Rotoscoping - Simple animations made easy :D

Well rotoscoping is a popular form of animation/digital media production.


Remember when you were a kid? Remember getting up on a cold saturday in your pyjamas with a bowl of sugary goodness and watching power rangers all morning?

Well....You were actually watching a combination of shows! The fight scenes were actually from a japanese show about kids with dinosaur powers.... Believe me this killed my childhood when i found out. After all who didnt love the white ranger? Or what kid didnt want to be him....Well i feel sick now, The white ranger in the original was a young child who used his powers to skate around town causing havoc and using his powers of wind to look up girls skirts....School girls skirts...Well enough about my traumatised childhood....Back to the lesson in hand.


So you want to animate a simple animation, Your not interested in crystal clear quality but you know what you want to see. Well heres how you can shortcut a simple animation cycle and apply it where ever you want in the future.


Find a simple animated GIF of a walk cycle. I used this one shown below.

Now save this image and open up flash.
















Create a new flash document (AS3) and import the image into flash's library.
You should have something close to this.
Now double click the Symbol in the library.

Highlight all of the frames in the timeline and right click Copy Frames


This will be what you are tracing












Go back to the initial scene (top left hand corner) and paste the frames into Layer 1.
Click the lock next to the layer icon so that we don't change the animation.
Create a new layer and position it on top of Layer 1.
Now on layer 2 position the slider over the black dots on layer 1 and Press F6, This will create a new frame over each dot. After you've done this each time you should have something similar to below.

Now comes the fun part.
On the first frame of layer 2 trace out a basic shape as shown here on the character, Then draw a circle for the head.

Repeat for each frame, This can take a while but its worth it!

Now when you've completed tracing delete the original animation layer so your stickman layer is only left.

Now again copy the frames from the timeline after highlighting them.

Now open a new file and create a new symbol, (Right click library and new symbol) Double click the symbol so its opened up and paste the frames into the timeline.

Return to scene and drag the symbol to the stage.


You should now have a looping animation as shown below.














Click Me to see the animation


Not just humans have walk cycles....

Very simple art added with a few tweens

Using shapes instead of tracing is another method

Added a tween to make it look interesting




Well thats all for now folks! Hope thats made your animating lives a bit easier ^_^

Stone harvester - Sorting the pebbles from the stones

Theme for this weeks reading? Sorting! And to start things off, well.....what better way for us to start than a good old fashioned sort out.


Theme? Who did the reading and who didn't.....So my hard work payed off!


Sorting is a simple process to build a game on, Why? Because we do it all the time without even noticing it. For example? Count to 6 using your fingers. Now split it into 2 halves and add 1 to each. Most of you will have split onto two hands with your thumbs down. You've just sorted without realising! Well back to the fun side, Below is a very easy game i created using house hold objects.


To play you will need

1. Pack of cards
2. A handful of 4 types of counters (Different colors etc. about ten of each for 4 players)

How to play

1. Deal out all of the cards between players as well as an extra hand. (So 5 hands between 4 players)
2. Players sort their hands out how they prefer.
3. The spare hand is placed in the center.
4. Players draw a card each then pick a card from their hand to play face down.
5. Players turn their card over at the same time.
6. The player to the left of the highest card played then has to decide if he wants to raise the value with another card, This continues to the left until all players are resigned or until two players are left and have tied with scores.
7. When a winner has been chosen all of the cards played down are placed aside from the field and the winner gets to either take a mercy counter or rolls the dice for a random counter.
8. Rinse and repeat until the end of the game, If the spare hand runs out shuffle the burn pile and place face down.

Aim of the Game

1. Collect 3 types of one counter (not including mercy)
2. 3 mercy counters can be changed for another counter of any type.

Stone chart (replace as necessary)

1. Black Pebble
2. Green Pebble
3. Blue Pebble
4. Black pebble
5. Green pebble
6. Blue pebble

OMG I TIED WHAT DO I DO?
This took a while to work out.


When the game ends with two people in a tie break the cards up into suit wise and match the highest to the highest etc. until all the cards are laid out in pairs. The winner of a pair is whoever has the highest of that suit. After all of the pairs are shared between the two whoever has the most wins the round.


If there are not enough suits to match eachother they may be substituted as required. For example.


Diamonds is the strongest suit
Hearts is the second strongest
Clubs is the third strongest
Spades is the weakest suit.


This means a 2 of diamonds can be placed instead of a club and beat a Ace of clubs.


Hope you enjoy!

Joker Poker - Quite possibly the simplest game i have ever made.

There are 3 stages other than the gameplay in a board game that can affect peoples opinions on it.
First would be the rules, If the game takes forever to learn and each person interprets the rules in a different way the game will never be played the same.
Second is the setting up time, If tokens need to be placed one square apart on a 2k square board or if the GM has to put the kids to bed and then find an hour to sort through hundreds of cards....Well the game must be either really good or really bad.
Third would be the packing away time, If every turn x amount of players receive x amount of tokens to place on the board then at the end everyone makes an epic dash for their cars in a bid not to tidy up...well you get the point, simplicity is the key.


That's why using a mini brief of "matching game" I created quite possibly the simplest game ever made.....Thats somehow fun?


What you'll need

• 6 Sided Dice
• Pack of playing cards (With jokers)
• These Rules

Rules

1. Deal out 7 cards per player. (Max of 3 players per deck used)
2. Everyone looks at their hand.
3. Dealer rolls the dice and compares the result to the chart, (See below)
4. Starting from the dealer each player plays a card from their hand relative to the result on the chart, If they can't then they must draw a card from the pile.
5. Once each player has gone once the dice is passed to the second player.
6. The game finishes when one player has lost all of their cards.

Additional Rules

1. The joker can only be played when the dice result is either of the jokers relative to the color.
2. Runs can be played of the same suit relative to the result. (EG 4-7 hearts)
3. Runs of any suit can be played on the black or red result. (EG 6 hearts 7 diamonds 8 hearts)
4. Jokers can be played in runs on red or black result as long as they are the same colour as the result.
5. If the cards in the deck run out remove the top card and shuffle the rest into a new deck.

Chart

1.  Hearts
2. Diamonds
3. Clubs
4. Spades
5. Any Red
6. Any Black

Let me know what you think!

*blows dust off blog* Fuzz is back

Well hello! Its been a while....Thats what happens when every piece of technology you touch turns to well....Junk. Alas! No more, I'm back and starting my second year at uni.




So this blog would naturally be about my return to blogspot? Nope, Its about twin headed dragon. A game variant of the popular card game magic of the gathering where teams of two work together with shared life to destroy an opposing team. Normally this goes awry, But tonight mu friend....We iterated!


So as a rule we added in a Dual mana pool. Each turn the player would untap their mana as usual but would be allowed to use their allies untapped mana as well as theres. We figured it would speed the game up....Guess again, Allowing ourselves to use double mana lead to some overthinking and the game took longer than expected. Lets just say 3 hours to be safe.


So i was teamed with steve, a player known for his cautious moves before nullifying your deck....Sounded like fun! Mike and scott were our opponents so it was going to be a good game regardless.


For about 8 turns (30 - 50 mins) the game went slow, We didnt nullify anything and we barely played anything interesting, after an hour though. Things got tense, Forced to show our hands me and steve had to rely on public strategies to win.


2 hours into the game we struck a break, We managed to get one of eight angels onto the field. For those who are not familiar with magic, Sera angel is like a teacher who can both bully and discipline. Its a double edged sword that has a safety mechanism. In short, Its a pain in the ass for whoever is on the receiving end of it.


So now theres a threat on the board, Mike and Scott got vicious, we were better and saved the angel till the last breath, when 2 more joined the field. Needless to say it was a bloodbath from then onwards.


So after a 3 hour game we came to two conclusions. 


1. Our iteration made the game last longer and more tactical but also made it more stressful.
2. 3 sera angels is the default setting to end the game.


Thanks for reading folks, I'll be updating ALOT more now with recaps of a few games im on :)

Megadrive - The console that time forgot.

Well after a long break (Jesus it really has been a while) I'm back. I'm back with a newly acquired set of games to review....as well as otehr stuff, So lets get onto it.

Many many many moons ago, (Before sega screwed up with the dreamcast and lost tons of money) When games were created to appeal to entertainment and not bog standard point shoot head explodes in realistic graphics. A console existed...A brilliant console, Ok ok so not the best but its still in the top ten ever made imo.

The sega megadrive (16 bit to all you oldies) has been round for many generations in families. It was the bane of talking points when I was younger as well as before i was born. (Shocking isnt it, I didnt have one?) It was a simple thing, Make games based on movies, Tv shows and comics...And the odd original idea (Dont get many of them these days ;D) that will keep people entertained for hours. Not by adding realistic graphics with 50 billion levels and modes of play. Noo, By genuinely challenging the player! This is what we need! Not tons of game modes clogging up our dvd's! We want more challenge! The days when you could watch mario crush turtles under his feet with nothing but the laws of gravity! None of this sub machine gun high powered endless action sequences.

Welllll...That was a bit tounge in cheek coming from me playing resi 5 for the last 3 hours but alas! It was a fair point. Anyways, After a Christmas of drinking and a return home to ipswich (with some minor set backs thanks to some rather handicapped characters deserting me in this flat) my flat mate returned with quite possibly the best bag i have ever seen. Inside was a bundled parcel containing, The sega megadrive...And the nintendo gamecube.

Now when something like this happens to a gamer at random, We sort of lose it. Downing the contents of your glass and immediately ripping the xbox leads out of the tv and Shot gunning the sofa for a good position...that was ours.

We set it up, Tuned the tv (Alas HD you screw us again) and prepared....For a blue screen, Of course after so many years of not being touched...The old cartridge and system needed a good ole blow j-. You know what, That jokes been used to much, We removed the dust...happy?

Finally as we got a picture the classic SEGA logo appeared on screen, Sonic was seconds away from us. The chiptuned music strung up a beat, In our hearts. A tear rushed from our eyes, We were about to experience what children of the 90's would wake up to every day.

Sonic wondered on screen looked at us, In the geekiest way possible, We sort of looked back into his eyes. As pixelated and forgotten as they were, It was as if we had awoken from a coma. Sonic was a small chubby blue hedgehog again, None of this anime look with lengthy permed spikes with skinny legs and a stream lined look, NO he was how he started. A pudgey shortass with a knack for running very very fast and a HUGE dislike for eggs.

So we started playing....Now wine and cheese gets better with age...The megadrive cartridges get crippled. Every few minutes (ironically in important spots) the screen would static then go back to normal, Kinda like when your great nan sneezes and everyone immediately bricks it for a tissue. But alas, The old girl held strong, The game continued....Until we swapped cartridges, Time to play some sonic spinball!

Now i dont know if anyone has played this game before, But its addictive....I mean this game is so buggy you played it just to glitch. The aim is to get emeralds and kill bosses as normal in sonic games, But spinball is set out like a pinball machine. After 15 trys we finally got past the first level......and gave up......It was time to take a break.

I think that the megadrive has collected dust for far to long! Its such an underestimated console, The cartridges are fairly priced and sega have re released it in a easy plug in and play console...So put that hd screen on standby, Lock uo your PS3, Take those stupid 3D glasses off and enjoy some classic pixelated nonsense!