FacebookTwitter
Hatrack River Forum   
my profile login | search | faq | forum home

  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Hatrack River Forum » Active Forums » Books, Films, Food and Culture » Looking for a good 2D animation program

   
Author Topic: Looking for a good 2D animation program
C3PO the Dragon Slayer
Member
Member # 10416

 - posted      Profile for C3PO the Dragon Slayer           Edit/Delete Post 
So I'm making a game as a summer project. I've made a number of games before, but in the past I've explicitly avoided making games about anything that would require complex animations. Instead, I've always resorted to spaceship games, or puzzle games with only one animated sprite and procedurally-generated graphics, because the programs I've been using are not geared towards complex animation. I've been looking around Google, the Mac App Store, the iOS App Store, and elsewhere to see if there's a program that's good for making quality animated sprites. Before I commit to buying or downloading any of the options, I'd like to ask if there's anyone in this community with any experience animating sprites and whether they have any pointers.

For what I'd like to do, I'd prefer to have (in order of most preferred first):

-Good layer/object management
-Onion skinning
-Multiple undo operations (it's embarrassing how many programs DON'T support this)
-Some kind of background "rotoscoping" feature that lets me trace over an existing image
-Save to .png
-Vector graphics, to render to multiple sizes without any loss in quality. Barring this, the size I'm working with is generally in the 32x32 to 128x128 range. Remember that I'm making game sprites.
-It would be nice if there was a way to use an iPad with a stylus for fine control because I hate using the mouse to draw, especially since I'm left-handed. Note this only applies if the program only supports raster graphics; I can do vector art with a mouse reasonably enough
-The program doesn't have to be free, but it shouldn't be too expensive for what I'm trying to do. I'm not intending to make super high-quality industry-grade sprites; I just want it to look presentable.

If I can find an easy-to-use program that works well, I'll save myself a lot of hassle downloading a bunch of free trials, or worse, actually buying something that turns out to not be what I want. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Blayne Bradley
unregistered


 - posted            Edit/Delete Post 
Macromedia flash maybe?
IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
TomDavidson
Member
Member # 124

 - posted      Profile for TomDavidson   Email TomDavidson         Edit/Delete Post 
Man, you JUST missed a deal on Anime Studio 7 for $29. [Frown]
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Stone_Wolf_
Member
Member # 8299

 - posted      Profile for Stone_Wolf_           Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Originally posted by Blayne Bradley:
Macromedia flash...

+1

Although it should be noted that it's now Adobe Flash.

Posts: 6683 | Registered: Jun 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Blayne Bradley
unregistered


 - posted            Edit/Delete Post 
And there goes my opportunity to legitimately own Anime Studio [Frown]
IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
TomDavidson
Member
Member # 124

 - posted      Profile for TomDavidson   Email TomDavidson         Edit/Delete Post 
Dude, you can get Anime Studio 8 for $50 at its regular price, and the Debut (lite) version for $8. That's not bank-breaking.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
   

   Close Topic   Feature Topic   Move Topic   Delete Topic next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:


Contact Us | Hatrack River Home Page

Copyright © 2008 Hatrack River Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.


Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classic™ 6.7.2