Is sharing VX Ace animation data (not graphics) possible?

[Rhaeami]

Background: So, I'm currently working on a solo commercial project that uses a fairly large amount of skills, and I'm not having much luck securing enough stylistically consistent animation graphics to fully replace the RTP.  As such, I'm considering falling back on the RTP with edits/variations to the actual animation sequences in the database, partly to be more unique but mostly to avoid repetition between several hundred individual skills.


Question: While I know that some people provide animation resources in the form of entirely custom graphics sheets, does anyone ever provide edited animation frame data for the existing RTP graphics?  That is to say, entries for the animation tab in the database.  Is such a thing even possible to share/distribute?  If so, are there any specific keywords or places to look in order to find them?  My own internet searching hasn't even turned up discussion on the topic, let alone any resources.

 

[Shaz]

It's a bit hard, but it's do-able.


You can have two different projects open side by side in two different editors, and you can copy/paste slots in the animation tab from one to another.


So another person could create a clean project, delete all the animations that are there, and set up new ones.  They could then send their Data/Animations.rvdata2 file to you, and you could create a clean project, exit it, overwrite the Data/Animations.rvdata2 file with the one they sent to you, and then open that project up side-by-side with your real project.  Then you could copy/paste the animations they send you into your own project.


It would require that you have all the same resources with the same names.  But that's about it.  Then it's up to you to assign those animations to whatever skills you want to use them.


I'm not aware of anyone providing the data for the animation slots - just the images themselves.  Though you should take a look at the animation packs available on the store.  I don't have any of them, but if you look at the previews, the animations are running, so the data has to be out there somewhere.  It might be a matter, if you purchase the pack and the data file isn't included, of sending a message to the creator to see if they still have it and could send it to you.

 

[Kes]

For those animation packs, the artist does what Shaz suggested - he has set up a demo with animations done in them, and you can copy/paste from their into your own project, having installed the animation sheets first, ofc.


There are also a few I made for a Halloween REStaff Release which uses the demo method.  You can find it here.  Note, it is referred to under my previous forum name of ksjp17

 

[Rhaeami]

I see, thanks you two.  It sounds like it's too much of a hassle to have really taken off as a thing, but it's good to know that it's at least possible.  I'll keep exploring my options for how to best handle animation variety for my own project.