Quick 2d animation tip for snappier results.

[scheffgames]

If you have a looped animation - say 12 frames - and you want to make it better just delete one or two frames from the end - in this case frame 11/12 or 12. Frame deletion should happen when you export your sequenced frames (png's) and before you create a spritesheet. 

I'm using this all the time - I think I read in in Animator's survival kit. Also use SqCheck to verify the end results - it's a superlightweight program that will play your frames. Just load 10  or 11 frames instead of 12 in SqCheck and see the difference.

You can also try deleting inbetween frames - say delete every 3d frame. This will also make it snappier. 

As a side note:

Creating a spritesheet directly from some animation programs may be a mistake too since some will leave extra transparent borders around the object. Once you have the frames it's super easy to check them (sqcheck), clean any extra transparent pixels in Photoshop (Trim), apply extra color corrections or maybe some overlayed blurs for them to really pop, pack them with either Photoshop Sprite Creator script, Texture Packer or ShoeBox. Heck, you can even add to each styles - maybe a glow or a stroke. That's why it's important to modify the sequence frames and not the spritesheet (applying a glow for example would show visible borders when the animation it's played).

[mattstyles]

Doesn't this tip imply you aren't creating your graphic frames properly in the first place? Why fix that in code when you should fix it at source?

[scheffgames]

3 hours ago, mattstyles said:

Doesn't this tip imply you aren't creating your graphic frames properly in the first place? Why fix that in code when you should fix it at source?

I've probably said it wrong - I meant when you export your frames from the animation software - then delete the extra frames before creating a spritesheet.

Yeah, it would be pretty dumb to fix it in code and it would waste space.

[alex_h]

I'm with Matt on this one, if your looped animations consistently have one or two redundant frames at the end then your animator is doing something wrong! There shouldn't be any need to always crop frames off of the end of animations otherwise.

I think I see what the point you are trying to make is though, eg if you have a bouncing ball animation then you don't want the start and end frames to be identical, otherwise it doesn't loop nicely. But in that case don't make them that way in the first place. 

[scheffgames]

From a theoretical point of view that's correct - things should be done well in one place before using them somewhere else. However you have to consider the practicalities which may arise sometimes.

1)Not every animator works the same way - the end results may vary. It's up to the end user (game developer) to go blindly with the end result or adjust it.

2)If you bought the graphic asset (animation) maybe you can't contact the original artists to fix that boring animation. If there are no major flaws you can adjust yourself.

3)The animation software doesn't offer you the option to skip frames when rendering - if you have a 12 frame animation in it you can't tell it to export it as a 6  frame animation skipping every other frame. Sure, you can make the animation in 6 frames to start with but chances are it will be harder to do and the end results might not be as good. 

4)You have one master animation file with a smooth 24 frame animation. It looks well, altough a bit boring. You might use it in some places (like a majestic butterfly flapping it's wings). But then you decide you want to also have a more frantic/snappy butterfly. You can redo the whole animation - this will take significant time - or you can just delete frames by hand and if the results are good enough you're good to go. 

5)We're not all master 2d animators. If we can create decent results but not perfect in the animation software why not improve them any way we can afterwards? 

What I'm saying is that this is a technique/tool to be used as needed, when needed, considering the time investment and the end results.