Naming question for 2D tool

[RSG]

Hi everyone,

I developed a tool called SpriteWorkshop for 2D animation in Unity, and I’m concerned that some of the terminology might be confusing. So I would like to get some opinions and suggestions to see what all of you think.

I have a class called SpriteComponent(MonoBehaviour) which you can attach to a game object. The class is used to play, what I refer to as, a SpriteAnimaiton. So for example, the code would look like this:

SpriteComponent sprite = this.gameObject.GetComponent<SpriteComponent>();

// Play animation 
sprite.Play("animation name");

// Or play from a specified time
sprite.GoToAndPlay("name", time);

And then there is a class called SpriteAnimation. The animation system is non-traditional in the sense that when I refer to a sprite, I’m not necessarily talking about a plane or a quad that shows a texture. And I think that is causing some confusion. The tool uses layers, like in Photoshop, and each layer can display an image that can be animated, rotated, scaled, etc. Basically, a SpriteComponent stores and plays animations, and each animation can have multiple layers, and each layer can be animated differently.

Does this make sense or should I use something else? Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks!

[tylernocks]

It looks fine but near identical to 2DToolkit, so yeah…good.

[RSG]

Thanks for the feedback Does it matter if the end result does not look like your traditional 4 sided sprite here is what I mean:

When you create a sprite, you create a mesh with overlapping quads. Should I still call it a sprite? I was thinking of using the name GraphicComponent instead of SpriteComponent and the name GraphicAnimation instead of SpriteAnimation.

What do you guys think?

Thanks ^^

[tylernocks]

Well, thing is, what really matters right now is optimization, what are the draw cells. SpriteComponent sounds good btw.

[ugur]

@RSG: You know my stance by now, i think it would be better if you call the static (not animated) sprite Sprite and the animated version AnimatedSprite, GraphicSymbol or MovieClip =)

@tylernocks: there’s one drawcall per sprite (even if it has several layers/ is made up of multiple quads), so that’s good.