The Spaceflame Circlet Though not much to behold on its own, the Spaceflame Circlet was supposedly forged at the beginning of time itself. The Spaceflame from which it draws its name (and from which it was purportedly forged) illuminates nothing, instead appearing as a ghostly illusion of a portal into the void of space... even in complete darkness. When equipped, the Circlet imbues its wearer with the power of cold, ethereal Spaceflame. His or her hair changes appearance, offering a glimpse into an eerie, timeless nothingness. BAM! Space hair! ...Unless of course the wearer is bald, in which case the Circlet simply lights the wearer's head on fire. Leading scientists report a 46% chance that this is not painful in any way. Those that equip the Circlet are thought to temporarily gain a more astronomical personality, often looking up to the sky and stars as if lost in thought. Of course, this could also just be the result of its wearers attempting to see their own hair. It is unknown at this time what other effects the Spaceflame Circlet may have, but researchers implore any space-faring adventurers that find such an artifact to report to a registered laboratory immediately. Please leave all Spaceflame-related science experiments to the professionals. Other images: I'm not sure how it's done on whatever engine the game's using, but I believe it's possible in some engines to overlay an image on only part of a sprite, designated (perhaps) by the hair sprite that's already there. I've seen it done in games like Realm of the Mad God and Pokémon of all things, so it's possible, but I'm not sure how difficult it is. If it matters, I'm currently animating them using GIMP as shown below (in a really basic overview). First, I start with a base sprite and two "space" images of the same size. I've already animated one of the space images, and if you look closely you'll notice that its animated part is simply an overlay of the first image (this is purely stylistic): Oh man, she's poking SPACE ITSELF with that spear. The consequences are bound to be dire! Next, I select the entirety of the player sprite's hair, invert the selection, and clear out any part of the first space image that isn't part of the hair: --> Removing empty space and replacing it with empty space? This process continues to baffle even expert astronomers! I then combine this layer with the player sprite itself, giving the appearance of static "spacey" hair. Ultimately, this ends up as a mere outline: + = In retrospect this actually looks kinda neat on its own. In the most complex step, which I've truncated for simplicity's sake, I select the interior regions of the hair and overlay the circlet, then invert that selection and remove it from the second, animated space image: --> It's all a part of a larger Universe in the end! This simply animates/pastes directly over the "spacey" hair static sprite as layers, finishing the "spaceflame" effect when the bottom two layers are merged together: + = Spifftacular. As I mentioned before, my understanding is that it's perfectly possible to overlay a single image over part or all of a sprite depending on the game engine being used. I realize that the way I've done the animation here isn't exactly conducive to easy programming, but going with a straight overlay and skipping the part with the boundaries could still look neat, right? Let's see: ...Apparently so? Of course, the pink hair decoration might also be part of what the programmer would consider "hair". In that case, it may also be overlaid with the space animation if it's generic enough to encompass all character-specific head ornaments: Why does this keep looking better to me as I make it simpler? ...well, dang. That actually looks pretty neat to me. I hope this helps in the event that someone wants to program this.
Yup, this is honestly a fairly impressive idea aero. Damn you and your ability to grasp the mystic art of making gifs.
I think I'll work on a few more animations for this. I'm going for a true "outer space" look to the hair, but it's hard to make something like that on such a small scale! Does anyone have any good spriting tips in that regard?
Hey aero I deleted my old posts about animations. Turns out its cool as long as its not over the top. Keep up the great work your entry is among my favorites.
Aww, there wasn't any need for that. I'm still glad to have it clarified that animations are okay! Thanks for the compliment. ^_^
