Posted February 13, 2024 by FilmGamerJ
#gamedev #artdesign #aseprite #pixelart #animation #water #waterfall
Crafting the waterfall animation in this game, I felt, was going to be one of the toughest and most important textures I put together.
Like all animated Wall textures in RGM, it only uses 4 looping frames, so those frames have to look just right to give the right effect, and move at a pleasing pace.
For my first attempt at the animation, I dove in and tried to feel my way around the shapes and motion, trying to see what stuck. And for a while, this looked pretty good to me.
But eventually, the appearance and speed irked me. The frames advance at the right pace, but the power and size of the ripples is too chunky and a bit distracting. These falls need to have a calm yet attractive and appealing look to them. In the wacky world of Maximus, I could have made them over the top and chaotic. But I think it's better if they're a strong point of sanity against all the other insanity.
For this second pass, I tried to animate it inside Clip Studio Paint first, but that surprisingly ended up being far harder. I kept redrawing the ripples and waves at least 6 times, but I could never get the frequency and flow to work right. So instead, I focused on the main body of the fall and made sure each ripple was moving downwards the same number of pixels, so that when the 4th frame becomes the 1st frame again, the ripples still move down the same number of pixels again.
I eventually found out that each ripple has to be separated by 7 pixels, but only move down by 3 pixels at a time. After it moves down on the 4th frame, it will cycle back to the 1st frame and appear to move down another 3. So that's when everything properly clicked.
Then I simply worked out the foamy top of the falls separating the rolling over, and I slightly redrew and recolored the foam plumes at the bottom.
These blue Falls were actually meant to be introduced in the Roman Gardens level and wouldn't appear previously or afterwards. But I enjoy water features so much that I've actually decided to use them elsewhere as it makes sense.