I have A LOT of questions about animating for games

Harmony Harmony General Discussion
1

I’ve done a lot of googling and watched a lot of tutorials, but most of what I’ve found is just going over the same basic information. The biggest thing on my mind right now is props and anchors. It took me a frustratingly long time to find even a basic explanation of how these work. (I found the official documentation confusing with out visual examples) A big part of the game I want to make involves creatures of variable appearance. The best way to do this seems to props and anchors, but how do these work with animations? For example I want wings to be a change-able part of these creatures, but I don’t just want them to sit statically on the back, I want them to do things like flap when the creature jumps. This may even involve drawing swap animations, would that be something that I could just animate normally or would I need to do something special to make it work correctly in unity?

Another prop/anchor concern I have is that the 2 videos I found addressing it only showed one prop as an example drawn within the original project, but if I want say, 10 different ears, eyes, horns, and so on what would be the best way to organize them within the project so as not to let things get to confusing/cluttered?

My other major concern is with different ‘skins’ for the base creature. I want several different patterns along with palette swaps for all of them. Would this necessitate a new sprite sheet for each pattern/color combination (along with new color versions of each prop)?

If anybody knows of any extensive classes/tutorials for game animation using harmony I would be super grateful. I’m a poor independent artist who can barely afford essentials, but I’d pay for like a Udemy course or something if it would actually give me the in depth information I need.

2

So I guess I’ll just keep adding questions to this as I think of them.

Can I make a prop with multiple elements? Such as pupils within eyes, or a cape that goes both in front and behind the character? The Cape I could just do with two separate props if needed, but would I still be able to rig eyes as a prop, or would I need to use drawing swaps to achieve pupil movement for that?

3

Can I add game bones to props?

4

Not specifically game oriented but have you gone through all of Stylus Rumbles’s videos? (I apologize to other contributors for not mentioning you). From these you can gather many techniques, methods and organizational tips. You can also contact her and ask whether she could create a tutorial addressing your questions.

5

Thanks for the response. I did a quick look through a few of her videos and while there’s some good information there, I’m not confident she’ll have the game-specific knowledge I’m looking for. I’ve asked her anyway, but my biggest frustration is that there’s a huge abundance of resources for video animation for toonboom, but very little even mentions whether the things they teach would even work with game animation, so aside from basic things, like having to use game bones because regular bones/deformers don’t work, I really have no idea what my limitations are.

6

Look up “Daskin game” and “Adam Phillips.” Among other software he is using Harmony for his game.

He streams his game development on Twitch most Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Generous with his knowledge, he has given very detailed answers to questions asked of him.