General Discussion

[DarkTl]

Yeah. They are divided according to internal game structure, there are skills and effects databases.

I learned a bit about the game, there was a big story update some time ago that changed many things forever, including animations. No wonder I cannot find some of your gifs in the resources.

[DarkTl]

if os.path.isdir("/".join([dir, packfolder, folder])):
                                # We set the path to the character so we know where to draw images from:
                                setattr(char, "_path_to_imgfolder", "/".join(["content/{}".format(path), packfolder, folder]))
                                # We load the new tags!:
                                for fn in os.listdir("/".join([dir, packfolder, folder])):
                                    if fn.endswith((".jpg", ".png", ".gif")):

Gifs? They are not supported, aren't they?

[Xela]

Animated gifs are not supported, but you'll see the first frame of the file. Ren'Py prolly supports a few other image formats as well, I don't remember why I put it there, someone prolly asked me to.

===>>
I've looked into Ren'Py's file listing a little bit. At some point we'll prolly call that function (once), sort all files appropriately and load the data in a correct order. There will be no further need of OS module and multiple places/function with separate checks. What we're doing now will only work on MAC/Linux/Win and prolly not if we ever start using "archive" system when releasing the game to reduce the amount of files.

[DarkTl]

I was curious why gifs and apngs are not supported and read renpy forum a bit. Turns out apngs are not popular enough to add support for them, and gifs are not supported due to low specifications, like 256 colors and no full alpha support.

But at the same time we make webms from gifs, passing the same low specifications to them. Seems legit 

For better results we probably should do something like this.
 

[Xela]

I have posted the code line to create webm from png series. But it is not a good option for maple stuff. We could try adobes studio or whatever that is called as well... there may be alignment options there as well.

[DarkTl]

Yeah, I'll try cured-of-greed adobe animate cc then, swfs could be converted to webms too.

[DarkTl]

I can't express how easily one can create a swf or a mov from a sprite sheet in animate cc. Too bad it cannot make a webm directly, kinda lame for the price they ask.

And here is a decent free offline tool for converting videos to webms.

[Xela]

Looks good, was this one of the animations that required alignment? I am not sure that Animate CC is the best soft for this either. I am gonna try something else tonight.

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We'll also need a way to create alpha channel for webm...

[DarkTl]

Kinda, it required central alignment. You can freely move separate frames with mouse to manually set any kind of alignment, and probably more, I don't know about all options yet. And of course CC has its own effects that may help to make better animations, after all it was made to create animations not only from sprites sheets.

I don't think we have a better option than using grayscaled animation as alpha. I suppose a pro artist could make a perfect alpha webm manually, but that's an overkill.

[Xela]

Kinda, it required central alignment. You can freely move separate frames with mouse to manually set any kind of alignment, and probably more, I don't know about all options yet. And of course CC has its own effects that may help to make better animations, after all it was made to create animations not only from sprites sheets.

I couldn't figure out the Animation CC BS, peace of sh!t, sorry excuse for a software We don't need it anyway, we're making movies, not flash animations so for us it's either AE or Premiere.

I don't think we have a better option than using grayscaled animation as alpha. I suppose a pro artist could make a perfect alpha webm manually, but that's an overkill.

AE makes a movie from png files with 3 clicks of a button and a perfect mask (I mean it, perfect one) with another 5 clicks. Two resulting files (movie + mask) turn out only slightly smaller than the original .pngs but I haven't looked into optimization yet.

1) Get After Effects.
2) Get Media Encoder.
3) Get .webm plugin for Media Encoder.
4) Import .png files into AE. Don't use sequence import, just the files. Create a composition (here you click the sequence check-button) from the files using the largest file for size (manually look for it..., there might be a script for this but I haven't looked for on yet).
5) Make sure FPS/Alignments are to your liking (FPS is a bitch and there doesn't seem to be an option to setup alignments vs the canvas for all files properly ).
6) Export the movie to ME.
7) Go to effects and under Channel, pick Set Channels. Set Red Channel to Alpha and turn off Green, Blue and Alpha Channels.
8 ) Export the mask to ME.
9) Setup the files in ME so the format is webm. Take parameters from the original file. Bitrate on Alpha channel can prolly be low to beat down the size a bit.

I've tested it in Ren'Py already, it works great and looks really, really good but unless there is a better way to optimize webms, we can just use Ren'Py animations directly, especially in cases with smaller files.

Afterthought... maybe we can remove alpha channel from movie. It's prolly useless. If that can improve the size...

[DarkTl]

We don't need it anyway, we're making movies, not flash animations so for us it's either AE or Premiere.

Actually, for some reason swfs made by CC cannot be converted to webms, there is an error of some kind. But it also can make .mov videos from sprite sheets, and they can be converted 

I read their forums a bit, pro artists who paid a sh*t-ton of money for CC keep asking for webms support for years since it's a very popular format, but nope, adobe is too interested in formats war to add it.

AE makes a movie from png files with 3 clicks of a button and a perfect mask (I mean it, perfect one) with another 5 clicks.

Uh, what about alignment? Can it be freely adjusted for every frame?

[Xela]

Yes. Adjusting alignment is possible for a selection or even for all frames at once as well but it is working oddly. Per frame it's easy. Just like you described for Animate, you can drag and drop or set values.

We need to learn more about optimisation in both programs cause this combo feels perfect
+ it can save to webm directly using a third party plugin. Ren'Py works best with all movies running the same framerate so we need an acceptable standart.

I still haven't undertood framerate settings during import of png images. I can control it by setting up composition frame rate  and time during png to compositionto get the desired result but without full understanding of what's what.

Also, I haven't figured out how to change duration of one image. There is a time setting for it but it cuts into the general sequence. It's all prolly very easy but there aren't many guides around... and I was very tired yesterday as it was.

Prolly with proper knowledge of soft, we can do better than I did by trial and error. Also Premiere may be worth giving it a shot...

Edit: Premiere can do what is required as well, based off what I've just read. It's for movie editing while ae is for composing but our task is so simple that it prolly wouldn't matter which is used.

[DarkTl]

Well, they say After Effects is better for 2D animations, although professionals probably use both.

[Xela]

Well, they say After Effects is better for 2D animations, although professionals probably use both.

Yeap, but we don't really need to animate much. Just showing a bunch of images in a sequence is possible in most editing software of adobe. Even in photoshop, so for us the only thing that matters are the options availible and simplicity and accessibility of those options.

We need to be able to create mask. It prolly doesn't get any easier than in ae. We need to be able to set alignments and change time each image is shown freely. That may be easier in animate or premiere, that's why I mentioned it. We'll prolly stick to ae... it may take a bit of effort to figure out but if it can change time image is shown, automatically adjusting times of other images to get rid of cteated gap or overlap and set alignments properly in bulk which worked ok for me setting 25 frames properly while fucking up 3 or 4, so not perfect as messed up frames must be adjusted frame by frame.

Reading about premiere, it feels like it should be easier to change timings. It may be super easy using ae as well, but I don't have access to software atm.

[DarkTl]

I figured Media Encoder with plugins is used to make actual webm, no matter the tool we used to make animations. Does it support the same stuff as online converters?