If anyone knows how to increase the FPS of an animated GIF when exporting it from Flash, that would be great.

Muschio 2009/07/27(Mon)03:15 No. 342 ID: c01408
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>>1249
>perfectionist tendencies
Sometimes I really wish I'd gone with a simpler style for DiveQuest. Something more like RubyQuest.
Now I've set a standard of art and I can't easily change it. Add to this that DiveQuest takes place over a rapidly-changing series of locales. Unlike RubyQuest, whose rooms could all be drawn out ahead of time (and even then would take a while to do), DiveQuest visits numerous areas in rapid succession and I've got to draw out each one on the fly. To top it all of, I'm absolutely godawful at backgrounds/scenery/architecture of any kind, so pretty much each and every outdoors scene takes forever, slows me down, and frustrates me a little.
I don't know how Reaver does it, but he's a goddamn genius if he can sweep all these areas up as he goes, and make them look damn beautiful to boot. I'd be satisfied with just getting them done in a reasonable amount of time, nevermind that they'd still look like crap.

Gnome 2009/07/27(Mon)04:52 No. 343 ID: bde1b8
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Well I'd really like to hear animation tips from Reaver and Weaver, but I'll post a few I've picked up.

Here we have a basic cut, in 3 frames.
Frame 0: Draw the entirety of the cut first, then duplicate into three panels.
Frame 1: Should be about 10% of the full cut, at the beginning of the slash.
Frame 2: The entire cut. Sometimes I split this one up into two frames for a slower 4 frame cut, in which case each frame is about 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the full cut.
Frame 3: The last 1/4th of the cut.

For best results include actual images before and after the slashing.

Gnome 2009/07/27(Mon)04:53 No. 344 ID: bde1b8
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End result.

Animated guide Reaver!mE1ODcDVTM 2009/07/27(Mon)05:49 No. 345 ID: fb5d8e
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I dunno, I just mess around untill it turns out allright.
First I just kind of think of a generic background. In this case the background was so generic I was able to use it over and over, which was awesome. Other times I work hard on a background and only get to use it once, but atleast it's still cool for cinematic power.
Then I kind of doodle on the lineart, slap some white below it, shade it, and when Im feeling crazy I pop in another layer with changes that doesnt conform to the previous steps at all.
Shit that takes alot of detail but isnt immediatly important (such as busy streets) can just be told in narration as the art focuses on stuff the player needs to see. This let's you be lazy.
Or something.
I dunno. Gnome wanted me to post here. :>

Templates. Templates. Templates. Templates.

Make most useful poses for the body, hands, expressions, legs and just join them together. Or paint expressions to those templates on the fly.

Reuse backgrounds in the same way. Don't make them overcomplicated though. Heavy use of layers in drawing programs usually helps - put all inanimate non-interactive stuff on one layer and assign one layer each for stuff like foliage, items and characters. It's memory consumable but hell... if you need to move the character somewhere or erase an item - it's very neat and easy to do.

Complicated stuff usually stalls the quest for a while. And animated stuff should only be reserved for railroaded scenes - scenes you're 100% sure the players will encounter - entering previously sealed areas, introducing crucial NPCs etc.

I'm hoping that this thread dispenses some useful advice for me to use, as my drawing is complete shit now. Then again, I use paint with a touch pad. Are there any good free drawing programs out there?

(also, thanks to the op for making this thread. I was thinking of making one myself, but that would involve me moving)

>>1259

OC 1.1 is pretty good - it's barebones and good. And of course it's free. GIMP is praised by 'free soft' enthusiasts but I found working with it a chore.

If you want to 'move up' and buy a cheap but good solution, I recommend OC 4 and SAI. Painter is an overkill.

And get a tablet ASAP... practicing with a tablet is gonna make you improve in drawing pretty quickly.

>>1260
Thanks for the advice. Maybe I'll actually churn out a decent quest update now.

Muschio 2009/07/27(Mon)09:02 No. 350 ID: c01408
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I do all my drawing by mouse, with a few fanart exceptions and the now-abandoned WeaverQuest.

Since everyone asks, I should add now that I use custom brushes for the blood.
It makes it look like I am more patient than I really am.

>>1262
I was wondering how your blood splatters were so amazing.