I am an advanced programmer in the open-source language for Android RFO-BASIC! and also the developer of the RFO-BASIC! App Builder (a tool that takes a BASIC! program and produces an Android app -aka APK- in just a few clicks).
I released in March 2013 an RPG developed with RFO-BASIC! and I am currently working on drawings and sketches for a new 2D puzzle game, in BASIC!, with isometric 3d components (tiles and characters).
I would need help from someone fluent in Blender in order to make the 10 characters’ PNGs based on my poor drawings below:
Some details: the game would be a 2D game with 3D rendered cartoonish characters, a little similar to (but let’s face it nearly as good looking as) the first Rayman game on PC if some of you recall. This would not be a 3D game: no z axis, no OpenGL nor any such thing. No 3D calculus, just plain PNGs refreshed one after another for the characters.
Only 2 characters would be displayed (and animated) at all time: the hero (#1) and his girlfriend to be saved (#10). The hero would be able to call 1 out of 8 helpers (#2 to #9) to replace him, that each have a different range of action: push block, break block, jump, swim… then only the helper and the gf would be animated.
While the characters could be done in 2D (make better drawings, scan them, photoshop them) I would really like to render them in 3D for a great look and feel. The animations would be made by modifying the 3D model properties (typically: change the wings positions) 5 or 6 times and saving the rendered PNGs. Put one after another this would give the impression of wings flapping in the air to make the character fly. So mostly manual work, no automatic creation of all the moves. The moves would be very limited, for each character: standing position, moving (only 1 direction e.g. right, the other one done by symetry), and 1 dedicated action.
Many thanks for taking the time to read me.
PS: I am French. If any other French is interested, he is more than welcome to PM me on this subject!
I am very open to new suggestions, adaptations of the visuals above, changes in the movements. Basically I’m a newbie in animating characters and will humbly listen to any proposition of ppl having experience in this field
all the characters in the “standing” animation, except characters #2#3 and #7, should be contained in a 1x1 square zone of same dimension (e.g. 128 x 128 pixels, or greater… again I’m open), the animations are respectively (they can change upon suggestions): #1 faces the player and bounces left and right #2 character is 2x1 squares zone wide, his head is wandering here and there #3’s body is oscillating like a snake from a 1x1 square zone to a 1x2 square zone #4 flies describing an horizontal “8” (or infinite symbol) movement, facing the screen #5 oscillates like a fish #6 jumps on the same spot (while constrained in a 1x1 square zone, so he should be a little smaller) #7 doughnut-like body stacks and unstacks. #7 character is bounded in a 1x2 squares zone #8 could play his crab legs a funny way e.g. rotating 180° one way then 180° the other way #9 dances, hesitating on his feet (that are in fact his ears) #10 same as #1
here are the “walking” animations for each character, obtained by sliding the screen with the finger from left to right or right to left: #1 turns 90°, contracts his spring to build up speed then jumps 1 square right or left, finally turns 90° again to face the player. Doing so, he can outpass the ceiling limit of the 1x1 square but I don’t think this should be an issue #2 slowly walks with a heavy step (like an elephant) 1 square right or left #3 will be crawling like a snake 1 square right or left, only if a 1x2 squares zone is available in said direction #4 will smoothly fly from his original coordinates to other ones on the same horizontal line (he can only fly left or right until blocked by an element, no vertical move possible) #5 will swim right and left while in the water. He can’t move on the ground, see action animation for how to go in/out of water #6 can’t walk right or left, he can only jump very high or fall very low on a vertical line, see action animation #7 contracts his ring-body, then jumps 1 square right or left, only if a 1x2 squares zone is available in said direction #8 keeps facing the player, his legs spin in order to go 1 square left or right, or to climb stricly 1 block left or right #9 turns the good direction then heavily walks 1 square left or right #10 has no walking animation, she needs to be rescued so won’t move in the game
here are the “action” animations for each character, obtained by tapping and keeping your finger on the character, then sliding to a nearby square zone where an action is possible (indicated by a flashing square) and finally releasing the finger (the game freezes with everything in b&w during this time): #1 gives head-punch to blocks on his right or on his left in order to destroy them. Doing so his spring will elongate so that the character fits approx. in a 1.5x1 squares zone #2 pushes a block on his right or on his left while walking (if no other block or wall or anything is blocking on the other side of course), stricly speaking this is same animation as walking. Clicking (=tapping) on the character to operate an action will have the same effect as sliding the screen to make the character walk #3 stands on his tail in a 1x2 squares zone and pushes the top block while staying in the same place (if nothing prevents the block from moving on the other side of course) #4 has no action animation #5 will, just after transformation (because he can’t move on the ground), if an adjacent 1-square-down zone is filled with water splash in the water, and opposite: while in the water near a ground zone, jump out of the water #6 will jump very high to a platform above him, or opposite will fall from a high platform to a lower ground. He can only move on a same vertical line. Compared to the standing animation the action animation will only differ by contracting his spring-like body more (in order to reach higher places) #7 turns 90° to face right or left, his jaw will then crunch the top block of the 1x2 squares zone in said direction until the block explodes, then turn 90° again to face player #8 will climb a block right or left of him (only 1 block, not 2 blocks one on top of another), the same result can be obtained by walking in the good direction while at the foot of said block #9 will turn 90° to face good direction, and produce a special sand block in said direction if the zone is initially empty #10 has no action animation per se, but she can be in a “frozen” state: head panting down, ice on the nose, not reacting to the hero’s presence unless an item somewhere in the map is activated. This item also turns water to ice (or ice back to water). The frozen girlfriend would be the last animation in the list, thanks for keeping up :eyebrowlift2:
I’ve attached 3 pics for you of main character. Pictures 1 & 2 are at 1024x768 pixels and picture 3 is at 128x128 pixels. Note. hair was created as springs too.
Hi gthomas276 and welcome to the team!
Yes, 128 x 128 is a good compromise both for mobile phone and tablet resolutions. The game board can be up to 30 x 16 squares, meaning a 3840 x 2048 pixels resolution for squares of 128 x 128.
If you are more comfortable with a higher resolution (256 x 256 for example), I can roll with it and use as is for tablets, and downscale by a factor 2 for mobile phones. Tell me what you think.
@gthomas276: another topic I didn’t mention is the textures / coloring of the characters: here again I’m pretty much open to your suggestions. Of course I have some rough ideas in my mind for some characters, but depending on how you render them and what you prefer I can change mind…
PS: sorry in the delays in responding but as a newcomer my posts need systematic approval by the admins before being displayed
@gthomas276: as said by PM, I will need the characters on a transparent background in order to display them on different layers of background / platform / foreground etc. This is why I expressed the need of PNGs, and not Jpegs or others (but GIFs could work too…)
As for the lighting, an ambiant light, uniformaly distributed with no gradient is preferable. Because the game engine itself will handle the lighting as a separate layer on top of the character PNGs. (Also, sorry to be honest, but your second picture of the hero looks so scary with the lighting like this shadowing his face! :D)
Finally, the character design in my sketches attached to 1st post were thought with the game engine in mind: each character needs to fill a certain A x B squares zone, typically 1x1 for the hero (character #1), and be both visible enough, and fully animated, while in this zone. That is why typically I rendered the hero’s spring tinier than yours, and I described his “standing” animation as bounce left and right - not up and down. Because as you see in your pictures making him bounce up and down would mean make him really tiny so that he fits the 128x128 square, almost not visible / recognizable.
I realize I’m asking a lot and I feel sorry for that, but the game engine has constraints that need to be respected during character design if I want a playable result. I don’t have any schedule to realize my game, I do it in “best effort” mode and am pretty much my own boss, so I think the best is that I learn Blender myself and not bother the community by being too demanding. It will take significant time and I’ll probably have a lot of questions: is the “Support” section of this forum appropriate to ask for help when I need advice then?
Heey, nice :eyebrowlift: I love the idea of the springs going out of his body, makes a common point with character #1
Also, your proportions for this character are perfect to fit in a 2x1 squares zone as needed, here it is resized to final size:
I can already see him push a block on the left with his head…
I took this on because I’m trying to improve my skills, so don’t feel you are being too demanding. Feed back and communication are a big part of the gaming industry so Lets work together and make this a great game.
Thanks, I think we should finish all the character designs before switching to animating them, so basically let’s do all standing pngs first then work on animating them. I 've had a lot of fun so far, thanks for the opportunity to increase my skills and have fun doing it to0.
Your new character #1 is better with a smaller spring, but still a little dark, do you think you could tweak the lighting to have his skin look more colourfull (or maybe change the skin colour to a more pink one)? Also, would it be possible to have the base of the character in blue instead of black? I think it will be more visible on the background that way…
Many thanks for your help and time anyway, I sincerely appreciate, your name will appear in big letters on the title screen if you agree (and when we manage to finish the game of course)
Almost perfect :yes: The head and spring are really great, but somehow the base misses a little “3D look” compared to your first rendering (I realize the base of your second rendering also lost this 3D look…) Maybe it has to do with the lighting (again)? What is your opinion?
Anyway, this is fine tuning, and to be honest I’m impatient to see what you have done for other characters (still 8 to go) How about leaving character #1 almost ready as it is now and give a go at some other character?
Also for the moment I suggest you don’t resize to 128x128, we can do that in the end depending on all the PNGs composing the animation because the goal is to fit as much as we can in the 128x128 box and not letting empty spaces:
A question gthomas276: is it easy to add the edge? I didn’t render the character in situ so far (my game engine is not advanced enough) but I think putting an edge will give the characters a more cartoonish look and feel, how do you think?
agreed for the process!
