Database - Animations

A really cool feature of RPG Maker is the ability to make your own animations for attacks, skills, and items in battle. The Animations tab looks complicated at first, but it's actually pretty easy to make your own cool animation.

Making a New Animation

First we need to understand how the frames work in this type of animation. They are somewhat similar to the Character Tiles images. Your image file needs to have at least 5 tiles of 192 x 192 pixel frames across. You can stack as many of these 5 frame rows on top of each other as you like, but don't go any wider that five squares (960 pixels).

So first, I made a new image file 960 pixels wide and 192 pixels tall. Then I set my grid to 192 x 192. I decided to go the easy way out in drawing and just use the Picture Tube Tool in Paint Shop Pro. I decided to make a bubble animation and put different bubble shapes in each frame. You don't need to worry too much about size, orientation, or opacity because you can edit all of this right in RPG Maker.

Now just save your image as a png file somewhere where you can find it. Import the file into your the Animations folder in the Materials window. Be sure to set the transparency color or else your animation will look all wrong.

Open up the Database window and move to the Animations tab. Click on Change Maximum and increase it by at least one to get a new animation page. Go ahead and name your animation, I'm naming mine Bubbles. Below the name box is the box for the animation graphic you just made. Select your new graphic. I'm going to go ahead and change the hue of my bubbles to a blue shade.

The next option is Position. This determines where, in relation to the character, your animation will appear. The Screen option means it will cover the whole screen. Frames is how many frames you want the animation to last, which determines how long and complex it will be. You might not know until you actually start making the animation, and you can always change the amount in the side number bar by right clicking and choosing Insert or Delete.

On the right side, there is a button labeled [ED] Battler. This lets you change the character graphic that you're testing with. Of course, when this animation is actually used in the game is up to you. Changing the ED Battler just lets you see what the animation will look like if different characters use it.

Let's start editing our frames. You'll notice that your animation image has loaded in the bottome and been split up into its separate cells. I'll click on the first cell and then click somewhere on the main frame to place it.

Ok, I have an image in my mind of the bubbles fading in and then back out as the rise up in front of the character. So for the first frame I need to make the cell's opacity low. You can change the properties of a cell by double clicking it.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure what the Pattern option does. X and Y change the horizontal and vertical alignment of the cell, but you can also just use your mouse for that. Zoom is how big or small the cell is. Angle changes the angle of the cell from 1 to 360 degrees. The program warns that increasing the angle too much will increase the cell size as well. Flip will flip the cell horizontally. Opacity is how see-through the cell is. I'm going to set this at 40. Blending should probably be left at Add, but you can play around with this if you like.

Now you can just barely see the bubbles! I'm going to move to frame #002 to do the next movement. Click the same cell on top of the outline from frame 1, and move the new cell up a little bit. The animation will run so fast it will look like the bubbles are rising. If you want the bubbles to rise slowly, add more frames in between this point, with the bubbles just moving slightly higher each time. I'll change the opacity to 120 this time.

Continue to do the same thing for a few more frames, up to 250 opacity if you like, and then have the opacity go back down for the last few frames as the bubbles disappear again. I ended up with 7 frames. Now you can test your animation by clicking Play Hit. Cool!

Now that you know the basics of animation, look at the other preset animations for tricks and inspiration. There are some more buttons on the side that might help you, including Copy, Paste, and Clear. Tweening makes the transition beween frames look smoother. Cell Batch lets you change the properties for all the cells in across all the frames at once. Entire Slide lets you move all the cells across the X and Y coordinates at once.

One last option is found at the top of the window, SE and Flash Timing. Use this if you want to add sound effects and screen flashes to your animation. You can choose what frame you want the effect to occur during, whether it happens when you hit or miss, the sound effect you want, and the color you want the screen to flash.

That's all there is to it! See what kind of complex animations you can come up with. And don't forget to go make a new skill to add your animation to!