Sprite Animation Tutorial

Newbie & Debugging Questions
#1

Hi, I’m a newbie in java game programming, and I read some articles regarding Sprite Animation and has no luck understand it. Do you guys know a simple tutorial to understand the basic of it?
thanks.

#2

I don’t know a simple tutorial right now, but what specifically don’t you understand? Is it something about the general process of sprite animations, or how to actually use?

#3

It’s pretty simple. Do you know how to render a basic sprite? If no, then you shouldn’t be even thinking about sprite animation. First step is to know a way to render sprite onto the screen.

Once you know that, you can simple do something like this:
-make an array of sprites (say array which contains 3 different sprites);
-make an integer which should always be within 0-2 in this case (because we have an array of 3 members);
-take a sprite from that array passing your integer you just created as an index;
-adjust that integer to your liking (this will change the frame displayed);

This would like something likes this in code:

public class SpriteDemo {
		
		private Sprite[] sprites = new Sprite[];
		private int currentSprite = 0; // should be from 0 to sprites.length - 1;
		
		public SpriteDemo() {
			
			//Fill your array of sprites with sprites of some sort. All should be different
			//if you want to get animation look.
			for(int i=0;i<sprites.length;i++) {
				sprites[i] = new Sprite(); 
			}
		}
		
		public void update() {

			currentSprite += 1; // increase frame counter by 1
			
			//check and make sure animation counter is within your sprite
			//array bounds.
			if(currentSprite >= sprites.length) {
				currentSprite = 0; // reset animation to start
			}
			
			
		}
		
		public void render() {
			sprites[i].draw();
		}

Don’t try to enter this code and expect it to work. This is just a template of how animation class might look like.

#4

Your code has a bug:


			if(currentSprite >= sprites.length) {
				currentSprite = 0; // reset animation to start
			}
			
			currentSprite += 1; // increase frame counter by 1

This will cause currentSprite to never equal zero, therefore the first frame will never be displayed.

What it should be:


			if(currentSprite == sprites.length - 1) {
				currentSprite = 0; // reset animation to start
			} else {
			
			        currentSprite ++; // increase frame counter by 1
                        }

Of course you want to run update with a timer or something.

#5

Thanks DXU, I fixed the issue :stuck_out_tongue: Didn’t even read what I wrote.

#6

thx for the tutorial. I’ll try to make some invaders move since i’m trying to make my own space invaders. THX