What GIF creation software do you use for sprites?

[bicobalt]

This is all assuming that GIFs can be used as sprites, so correct me if I'm wrong on that.

These are the ones I've tried so far:
1. Microsoft GIF Animator - it wasn't able to handle transparency; it just showed up as black. Or so I gleaned, anyway.
2. Beneton Movie GIF - when I tried to download it, my virus protector said it looked malicious.
3. Picasion - same as Microsoft.
4. GIFUp - I have ten frames I need to meld, but it would only let me upload nine.
5. There's one other browser based one that I've tried, but it wouldn't get the timing right. I tried to have each frame last 10/100 of a second, but no matter what I set the timing to, the first few always took about a second each.
6. Falco - it wouldn't let me meld frames; it only allowed me to work with frames that any given GIF already contained.

I need one that handles transparency, isn't sketchy, can handle ten or more frames, can get the timing right, and doesn't make me work with existing animated GIFs. Oh, and it has to be free. Another issue I can see being a problem is not letting me use the same frame more than once. The GIF I'm trying to make is one that shows a character running. All of the frames except the first and last one are repeated; it goes "a, b, c, d, e, f, e, d, c, b," before repeating endlessly.

Which one do you use?

[Mark]

Hi,

With a few exceptions, we don't use animated gif's in LiveCode because it uses too much CPU power. Instead, we use PNG pictures and animate them by setting the icon of a button repeatedly. Unfortunately, such a repeat loop may be locked up by other commands and by user input such as selecting a menu item. If you want to show a circular progress indicator, you might use a gif animation, but if you want to make a game, you'd better go with PNG's.

Kind regards,

Mark

[bicobalt]

Yes, it is for a game. Thanks. Would you mind telling me how to keep on changing the icon? I'm quite new.

[jmburnod]

Hi bicobalt,
You can set the icon of a btn like this

Code: Select all

set the icon of btn "myButton" to the short id of image "MyImage"

have a look to the script cd of the stack in attachment

Best regards
Jean-Marc

[jmburnod]

Hi bicobalt,

This stack explore three ways to anim an object

• Set the icon of a btw
• set the txt of an image
• set the filename of an image

Best regards

Jean-Marc

[bicobalt]

Does the fact that it'll be an iOS game affect the necessity of conserving CPU power? I'm not sure about the extent to which CPU capabilities differ between computers and smartphones.

[Mark]

Hi,

The reason why you don't want to use GIF's is not that there is a need to preserve CPU power. The reason is the GIF's by themselves use up to 100% CPU power in LiveCode. You don't want that.

Kind regards,

Mark

[deebee]

Full version of this coming soon hopefully... http://brashmonkey.com/spriter.htm