A FAQ is a good idea I agree, but I don't think we should put this into the spec, that's not where it belongs. But maybe a link to the FAQ? I can see more sense in that.
I was thinking of this as less of an FAQ, and more of a page for common pitfalls that would prevent you from getting the certification. Many new LPC artists don't realize these issues even exist. The guide is meant to increase compatability, and pointing out common errors does that.
In contrast to characters, which are animated according to the implement actions in the game and therefore can be complete / incomplete, I don't think such a thing exists for tiles. There's no mandatory blob or Wang tileset requirement in LPC, so it is very difficult to interpret "complete" for tiles.
I'll see if I can put together an illustration later that might make what I am thinking clearer.
Trust me, I know! But this spec MUST be backward compatible with the current LPC assets (animations type and number of animation frames wide)
I'm not saying we break backwards compatibility. It is very common for new assets to be released with only a subset of the existing animations. Typically, these are either split into their own individual sprite sheets (my preferred submission style), or layed out on the Universal Sheet with gaps left for the missing animations.
I am suggesting that we allow, and even encourage, this practice.
If my game only needs a walk and an idle animation, but I see that I can get the certification by drawing 1 additional animation, I am more likely to do it than if I have to draw 5.
If I draw that 1 additional animation, another artist is more likely to create the 4 missing animations later.
Yes, the animation's names are indeed confusing. But they aren't for medieval only,
My point was not that we should change the names of the animations, but that if I am making a sci-fi game then an archery animation is a waste of time for me.
Smaller certification groups increase the possibiilty that new art will get released instead of sitting on my computer until I finally get around to finishing that archery animation, and also make it easier to search for assets that will work with my specific genre of game.
The focus of this discussion has largely been about the characters, but I think there's room to improve other sections of the guide as well.
Miscellaneous Suggestions:
The copyright at the bottom of the page should be altered to include an LPC compatible license. None of us can use these guidelines until they're licensed properly.
A page with a quick-reference bullet point list of the requirements to be certified for each type of resource (tile, object, character), with links back to the relevant sections of the guide.
A page for common errors and how to correct them, such as having the incorrect head on left/right animations, or having too many colors because you did not use a dedicated pixel art editor. (I think I already have something written up for the incorrect head problem, I just have to find it again)
Tiles:
Guide for what makes a complete tile set, specifically for a building set. What is needed for a complete set of wall or roof pieces?
Color palettes for common materials: wood, stone, grass, snow, water, sand, glass, etc.
Objects:
A recommendation (maybe a requirement for the certification?) to draw objects from all 4 directions. This would only apply in cases where it makes sense: a barrel looks the same from all sides, but a chair does not.
Guidelines for how transparent materials like glass should be handled.
Color palettes for common materials: wood, stone, glass, metal, etc.
Characters:
I'd suggest having multiple certifications for different sets of animation. I propose we start with two:
Base: Idle (at least 1 frame), Walk, Hurt, maybe Sit. Your art needs to have (or be extending something that has) these animations to get any additional certifications.
Medieval: Cast, Thrust, Slash, Bowing
The remaining animations can be added to future certifications as it makes sense. A certification should have somewhere between 3 and 5 required animations.
Examples of possible future certifications (some animations don't exist yet, or have not been widely accepted):
Locomotion: Run, Jump, Climb, Crouch
Advanced Locomotion: Swim, Crawl, Slide
Melee: Thrust, Slash, Punch, Kick, Stab
Ranged: Bowing, Shoot Gun, Throw
Idle: Idle (more than 1 frame), Sit, Lying Down
Interact: Push, Pull, Carry
The advantages of this system are:
Smaller required lists makes creating new assets less daunting
We don't have to un-certify every asset whenever a new animation is added, we just create a new certification.
Overlapping required animations encourages doing 1 or 2 extra animations to get a second certification (for example, if I drew all the Melee animations, I might spend a little extra time to get the Medieval certification as well)
An artist working on a sci-fi game does not need to create medieval specific animations
There are a few frames at the end of the shoot animation that are meant for drawing another arrow from a hip quiver. They were designed to loop with the shooting animation so multiple arrows could be fired without lowering the bow. I just didn't use the quiver in the preview image.
My ideal organization would be: ${body_type}/${head_type}/${animation}/${category}/${subcategories}/${object}/${variant}
Body type rules out the most items, so it should be organized first. Either head type or animation could come next, but head feels more semantically linked to body. Like body type, animation can rule out a large number of items. After that point, almost nothing rules out anything else.
@Herodom, The death animation should always be the last one in the sheet. If anyone ever creates death animations for the other directions it would add 3 rows before other animations, which means any game using animations after the death would need to also update the starting rows for those if they wanted to add the new death directions.
Animations could all export as a single sheet. If someone wants an individual animation they can just turn off all the others. I would also recommend always having the animations in a set order: cast always comes before thrust, thrust always comes before walk, etc.
Oh, that's right. The "squished" head is the head tilt for the north direction from the original jump. Eliza and I almost removed that too. If it's causing issues it's definitely something we can remove.
I just made you a collaborator, so feel free to upload the files whenever you're ready.
Yes, these can be added to this submission when they're ready.
Regarding the jump animation, it's been awhile since I helped Eliza clean those up, but I believe the squished head in the north frames is one of the heads from the death/hurt animation.
I'd say don't worry about the zombie or skeleton for now. They'd both be incredibly time consuming to adapt to the other bases, and they cover most use cases as they are right now.
There are several color palettes out there, but Eliza's Liberated Palette is probably the closest to a standard that we have. I think most of us are either using it directly, or some variation of it at this point.
I don't know if there's any single source for headgear offsets, but there have been several scripts to auto-place them. The only one I've been keeping track of is Bluecarrot's lpctools, but I think that pulls the offsets from an image.
No one has made a definitive collection of masks. The head is easy to do, but once you start doing anything else you have to make decisions about what's part of the arm/shoulder and what's part of the torso, and that isn't always as clear as I'd like. I think I have some rough arm masks somewhere, but I'll have to dig around a bit to find them.
I've been super busy recently so I hadn't been able to look at it in much detail until now, but your intentional changes all seem good, and the necks should be fine.
If you can fix some of the remaining issues, I'd be okay with adding them here.
A seperate submission would be best if there is still some strangeness around the necks.
I want this to become the definitive collection of bases that have been fully cleaned up and standardized, so I will add them in here as I have time to fix any issues introduced by the automation.
I was thinking of this as less of an FAQ, and more of a page for common pitfalls that would prevent you from getting the certification. Many new LPC artists don't realize these issues even exist. The guide is meant to increase compatability, and pointing out common errors does that.
I'll see if I can put together an illustration later that might make what I am thinking clearer.
I'm not saying we break backwards compatibility. It is very common for new assets to be released with only a subset of the existing animations. Typically, these are either split into their own individual sprite sheets (my preferred submission style), or layed out on the Universal Sheet with gaps left for the missing animations.
I am suggesting that we allow, and even encourage, this practice.
If my game only needs a walk and an idle animation, but I see that I can get the certification by drawing 1 additional animation, I am more likely to do it than if I have to draw 5.
If I draw that 1 additional animation, another artist is more likely to create the 4 missing animations later.
My point was not that we should change the names of the animations, but that if I am making a sci-fi game then an archery animation is a waste of time for me.
Smaller certification groups increase the possibiilty that new art will get released instead of sitting on my computer until I finally get around to finishing that archery animation, and also make it easier to search for assets that will work with my specific genre of game.
The focus of this discussion has largely been about the characters, but I think there's room to improve other sections of the guide as well.
Miscellaneous Suggestions:
Tiles:
Objects:
Characters:
I'd suggest having multiple certifications for different sets of animation. I propose we start with two:
The remaining animations can be added to future certifications as it makes sense. A certification should have somewhere between 3 and 5 required animations.
Examples of possible future certifications (some animations don't exist yet, or have not been widely accepted):
The advantages of this system are:
There are a few frames at the end of the shoot animation that are meant for drawing another arrow from a hip quiver. They were designed to loop with the shooting animation so multiple arrows could be fired without lowering the bow. I just didn't use the quiver in the preview image.
I like the idea of leaving blank space for the missing death animations.
Those spaces may be empty for now, but I've done some promising experiments in the past. I just don't have time (currently) to finish them.
My ideal organization would be: ${body_type}/${head_type}/${animation}/${category}/${subcategories}/${object}/${variant}
Body type rules out the most items, so it should be organized first. Either head type or animation could come next, but head feels more semantically linked to body. Like body type, animation can rule out a large number of items. After that point, almost nothing rules out anything else.
@Herodom, The death animation should always be the last one in the sheet. If anyone ever creates death animations for the other directions it would add 3 rows before other animations, which means any game using animations after the death would need to also update the starting rows for those if they wanted to add the new death directions.
Animations could all export as a single sheet. If someone wants an individual animation they can just turn off all the others. I would also recommend always having the animations in a set order: cast always comes before thrust, thrust always comes before walk, etc.
Oh, that's right. The "squished" head is the head tilt for the north direction from the original jump. Eliza and I almost removed that too. If it's causing issues it's definitely something we can remove.
I just made you a collaborator, so feel free to upload the files whenever you're ready.
Yes, these can be added to this submission when they're ready.
Regarding the jump animation, it's been awhile since I helped Eliza clean those up, but I believe the squished head in the north frames is one of the heads from the death/hurt animation.
I'd say don't worry about the zombie or skeleton for now. They'd both be incredibly time consuming to adapt to the other bases, and they cover most use cases as they are right now.
Bluecarrot covered pretty much everything.
There are several color palettes out there, but Eliza's Liberated Palette is probably the closest to a standard that we have. I think most of us are either using it directly, or some variation of it at this point.
I don't know if there's any single source for headgear offsets, but there have been several scripts to auto-place them. The only one I've been keeping track of is Bluecarrot's lpctools, but I think that pulls the offsets from an image.
No one has made a definitive collection of masks. The head is easy to do, but once you start doing anything else you have to make decisions about what's part of the arm/shoulder and what's part of the torso, and that isn't always as clear as I'd like. I think I have some rough arm masks somewhere, but I'll have to dig around a bit to find them.
I've been super busy recently so I hadn't been able to look at it in much detail until now, but your intentional changes all seem good, and the necks should be fine.
If you can fix some of the remaining issues, I'd be okay with adding them here.
A seperate submission would be best if there is still some strangeness around the necks.
I want this to become the definitive collection of bases that have been fully cleaned up and standardized, so I will add them in here as I have time to fix any issues introduced by the automation.
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