TNT Animator Studio 1.04 Released! 22/08/2012

Mells · August 2012

Hi @GregBUG,

I'm trying to create my own animations with TNT Animator Studio but I'm stuck :
I have tried to duplicate your example textures (crock.***) and rename it (chara.***).
When I'm trying to load it in my files, this error happens :

 attempt to index field 'animation' (a nil value)

here

self.anim:setAnimation("CROCK_IDLE_DOWN")

And I think this happens because of this :

animLoader:loadAnimations("chara.tan", crockTexturePack, true)

chara.tan is just a duplicate of crock.tan.
I have made an export of chara.tan but the error is still here.

The strange thing is : I just renamed the files, nothing else.
1. Do you have a suggestion to solve it?

2. Another question : how do you change the texture pack for a file without creating a blank file?
I'd like to load a new texture pack in an existing file so that I can keep the name of the animations as a template (IDLE, STANCE, DASH, etc).
And then be able to "Save as".

Thank you!

GregBUG · August 2012

Hi mells!

i tried to rename croc.tap in chara.tan and then changed
crockLoader:loadAnimations("chara.tan", crockTexturePack, true)
and all work fine.! :-?

can't reproduce... can you send me project files ?

2. nop... (for now

)

GregBUG · August 2012

Hi @GregBUG,

I'm trying to create my own animations with TNT Animator Studio but I'm stuck :
I have tried to duplicate your example textures (crock.***) and rename it (chara.***).
When I'm trying to load it in my files, this error happens :
 attempt to index field 'animation' (a nil value)
here
self.anim:setAnimation("CROCK_IDLE_DOWN")
And I think this happens because of this :
animLoader:loadAnimations("chara.tan", crockTexturePack, true)
chara.tan is just a duplicate of crock.tan.
I have made an export of chara.tan but the error is still here.

mmmm could be that you writed this:

self.anim:setAnimation("crock_idle_down")

???

in setAnimation the name of "animation" MUST be all in UPPERCASE!.

can you check this ?

Mells · August 2012

Hi @GregBUG,

thank you for this answer.

In fact I have renamed animations in crocks.tan like "CHARA_IDLE_DOWN" (uppercase), saved, renamed crocks.tan like chara.tan then exported as chara.tap.
In setAnimation() I use uppercase also.

Here is a copy (named chara_1 for all files).

I don't see what is wrong with it.

If I replace file names with crocks.*** then everything works so I don't think that it's because of my implementation but more about the way that I have edited crocks.tan, maybe.

GregBUG · August 2012

i've just checked your files and seems ok to me.

one more check:

make sure:

self.anim:setAnimation("CHARA_IDLE_DOWN")

and changed ref. file in gideros project. (remove crock.tan and replace with chara.tan)

ps: the file you must import in gideros is "*.tan" not
"*.tap" (tnt animtor project)

let me know....

Mells · August 2012

Edit : Solved
OK just as I was posting, I find out that the error was coming from the EnterFrame function (that I had put at the end of my files) where I had forgotten to change animation names.
I couldn't find it easily because the output in Gideros Studio didn't tell me clearly where this happened.

Ah, why does it always happen *after* I post here...

Magnusviri · August 2012

I have been using this and it is great. I noticed that any time I tell it to play an animation that isn't there that it crashes the app. Maybe it can check for a nil value before it tries to play it just in case.

Magnusviri · August 2012

I have been using this and it is great. I noticed that any time I tell it to play an animation that isn't there that it crashes the app. Maybe it can check for a nil value before it tries to play it just in case.

Mells · August 2012

My suggestions :

1. @Magnusviri
a method to check if an animation exists would be great too.

2. A solution to import a new texture pack inside an existing Animation project

First tests with TNT Animator are promising

GregBUG · August 2012

@mells

now i'm going at work
btw i think to release 1.04 today with some bug fix.

and now i think to add a check for a nil value before play.

what do you think ?

i have not used this check to avoid an "overcharge" in critical functions...

atilim · August 2012

IMHO, If an animation doesn't exists, the application should crash. So that user can catch and fix the error as soon as possible.

techdojo · August 2012

My $0.02 - rather than crash, use the "assert" command to "exit gracefully" with a meaningful message

atilim · August 2012

@techdojo +1 (crash is a wrong keyword here

Mells · August 2012

@GregBUG
An error message telling which animation was not found (which line) would be perfect.

GregBUG · August 2012

@Mells and @all

ok. fixed now.

now if an animation in not defined this error will come out:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
main.lua:39: TNTAnimator Error: Animation 'CHARA_IDLE' not definited. Error in setAnimation('CHARA_IDLE')
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

with the real line where the error occured.

today i release 1.04 stay tuned!

Ciao!!!!

Mells · August 2012

@GregBUG

I have made a donation to show my appreciation for the work done and the great support.
Please tell us if and where you need detailed suggestions for improvements, I've been using it a lot yesterday and there would be details to make it even greater.

GregBUG · August 2012

@GregBUG

I have made a donation to show my appreciation for the work done and the great support.
Please tell us if and where you need detailed suggestions for improvements, I've been using it a lot yesterday and there would be details to make it even greater.

Thanks @Mells for your support and help! (really appreciated)

and yes if you have suggestion please let me know!

thanks again! for your donation!

:x

Mells · August 2012

My pleasure. I hope you get enough donations to keep the updates coming because I'm probably not the only one who saved lot of time thanks to your tools.

About possible improvements : currently when I update my packed Texture (by adding In-between keyframes) I have to recreate a total new Animation Project, Create Animation names, add images to each animation, etc..

My solutions to improve and speedup the workflow :
1. Have the ability to add new animationS in a text field (for example one Animation's name per line). That would allow people to store all their animation's name in a template (even a .txt file) and recreate all of them very quickly.
Copy / Paste all your Animation names -> And it's done.

2. Have the ability to store all the images' name in a txt file associated to their animation so no information is lost when you have to recreate a new animation project.

Example :

# IDLE_RIGHT <em>(Animation's name)</em>
- Idle_right_1 <em>(Image's name)</em>
- Idle_right_2
- Idle_right_3
 
# IDLE_LEFT
- Idle_left_1
- Idle_left_2
- Idle_left_3

3. Even better would be if this file could be saved/loaded in the menu ("Save Animation Project Structure" and "Load Animation Project Structure").
When I update my packed Texture with more images, I could create a new Animation Project and load a pre-recorded project structure.

4. The ability to select multiple Frames with Shift-Click would be great in order to Flip several frames

5. The ability to duplicate an animation with a right-click ("Duplicate", "Duplicate and flip X", "Duplicate and flip Y") would be a dream.

6. Or a way, somehow, to flip an animation and not only individual frames.

Those are the main improvements that came to my mind　:)

GregBUG · August 2012

@Mells
thanks for your precious suggestions. i'll try to implement in next version.!

hope to release today v1.04 (bug fix and maintenance).

but i'm very busy at work.. so possible delays...

GregBUG · August 2012

Hey Guys!!!
TNT Animator has been updated to 1.04!!!

what’s new in this release (mainly a bug fix and maintenance)
v1.04 22/08/2012
+ Added check for Animation in setAnimatio… release a nice error log if animation is not found. thanks to @Mells!
+ Corrected a Bug in PlayAnimation that if a StopFrame is definided in a non loop animation animation won’t start. (reported by draconar)
+ function CTNTAnimator:addToParent(parentGroup) added and CTNTAnimator:addChildAnimation(parentGroup) NOW DEPRECATED!!!!

ciao!!!!

PS: for people that had donated dropbox link contain v1.04 (with sources)

Mells · August 2012

thanks for your precious suggestions. i'll try to implement in next version.!

Those were just suggestions because I don't know how much time it would take to make those features available, but if you think that this could be available in the next version, I can't wait! (when you'll be less busy at work)

Also I would like to handle the error and play a default animation if the animation was not found, is that possible to have a method to check if an animation exists and get a true/false value in return?

For example : double press on jump button -> Play "DOUBLE_JUMP" animation.
If animation doesn't exist, this character doesn't have this ability and play default "JUMP" animation.
That would be great to add animations specific to some characters.

GregBUG · August 2012

thanks for your precious suggestions. i'll try to implement in next version.!
Those were just suggestions because I don't know how much time it would take to make those features available, but if you think that this could be available in the next version, I can't wait! (when you'll be less busy at work)

Also I would like to handle the error and play a default animation if the animation was not found, is that possible to have a method to check if an animation exists and get a true/false value in return?

For example : double press on jump button -> Play "DOUBLE_JUMP" animation.
If animation doesn't exist, this character doesn't have this ability and play default "JUMP" animation.
That would be great to add animations specific to some characters.

now i'm coding TNT Collision my new libs...
so i'll start to implement new functions in animator
(except for bugs that will be addressed as soon as i can)
after official release of Collision.

about default animation nice idea...
i'm annotating down your wishlist !

thanks again mells!

......
...
.....

OFF-TOPIC: i love my life and my life love me!!! ahahahahahah

) (i fell a little bit Hippy today

)

Mells · August 2012

Just a word to say that I've been testing TNT Animator 1.5 beta version in real conditions (lot of sprites, animations, textures) and the latest improvements and additional features make it such a great tool that it can't compare to 1.4

TNT Animator Studio in next version…
Anim. Templates, textures live reloads, anim. clone… and many more… stay tuned…

Really nice work, @GregBUG.

And if you are currently using TNT Animator, please try to quantify how much time you have saved until now with this tool (and how much time you *will* save, the 1.5 update is amazing) and consider if it's worth a donation or not.

In my case, the decision was a no-brainer.
* Support indies! *

Martin · September 2012

I'm using your class + Studio and I like it very much !

One thing I would love to see is the ability not only to flip x & y but also to be able to rotate and scale a sprite within an animation. While looking at the code I think it wouldn't be too difficult because the flip-part is very similar.

It would save a lot of frames if you for example would animate only an arm of a figure, you could rotate it instead of animating each frame and it would need much less memory.
Another superfeature would be to move a sprite within an animation so animationframe_1 is the same as animationframe_2 only a few pixel to the left and the next one could be a new different bitmap...
I'm aiming to be able to animate only parts of a character within a base animation and use as low memory / texturespace as possible.

Thanks a lot for your Tool !
Martin

GregBUG · September 2012

thanks martin for your positive feedback!

this days i'm working hard to prepare and release v1.5 (thanks to @Mells for his support, deep test and new ideas/features!).

i'm releasing beta2 of v1.5 (just need to add 2 features).
and if all go well soon there will be a release to public.

there are many (editor and libs) new features and if you like 1.04 you'll love 1.5!

stay tuned!

PS: about zoom, and rotation... for now i need to stabilize bugs and editor then i'll try to implement features that not will impact on performance.

ciao!
Gianluca.

ar2rsawseen · September 2012

wait what, when did it go from 1.0.4 to 1.5? Or its a such huge improvement release?

Mells · September 2012

@ar2rsawseen I was also surprised by the change

But if we talk about features and use in production, believe me the change is huge.

GregBUG · September 2012

@ar2rsawseen
yes maybe i have little exaggerated... with versioning number....

but next version will be an huge improvement from actual version... :P

maybe is better to assign 1.1 to this new version? :-?

ar2rsawseen · September 2012

@GregBUG well it all depends on how far do you think you are from the version 2.

GregBUG · September 2012

beta 4 of TNT Animator v1.1 is ready!!!
many many news…
tomorrow release to all peoples that supported me and make this update possible (donators)
then (after some tests)
public release!!!

Ciao!
stay tuned!

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