Eight Direction & More Frames

[DerVVulfman]

The second one is easier to explain than the first one.

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The system is static. That means you must have the same number of frames for each direction and for each action pose. If you wanted 6 frames of animation for your guy walking left, he must have 6 frames of animation for him running right, for him delivering a karate chop, or just standing around tapping his foot.

The number of frames is within the 'Frame Control' section around line 120:
CHARSET_FRAMES = number

So far, so good eh? Now, you probably notice the charset stand frame value below. That' is something if you want your guy to have a standing pose that acts before your character walks or runs or does a karate chop. It's pretty much a bland frame with the guy just... standing.

By default, the standing frame value is set to 'false' as the default 4x4 characterset has no standing pose.. If set to true, it assumes the 1st frame is a pose that the character returns to after moving or jumping. BUT... it adds one more to your expected number of frames. This means, if you set the CHARSET_FRAMES to 6, you need to make a characterset with 7 frames of animation.... the first frame being the bland standing frame and the remaining 6 being your 6 animation frames.

But... it may not be for you.

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Now let's get back to your wanting an animated IDLE set.

You said you managed to get the system to use the SORA and RIKU sprites that came in the demo. That means you did set the system to this:

Code:

# Charset Poses  
  CHARSET_TOTAL_POSES   = 8                       # Total number of poses
  CHARSET_POSES         = 8                       # Standard number of poses

and appaently already knew to set the frames to 8.

Heading back to the whole 'Character Standing Frame', did you set the CHARSET_FRAMES to 8 and turned Standing frame to true? Or did you set it to 9 and left it set at false? You may find it looking better with the 8 frames and 1 standing frame feature. ;) At least for this.

Now about having an animated waiting frame, it's simple. Look at the number of poses and DOUBLE it. So for each up-facing walk pose, you need an up-facing idle pose. One for the up-right facing, up left facing, down right facing.... and so on. Obviously, this means your characterset must have them too. There is no 'I want the idle to only be down facing' system. Even if you wanted the sprite to be facing down, you have to make all 8 directions even if all the graphics look the same.

And as to doubling? You would change the 'CHARSET_TOTAL_POSES' to 16 rather than 8 because you now have 16 poses, the first 8 being your walking poses and the next 8 being the idle poses. After that, you set 'CHARSET_POSES_W' (which is for the waiting pose) to start on pose #9 in your custom characterset. Leave the CHARSET_POSES to 8 as you only have 8 poses for each action (walking or idle).