EFX : Evoeon 2D Effects Builder v0.9.6



An animation tool for developing 2D effects. Animations can be called within your 3DGS projects with a few lines of code. Template included.

Includes :
* EFX - Evoeon 2D Effects Builder - Editor
* Quick start example template with EFX integrated and ready to use.
* Compiled Demo of the Quick start example template to show everything is published correctly.

Overview :
* Create up to 240 Effect Animations and save them out into a single database.
* Each Animation can have up to 50 Frames each.
* Each Frame can have up to 20 Sprites each.
* Easily Set Screen Flash, Target Flash, Flash color and SFX for any frame.
* Easily Edit each sprite and change its color, size, rotation and alpha.
* Easily integrate with your own existing projects.
* Play out any animation in your project with just a few lines of code. Includes extra controls for the effects layer and animation speed.
* Spritesheet size of 960x960 for Animation development.(192x192 Sprite sizes - 25 Sprites per spritesheet)

Update 0.9.3 Includes :
* Various Speed improvements for the editor and template.
* EFX Timeline for easy selection of frames with icon indicators that displays if flash and SFX events are used.
* Looping animation when played in the editor. Click mouse left or mouse right to stop an animation.
* New Onion Skinning feature to help with animation.

Update 0.9.6 Includes :
* More Speed improvements for the editor and template.
* Various Bug Fixes for the Editor and Template. (All Known Issues Have Been Fixed)
* New Editor Feature : "Render Box" - Allows you to render out animations and export them into a spritesheet at various sizes.
* New Template Feature : "Animation Instances" - You can now play multiple animations at once including clones of the same animation. (Max = 20 Instances)

NOTES : Due to a bug that deleted frames, the save/load system had to be changed. The animations.efx file is a little larger now, but the bug has been fixed. Animation files from previous versions will no longer work in the new update. Hopefully I wont have to change the save/load functions anymore.
NOTES : I am also currently finding bugs that appear only in the compiled version of the editor. If you find a bug, send me the details to reproduce the error and I'll get it fixed.

(New Update) EFX Version 0.9.6 Download :
https://evoeon.com/freeDownloads/EFX_0_9_6.zip

I haven't created a help file yet, but if you click the [?] button in the top right corner, it will display a quick overview and new controls of the editor. Please review this to learn the new features and controls.

Have a great day,
Brian Pressley (Evo)

Evo!!!! I was the artist that made those flash and attack animations! Pow Studios was my indie game studio for some time Glad to see the animations being used!

So after using your demo, I feel that it needs some improvements. So far, from what I see in the program, is that you drag and drop premade images from premade sequences, and place them in the scene/frame...

..So this is an animation program!(duh) But if its an animation program, it will need quite a few improvements to the GUI as well as animation functionality. Im going approach this as an animator:

1. It needs a timeline/bar/sequence to show visually where the current frame is compared to the whole animation, and be able to drag this position left and right, and have the animation update in realtime. This is scrubbing, and is a very needed tool for animation. Animators can jump to a frame visually, advance frame by frame, just take a look at MED animation.

2. Onion skinning. Onion skinning is an animation tool that causes the last frame of animation to be slightly transparent over the current frame of animation. And because you are manually dropping in images each frame, you need a point of reference to place them. Without them, you will be going back and forth between 2 frames of animation to make sure they are not shaking. If you can make a way to produce a transparent image of the frame before the current one, it would help alot with animators placing the sprites.

3. Animation looping. There should be a playLoop button that will constantly play the animation while looping it (with a stop button of course). This will help animators feel their animation over time. This is really highly subjective language, but most, if not all animation software has a looping function.

4. General speed improvements. How are you handling each sprite and how frames are shown and hidden? If I place 10 muzzle flash sprites in a frame, are these 10 each a different object that need to be hidden and unhidden based on the frame? Right now, it seems very slow to advance a frame, which can be pretty rough when it comes to animation, as animators need everything snappy

5. Rotation and scale of each Sprite needs to be a visual indicator, not a seperate popup window. Think of photoshop or windows paint. If you select something, a box appears around it with anchor points, which you can scale/rotate.

I see this as a VERY powerful tool, not only for 2d games, but for 3d games as well. Many of these sprites can be oriented very easily in 3d space.

My cintiq has been giving me problems the last few days, and I think it will be out of commision for an indeterminate amount of time. I am trying to fix it. Ideally if everything goes OK, I would be able to make more animations for free for this project

Hi Jumpman,

I found the sprites while searching for free 2d effects to use and found your website. I didn't know you were Pow Studios. Great job on the 2d effects.

1. "It needs a timeline/bar/sequence"
A: Sure, no problem. I'll add a simple timeline in on the next update. I'll also try to add in small icon indicators inside the bars so that users can see what frames use flash events, SFX, etc.

2. "Onion skinning"
A: Onion Skinning should be a simple feature to add in. I'll add it on the next update.

3. "Animation looping"
A: Animation loop with play/stop features will be added with the timeline feature.

4. "General speed improvements"
A: This issue has already been fixed and will be added in the next update.

5. Rotation and scale of each Sprite needs to be a visual indicator
A: Sorry, I can't promise anything on this feature. I plan to change the pop up sprite settings menu to something different, but adding points with drag and drop features to edit size and rotation for each sprite may not be added.

Thanks for testing the beta and giving your feedback.

EFX Update 0.9.3 is now available at the link above.

Thats looks fucking Great man !

Thanks Blackjack.
Hopefully I'll have more free time soon to create some more features.

NOTE : I debugged all known issues that I found, but If anyone finds any bugs or has any random crash, please post your actions that you done when the error happened and I'll track it down and get it fixed.

New Update : EFX 0.9.6 is now available at the link above.