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Is Godot right for me? Basic 2D pixel game similar to games like Contra
What began as a joke at work has slowly become something stupid and ridiculous, but I'm having fun with it. I do not have aspirations of making the next top indie game: I just want to make something stupid and fun for myself and friends. But the more I do with it, the larger it becomes, so I've begun to question and place restrictions on what the game will be: A game similar to Contra as far as playability. It will have some power ups for fun, but not so much that it requires a crazy amount of new assets. I'm doing this on my own and already work full time. It will have 6(?) levels (Section 1-3 will have two levels each to simplify/ reuse tiles in each section). Each section will have an ending boss. Each level will have an opening and closing cinematic (think old school pixel images with text describing the transitions between levels). I did some basic research and found that Godot was a good engine. It seems like it can do a lot of what I'm wanting to do without requiring knowing a ton about programming (I know only the basics from college 15+ years ago, and from my time animating in Flash years ago). That, and it looks like Godot has a ton of how-to tutorials for what I want to do. However, one thing I'm not sure about: As you can see, I have several gifs of the playable character. He's been made in Aseprite, with many of his parts in separate layers (wings/ gun, legs, body, head, etc). Sprite sheets would obviously do away with the basic background, but looking at old Contra sprite sheets, it looks like there is a shooting animation is included in the ONE sprite sheet. I'm not sure if I'm going to explain this right, but I don't want to have to have a large sprite sheet with the basic run cycle/ jump as well as the gun firing in every direction matching each of those cycles. So I guess I'm asking if I could have those individual layers in Godot, so that one layer of the character is the body, another the head, the wings/ gun, the legs. In Macromedia Flash/ Adobe Animate, you'd use Movie Clips and I could attach said Movie Clips together and action script (the in house programming language) could move Movie Clip (the wings/ gun) based on what arrow keys I pressed, while another Movie Clip (the legs for instance) could be changed based on whether I was moving left, right, or jumping. I hope I explained that alright. Sorry if the post is all over the place as well. *** If NOT Godot; if there's a better software to do this in, what would you recommend? I debated going back to Flash/ Animate, but... Adobe has massacred that software. I've had too many issues with it in the past. Thanks everyone! submitted by /u/SardonicSamurai to r/godot [link] [comments]
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reddit.com |
SardonicSamurai |
May 2, 2025 |
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The "Ultimate" Reddit Beginners Guide to Animation
Preface I'm seeing a lot of posts of beginners wanting to know where to start with animation as of late. I figured I'd make a big post with most of the answers people are looking for to function as a sort of guide. Now keep in mind there's a multitude of ways going about learning animation and that it can be vastly different per person, as well as finding all the necessary tools to get started. This is just a post covering a few options you're able to use. Find your best way to learn and to make animation! A little about me just to cover formalities (and establish that I sorta know what I'm talking about??): I've been in the animation space for 10 years, where most of my time I've been animating freelance, making animations for things ranging from infomercials/ads, to mobile games, to music videos. I've also started an animation YouTube channel back in 2017 where we have been making videogame parodies on. As of right now, I'm working on animations for a videogame. Primarily working in Spine as of now and have experience in Animate CC, After Effects, ToonBoom and Clip Studio Paint. Anyways, let's get into it. List of Contents Do you need to be able to draw to animate? Where to start? What's important? How to learn Animation Learning Materials Gear Programs 1. Do you need to be able to draw to animate? In short, no. You can very much animate without having the ability to draw at all. Using 3D software, you can animate self-made or pre-made/rigged characters. For 2D, you could be animating using puppet animation. Obviously making the assets themselves is something separate from this. There's plenty of 2D animators able to make cool animations even though their drawing skills aren't great. Look at South Park for instance. Their cut-out method of animating has worked very well for them. Of course it would help if you're good at drawing. Especially if you want to get into frame by frame animation. It will never not be good spending time to learn how to understand anatomy, how color works or how to draw in general. So for all people who're anxious about animating because you're not good at drawing. You don't have to be a great artist to be a great animator. 2. Where to start? What's important? There's a million ways to start animating. There's so many supplements to help you get started (which I'll list a few of later), but the best way to start animating is by doing it. Grab your pencil, your mouse, your 3D model, your clay figure and just start using it. Of course, apart from it being good to just start off, there's a few things you can do to start off learning how to animate. For this we're going to start looking at the 12 principles of animation. Squash and stretch Anticipation Staging Straight-ahead action and pose-to-pose Follow through and overlapping action Slow in and slow out Arc Secondary action Timing Exaggeration Solid drawing Appeal All animations out there (should) be made with these 12 principles in mind. These 12 principles are like our tablets of stone to abide to when making animation, so study them well! If you search for them on Google or YouTube, you'll get a bajillion hits with how these work. 3. How to learn Animation Now that you know where to start, it's a good idea to plan out how you're going to learn animating. For some it's great to go through all the information available and then start working, for others it's good to just start making stuff move. From my personal experience I'd want to tell you to find a good hybrid of both of these. Keep in mind that this is mostly a personal thing, but it may help some of you out there who aren't sure how to get to learning. Don't over collect materials. I know it sounds weird, but I've seen a lot of people say that they're waiting with actually animating because they want to make sure they're ready to animate. The best way to learn is by start doing it. Grab a principle (good to start at 1), then make an animation based on that principle. Just something small like a ball bouncing will do plenty for you. Do this for each principle for you to get an understanding for each principle. Keep it simple. Don't go drawing/animating fully fledged characters, or animate a minute long short just yet. Characters have a lot of overlapping actions which you haven't even covered yet in the base principles. You'll most likely end up losing sight of what you're trying to learn when animating a character and as you're doing that you might end up more frustrated than happy. Study movement. As you're slowly understanding the principles more, you'll be noticing those principles work in the real world as well. Observe the movement of people, animals and things. Some people have fantastic walkcycles. When seeing someone playing baseball, you'll see them wind up for a swing. It's all part of the principles. Art is derived from real life for a reason. As you become more comfortable with the principles, feel free to do more daunting exercises. Start making your first walkcycle for instance. What I like to do when learning something, is to implement my learning material into my projects (mainly because I'm bad at making small exercises myself). So if you really want to make that TikTok dance animation, feel free to do so of course. But it will definitely help you if you build the project around the exercise you want to do and principle you want to understand better. Example: You understand squash and stretch, but want to make a little video for fun. Instead of your basic exercise of a ball bouncing, have a character do something cool while incorporating squash and stretch. *Note: I do HIGHLY advise to make sure to understand the principles before going off to make bigger animations. I also advise to get used to do the "principle exercises". This is something I've neglected in my early years because I thought they were boring and just dove into animating bigger things, which impacted me negatively. 4. Learning Materials Like I said previously. Learning works differently for everyone. For anyone starting out it could be a good notion to look up a few of the following things. See what fits you best. No matter what type of animation you want to learn, these supplements cover what you need to know. Books Bibles, in case you like to read books: Animator's Survival Kit - Richard Williams Illusion of Life - Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston These are used by most people and well known supplements to get into animation. These are probably the best books to go through if you want to learn animation from studio veterans. When you're like me and you're not good at reading through a fat book, it may be good to do the obvious thing. Look up tutorials. YouTube is full of great supplements for you to be able to learn animation. Next to this, it's an important skill to also be able to look up what you need to know without having to ask it when you're in the field. I know it can be overwhelming, but there's a lot of good people out there putting out really helpful stuff. AlanBeckerTutorials's - 12 Principles of Animation Is a great way to step into learning the 12 principles and have it be bite sized. He goes over the principles mainly as how they're stated in the Illusion of Life book (if I'm correct) After a quick search I've also found this one, which seems to clearly talk about what all 12 principles entail: TipTut's 12 Principles of Animation You also have Aaron Blaise (former Legendary Disney animator) who put out a few tutorials on YouTube. Also just a good follow honestly: AaronBlaiseArt - Youtube Obviously you also have things like courses you could do if that's more your thing. I unfortunately can't recommend any because I don't have experience with them. For some, courses work fantastic though, because you're still getting a little bit of guidance. Feel free to explore that path if you're interested! 5. Gear Here's some examples of things you might want to get when you're stepping into animation. Traditional 2D: *Note: You can just start off using normal paper and a pencil, where you can just tape the top of your paper together to be able to flip through them. Holding your paper against your window while the sun's out is a good improvised lightbox. Flip book $ Animation peg bar (for animation paper with those holes to sit on) $ Animation paper $ Light box or a drawing pad $$ Soft pencils (Like a 4B pencil, but this is also personal) $ Scanner or camera so you can get your animations to your PC $$($) Digital: *Note: You can also use your mouse to start out animating. Especially if you're doing puppet animation. Drawing with a mouse is a bit hard, but if you're starting out, sometimes it's fine to start with that. Drawing tablet $($) - Wacom intuos is a good standard tablet Screen tablet $$($) - Wacom, XPPen, Huion's are great tablets, it all kind of depends how expensive you want to get iPad and pencil $$$ Phone (+stylus?) $ (this is slightly based on the fact that you already have a phone) 6. Programs The list that's given in every single post by automod is a much better list than I could ever make, so I implore you to check out this link that goes to /r/animationcareer. I do however want to add that Spine ($$ one time buy) is a cool program for puppet animation that can be exported and used for games. And Aseprite ($ one time buy), which is a really solid program if you like to do PixelArt/Animation. I also see Pencil2D is not mentioned in the list, which is open source animation software (haven't used it myself though). Now that you're (hopefully) a little bit wiser on where to start your journey, it's time to pick up your pencil, stylus or brush and get to work. Remember to not get too ambitious right from the start. And what's most important is to have fun. Don't look at other peoples work and think to yourself you'll not get as good as them, use them as an inspiration to strive to be as good or even better as them. I most likely have missed a few things while writing this, so for other professionals reading this post, feel free to post your experiences or opinions for others to read and to get informed. Please keep in mind that all of this is to help people. (also, mods, if you read this and the flair isn't correct let me know. also also, if this is any help, could you pin this to make sure we don't get a constant stream of the same questions asked in this subreddit? Thank you) Feel free to ask about anything related to this post and I'll try to answer to the best of my abilities! Best of luck! Edit: Another good way to practice animation are: 11 second club - on this site you get a 11 sec audio fragment to animate something to. Very good practice for acting. 1 hour anim - traditionally used for 1 hour speed anims, you get a prompt to think of something for a short sequence. I'd recommend not trying to animate things in 1 hour off the bat without knowing what you're doing, but rather take the prompt as inspiration to do something with it for practice. Animating in 1 hour does make you learn how to animate faster in the long run, but recommended for intermediate level animators. submitted by /u/Ryan64 to r/animation [link] [comments]
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reddit.com |
Ryan64 |
Mar 25, 2024 |
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Pixel Art Questions & Answers - FAQ / Post your questions here! [#3]
Thread #2 expired, so here's a new one! If you have a question about pixel art, this is the place to ask! Please see if your question has already been answered below before asking._______________________________________________________________________________________ 1. How can I learn to make Pixel Art? Check out Pixel Art: Where to Start a guide on starting pixel art for complete newbies. 2. What software should I use to create Pixel Art? It depends what your skill level is and what features you need. Check out the Pixel Art Software List to compare the most popular ones. No one can tell you which is best because everyone has different opinions. You should try some out and see which one you like best. 3. How do I get better at pixel art? This is outlined in Pixel Art: Where to Start, but improving happens by reading tutorials, studying other pixel art, getting feedback on your art, and last but most importantly, practicing. It can take years to get good at any art form, but as long as you keep trying, anyone can master it. Keep in mind the "pixel" aspect is only one part of it, and there are many non-pixel-art related things you should also learn such as lighting, color theory, composition, anatomy, perspective, etc. 4. How can I find a tutorial about _______? First, try searching the Lospec Pixel Art Tutorial List. If you can't find exactly what you're looking for, it may be too specific. You don't need a tutorial to tell you how to draw every kind of texture, instead study photographs and other art (including pixel art) and try to figure it out. If you still struggle, just do your best and post what you have asking for feedback, and people can help you figure out how to improve it. 5. Do I need a drawing tablet? No, you don't need any special hardware to make pixel art. A drawing tablet wont make you a better artist, it may make things easier or faster, but it's better used once you develop your basic skills. Many of the most talented pixel artists use a mouse, which is better suited for manipulating single pixels anyway. 6. Should I use a premade palette? That's completely a personal choice. Using a palette (such as ones from the Lospec Palette List) can be good because you can make pixel art without worrying about picking colors, since you know the colors already all work together. It also helps prevent you from adding more colors than you need. If you are a total beginner, it's probably a good idea. On the other hand, being forced to pick colors is how you learn color theory, and if you never do it, you're depriving yourself of a lot of knowledge and control over your art. 7. Do I need to be good at drawing / painting / digital art / traditional art to make pixel art? No. Plenty of great pixel artists don't practice any other art forms. Traditional drawing skills are by no means required for pixel art, especially at the low-resolution beginner stages. Eventually you may want to start learning it as it can certainly improve your pixel art and expand your creation methods, and it can be easier to practice certain things in different mediums. previous thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/PixelArt/comments/le7pip/pixel_art_questions_answers_faq_post_your/ _______________________________________________________________________________________ Didn't find your answer? Ask away in the comments below! submitted by /u/skeddles to r/PixelArt [link] [comments]
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reddit.com |
skeddles |
Aug 24, 2021 |