2D Animation Preview Packages

[xCyborg]

Support ETC + Alpha compression in the new Sprite Atlas please.

[playemgames]

OK finally got to take a look at this, I’m the maintainer of Unity Sprites and Bones so have a bit of knowledge in the way of animating 2D skeletons in Unity. So here is my feedback so far:

1. Please do not tie bones and the bone editor to the Sprite Editor, it is extremely limiting unless you can throw in a whole bunch of other sprites into it and edit it from there. I want this to be like all other animation tools, let me define how I want the skeleton to be and the sprites to go along with it, so basically let me set up my character, then the bones come after. Also want to add sprites to different bones and be able to continue to add/subtract as I work. Otherwise the bone tools themselves are adequate enough.

2. Sprite geometry editor should have a couple more extras, but it is a good start. Having holes is really really nice for certain things. Weighting seems fine, maybe some alpha slider to see the underlying sprites?

3. Needs something to use the mesh for FFD, it all looks like a decent start to something bigger.

4. Needs angle constraints or something for the bones themselves, looks like there is just a bool but nothing to customize it between ranges.

5. Needs some sort of pose editor, again I think there should be some sort of character creation first, then comes the bone creation and pose creation.

That’s all I have time for now, it has some promise since all this is early, but if you marry that bone tool to the sprite editor, it’s going to be dead in the water for more than the simplest of characters unless you want a really hairy workflow.

[tiskolin]

This seems great, although on second thought it obviously wouldn’t work with pixel art so well. This is coming out in 2018.1, correct? Can’t wait!

[ColossalPaul]

@playemgames

Please do not tie bones and the bone editor to the Sprite Editor,

We are aware of the importance of multi-sprite workflows. We are laying down the designs for multi-sprite character workflows. Multi sprite rigging, skeleton sharing etc etc. These are all in Phase 2 and when we lock down the solution, we’ll share it.

@playemgames

Needs some sort of pose editor,

We do have in the (still private) Phase 2 roadmap a pose lib where you can save and reload poses. Thanks for this feedback.

FFD is something that we want to tackle a bit later but build the underlying support for it now. Some pertinent areas in Unity are undergoing major changes. We are trying to get the timing right by first focusing on skeletal sprites.

[ColossalPaul]

@mahdi_jeddi

Without the atlases the game would’ve been 4 times more than it is

This should be supported if you can’t make it work, please tell us.

@tiskolin

This is coming out in 2018.1

We have alluded to the ‘Package’ format in the post title . What that means is we will ship this whole feature as Unity package. It also means we can ship updates/fixes to it within days and not follow the release cadence of the main editor/engine. In other words, we are breaking free from the release cycles of the main product. I hope you guys can experience these with some of the feedback here.

@Kiupe

cool is be able to have separate group order in the same character

This should be easily doable with SortingGroup. If you can’t make it work, please share with us.

@Neo-Dragon

I think you should prioritize ease of sprite switching.
An example would be a character that could have equipable armor. An easy way to keep the skeleton but swap out the helmet or chest piece. The correct bone should bind but the sprite should have its own mesh tesselation.

This is one of the main reasons we have Phase 2. As soon as it is ready, we’ll share! Thanks for this feedback.

Please keep the feedback coming! thanks.

[laurentlavigne]

@ColossalPaul

In other words, we are breaking free from the release cycles of the main product. I hope you guys can experience these with some of the feedback here.

This package release is so good. You guys must feel freeeee

[Watapax]

I use Maya to animate complex animation for my characters because Unity dont support pre-post Infinity Curve animation. If unity can support this feature in the timeline it would be awesome.

[nuxvomo]

Any word on the vector graphics importer and if this will work with the 2D animator? Currently using SVG Importer. Also, curious if the vector graphics will work work with Tilemap and Sprite editor/9 slicing/UI.

[playemgames]

@ColossalPaul

This should be easily doable with SortingGroup. If you can’t make it work, please share with us.

Speaking of SortingGroups and sorting order, I want to finally be able to animate them without hacky workarounds, the sorting order and sorting layers should be exposed for all Renderers and SortingGroups so we can finally animate them. Then we can mix 2D and 3D if we want as well in an animation.

[optimise]

Will the package introduce breaking change for the future update? I would like to use it in real project.

[puppeteer]

Sounds promising!

I tried my hand at making a new skinned sprite, process was a bit confusing at first as the bone/weight creation was in the texture level, but it works. IK Manager was simple to use ( though I’m not sure what the difference between the two chain types is ).

Here’s a bit of an animation I did, not much movement but I’d really love to see something like DUIK limbs for those curvy parts.

SomberCorruptCranefly

[laurentlavigne]

@puppeteer

Sounds promising!

I tried my hand at making a new skinned sprite, process was a bit confusing at first as the bone/weight creation was in the texture level, but it works. IK Manager was simple to use ( though I’m not sure what the difference between the two chain types is ).

Here’s a bit of an animation I did, not much movement but I’d really love to see something like DUIK limbs for those curvy parts.

SomberCorruptCranefly

Weird IK solution, it seems that the extremities are not rotating

[puppeteer]

@laurentlavigne

Weird IK solution, it seems that the extremities are not rotating

Yeah, I think the limbs I assigned in the IK Manager only covered the mid sections of each limb. Also the number of bones in each limb is to many for the movement I want to achieve. I’ll try again with two bones per limb.

I’d love to see how it can be processed in a cleaner way, if you want I can post the PNG of my crawler art here.

[puppeteer]

Took another stab at rigging this character, this time with two bones per limb and a cleaner weights setup. I’m starting to really like the native animation tools.

[laurentlavigne]

@puppeteer

Took another stab at rigging this character, this time with two bones per limb and a cleaner weights setup. I’m starting to really like the native animation tools.

It looks more natural and with smoother weights in the middle you could remove the kins. Still 4 bones shouldn’t be that janky so there is a bug to the IK, it might be the algo implemented or the lack of solving weight, you should report it while their is momentum.

[puppeteer]

@laurentlavigne

It looks more natural and with smoother weights in the middle you could remove the kins. Still 4 bones shouldn’t be that janky so there is a bug to the IK, it might be the algo implemented or the lack of solving weight, you should report it while their is momentum.

I think it’s because I didn’t do a clean work on the weights and geometry.

This was auto generated with mostly some cleaning up near the joints.

[laurentlavigne]

@puppeteer

I think it’s because I didn’t do a clean work on the weights and geometry.

This was auto generated with mostly some cleaning up near the joints.

Use the smooth weight brush, if there is one.

[theANMATOR2b]

@_watcher

1) FFD please.
Once your bone-based deformations are ironed-out, people will surely start asking about this.

Agreed.

@Watapax

Unity dont support pre-post Infinity Curve animation

Agree - From a quick search this is what is known as Out of Range Limit Curves in 3D Max.

Please support animate-able squash and stretch on individual bones and bone chains.

The three best features in 3D Max bone setup are these three.

Create bone is self explanatory

Refine allows a bone to be split anywhere the artist chooses - without messing up bone scale, orientation or rotation.
Refine can be performed X times on any chain or single bone without error.

Mirror is self explanatory but performs all the negative scale correction ‘fixes’ behind the scenes - really great for artists.

And bone edit mode allows for bone length, chain reconfiguring without messing up any bone transform/scale settings.

continued vv

[theANMATOR2b]

[ColossalPaul]

@nuxvomo

Any word on the vector graphics importer and if this will work with the 2D animator? Currently using SVG Importer. Also, curious if the vector graphics will work work with Tilemap and Sprite editor/9 slicing/UI.

Hi, we are preparing to do the same (release preview package) for our own SVG Importer. Give us a few more weeks to polish it a bit more. Technically, it can be rigged to animate but we are still thinking what we should do when the SVG tessellation don’t agree with animation.

Anyway, more when it comes out… please stay tuned.

@playemgames

I want to finally be able to animate them without hacky workarounds

Good feedback, this is will go on our list…

@theANMATOR2b

The three best features in 3D Max bone setup are these three.

Thanks for this. Let us dive into this…

@theANMATOR2b

Agree - From a quick search this is what is known as Out of Range Limit Curves in 3D Max

This too. Let us dive into this…

Please don’t stop giving us feedback. We are preparing a new iteration and should be out in the next few days (if nothing goes wrong)