Animation competition: Jump'n'run (July 6 - July 17) - WINNER ANNOUNCED

Matti · Sun 06/07/2008 15:38:10

Finally, here's the third competition I had to start:

Rules:
A sprite is supplied, with a theme.
Participants must use the given sprite for their animation
Each competition will last 11 days
The starter of each competition will decide on the winner.
The winner, who will decide on the next competition's theme, must also supply a sprite.

Theme: Jump'n'run

A little jump'n'run scene is to be animated. The little stickman wants to get to the exit. It's up to you if he reaches his goal or not. Be creative, let the guy interact with his environment (pull the rope, throw the ball, move blocks etc.). I tried to make everything as easy as possible so it won't be too hard to animate. You can add things during the animation but the first frame has to be the original one.

Regarding the few entries of the latest competitions I think it would be better to give you more than 11 days, but these were the rules and I don't think I'm supposed to change them..

evenwolf · Tue 08/07/2008 02:07:07

Entry "Beyondo Ball" Added, July 14! here

Paper Carnival · Tue 08/07/2008 12:52:47

wow, great theme! I'll try to make something, thanks to my limited free time that's not going to be very easy.

Matti · Tue 08/07/2008 13:09:20

Yeah, I'm glad that I finally came up with that since I had no idea for at least a week.

I just regret the middle part of the scene, it's a bit weird, but maybe you'll do something fine with it..

abstauber · Thu 10/07/2008 19:00:09

Here's my try.

I call it:

The untalented Mr. Ripley tries to score

Matti · Fri 11/07/2008 11:50:14

Hehe, just brilliant, abstauber. This is what I was looking for.

Untalented indeed, I especially love his very first try.

abstauber · Fri 11/07/2008 15:36:28

Thanks a lot

His first try instantly came to my mind when I saw your level. Too bad I couldn't repeat that joke and let him fall into this mysterious yellow liquid. But this would have been too predictable

markbilly · Fri 11/07/2008 16:18:44

I wish I spawned further on in a level when I died...

Not sure if I'll have time now, but I may have a go at the next one. If there is one!

evenwolf · Sun 13/07/2008 19:15:18

I'm almost done with the final frames but I need some ImageReady assistance.

How can I export the gif at 200 percent? Hopefully theres one setting without changing properties frame by frame.

Gilbert · Mon 14/07/2008 02:01:03

By 200% did you mean the image dimension?

You don't need to manually zoom up the image for posting on the forums. Just use the width and height properties in the img tag, like for example:

[img width=120 height=80]http://blah[/img]

evenwolf · Mon 14/07/2008 23:16:13

Beyondo Ball

( If you miss the beginning just watch for "End" white text over black in your peripheral vision. Otherwise you'll spoil something.) I really enjoyed making this.

Matti · Wed 16/07/2008 15:10:00

Nice entry. Can hardly be called a jump'n'run with all that action going on (like abstauber's as well)* but who cares. Must have taken you quite a while I guess..

* He, how cool it would be to make/play a jump'n'run where you can interact with everything that surrounds you and where things are actually something else or something more than they seem to be.

Come on guys, exactly one day left and I wanna see more entries. I considered making trophies but that's pointless now I guess.

evenwolf · Wed 16/07/2008 16:45:41

If its any consolation, he *would* have jumped and ran if his legs weren't immediately blown off by shrapnel...

But yeah I was caught up with 2 goals:

1. Get the little guy to the door.

2. Make it kind of funny / ironic.

So 5 minutes into animating I decided to make the ball the player character, and have it turn things on and off in the level. Its kind of inspired by Abe's Odyssey and puzzle games like that. I wanted all the events to be tied together to effect the later outcome. I guess I did sort of break the genre for the sake of comedy but I hadn't done anything like this before so it was really fun.

Need more entries!

derboo · Wed 16/07/2008 23:52:14

This competitions really should be longer... maybe in a monthly format or something?

evenwolf · Thu 17/07/2008 00:03:20

Well most weeks its just a single sprite.

I do agree but I think the overall apathy is the labor it takes to animate. Not sure a month would get people involved but a change in format is definitely needed. There needs to be added incentive or a mixup of rules somehow.

Any ideas?

Matti · Thu 17/07/2008 00:10:48

Quote from: derboo on Wed 16/07/2008 23:52:14
This competitions really should be longer... maybe in a monthly format or something?

Yeah, I agree that a month would be an adequat period. It doesn't really make sense to start a competition every 11 days with no more than two entries each. A monthly competition with five or more entries would be much more enjoyable.

But I really don't know the rules here. Can the winner decide all the restrictions of the upcoming competition or does he have to adopt the time rules? I just did what Derboo did.

Quote from: evenwolf on Thu 17/07/2008 00:03:20
Well most weeks its just a single sprite.

But a (complex) sprite isn't necessarily easier to animate than a simple scene like this one.

Matti · Fri 18/07/2008 00:59:09

Ah, right, the contest's over.

It was hard to choose since I liked both entries very much, but the 1st Place goes to evenwolf and his stickman's odyssee! Great effort and nicely animated.

Thanks to you both for participating (which becomes rare it seems) AND posting such good animations.

Evenwolf, choose the next theme.

evenwolf · Fri 18/07/2008 02:00:36

Sweeeeeet! I better start sketching up something.

Maybe I'll make the deadline 22 days? That's a fair compromise between 11 days and a full month. Will anyone mind if we extend the next comp and try to attract more folks? I think the lack of interest might have to do with a prolonged lack of competitiveness.

I'll wait for a moderator or a few people to chime in. I think this competition is a real fixer upper.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Fri 18/07/2008 04:22:45

The main problem is the animation competition has never been as popular as some of the others, most likely because of the additional effort required compared to the Sprite Jam, for instance. There also seems to be a lower proportion of people who can/want to animate compared to people who draw, which I'm sure has something to do Windows having a paint program packaged with it but no animation software. Part of the lack of entries in all the competitions is due to people having fun during the summer, I'm sure. I do not think extending the deadline will get you more entries, honestly.

abstauber · Fri 18/07/2008 07:53:07

congrats!
This was really a fun competition. I did the animation with promotion, which is nice for this stuff. But I'd never thought, that Image Ready is suitable for anything

To be honest, I never started it before.
So both tools are commercial and I really wonder if there' anything free/open source floating around the net.

Anyway, extending the deadline makes sense.