These traditional effects turn the world into a living, breathing character of the game. Here, for example, we have a simple cloth doorway used in our village scene: To accomplish this vital task, we turn to our traditional animator to create fantastically flowing environmental effects. Every scene and every view should draw the player into the beautifully dreary and intense world that was ancient Britannia. We want the world of Wulverblade to feel alive. ItвЂ™s a tool that can be utilized far beyond the basic secondary motion shown above in the knife thrower and a feature IвЂ™m excited to use more often. IвЂ™ve been excited about SpineвЂ™s mesh deformation functionality since I first saw their kickstarter campaign. More examples of mesh deformation can be found on the Spine forums.

Movements made with mesh deformation are often subtle but can take a 2D animation to the next level. The influence each bone has over a vertex can also be adjusted and smoothed.ДЄ comparison between the warping animation shown above and itвЂ™s original counterpart can be seen here. The vertices can also be skinned to multiple bones, allowing the mesh to follow and bend with the changing directions of a skeleton. The ability to warp an image on a skeleton is immensely useful for creating secondary motion in an animation without requiring any additional textures. These polygons can then be stretched or warped by the manipulation of each individual vertex. It allows for a static 2D image to be broken down into customized polygons.

Mesh deformations are made possible by one of SpineвЂ™s more recent updates. The introduction of skeletal animations helps reduce these texture sizes, and now mesh deformations have taken it one step further. At modern resolutions, this would not be feasible. In the classic 2D games we admire, every pose of every character had to fit on an atlas to be cycled through. We use 2D ToolkitвЂ™s dicingВ feature to maximize texture space and remove unnecessary transparency, but that only goes so far. Traditional frame-by-frame animation is the least efficient in regards to texture size but allows for the greatest control over the final appearance. Here, we use 2D Toolkit to generate an atlas and cycle through each image at a desired frame rate. When we have something looking and feeling great, Denis bumps the animation up to the appropriate frame rate of 24fps by creating the smooth in-between frames.Д®ach frame is exported from Flash at the appropriate resolution and brought into Unity. He adds in layers of detail until both parties are satisfied. Throughout the process, Denis checks in regularly to confirm the style with us. When satisfied, he moves the basic forms through the laid out keyframes. Upon receiving a request, Denis starts with a rough sketch to feel out the fundamentals of the animation at hand. Using Flash, Denis continues to brilliantly handle the massively varying tasks we throw at him. Ours goes by Denis.В Denis is a traditional animator with a fantastic understanding of fluid motion and timing. For this reason we turn to the professionals.

We use this form of animation for various effects including: blood, explosions, fire, water, smoke, and cloth.ДЄs much as I love the look and feel of traditional animation effects, I have minimal experience in the creation of such work. However, it adds a level of polish not easily replicated through other means while enhancing WulverbladeвЂ™s distinct art style. This post will be slightly more technical than the last one, so I will try to break things down to the best of my ability for all readers.Д¬reating frame by frame animation can be a difficult and time consuming task. Today we continue down a similar path as I cover frame by frame animation, mesh based animation, and some methods of optimization. For those of you joining us for the first time here on the Wulverblade Blog, welcome! Last time I covered one of our primary animation systems, 2D Skeletal animation. Evan Doody back again, as promised! I would like to start by thanking everyone for all the positive feedback on my last post and for sharing that post as well.

Change speed of animation spine2d