DKC Atlas Forum

[Phyreburnz]

Super Luigi, you never fail to make me laugh or smile! I laughed out loud with that one. Don't ever stop making jokes!

So, my next think I'm trying is to make Manky Kong the monkey bar using enemy. I am going to do a similar thing that I did for both DK and Dixie. I'm picking bits and pieces of Manky that matches Diddy's horizontal rope animation as best as possible (the animation of Manky looks like it would be more compatible with the way Diddy swings, rather than Kiddy, even though Manky is Kiddy's size). I think that this will work. I think if there is any enemy to use monkey bars, Manky should be it. I may decide to change his colours a little for my "official" enemy.... as well as a different, cheesy name

[Super Luigi!]

I wasn't joking; I was serious. That's how well done those sprites are. As for your Manky Kong enemy, I look forward to seeing it in action, so that I may praise and help name it.

[Cyclone]

Phyreburnz your recent sprite animations are great. Keep up.

by the way what are these for? a fan game?

[Simion32]

I believe they are all for general use by us fan-game builders...? I don't think she explicitly mentioned any particular purpose.

[Phyreburnz]

I don't do computer programming or anything like that. I have no idea how to do fan games. I'm an art major, not a computer science major I started out just wanting to make all of the Kongs compatible with all of the games, so anybody that did make a fan game could use them. Now I've just been doing my own ideas if anybody wanted to use them for their games. I've also done my own level designs for anybody that wants to use them. I wish I could do my own game, but I just don't have the time to learn that stuff. I've been pretty good with Photoshop for about 8 or so years, now, so I can make use of that. I'm not great with other computer stuff. I've tried hex editing, but to no avail... I changed all the butterflies in DKC to tadpoles and that's about it!

[Qyzbud]

You... changed the butterflies into... tadpoles?!

This I gotta see! Any pics/videos handy?

[Phyreburnz]

Unfortunately, I don't have the byte codes anymore... They *may* be on my old laptop still. If they are still there, I can get them in about two weeks.... Or if anybody has a list of the byte codes used for a hex editor that they could give me, that would work, too... But all I did was just find all of the codes for the butterflies and changed the codes to that of the tadpoles... so there were little tadpoles swimming around in the jungle levels. If I can find the codes on my old laptop, I'll upload them somewhere on the forum.

Maybe I'll have to mess around with that some more and just do EVEN MORE stupid things....

[Super Luigi!]

I always thought Simion32 hired Phyreburnz to make these sprite animations, and it was simply a bonus that Phyreburnz enjoyed it so much that she started taking requests. Oh well, the conspiracy lives on, I suppose.

[Phyreburnz]

I am still working on Manky for the monkey bars, I'm just taking a bit of a break. So, instead, I give you DK's improved horizontal rope animation. I may just tweak one or two things. I'm going to re upload my sprite sheets at some point. Not quite yet, though.

dk-on-horizontal-rope-different-animation.gif (31.43 KiB) Viewed 306794 times

Just as a comparison... This was my first REAL edit that I ever did (go back and look at the first page!). The Squawks one doesn't really count because I just used one frame and animated his tie...

dk-horizontal-rope-test-1.gif (7.42 KiB) Viewed 306794 times

Although, honestly... I may end up redoing DK's horizontal rope animation... again... to make it more like Dixie's and have him face forward... maybe...

[Qyzbud]

Both are good, but the Kiddy-esque one is much cooler and more DK-like.

[...] all I did was just find all of the codes for the butterflies and changed the codes to that of the tadpoles...

Ohhh... the little thing that is inexplicably swimming around in the painting(?) in DK's treehouse? I always thought it was a fish, but it does look a bit like a tadpole. I would say "what sense does it make for a tadpole to be swimming around in a picture of (what I assume is) the ocean?!" ...but of course the sheer fact that any animal is swimming around in what looks like a painted picture clearly supersedes that.

[VideoViking]

You might have just convinced me to revise DKCX later. Nice animation frames, Phyre.

[Phyreburnz]

Not quite sure what to what changes you are referring, VideoViking... addition of DK on a horizontal rope or the addition of the monkey bars...?

Here is Manky on monkey bars. He isn't going to look as nice as Dixie or DK, since I was working with a far smaller amount of frames. I'm still going to work on it a little bit to fix a few minor things, but here is a start, at least.

manky-swinging-on-monkey-bars-animation.gif (25.95 KiB) Viewed 306780 times

[VideoViking]

On a horizontal rope. Before now, I could only do vertical ropes and swinging.

[Phyreburnz]

I've fixed some of the jumpyness in his feet... but I really am having a hell of a time trying to get it to look better.... I'll try one keeping his head straight.

manky-bars.gif (26.59 KiB) Viewed 306759 times

I did think of a horribly punny name... MankyBar... not sure if I'll keep that as his "official" name...

*EDIT* Here is one with his head straighter.

mankybars.gif (26.7 KiB) Viewed 306756 times

[Phyreburnz]

I'm so unhappy with my Manky on the monkey bars, but I really don't think that I can do it any better... I think the only way to do it is to make a model... I could try doing claymations some more, maybe... I'm just so bad at modeling and I don't have a program to animate models....

Maybe I'll just have to look through my sheets again and see if there are any other options... but I really would love an enemy monkey for the bars. I'm just so stuck.

[Qyzbud]

You should be happy with your efforts, Phyre! Sure, it needs some tweaking before the motion will feel right, but considering the limited sprites you had to work with, you've done amazingly.

I doubt it would be an easy thing to implement, but I think the main thing that's lacking at the moment is a feeling of "weight" or momentum... DK's animation has a real swing/bounce to it with every grab of the rope, and to me, that sells it as a dynamic and fluid, gravity-affected form of locomotion:

vs.

Your current MankyBar animation lacks that dynamic feel — partly, I think, because the up and down movement isn't as strong and rhythmic, and doesn't seem as linked to the grabbing of the bars as it should — if that makes sense?

Perhaps a good approach would be to move the head/torso up and down where appropriate to simulate the "bounce" of DK's (or Kiddy's) animation, then rework the arms/hands to suit the new body positions.

Just a suggestion! Your work is inspiring.

[Phyreburnz]

Well, looking at the original sprite sheet, it seemed that the sprites already there were closer to Diddy's animation. maybe I'll just have to mess with things some more and see if I can make it match Kiddy's. The biggest problem with doing things the way I do them is that I'm working with what is there already. Besides maybe adding a few pixels here and there, it's mostly cutting bits and pieces of some sprites that match as closely as possible to other sprites. Not only is that process long and tedious, but it's super limiting. That's why I had such a hard time giving Kiddy all the animations to make him compatible with the other games. He had like half the sized sheet of the other Kongs. I know what would make an animation look more official, but the problem lies with working on preexisting sprites and nothing more.

[Phyreburnz]

I've tweaked a few things in the new horizontal rope animation.

dk-on-horizontal-rope-different-animation-fixed-hands.gif (28.59 KiB) Viewed 306604 times

[VideoViking]

What will DK's idle and turning animations be like while on a horizontal rope?

[Cyclone]

Good job Phyreburnz! How do you make these animations?

[Phyreburnz]

As far as turning goes, none of the Kongs have a turning animation on the horizontal ropes. It is possibly something that I could make if you would like.

As far as DK's idle, here it is for the horizontal ropes, and from this, I'll change his hands to make them fists for the rope. This one is an incredibly simple edit, but I think it works.

dk-idle-on-monkey-bars.gif (6.89 KiB) Viewed 306589 times

Also, I fixed the animation I was going to have for Dixie for the monkey bars. I never uploaded the first one, but here is the fixed one, anyway.

dixie-idle-on-monkey-bars.gif (3.1 KiB) Viewed 306589 times

How I make them is by picking bits and pieces of already existing animations and piecing them together. I'm actually thinking about doing a simple edit of something and recording it and speeding up the recording so people can see my process. My latest ones that I think look the best are done by looking at animations that already exist for the other Kongs, such as Kiddy's horizontal rope sprites, and finding different body parts that match each bit, such as a foot, hand, face, leg, etc. Once I get all the body parts for one sprite, I flatten the layers and then move to the next sprite in the sequence and start all over again with matching body parts. It is definitely a lengthy process.

[Qyzbud]

They look great, Phyre! My only criticism is regarding DK's centre of gravity; his lower half looks to be "pulled backward", which throws out the balance of his pose.

Otherwise, they both look very nice indeed.

[Phyreburnz]

Eh, I'm not too worried about that.... besides, I think it looks like most of his weight is being held by his right arm, since his left elbow is a little bent... so there's my justification!

And, here is DK idling on the horizontal rope.

dk-horizontal-rope-idle.gif (4.96 KiB) Viewed 306583 times

[VideoViking]

If neither Diddy nor Dixie having horizontal rope turning animations, then Donkey shouldn't have one either. I like to keep things balanced.

However, are there transition frames for each Kong who moves from a vertical rope to a horizontal rope?

[Qyzbud]

[...]I think it looks like most of his weight is being held by his right arm[...]

True, but even still, I think it looks like there's a pretty strong headwind wherever DK's hanging around.

Honestly though, if you're not worried about it, that's the main thing.

If neither Diddy nor Dixie having horizontal rope turning animations, then Donkey shouldn't have one either. I like to keep things balanced.

Surely there's no harm in having extra frames available, though; if you don't wish to use them, you certainly don't have to! Besides, with time, there's no reason we can't have custom frames for just about any character doing just about anything! Phyre is doing a spectacular job of proving that.

[Phyreburnz]

Rare's animations lacked a lot of turning frames... if you'd like me to make turning frames for all the Kongs on a horizontal rope, I don't think it would be a problem!

As far as the transition frames from vertical to horizontal ropes, I don't think there are any special frames, but I could pop in a cartridge and check. I know there aren't any on the sprite sheets out there, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

[Phyreburnz]

I was just thinking about possibly making turning frames for the Kongs on the horizontal rope... but I don't think I can make it look legitimate, because, logically when the Kongs turn, you will see their backs.

diddy turn.png (3.88 KiB) Viewed 306562 times

What I was thinking about doing is having his left arm let go and have his body swing around so he switches directions, but then his back would be toward you.

Also, I did look and there are no transitional frames from moving to a vertical rope to a horizontal rope. It just jumps from one frame to the other. Moving from vertical to horizontal, there is a jumping frame used. This is in DKC2. I don't know about DKC3, though.

[Phyreburnz]

I think I'm going to see about totally redoing this... but I've done something a bit better than what I had before... I just HATE editing Kiddy...

kiddy-crawling-slightly-better.gif (4.38 KiB) Viewed 306385 times

I can't save the speed in which it plays, so obviously it would be slower, but I think it needs more frames to look more official.

[Qyzbud]

It still looks a lot like a low-frames version of his swimming animation — perhaps animating his hands/arms so that one goes back as the other comes forward would make a positive difference?

[Phyreburnz]

Well, what I am going to do is what I did for DK's remade horizontal rope sprites. I'll put DK's sprites on the back and pick bits and pieces from Kiddy's sheet that fits the best to make a new crawling animation. I'm going to work somewhat slowly on this, because doing it that way does take a while, but it's for the best. The results look the most like official Rareware animations.

[Phyreburnz]

Here is Kiddy's fixed crawling animation. It's at least better than the other one I did...

kiddy-crawling-revised.gif (7.3 KiB) Viewed 306346 times

Kiddy, you're such a pain in the ass to animate...

[Qyzbud]

Wow, Phyre! Exceptional work, yet again; your spriting skills are going from strength to strength.

It's a shame Kiddy's so awkward to work with, as it looks like your spritework is our only chance to see more moves from the little guy in the foreseeable future... just as well you're up to the task!

[Cyclone]

That looks professional. If I didn't know I would think it was made by rare.

[Phyreburnz]

Here is my redone version of Dixie crawling.

dixie-crawling-redo.gif (7.45 KiB) Viewed 306300 times

Not a whole heck of a lot different from my last one, but here's the one I had last time, for comparison.

dixie-crawling-test-5.gif (6.61 KiB) Viewed 306311 times

[Qyzbud]

New one's a lot nicer, I think... but it still shifts around a bit.

I like that Dixie's crawling is a little different to the others (almost looks like she could lift her hands up and still be balanced).

Lovely animation, as always.

[Phyreburnz]

Ugh... I did fix the animation, but I renamed it and kept re-uploading the wrong one, trying to fix the jump. It's all gravy now.

The reason she looks like she could balance if she lifted up her head, is because she could... I used her legs from carrying Kiddy. I figured there's already an incredibly similar animation to her crawling, so why not use that to make it look more legit without all the crazy ass effort of taking little, tiny bits and pieces and putting them together.

[Qyzbud]

Yeah, good thinking using the "carrying Kiddy" animation — very logical.

In this (updated) version, she seems to shift up by a pixel twice, then down twice... I think it'd look better if she just stayed at a constant height, without the up-and-down shifting — especially since there's generally very little room for such movement when crawling!

Can you maybe upload a constant-height version, so that I can see if it looks more natural to my eyes?

[Phyreburnz]

Moving them up and down can be changed super easy for anybody that would want to use these sprites. This animation, in particular is somewhat odd to figure out, because of how her feet move. I do think this last one, by positioning things by her hair, works better than positioning by her feet.

Here ya go.

dixie-crawling-repositioned-frames.gif (7.45 KiB) Viewed 306290 times

[Qyzbud]

That does look better to me.

I can see what you're saying now about the previous version being aligned based on her feet; I guess sometimes when you're splicing frames together, it can be very difficult to prevent the "shift" effect from happening, and indeed her head seems to shift up and down slightly in the current version (although honestly it's barely noticeable, and I would say it's quite acceptable... and it will no doubt be even less noticeable if the animation were quicker).

Moving them up and down can be changed super easy for anybody that would want to use these sprites.

This is true in regards to the final sprite sheet, but...

Spoiler!

I've solved this query — see below!
Do you happen to know of any good software/methods for editing (or even exporting) the frames of an animated GIF, such as the ones you share here? I make plenty of GIFs myself, but it seems I have to recreate them each time I want to make a small change, unless I can find the original PSD (if I even saved it... ). I'm sure I will eventually find something, but I figured you might already know of something ideal.

Well, I actually found my own solution within Photoshop (CS5/White Rabbit, in my case):

• File → Import → Video Frames to Layers...
• Enter an asterisk (*) into the File name box to make all file types visible, then find/open the GIF of your choice.
• You can change the settings in the "Import Video To Layers" box, or just click Okay (or hit Enter).

Each frame of the animation will now be on a separate frame ready to work with!

The thing(s) that threw me were that I don't consider a GIF animation a "video", and you can't even select GIF files at all by default in that mode... so I sure didn't think Photoshop would play nice... but it does.

Just thought I'd leave this here in case it comes in handy to others.

[Blue Banana]

Okay, so it's pretty ridiculous looking... but I thought it was funny!

I've also just (kinda) made a sea enemy. Just using Slippa sprites, I changed the red to white, making it look like a sea snake. I thought it would be kind of interesting. I'm not sure what I'd name him... maybe Slythr or Swimma.

Well, I'd consider calling it "Swimma" since:
A. It's a sea snake
B. It looks like it could be used in many underwater levels.
C. You could possibly add a few frames to the animation, have you ever thought of adding some shock waves around it's body so when one of the Kong's go up to it, it shocks them?

[Crammalamma]

Phyreburnz, Mattrizzle fixed the palette of the unused breaking barrel. Any change you will fix the Kandid Kritter animation with those sprites? Heck, make one for the continue barrel as well. That'd be really mean.

[Tonberry2000]

Wow, DK's rope climbing sprites look great. Mankey still needs work, but you know that. Your stuff is really great, Phyre. Awesome job.

[Phyreburnz]

This is something I've been wanting to do and I've finally gotten around to doing it.

factory-entrance.gif (68.2 KiB) Viewed 305990 times

I never liked how in DKC 3 in some levels, you'd just kind of appear. There was no entrance or exit... so I wanted to make one specific for the DKC3 factory. I always liked that weird thing that was in every factory level once... dunno what it is, maybe a furnace, but that's what I used to make an entrance. I wanted to use it in my tire factory level... which is another thing I've been wanting to do, but I haven't gotten much of a chance recently.

And yes, I do realize that this door, if it were real and really opened, would swing like a normal door, not lift... but I wanted to make it lift, because 1) I thought it would look way cool and 2) making it look like it swings would be a super huge pain in the ass.

[Qyzbud]

Fantastic idea, Phyre!

The way the Kongs would just "appear" in a level always felt a little unnatural and... well, "not quite right", to me, too... but your creative doodad edit looks like an ideal entryway for the Kongs to scamper in from.

Having the door slide upward works pretty well — a much simpler solution than trying to do a 3D transformation via pixel art/edits.

By the way, I think you're right that the original doodad is supposed to be a furnace... but if anyone thinks they know for sure what it's meant to be, I'd be keen to hear.

[Simion32]

I'm not entirely certain but I think it's a smelting chamber.

I've seen a few DKC-esque elements while playing Batman Arkham City: Armored Editon, one of which was a smelting furnace (steel mill). There were even a few (un-rideable) Mine Carts there, complete with tracks.

[Phyreburnz]

I think I am going to redo some previous edits. I would like to attempt some of the Kiddy ones again... even though I loathe how ridiculously tiny Kiddy's sprite sheet is... specifically the double rope animations. I would also like to redo the DK double rope animations. I really would like to try to make all of my edits look as official as possible (without making me want to go insane and eat my computer out of frustration ).

DK's, I'm sure I can improve... Kiddy, however.... I will not be making any promises...

[Phyreburnz]

I feel that this is about eighty million-billion times better than my first attempt...
up

kiddy-two-ropes-redo.gif (14.34 KiB) Viewed 305837 times

and down

kiddy-two-ropes-redo-down.gif (14.49 KiB) Viewed 305834 times

Thoughts?

[Cyclone]

Looks almost perfect. His left leg looks a little weird though, like it sticks out too much or too fast.
What did your first attempt look like?

[Phyreburnz]

Well, his left leg and his right leg are the same. When I was looking at Diddy's sprites for reference, his had 8 sprites for the up and down animations which could almost be 4 sprites that are just flipped to make the 8 (they are *almost* identical). So rather than making miniscule differences, I just made 4 Kiddy sprites and flipped them.

Here was my first attempt...



I'm thinking about making his arms reach higher and lower since he's so big... It's tough to make his arms look foreshortened... so he kinda looks like he has nub arms sort of...

EDIT

Longer arm reach...

kiddy-two-ropes-redo-longer-reach.gif (14.48 KiB) Viewed 305827 times

kiddy-two-ropes-redo-longer-reach-down.gif (14.59 KiB) Viewed 305825 times

[Phyreburnz]

Qyzbud, could you please move my last couple of posts from the custom sprite section to this one? For some silly reason, I posted those there and not in the animation section...

Also, I have finished Kiddy going from one rope to two.

kiddy-one-rope-to-two-redo.gif (67.5 KiB) Viewed 305797 times