Actually you can create animation layers in CS4.

Really now? I'm going to look into this asap. Doh! I knew about Onion skinning, but only because I have PS CS4 Extended, which uses an After Effects like animation strip, but I still was making a layer per frame.



Also, someone, somewhere, made a Photoshop script or something that converts PSD animations into sprite sheets. Someone on this forum even....

I think another important reason is that the tools suck. ... Even Photoshop CS4 with its animation features is a pain the ass to use.

Yeah- CS4 would work great from frame by frame animation, but it makes you create a new layer for every frame, and then manage turning the opacity on and off or whatever. It would be nice to be able to make "animation" layers, that you can draw something different on each frame. Flash works well in this regard, though im not crazy about the pen/line quality in Flash. Has anyone ever tried out Toon Boom?

Also, I was thinking about this more.... A bunch of game artists, especially back in the 16 bit days, were not traditional pro artists, let alone pro animators. They were dudes just like us making games on their own or in small teams with whatever they had available. So you are essentially learning the art of animation from amateurs if you learn from game art, not to mention the color/resolution/frame count restrictions that made their stuff even worse! It doesn't really make sense at all to learn how to animate a good walk cycle by looking at this stuff.

BTW- the next step of this whole thing is to put this into practice. I realize I'm pretty guilty of much of what I am railing against here, so I think it would be hypocritical if I didn't stick to my guns and show some (at least attempted) results from this.

[Red Jaguars]

Go Red Jaguars!

Blue Barracudas - We got a car too ya know.

AND A PLANE:



booya!

Either that or Xerus made a mistake somewhere.

Either that, or he needed one more person to even things out. I don't think he added HIMSELF though, which would solve the problem too....

Just found some cool scans of some of the actual drawings that the EWJim animations were made from: http://slappypictures.blogspot.com/2010/03/making-of-earthworm-jim.html

Inspiring stuff, and probably quite a bit different from most people's game art processes!

As for the lack of skill though- Don't you guys think that some young animators would love to contribute to indie games though? It seems like more of a problem in the gap between the communities than anything else...

I would just like to say that the Blue Barracudas are STACKED

Derek + konjak = WIN!

(And me too!)

Go Cuda's! CHOMP CHOMP

So I pulled out my Genesis last night and tried out some of my old games... the one that stuck out the most? Aladdin. Not only is it a good game, but the animation is INCREDIBLE! 

I remember hearing that the actual Disney animators did the art, and it shows. Unlike most sprite work in games the shapes of the characters are REALLY changing. The squash and stretch is super apparent, and as a result, the animations come to life!

Here are some of the enemies:



Now check out Aladdin's sprite:



To compare, the SNES Aladdin was a different game entirely, with more typical "video game" sprites:



It isn't nearly as nice, despite the technical advantages the SNES offered.

The thing that boggles my mind is that most indie pixel games try to emulate the more stiff traditional video game sprites. In my mind, the sprites based on traditional hand animation look worlds better. It seems like people should take a closer look into traditional animation before doing pixel art. Even games like Braid and Cave Story (while awesome looking in their own right) have fairly stiff, restrained animations.

(A great place to start is the book The Animator's Survival Kit http://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284)

Also, the guys at Shiny (who made Aladdin for Genesis), ended up making Earthworm Jim, which ALSO has some incredible animations. Seems like the time spent working with Disney payed off:



In my opinion, this is the kind of smooth, exciting animation we should be shooting for now, whether it be pixel art or high-res 2D art. I think people should stop using shortcuts. Stop pasting and rotating arms and whatnot and actually draw the frames with life! Flash has made people lazy animators!!!!

What *newer* games can you guys point out that are really awesomely animated? I know Critter Crunch is amazing. But even something like RocketBirds Revolutions seems to cheat the animations with some skeletal 2D flash style animation, and looks kind of stuff because of it.

Do you think it is just a lack of skill that prevents more games from going this route?

A lack of time?

Or something else?

Hey!

I've been meaning to write you guys both... so I will tonight!

Thanks for the encouragement though

(I went to the Rise pre-release though! Great fun, though my pool wasn't the best.)

I'm in CT now, and I know Providence well (I went to Brown!) Also, my wife's mom lives right outside Philly. So basically, I have connections all over New England, and would be down.

Word.

http://twitter.com/FarbsMcFarbs/status/12158420566

OOOOOoooooo now I am excited. Also. 4 years? Yikes. (And still going...When did Farbs leave, at least a year ago, right?) Triple-A development takes too damn long.

There should be more platform games with real lighting. 

http://www.spelunkyworld.com/xbla.html

I agree 

Exploring the idea from above more...

The rpg pages are sick! One finished one, even with non-sense text would be really rad.



Quick concept painting... still trying to figure out a smallish side project to work on.

mayyyyyyyyyyybe

(doing some test stuff for a possible small project so i can throw my hat in the IGF '11 ring.)

hey--- bacon salt already exists... just add that to some paste and you are good to go!!!

yeah-- pretty sick looking game I must say. The gameplay doesn't look like much of anything yet though, which is a shame. Hopefully they can successfully make the switch between making cool tech and making a cool game.

Im in again. Oh I am SO in again.

Yeah-- this page is awesome to the awesome²

picking up sword animation needs to be shorter or freeze enemies while it is occuring.. SOOOO annoying! Also, slightly less rapid restart on deaths as mentioned. The rest is fun though.