Gamesalad Art and Animations Help

jblb2424

Hey all,
Im having a bit of difficulty finding art for my games. Im not much of an artist so i checked online for pre-made art but I'm having no luck. All i need is an overhead view of a rolling ball going in all directions. I need it going in all directions because my game includes a joystick type control that when you put the joystick at a specific angle, the ball will roll at that angle. Im sure i won't find this online so does anyone know how i can make this? Or if a real artist can make this for me too that would be great as well. Thanks!

SpriteAttack

The easiest way to create a rolling effect is to have something move over the surface of the ball (e.g. a light effect, a pattern, the character inside the ball). A pattern and a character means a lot more work and it would be helpful to use a 3D render once the pattern becomes more complex.

Here's an example of a simple shine moving over the ball - totally unrealistic but it does the trick and give the impression of the ball rolling.



(it looks a little silly when it's static but once the speed of the animation is timed with the speed of the ball on the ground it looks good)

The rest is just an adjusting of the shadow (as a separate actor) and the rotation of the ball to make it match the direction you are moving your ball.

MotherHoose

http://www.clker.com/ … an play with some of the free clipart

you can select a ball … and then edit it …changing colors etc.
and add layers to do some animation effects …

because of lighting and shadows effects … a simple ball can be very difficult to animate in overhead view …

MH

RP

Unless your ball has some kind of texture or pattern on it, it will be difficult to tell directional movement of the ball unless you exaggerate it (lumpy, imperfect and/or doodle lines suggesting momentum). Some of these examples are in 3d, but really the view and method for creating the effect are the same.

Check out (look for vids on these on youtube):
Marble madness (this is old school, as you can see not much other than lighting or patterns were used).
Billy Hatcher and the giant egg
Super monkey ball (particularly the older versions)
Odama

All of those use balls in one form or another, there is a basic rule that all of them use in order to make it feel ball-like and that is the lighting. The rest is pretty much putting "spin" on it.

Drop a shadow on your ball (under it on a separate layer), it will make it feel like it is actually resting on the surface of your level environment.

mynameisace

Marble madness (this is old school, as you can see other than lighting or patterns we used)

I spent my childhood hammering through this on the Master System!

Ace

RP

@mynameisace yeah It was pretty hot in the arcade too, particularly in bars.

Yikes! That quote also just showed that I totally mangled my post! Nice typo I made there. I corrected that. This is what happens when I think faster than my fingers type (or short attention span). sigh.