Sprite Animation Tutorial

Game Sprite Animation TutorialBy Ari Feldmanari@yogicflyer.comExcerpted from Chapter 9 of my book Designing Arcade Computer GameGraphics by WordWare Publishing, Inc. (ISBN: 1-55622-755-8).294 Chapter 9 / Arcade Game AnimationWhat is Animation?Animation is the process that produces the illusion of movement. It works by dis-playing two or more image fragments called frames (also commonly referred to ascells). When these frames are displayed in rapid succession with subtle changesmade to their content, our eyes register these changes as movement.Animation is not a mystical art. Rather, it’s a well-established process that com-bines the aesthetics of design with real-world physics in order to breathe life intowhat are otherwise static objects and scenes. This chapter will introduce the fun-damental concepts behind animation to you so that you can create and implementanimation in your own arcade game projects.Animation Properties and FundamentalsTo be able to create effective animation, you must learn how to divide the ele-ments of motion into their basic components. This means breaking them downinto a sequence of easy-to-follow frames. However, before you can do this, youmust first learn and master two things: the art of observation and the characteris-tics of basic motion.The secret behind creating great animation lies in keen observation and the abilityto focus on the subtle details of how different objects move. Every object exhibitscertain ...