Dynamic 2D video game character animation with free tools
What you'll learn
- You will be able to design, rig and animate your own 2D game character with free programs!
- You will have a basic character animation knowledge!
- You will be able to recreate my workflow and design and animate your own characters!
- You will create simple animations, that are ready to be used with ANY 2D game engine!
Requirements
- Download the two free softwares we use in the course: Inkscape and Dragonbones
- The course is mainly about animation, have a very basic Inkscape knowledge to start the course!
- Optional: Have a character idea ready! You can use my character too, but you will learn more and have more fun designing and animating your very own creation!
Description
Last update: 2018 April 1st.
With DragonBones 5.6 came the new Mesh tool! Check out lecture 17 and 18 and learn to use it today!
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Update: 2017 June 7.
Just added a lecture about the proper idle animation! New lectures coming soon!
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In this course you will learn how to combine two amazing free programs to create smooth and flexible 2D game character animations!
Inkscape is a free and open-source Vector Illustration software.
With it you can create versatile, ready to use character designs in no time!
Draw anything, export in any size - Perfect for 2D game design!
There are several great courses published about Inkscape, but in this one you can learn how to create a character and make it ready to animate!
DragonBones is a free 2D Skeletal Animation program.
Import your character parts, create the bone system and animate! It is really this easy!
The standalone version just came out at the end of 2016, so this is the first full and comprehensive English course about DragonBones! There are only a very few DragonBones tutorial online, if you want to learn the software, this is a good place to start!
During this game animation course you will
- design a simple knight character in Inkscape (feel free to design your very own character using the same method!)
- export the character properly to be used with DragonBones
- assemble the character and build up the skeletal structure
- create and use meshes to animate soft bodies, like cape and hair
- create four basic animations for the same character: idle, walk, attack, die (more will be added later!)
- easily modify your character to a totally new version, while keeping all the animations!
The course is mostly about DragonBones, so you will need some basic Inkscape knowledge to follow the design part at the start!
Follow the course and ask me anything as you develop your animations!
Who this course is for:
- This course is made for 2D game developers, indy developers or hobby game creators.
- This course is for character designers who want to learn to animate their creatures!
- The course is built for developers who want to create easy game prototypes with animation for free!
- This course is NOT for you if you are looking for 3D animation! Both programs are great for 2D design and animation but not 3D!
- This course is about game character animation, NOT about animating a full scene or animated movie!
Instructor
- 4.5 Instructor Rating
- 5,933 Reviews
- 42,405 Students
- 16 Courses
I'm a graphic designer, illustrator and design teacher for more than 10 years. I create clever logos and cute illustrations, I like to inspire, share my knowledge and make people think and laugh!
I use Inkscape, an open source graphic design program in most of my design, and I was teaching this to my students too in a college in Budapest.
I am constantly sharing knowledge about design and life as a freelancer. I teach on Udemy since 2014 and work together with some of my friends now, to create better courses together by sharing my online teaching experience
Exploring new ways to create and sharing my knowledge is what I like the most - so don't be afraid to ask, I'm here to teach!.