Animation Action

[DerVVulfman]

Wishing to use that collection of 13 frames? It is all a matter of spritesheet styles.

The ACBS system permits the use of two different methods of sprite animation, minkoff/cybersam spritesheets and ccoa's spritestrips.

The Minkoff system as it is typically known (though his battlesystem began roughly parallel to Cybersam's) used a single file we call a sprite sheet. It is a collection of animation frames in a set format. Originally, this was a rigid format of only having four frames of animation for each visible action, each action needing to be placed in a specific row. But now most systems which use these spritesheets set up their systems to go beyond four frames, or allow one of the action poses to be a mere single frame. Yet, you were limited to only one spritesheet per battler. If you needed to add new poses or animations, you would need to actively edit that spritesheet.

The ccoa system was designed by the co-owner/founder of 'then' RMXP.Org (now HBGames) back in 2007 for her own sideview battlesystem. Unlike the other system, each battler in her system used multiple strips of animation cells. Each strip covered a single battle action, be it a weapon attack, the use of an item or casting of a fireball. But unlike the minkoff system, ccoa's battlesystem was designed to already go beyond the traditional four-frame animation protocol. While one battler may be using a sprite strip with three frames of animation for their 'idle' pose, another may have a longer 'idle' pose which lasts five frames. But while offering flexibility, it did have a drawback of requiring multitudes of individual graphic files per battler.

Personally, I have always used the Minkoff system, and for 'my' system I made a paperdoll application which may not be ccoa compatible.

Either option you choose, your single attack animation must be aligned horizontally. This means you cannot use a graphic image holds multiple rows of images for a single action as yours. For either system, you would need to slice this image into a single strip holding the 13 frames left to right.