Stargate - Animation Question

[kR1pt0n1t3]

Hi,


So a few days ago I started to mess around with making an animated stargate.


I used tiles and stuff I found online. I didn't make any of it and I don't know who's the author so I can't credit him.


I edited the resources I found using GIMP to serve my needs.


Sounds I downloaded from http://www.biggsproductions.com/sound-effects/ which he says can be used for whatever reason.


Since I'm a total noob when it comes to game development in RPG maker I ran into few problems and I'm hoping someone here can help me out.


First, this is how far I've made it so far with my limited knowledge and understanding of the tile/animation system.










My first problem how can I slow down iris closing animation so it matches the sound? Sound is 3 seconds long but animation for closing iris is done in 1 sec. Is there anyway to slow down the animation? 


Questions:


1. How does the animation for files whose filename starts with $. I have a picture with 12 blocks (3x4).  One block is 144x96, the Whole picture is 432x384.


First six blocks are for iris closing and seconds six are for iris opening.


What if I made a single picture the same size but with 12 blocks for iris closing instead of 6. That would slow down the animation but I don't know if there's any way


to make the RPG play the whole animation? So far it only spins animation in blocks of 3. I would need to make separate 4 events and turn switches to tell RPG maker


to switch to next row of animation. Is there any way around this?


2. How does the graphics thing work when using "Change graphics" in "Move Route". I tried switching graphics and using wait command to try to avoid making 4 separate events to go through all blocks for iris closing animation but it's not working as I hope it would.


3. So 60 frames is 1 second. How can I know how many frames it takes for one loop of my animation of 3 blocks to finish? Does the block size matter at all? One block is 144x96 and 3 blocks are 432x96. How many frames would it take for RPG maker to go through one loop(3 blocks)?


I still got tons of these little questions since like I said I'm totally new to this kind of things. If anyone can help out or point me towards a good reading material that explains how this works I would be very grateful. 


My goal is to make this Stargate work as close as it can to the original series and use as less resources and as less code as it possibly can. I know you can do same things using a lot of different way so I'm hoping someone here has more knowledge about this than I do.


Thanks 


kR1pt0n1t3

 

[Andar]

Unfortunately, your video is completely useless as far as the required information goes.


We need to see the event commands you used to animate that sequence before we can even start to help you, because there are several different ways to animate something and all solutions depend on which way you used to animate it.

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

Well, here you go. I planned to release it to the public but only after I've finished everything but...


https://mega.nz/#!6QxRCZzZ!Iuu0Qc3Kb5Vy4moQR1xIkHHRn8ZWM7yjXEG97OORv-8


The reason I didn't upload anything is because I don't want someone to just change things, upload back and tell me here it is. 


I want to learn it myself and work on it myself.

 

[Andar]

I was asking for screenshots, not for the game to download...

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

That's too complicated. Uploading 30+ screenshots...


You have the game now so see if you can help. (if you still want to help)

 

[Archeia]

Have you tried changing the speed/frequency of the events? That affects animation speed.

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

I did, doesn't do much


Is there any way to tell the game to read animations vertically? Default is 3 block in one row but I've seen some resource files where animation blocks are vertically sorted so I'm guessing there must be some way.

 

[Andar]

just look at a quick event "door" and check how that is animated

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

Thx dude. Didn't even know these quick events even existed.


I managed to make it to work by examining the quick event door but I still don't understand the logic behind it.


How does


Turn left


Wait 3 Frames


Turn right


Wait 3 Frames


Turn Up


make the game read blocks vertically? I want to understand the logic behind this.

 

[Andar]

each of the four lines stand for a different direction - check the sprites of people how they are structured.


So turning into one direction automatically displays the sprite assigned to that direction, even if it is not a sprite of a person looking into that direction.

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

That doesn't make any sense to me because this is how the door image looks...

If what you say is true then "turn left" would make program to the tile on the left which is the exact same picture.


Then it would read "turn right" and program would return to the same position it was at.


Then it would read "turn up" and program would go couldn't go up because there's nothing above the starting tile?


Or are you saying the pictures are pre-programed so every row represents direction?


If I write "turn up" the program would read picture in 4th row?


If I write "turn left" the program would read picture in 2nd row?


If I write "turn down" the program would read picture in 1st row?


If I write "turn right" the program would read picture in 3nd row?

 

[Andar]

Or are you saying the pictures are pre-programed so every row represents direction?

That


Check one of the "people" sprites and you'll see the directions, because you got them wrong (you forgot the default direction for the top row)

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

My next question


Is it possible to make an animation with 8 blocks instead of 4 so the animation looks smooth?


4 image blocks aren't enough for me to make a nice animation of stargate iris opening and closing look smooth.


It would also work if I could somehow jump into next graphic and then use turn up,left,down,right? Is the possible?


Any suggestions?

Lets say I'm in 1-1 block and use turn up,right,left,down for opening iris. Can i somehow switch to block 2-1 and then use again turn up,down to make it seems like animation is continuing? Is something like that possible. Is there a better way to do things like that?

 

[Andar]

no - but you can split the pictures into two sprites, use the four directions of the first sprite, then change to the second sprite and use four directions there.

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

So I need to add another 12 blocks of the same size to this picture?


And then use change graphics to switch to that part of picture?


EDIT:


So I figured out everything out but now I'm curious about how to input gifs in the game?










This video is about 20 seconds long without the intro and I would like to input it in the game to play when a player goes through the stargate. What's the best way to do something like this?


One of the obvious answers is to break the video into pictures and then loop the pictures one by one. Is there any better way?


EDIT: Nvm after googling for 30 minutes I figured all out.


EDIT: 


Version 3