Animation Demo - Me Animating Atoms on a Path

Yes, you get two posts this week! Yay you! This time it's an animation demo, what I mean by that is you will see me animating something. It won't be in real time but double speed.
All animation is done in GIMP.

 Hopefully something useful will come out of this for somebody!

I'm animating this:

 This is a sprite for Tilly's Rose Garden. It will be used when she "dies". I don't want bloody violence in my games so this is what I came up with so you get the point she's incapacitated but without the blood or anything.

I did sketch out the basic idea of what I wanted to do in my sketch book.

Here's The Video:
No sound for your own convenience. I also didn't put any captions because doing that takes up too much space on the screen. I'm uploading directly to blogspot not youtube or anything like that so I can't add annotations. 

This animation only has 8 frames, and took me about 20 minutes to make, maybe less or more I can't tell by the footage. It says a very low amount of minutes and I find it hard to believe I did this that fast. LOL

Oh well, I hope this was enjoyable!

~ God Bless ~

~ Firefly

Programs For Artists and Game Creators

Hai! I was thinking that maybe the programs I use and would reccomend to others for making games and graphics might be helpful for others who are aspiring artists and game creators. - Mind you, these are just the ones I have mentioned there are countless programs one can use these are just my select few.

I hope this is helpful to somebody!

Graphics:

GIMP

I do pretty much all my graphics in GIMP, some of them are edited in the program I used for game creation but not overly often. GIMP is an opened-source photo editor and graphic program. This of is as a free photoshop. Granted photoshop might be aimed more towards painting but GIMP is just as good for making game graphics and it's free no strings attached.

MyPaint

As stated GIMP is my main source for graphics, but if I ever make a more advanced game or have a more painted style in mind I will for sure collab MyPaint and GIMP together for better coloring quality. MyPaint is another Opened-Sourced art program, this is more like a free ArtRage, the boldness isn't as sharp as ArtRage but it's still a wonderful program. If you want a more painted look I'd recommend MyPaint for sure; however there is another program called Krita, I can't seem to understand it personally...But I only use a mouse and that's probably why. Can't hurt for you to try.

 

Inkscape

 

I don't personally use Inkscape for the simple reason I don't understand Vectoring. When trying to make a vector I get so lost I'm on another planet. That aside, for those who would be more apt to use a vectoring program Inkscape is like a free Adobe Illustrator, it is as well opened source and is powerful enough to make sleek graphics that are vectors instead of normal images that use pixels.

Sounds:

Sony Acid (Free Version)

 

I use Sony Acid's synth pad to create my sounds (like picking up points, impact noises, power-ups...etc). I don't have the full version so exporting to .wav is an extra feature you can only get if you buy it so I have to use another program to convert to .wav...For what I need it for it's useful. You could maybe use Fruity Loops as well, there's free version if you have no money. Or another alternative is Linux Music Making Studio, it's a lot like Fruity Loops only you don't have to pay for it. (And it works in Windows too)

GoldWave ( Free version)

 

I use GoldWave to export my sounds in to .wav (that's the format I have to use in my game creation program) and I also edit the sounds in goldwave, like the volume and some effects to the sounds. You can buy GoldWave if you want too, I honestly don't know what you get if you buy it , I've been using the free version for stuff since I'm 10 or 11 years old so...yep. If you want a similar program that's fully free you can get Audacity, it's a free program for editiing music and stuff like that it would 

 probably be just as useful.

Game Creation

GameMaker 8.0

 

This is a program you'd have to buy for full functionality (unless you learn to code out of the gate). It's a very good program for noobs like me who don't know what they're doing. There's a drag and drop option and a coding option, if you code you have to use it's own coding language. Any previous coding knowlage would probably help you understand the codes in GML (Game Maker Language) however, its it's own lauguage and you'd have to learn it.
GameMaker is currently on the 8.1 version, and if you pay the most money (which is ungodly exspensive) you can make games on nearly every platform there is; however, though, if you are just starting out you don't want to spend all that money if you don't even know if you like the program. I'd mess with the free version first. GameMaker is a primarily 2D based program, there is some 3D ability but not a whole lot.

 If you're more in to 3D you can use J Monkey which uses Java Script as the code but you'd have to also lean how to use Blender which is a legally free opened source 3D animation and modeling program (Think if it as a free Maya).

I wrote review about GameMaker, it's rather old and I have learned a whole lot more about it since then but it might give you an idea. LINK

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Program Links:

Audacity

GoldWave

Sony Acid

Linux Music Making Studio

GIMP

MyPaint

Blender

Krita

JMonkey

GameMaker

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May God Bless You, Your Family, Friend; Along With The Health Of Yourself, Family, Friends, And All Who Know You. ~ Amen

~ Firefly

Useful Links:

Would You Like To Read More Blog Posts Similar To This One? Take A Look At The Official Blog Archive.
Would You Like To See My Drawings? Click here.

Have A Question?

Ask The Firefly!

{Game Demo} Paisley Butterfly Virtual Piano

I've had this under my proverbial hat for a while, but never really took it out to play with...! But now I've done enough to release a demo. I hope you enjoy this brand new "game" by The Factoid Firefly Productions!

DOWNLOAD

Creator's Notes:

Features:

1. Can play up to 3 notes at once if using your computer's keyboard
2. 2 octave piano
3. Chord buttons for quick playing
4. Ability to either click the notes or playing using the keyboard on your computer
5. 1 Sound, that being an acoustic piano
6. Custom Cursor

Irritations:

1. Pressing multiple notes is buggy when including black and white keys together
2. Pressing more than 3 notes starts to get sticky and it will cut a note or 2 out.

© All Rights Reserved – The Factoid Firefly (Blogspot); 1/7/2015 (2015)
No recreation or name usage permitted.

________

May God Bless You, Your Family, Friend; Along With The Health Of Yourself, Family, Friends, And All Who Know You. ~ Amen

~ Firefly

Useful Links:

Would You Like To See More Of My Drawings? Click here.
Would You Like To Read My Blog Posts? Take A Look At The Official Blog Archive.

Have A Question?

Ask The Firefly!

GameMaker Room Making Interface

In this video I will show how I make a room in GameMaker, it's pretty simple it's just point and click!

Here's the room when I'm done:

The music in the video is acoustic versions of these songs done by Summertime's End:
In Stereo
The Art Of Succinct Compliments



If you wanna try my game out, you can get the demo here.
It's been much improved since the demo, though.

Enjoy!


~ God Bless ~


~Firefly

Edit: OLD DEMO - Tilly's Rose Garden [DEMO!]

This is a demo of a game I'm working on (Not promising a finish!), for now the object is to get all of the flowers then go to the circle to get to the next level! But don't touch the scarecrows or you'll have to pick them up all over again!

Creator's Notes:
The things are sensitive to touch in this game, if you touch the circle or scarecrows at all the level will be stopped and he next action will happen (restart or next level).

The player gets stuck on the mazes when it's a tight fit, I'm not sure why but I think it's how the program's room-grid works.

The "X" button to close the program for some reason doesn't work, use Escape (Esc) to close.

The Game Goes in to full screen mode and it's size adjustable  if you wish to make it bigger.

You can go to the next level whenever you want, you'll just not get all the points if you don't pick them up.

How To play:
You use the arrow keys for movement, the name of the key it the direction you go (up = up etc.)

Download Here


Programs Used:
GIMP - Art
Sony Acid (Free Version) - Sounds
Gamemaker 8.0 lite (Free Version of Gamemaker) - Putting it together and making it playable.


Enjoy!

Comments on what you think, how it could be improved, or other like bugs or the like are all welcomed!

May God Bless You, Your Family, Friend; Along With The Health Of Yourself, Family, Friends, And All Who Know You. ~ Amen

~ Firefly

Useful Links:

Would You Like To See More Of My Drawings? Click here.
Would You Like To Read My Blog Posts? Take A Look At The Official Blog Archive.

Have A Question?

Ask The Firefly!