[QUESTION] Smooth Sprite Animations for Enemies?

[Marnetmar]

Does such a mod exist? I'm assuming no and I haven't found anything but I figured I'd ask anyway.

[Gez]

No. SgtMk4 started one such project on the ZDoom forums before getting banned, and I don't think he went very far.

Problem is, there are tons of enemies, with several animations, and they have 5 or 8 rotations for their animations. So it's a ton of work. Also, you need a lot of new frames for them, so the project is basically advanced-ports-only because you're never going to scrounge up enough free frames to make it with DEHACKED, contrarily to the weapon mod. And that just means it's more likely to be ignored since #1 a sizable portion of the community doesn't like using said ports and #2 among those who use them, chances are they're already using some other sort of monster replacers, be it monster models on Doomsday/Risen3D or something dumb like Brutal Doom on ZDoom.

[Memfis]

Gez said:

something dumb like Brutal Doom on ZDoom

ok

[Sp00kyFox]

yeah, here is the thread:
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=35723

they experimented with warp tools to create blendings between the original frames. looks good in the browser but not so much ingame where the sprite could take up half the screen. due to the nature of the warping these new frames contain too much blended and smeared pixels which makes them look out of place. could be nice though with bilinear sprite filtering. but the thread is dead now anyway and except for a few proof of concept animations there isn't much to go with.

I guess the best approach would be to recreate the sprites as 3d models as close as possible and make renderings of the animations. but on the other hand this would need a lot of manual postprocessing to make it look like pixelart which matches dooms graphic style.

[NightFright]

Something I found worth salvaging from that abandoned project are the frames for the blinking Doomguy eyes provided by StalkerZHS on page 11 of that ZDoom forums thread.

I have made a little file you can use in ZDoom (or compatible) ports:

Blinking eyes for Doom mugshot (zipfile, 4 KB)

It seems like a minor modification, but once you load this, it's one of those little things you would miss if you stop using it. :) Keep in mind that it would not work with PWADs or mods which change the mugshot on their own, such as Eternal Doom III for example.

[Reisal]

@Nightfright: That is definitely something worth posting as a new thread.