Troll Revamp (serious attempt)

[Ranger M]

I'd just rather spend time doing something the rest of the gang can't do (warrior/L2troll animations).

Hey, hey, hey. Isn't there some arrogance in your voice now! You're really good, but you're not that good.

I think he really means most of the rest of us, a few others who contribute to wesnoth could, but not many, whereas there are more people who can do the death anim (I beleive this is called managing your resources, or something like that)

[Jetrel]

Hey, hey, hey. Isn't there some arrogance in your voice now! You're really good, but you're not that good.

I think he really means most of the rest of us, a few others who contribute to wesnoth could, but not many, whereas there are more people who can do the death anim (I beleive this is called managing your resources, or something like that)

Emphasis mine. The "rest of the gang" was poorly chosen words - I meant "The vast majority of people who visit the forum for this game".

Of the art developers, about the only ones who have demonstrated that they could do the job I listed, are myself, neoriceisgood, or fmuñoz (and possibly eternal/zookeeper). This is because those frames, to be done well enough, have to have large sections drawn from scratch. Few people on the team can do that. For another example, about the only people who can do good attack icons are you, me, leonhard, and fmuñoz. Most others can help give us a start, or an idea, but they can't pull one to completion on their own - you've seen it yourself.

But also - one of the prime things I meant was not in terms of capability, but in terms of "free time to do the job". Last I heard, a lot of people were strapped for time around here - I'm not right now. Fmuñoz is capable of doing those animations, but he probably can't do them because he doesn't have the time.

[Jetrel]

I've committed the animations for the troll warrior and rocklobber.

The plain L2 troll (and whelp death) is all that's left.

[zookeeper]

I've committed the animations for the troll warrior and rocklobber.

Cool. The warrior looks like it's craving for a few intermediate melee frames...I'll get to work on that (and fixing the offsets, ever checked the whelp in-game with ellipses on ?).

[Jetrel]

I've committed the animations for the troll warrior and rocklobber.

Cool. The warrior looks like it's craving for a few intermediate melee frames...

Yeah, he is. I don't yet know how many frames I'm going to make for the L2, but - I'm setting all these up such that the trolls will be perfectly presentable for 1.2, but can also have additional frames inserted by other people.

One thing you might try is making the current splash frame (the white impact effect on the ground) be something like:

[frame]
begin=-25
end=25
[/frame]

You would need a "halfways" frame for the recovery, which could possibly also be used for a very brief moment on the stroke down.

Really, I think the two frames to be made first are a "halfways" frame, and a "windup" frame, as he raises the hammer for a blow.

I'll get to work on that (and fixing the offsets, ever checked the whelp in-game with ellipses on ?).

Just did, now. I almost never work with ellipses on; and when I can, I prefer to play with them off. It's a question of whether you'd prefer the whelp to share the same ground space as his superiors, which I did match them to (IIRC), or whether he should fit the ellipse.

[zookeeper]

Yeah, he is. I don't yet know how many frames I'm going to make for the L2, but - I'm setting all these up such that the trolls will be perfectly presentable for 1.2, but can also have additional frames inserted by other people.

Well, I happened to make (and commit) two filler frames already - a windup of sorts and a "halfways" frame. Not really great, but at least an improvement. Didn't do fancy stuff with the splash though.

EDIT: In case anyone's interested, attached is what I did.

[Eternal]

Looks quite fancy.
Although he seems to be pretty much sliding there.

[JW]

NICE!!! Can't wait for the next release!!

[Zhukov]

Can we see the fixed Whelp?

[Darth Fool]

The third troll frame is odd in a few ways. First, the hammer has moved a little too far. It is more than half way between the second and fourth frames, and since with the kinetic swoosh in the fourth frame indicating the most speed, it should be less than half way. Second, the hammer head shows us two sides, but no face. Note that the other frames show at least one face. This makes it look like the head is undergoing some very strange warping. Perhaps it is not noticable in game, but it is quite noticable in stills like this. Finally, his legs definitely need to move more.

[zookeeper]

Sorry, I forgot to mention: I probably won't be working on this anymore (at least not any more likely than I'll be working on any other animation), so further suggestions might be useful to someone else who wants to improve it, but don't expect much response from me.

[Jetrel]

Sorry, I forgot to mention: I probably won't be working on this anymore (at least not any more likely than I'll be working on any other animation), so further suggestions might be useful to someone else who wants to improve it, but don't expect much response from me.

I can fix it; both the hammerhead and the need for a "stride". However, I'm not going to adjust the position of the hammer, since a] I think that can be dealt with through proper timing, and b] it's really hard to move properly, and c] I don't really see anything wrong with the position as it is.

Can we see the fixed Whelp?

Sure. If you're interested in working on it, the frames in SVN are here:
http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/wesnoth/trun ... ts/trolls/

But there's also a screenshot below:

[Neoriceisgood]

How about female trolls?

[Sapient]

That gives new meaning to the term "over the shoulder boulder holders"

[turin]