Converting PS: Torment Character Anims., ...and the issues you will encounter. Options

[JJL]

I've just spent the past several days attempting to make Dakkon's animations playable within the Baldur's Gate 2 scheme. Initially the process seems very simple, but you will eventually hit the following roadblock(s):

1.) PS:T apparently generates its own east-oriented animations. Whether it mirrors three of the west-oriented variants automatically or not, I cant say. Hopefully someone else here can.

2.) What the above means is that you are left with character animations that will only face to the south, southwest, west, northwest, and north. Once your order the sprite to face eastward, either the BG-programmed animation for the slot you're using will manifest, or the character disappears until they're turned westward again.

I utilized every program I could find to make this work. This includes:

BAM Workshop 1
BAM Workshop 2
Creature BAM-It!
bamresizer
and the ICL-whatever, which was quite useless in this regard.

Of the list, only BAM Workshop 1 was of any help, except for one crucial lacking: flipping individual frames horizontally doesnt alter the position of the animated portion of the frame. Instead, it does just that: flips the animated portion without moving its placement on the transparent canvas. What you end up with in this case is an animation in which Dakkon's feet no longer stay put, as his sword strike seems to collide with an invisible barrier, repelling his entire body backwards like a spring. In short, it ends up looking pretty lame.

I've tried everything I could think of to remedy this. I've tried exporting both sequences AND frames from BAM Workshop 1 and editing them with a plethora of other photo-editing programs (Photoshop CS2, Macro Flash 8.0, Fireworks, etc.), but there's always an issue with the canvas being completely re-vamped (enlarged). This leaves me with a Dakkon who is misaligned with his "proper" animations, as well as a complete lack of preservation where transparency is concerned.

In conclusion, the good news is this:

1.) PS:T BAMs are laid out much the same as IWD BAMs.
2.) Most of your work is done simply by exporting original BAMs from one game and re-naming them to suit another.
3.) The BAM re-sizing issue has already been worked out thanks to the bamresizer program mentioned above. (Which works like a charm, by the way)

The bad news is this:

1.) PS:T BAMs must generate its own animation mirrors for eastern orientations, as there are no corresponding "XXXXXXe.BAM" files that I've been able to find.
2.) I've found that, using the only really USEFUL BAM editor (BAM Workshop 1) there is absolutely no way to reallocate the animation to generate a proper east-oriented counterpart. (The implied simplicity of such an issue as image-mirroring vexes me to no end, by the way)
3.) .GIFs are utterly useless in this regard as well, as they will not preserve transparency without a great deal of work, and even if they do the animations themselves are still misaligned.

Anything mentioned above is only based upon my understanding of the factors mentioned, and is certainly subject to scrutiny by those who have pulled this off successfully. It could be that I'm simply overlooking something, but from my experience it is either impossibly tedious or nigh-impossible to make this happen. It is my hope that someone will prove me wrong, or at least provide some insight into the issues I encountered.

[Cuv]

Galactygon: Glad you can use them... and thanks for the tip on the coloring. I wont worry too much about that just yet, but will keep it in mind when converting going forward.

I was also hoping to get together with you on BA. I have some serious ideas about standardizing the Animate.ids to avoid conflicts between mods and giving certain animations consolidated into slots. I have done some experimentation with the ways to play a death animation for certain creatures that are housed in a weapon slot... and it looks promising. I threw some pics in that PST thread I have going in General Discussion at SHS... the whole thread is an evolution of my learning curve

Also, I was thinking that some animations look similar enough to all use the same death animations; ie: Wights could all be put in a single slot... pick or create a good generic death animation for all of them to use, then that would totally free up 2 full slots. The same could be done for shadows and ghosts, and possibly some of the demons.

Also, I dont know if you have done any work on this yet, but I know the configuration of the MDK slots and what is required in format to utilize them. The problem is working with BamWorkshop and DLTCEP at the moment... but I bet I can figure out how to make a few animations that can be used for NPC's without extra weapons animations to use on them... or move something else to those slots to free up yet more slots.

Cuv

[Galactygon]

I was also hoping to get together with you on BA. I have some serious ideas about standardizing the Animate.ids to avoid conflicts between mods and giving certain animations consolidated into slots.

I am open to that, though we have to keep feet circles in mind. In other words, when I came up with what to place where, I placed similar animations in similar slots, so that Giants and Verbeegs, for example, would end up in the Frost Giant slot, since they have large feet circles.

I have done some experimentation with the ways to play a death animation for certain creatures that are housed in a weapon slot... and it looks promising. I threw some pics in that PST thread I have going in General Discussion at SHS... the whole thread is an evolution of my learning curve

If it really works with very few flaws, I am open to it.

Also, I was thinking that some animations look similar enough to all use the same death animations; ie: Wights could all be put in a single slot... pick or create a good generic death animation for all of them to use, then that would totally free up 2 full slots. The same could be done for shadows and ghosts, and possibly some of the demons.

I think I tried doing that, but I am not sure I succeeded or what extent I did.

Also, I dont know if you have done any work on this yet, but I know the configuration of the MDK slots and what is required in format to utilize them. The problem is working with BamWorkshop and DLTCEP at the moment... but I bet I can figure out how to make a few animations that can be used for NPC's without extra weapons animations to use on them... or move something else to those slots to free up yet more slots.

That would be really nice. I figured the MDK slots used the BGII format (and I wasn't sure it worked), so I decided not to worry about them and completely forgot about them.

-Galactygon

This post has been edited by Galactygon: Oct 25 2007, 07:49 PM