Custom Objects manual by SiamJai

Originally by SiamJai

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I wrote a comprehensive manual about custom objects, with the hope that it will help people understand the concept.

Features
Custom object creation, configuration and embedding are all covered in detail. Colored illustrations and animated diagrams provide visual clues where needed. The manual includes an example spritesheet (PacMan) and its configuration codes, with thorough explanation.




Caveat
This manual is not an introduction to animation. It was written so that you can make best use of your existing animation skills by fully understanding this unique format - hence its title: Animator's Manual. Later on, I will write tutorials that focus exclusively on animation techniques.

Feedback and Updates
Animator's Manual will be included in the Level Editor pdf manual only after object movement has been implemented. In the meantime, the manual is available on my site. This allows continuous minor updates that would normally not be feasible with the pdf format. (Thanks for TW Design members for their help and observations on the beta! ^_^ )

Feedback, comments, corrections are all appreciated.


[mod]updated the link to point to the new location of the article.[/mod]

Awesome!

Thanks!

This was VERY usefull. 

Thank you - I'm glad you found it useful.


(A small revision: found a broken link to the old forum, updated to link to the new one. If anyone spots similar errors, please let me know.)

Can you please sticky this? I can never find this post.

Can you please sticky this? I can never find this post.

i think it already is/was...

It wasn't sticky but now it is.

It wasn't sticky but now it is.

Hmm... I could've sworn I saw it stickied by Paula on this forum before... but maybe I mix it up with another topic. She definitely brought the topic in from the old forum, which I'm thankful for. And thanks Goog for making it sticky, then.

Anyway, you have found it, Dynamite, so it's cool. If you need it again, just look somewhere in the top ten topics on this board.

Is there a total noob's custom object tutorial yet? Or coming soon? DL'ed this manual, but without the more basic knowledge I'm kind of stuck. 

Is there a total noob's custom object tutorial yet? Or coming soon? DL'ed this manual, but without the more basic knowledge I'm kind of stuck. 

Shawnachu has a tutorial video

http://www.youtube.com/shawnachu

Is there a total noob's custom object tutorial yet? Or coming soon? DL'ed this manual, but without the more basic knowledge I'm kind of stuck. 

Which part do you find complicated? What would you like to see covered in more detail? I wrote the manual in a way that the only prerequisite knowledge should be creating the animation itself. Do you need tips on how to create animation and spritesheets?

Check out Shawnachu's video and see if it helps. He also has a topic about it on the old forum (I can't link to it directly here, but you can find it easily in the Custom Object Support subforum.)

If you still have questions, post here and we'll surely find answers.

How do I make the animation start in a random frame? Like I have a tree custom object but they all look like they're swaying together in the same motion. If I make them all start in different frames then It would look better.
Anyone know how?

Use the same png file for each object, but when you write the World.ini codes, add the following line:

Init AnimFrom=##
Where ## is the frame number that you would like the animation to start at. Make this number different for each object and they will start at different frames.

No but I have 1 object. I want each of these objects to randomly set the starting frame.

I tried things like:

Init AnimFrom=ran#(10)
Init AnimFrom=random(10)

but they don't work. Unless I just duplicate like 5 of the same objects