art programs and at the current point in my project I need a human figure in several poses, such as kneeling, laying down, etc. I don't need details like facial poses, etc just something on the basic level. I would need him holding a weapon in those poses. I also need this human figure animated, such as running. Is the best way to create a 3D model, run the model into spriteworks and create a spritesheet? Is there another method (read - easier) to create 2D animated figures without a 3d model to work from?

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Torque 3D Owner Daniel Balmert
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#1
05/21/2010 (11:29 am)
I have not used Spriteworks, but I've humbled myself when trying to juggle 600 pngs for a 3d animated sprite. If you're great at rendering 3d models and camera work, then I'd say work with the art programs, get some png sequences going, then use your program of choice to generate a sprite sheet.

You can always hand animate the characters, although coming from an animator it sounds easier than done.

Torque 3D Owner Ronny Bangsund
Torque Cheerleaders
#2
05/22/2010 (7:11 am)
Rendering 3D is probably the easiest. I have looked at things like Anime Studio, but sadly the only export methods are Flash and movies. There used to be some Disney animation tools way back, but I dunno what exists for classic 2D animation nowadays.

Torque Owner RollerJesus
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#3
05/22/2010 (7:31 am)
I hear that Toon Boom is very powerful and intuitive. Unfortunately, words like that mean it's also expensive. $300, $500 or $1,200; depending on the level you go for.

There's a free option called Pencil that exports as an image sequence, does onion skinning and supports vectors and bitmaps.

Torque 3D Owner Aaron Miller
#4
05/22/2010 (4:46 pm)
You might consider Poser. It comes with several stock figures, a large library of predefined poses, the ability to custom design clothing and a tool for making characters walk in several different styles (among many other things). You can model and import a weapon then fix it to the character so that it automatically moves with them through their poses as well.

I've been using it to export .PNG files and then stitching them into sprite sheets with GlueIt, a free tool.