Skeleton 1.1

Description:
Put together dynamic characters easily with Skeleton. Using only a handful of separate sprites (an arm, a head, a body, etc), you can design a skeleton for your character and apply sprites to it. Bend your character and see it come to life as all the sprites are automatically moved and rotated with the skeleton. Use key frames and loads of other features to quickly and easily animate your character. Saves tons of time when putting together the sprites for your next game.



Features:
* Any skeleton can be designed! Create a human, animal, insect, bird, etc, or simply use the program to animate the suspension on a car. Two demo skeletons, complete with animations, are included.

* All images rotate and follow the bones of the skeleton as they are moved.

* Horizontal & vertical scale, angle, alpha, color, position, and depth settings allow you to adjust images onto the skeleton perfectly.

* Export animations to Gifs, or single frames to Bitmaps.

* Spline key frames, smooth the entire animation, and reverse it, all with a few clicks.
* In-depth help manual and tutorial included

* Overlay the previous, next, and/or select frames over the current

* Convenient frame toolbar allows you to easily work with long animations

* Multiple images types supported when importing images

* Add a background image to the canvas

* Backwards compatible with version 1.0

* Quick method to set all frames to the selected frame

* And even more features to make quick work of animating...




Details:
Name: Skeleton
Category: Application/Graphics
File Size: 3.41 MB
Version: 1.1
Resolution: windowed, will adapt to your screen size (does not change resolution)
Created with GM6
Direct Download

Credits:
Created by: Tahnok
Uses: ImageMagick (www.ImageMagick.org).
Uses: GMMagick & silent_dos.dll (www.G-Java.com)
Uses: N_Menu.dll (http://nf88.net)
Inspired by: Pivot Stickman Animator (www.geocities.com/peter_bone_uk)

Enjoy,
Tahnok


Skeleton 1.1-Lite (compact and in-game render engines)
After numerous requests to add GML export functionality (which will most likely never happen), I created this little add-on program. While it doesn't actually draw in your game, it can render .Skl files from the commandline. This means that you can save space in large games by including the skeleton files and rendering them at game start, instead of having to include the full animations.

Also, after stripping the above program down, I've released the source to it. This means you can now render skl files without adding any significant size to your games!

It also means that you have a great stepping stone to any sort of converter you would like to create (like exporting to GML, animated GIF, etc). The hardest part, opening the files correctly, has already been taken care of. Now you can just grab the data from the bone objects!

There are a few restrictions not present in the full version. You can read about them in the game information of the engine.

Download Skeleton 1.1-Lite
(982KB)


If you have problems running the program:
Some people run into an error when they try to launch the program, due to the large use of surfaces. You can still use the program though by disabling the preview bar. Follow these steps:

Run the program at least once (so the ini file extracts)
Open "Skeleton.ini"
Change the "ShowPreviewBar" value to 0
Save and close the file

Now, try the program again. No errors should be thrown and blue frames should be shown instead of the previews. Let me know if you still have problems.

Updates:
10-23-06: Updated to version 1.1.

Using the save files:
Should you, for whatever reason, like to use the .skl files created by this program for a purpose outside Skeleton, this save file documentation will be quite helpful. Of course, being able to modify the save files outside of Skeleton is not necessary to use the program, this document if just provided as a convenience to other application writers.

Tips:
Above-view perspective (Post #21)
Adding a weapon, object, etc, to a hand (post #25)

Examples:
Aurora, a game I'm developing, uses Skeleton extensively for the player images, along with some other animations scattered throughout. Click here to be taken to it's page.

I tried to download it more than 5 times but ..

Yes, me too. The zipped archive looks broken.

that looks great...i am downloading it right now, and its great cause i always spend a lot of time making the skeleton sprites for my games.

This is AWESOME! Great job, this is really useful.

Dang, I must have checked that link at least a dozen times, but I didn't think to ever let it finish downloading to check if the file was actually OK. I must have accidentally left the uploader in ASCII mode.

Anyway, the link is working now. Enjoy.

Edit: I guess it's working for everyone now. Glad you like it.

Good Work,

its Tahnok's another nice stuff,
but there is an existting program made in
GM called 'Tractimation' by Patrick Gaston
that does the same thing except
that Tractimation has more
features for actual animation.

here's the link to the very old topic of Tractimation
if you wanna see it Tractimation link

keep it up Tahnok

I've never seen you make anything rubbish, ever.
8/10.

very usefull,keep up the good job

Wow. This makes it so much easier to animate my sprites!

Kudos to you!

Suggestion:
-Export to gif or strip of animation.
-Ik,like when I pull the hand,the arm will be straight.

Hehe, this is a cool tool. I like to make the guy in weird positions...

xXHalfieXx

And also i can't seem to be able to close the About dialog.

Ok... I can't even get to it. I suggest you get a better host.
Here are two good FREE ones.
host-a.net
or
box.net

Me nether

This is starting to make me angry. This is the most problems I have ever had with a release.


Please PM me and let me know what you were doing when you got that error. I think I have an idea of what happened, but I can't know for sure without more information.

Ughh, looks like I left the about menu in a debug state. I'll upload the fixed version a little bit later today.


This is what is making me really angry. I'm paying good money for a host, and they've gone down several times now with server problems. I emailed them and they got it back online. There shouldn't be any more problems with the link (in theory).


To the rest of you, thank you for the kind comments. I'm glad that the people who have tried it have found it useful.

I expect nothing less from your releases tahnok100 they always continue to impress me and this is brillant.

Excellent Work

The fixed version is up. The about menu can now be closed and I'm pretty sure I fixed whatever it was Shinnoki ran into. Please replace your copy with the new version. The version number was not incremented with this update since it was only a bug fix.

I didn't have time to reply to these earlier.

Thanks.

I hadn't seen that program yet. Too bad all the links are dead. I emailed the creator to see if I could get a copy of the program, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet. I'm interested to see what approach he took. Email me if you happen to have it sitting on your hard disk.

Actual support for animations is the next feature I plan on implementing. It shouldn't be too hard; the program was designed with this in mind.

I considered using that approach to moving the character, but decided against it. It actually makes it much harder to animate characters, as the bones start to move on their own and will easily get away from where you had them. I’ve found that the current method works quite well for actual animation.

seems to be working now, but it badly needs gif export and actual frame animation

Is there a way to go above his head ? for topdown stuff ? it would be cool if we can spin around him in every direction. Other than that 9/10

I've started work on animation now. It will be a while until the new version is ready, but it will be in the next release. Along with some other cool gadgets.

Yes, you just need to design the skeleton correctly and apply sprites to it from the correct perspective. Here is a quick idea of what you need to do:



Hope that helps, and shows the flexibility of this program.

Very nice program. I'll probably use it for my James Bond game and give you credit. I have a couple of suggestions for the next version:

1. Animation sequences like in Pivot
2. Maybe a few default character templates such as man, woman, boy girl in both sideways and top down perspectives. I can help with these if you like.
3. Ability to add objects to the skeleton that are not actually attached to it, eg. weapons.

JSoft

This is pretty cool, Pivots only good for stickfigurs but this could be really nice!

In the next version I think there should be a gif export, frames like pivot,and being able to make objects that arn't attatached.

Keep up the good work!!!

This is a really useful program! ANimating is very hard, this can be very helpfull!


Nice job and thanks!

Animation is coming along quite nicely. The engine for it is pretty much done; I just need to work out some of the user comforts.

1: See my last couple posts.

2: All those would have the exact same skeleton, just different images attached to them. If anything, I'm going to include examples that show that the program can do things other than humans (dog, horse, car, etc).

3: Interesting idea, but I'm not sure I understand how you want it to work. If you detach something from the skeleton, all the convenience of the program is lost; you have to move the detached object for every frame. Also, what you describe can be done with the program in its current state:

To add a weapon, object, etc, to a hand:
<> Add an extra bone to the last bone of the arm.
<> Set the sprite for this new bone to whatever object you want the person carrying.
<> Move the new bone's position slider all the way to the left, to move the sprite over the hand.
<> Set the depth of the new bone to something greater than the hand bone's depth.

This is very similar to what was done with the head in the picture above, but with the depth set below it instead of above it.

The animations will be exported in gif format.

See above about unattached objects. I'm willing to add them, if someone can explain to me a fairly good use. I'm looking to keep the program as clean and easy as possible, so I'm leaning away from something like this.

Yes, I've also found animation a bit hard since you can't flip between frames easily. Don't worry though, the new version will remedy this, and then some.

I am a complete and total n00b at game maker, but I just don't under stand how this program works. like how do you get the actuall 3-d stuff on the stick guy. After I made a stick man I couldn't figure out what to do next. Can some one PM me how to use this program or something?

Ilike it think I may use this

I had been searching for something like this for a long time. Keep the good work, i cant wait for the next release ( the animations inclusion ) .

Ahh, a very nice pivot example! You should implement animation though. I made something like that once, we should talk.

Wonderful useful little tool. I've thought about making an animation tool myself so that I could place limbs onto a figure, but you are really taking a great deal of work out of out hands.

I know that you'res still working on it, but I hope next (animation-capable) version will offer the following:

• Preview of the animation with changeable animation speed in FPS
• Insert / delete / duplicate / order frames
• Changing the background color (white isn't helpful)
• Flip / rotate the entire skeleton
• List coordinates of the currently selected limb
• Setting transparency and color blending per limb (sprite)

I'm thinking whether anything can be done about changing hilites and shadows, as they all turn with the limbs. This is a problem in sprites made with these applications - you have no real control over the light sources unless you start after-editing them one by one in a paint application.

Finally, an application made in GM that I will use. Looking forward to the next version!

This is not a 3D program. The only reason my figure looks 3D is because I used 3D looking sprites. Once you have made a figure, click on one of the nodes to select the bone. Then, press the 'Image' button to add an image onto the bone. Then use the flip, angle, and position sliders to place the image onto the bone exactly how you want it.

Thanks for the kind words.

* Preview, yes, of course. I'm not sure if I had considered this yet, but I will definitely look into it.

* I'm still working out some of the problems that come with adding frames, moving frames, etc. I’m working on it though; I'll see what I can come up with.

* I think the new version will just support background images.

* I'll keep flipping the skeleton in mind. Things like that are kind of at the bottom of my to-do list right now.

* Now that's an interesting idea. It couldn't be too hard to add at least color blending, if not alpha.

Lighting is something that I thought of when I first started this program. I've never been impressed by the super-deluxe lighting engines on here that can't even come close to running at the proper FPS on most machines. However, a lighting engine on this that would only draw on the render might work. Again, it's not very high on my to-do list. It definitely won't be in the next version.

first you make the skeleton but then how do you put the arms and legs and stuff on it?

Awesome look what i made with it as a test:
http://rapidshare.de/files/26960243/Droid_shooting.zip.html

Wow, this is a very professional tool. There are a few bugs, like if you type a relaly really long number into the length, you'll notice. That could be fixed easily, though. Also, you might want to add more sample images. I can create some for you, maybe just different colors of the grey ones. But I do like it very much, and plan on using it alot.

This is exactly the type of program I have been looking for. In fact, I was just telling a friend of mine that my animation process would really be helped by something like this. It's like you read my mind.

If you implement the suggestions that Smarty put forward, it would be perfect. I look forward to the next version.

This is good, however, it took me a while to figure out how to start a new skeleton, I didn't think of clicknig new cause you don't usually need to so that.

Btw I think you need to work on your button sprites, their a bit nooby, with the text coming out of the sides, stretched etc.

Have you thought about making this so it can do 3D objects in diffrent posses and make it exprot it in GML script???

very nice you can use it for some sprites

That's really cool!

I am using it on my next game.

See post #31 (just a few posts above yours). It explains how to attach images to the bones. Long story short, select a bone and press the "Image" button.

Cool. I think that's the first thing I've seen someone make with this program. I'm still waiting to see something that doesn't use a human skeleton though (hopefully, I'll be able to release some models that show some other figures).

I'll add that to my bug list.

I'm making more default models for the next one myself. Thanks for the offer though.

Where, exactly, does the text run over the edge? The text was never stretched either, that's the font.

This program will never support 3D. There are plenty of 3D programs out there; a 3D program in GM just can't compete.

Someone has brought up the idea of making it so it can export GM code. I've decided not to add it though, since this program is not designed just for GM users.

See post #31 and the first quote in this reply.

I did find a small bug when using it i put a limb exactly on the torso point some times it got stuck and deleted.

Holy bannanas!!!! This thing is sweet.

LINK IS BROKEN!

I'll look into it. Thanks for reporting it.

Take a look at my signature (I've had that message there since before the server maintenance). The download will have sporadic availability throughout the day.

This is still a very good program, I've been using it quite a bit recently. The game I am making right now requires a lot of flexible, animated sprites, and this does help the animation process a lot. I await any new updates expectantly.

Just got an email from CNet that Skeleton has been accepted to Download.com. Find the page here:



I would appreciate a positive review or two on there, if anyone who has downloaded and enjoyed the program has time.

Also, I was asked in PM about the new version, so I thought I would give an update. I have been working non-stop on the new version, but I still don't expect it to be out any time soon. Animation and gif export are both working, along with some other features related to them. Expect the new version in 6 to 8 weeks.

that's a great news... i wonder
how many GM creations have been
accepted for Download.com...

glad to know that youre doing great
efforts to improve this program.

YAY! That's a usefull tool !

Okay, I'll comment as I find things :

(My comments are based on the "user-friendly" aspect of your program.
The design is almost perfect.)

I'm thinking that any "Easy to use program" should allow to use only
the mouse. Your program have sometimes some numerical values to enter
(and theres' no flashing "bar" that indicates that we need to write
anything, we need to deduce it).

1) When I hit "New", is there a message sometimes "Are you sure you
want to lose all your work?"

2)Ahh, I understand now. The default "Value" for the image should
change to "both" when you add a picture (if skeleton is selected).
It'd be clearer.

3) I dont understand why I can choose "Image" on the default "circle"
on a new character. It doesnt do anything.

4) If I click in the middle of a "limb", I may like to select that
"limb" (I cannot suggest about a good way to do it if multiple "limbs"
are one above each other.

5)Also, in "figure" mode, it's impossible to know what "Limb" is
selected, and where are the "dots" to move/rotate. Maybe we should be
able to rotate from anywhere?

6) An excellent feature would be to resize the canvas manually, (like
in paint), with the corner. Of course, it could be very primitive,as
long as it's easy to use.

7) Another good feature would be to resize the "limbs" from the canvas
directly, or be able to click a few times on a "+" button to increase
the size faster.

8) I tought about making a swordman. The first think I tought is that
a "sword" would be connected only to one arm. I was wondering If I
could snap the two hands together, or If I could "unsnap" the sword
from the hand and "snap it back" to the belt.

Very nice, I want your comments on my comments.

I think there are actually quite a few on there. I was just kind of excited that it had been accepted (it took long enough).

I also got a bunch of emails from Softpedia that they had reviewed and added most of my software. Which is strange, since I didn't submit any of it to them. Anyway, here is the download link, along with the 100% clean certification:




Thanks for taking the time to point this stuff out.

1: I meant to add messages like this, but it slipped through the cracks. Hopefully I’ll remember that in the next version.

2: I’ll keep it in mind. Probably a good idea, since it can be confusing to keep setting the image and not seeing it show up.

3: The default, larger, circle is not the same thing as the rest of the nodes. It doesn’t do anything at all except move the entire figure. I’ll try to make this clearer in the future. If you really want to set an image onto it, add another bone off of it, set the image of the new bone, and drag the position slider all the way to the left. This will position the image over the origin bone.

4: I considered this, but decided against it. It was another one of those cases where I found that too much control gave unexpected results and made it harder to pose. With the current system, you have to be fairly precise, which means no selecting or moving the wrong bone.

5: See #4. Also, you can make it so the nodes appear exactly where you want them along the bone. Notice on the included figure that the nodes appear at the ends of the limbs, despite the fact that may not be where the sprite ends. Again, play around the position slider and the length to place them exactly where you want.

6: I’ve put it on my list of “when I get around to it”. Not a feature I’m real worried about right now.

7: The idea behind the limb length is that you can set it to the size of the sprite and get perfect length. The rest of the program is actually also making a move towards these more precise methods of changing things.

8: Umm… not easily. I already explained how to put an object in a hand (see first post for link). The problem is that swinging a sword is a very three-dimensional action. Unless you want your sword swing to be straight down, it just won’t look right. If you really want to do it, just add an extra bone on the belt. When you want the sword in the hand, set the hand bone’s image. When you want the sword on the belt, clear the hand bone’s image and set the belt bone’s image. Fairly easy.

Well I know that. What is to be meant is : you should disable the option if it doesnt do anything, lol.



I have no problems with that. You got your point.



7A) I was just about thinking that maybe your program should allow to resize imported BMP's , and not the opposite (meaning that we now need to externally resize the BMP's for a perfect match in your program). If it's too hard to do, I'd understand and would not worry about it any longer.

7up) Hum... 7up...

7B) I wonder why, when we click on size, it changes to 0. If the size is zero, when the user leaves that control, the size should go back to the value it was (I think). Zero value should be forbidden.



I already got your point when I wrote that, and I understand it clearly. I was more wondering about how far you were going with this. So you'll be staying to "one object". That's fine. I won't bother anymore with this, as the purpose of the program is to make simple characters.

9) Maybe it would be interesting to be able to add some bitmaps and just be able to rotate and place them, without them being "connected", you know. They'd just be placed over the character, with a specific depth, maybe, unless you actually allow multiple "objects" on a same screen. So it'd be like designing two characters at the same time.

Keep going!