This isn't a concept of a fan game per se, but it is very useful in the field of animation and could potentially be used for fan games. You see, I had an idea like this floating around in my head for a bit, but after discovering this application, I was given additional inspiration and fleshed out the germ of the idea.
Spoiler:
Seeing how there's software specifically designed for Minecraft animations, what if there's a Paper Mario counterpart for that application? The primary feature I have in mind is how it handles character animation. Sure, advanced rigging setups similar to the ones in Maya (including using custom attributes in a channel editor) are still possible in this program, but the most ideal way for animating characters is using what I call the "Wonder Paper System." Basically, they are just image planes with an animated texture on them, but how you are able to animate the texture is the real beauty of this system. By selecting a "sheet" of "Wonder Paper" in the scene, you're given the option to go into an editor with an interface not unlike what you see in Adobe Animate (formally Adobe Flash). From there, you'll find a timeline that'll let you animate your character like in any normal 2-D animation application. Not only does it provide you with a layout that's isolated from the main one, but you also have the option to actually work in the main layout to get a good idea on how the character is interacting with the world. You even get an option for the camera to directly look at the character in the scene. Besides the expected puppet system (attribute editor and all), the other powerful feature of the "Wonder Paper System" is frame-by-frame animation capabilities. That way, you can even animate the characters on the same level of quality as expected from a Mario & Luigi game. As you could expect, with the quality of the drawing tools I plan to have in this program (both vector and raster-based tools with tablet support), I don't insist on this entire application solely being used for Paper Mario animations. Instead, I imagine it creating feature length films that are a solid match for anything Disney can produce as far as cel animation is concerned.
I know I'm getting way too ahead of myself on this, but I couldn't help but speculate the possibilities (especially with cinematic camera angles thrown into the formula). Overall, I was only thinking of an alternate way to animate Paper Mario characters without creating countless puppet parts on a perfectly square sheet ahead of time and toiling over ensuring that they fit together and animate properly. Instead, I could just dive right into animating and only creating the parts when they are needed (on top of fixing certain bits of the character that just doesn't look right on the fly). Plus, since the "Wonder Paper" is only just a single plane, I can easily manipulate it with several deformer tools, such as taper, bend, and twist. With the current system I have, I'm not sure if it's possible to easily distort puppets made of multiple parts and the best I can currently work with is a static image plane (even though it's possible to give it a dynamic texture). Besides, even if I work around that problem, there's still the oddity of sprite layering that the second and third Paper Mario games have to deal with.
Other features I'd like to see in it:- An interface that's flexible and won't intimidate beginner animators.
- The ability to create a good quality render preview as you work and the capability of rendering the entire film quickly. If it matches the kind of quality seen in
Paper Mario: Color Splash, then I'm golden.
- A good camera system that lets you use multiple cameras (especially if you want to switch to another camera when the animation is playing) and provides multiple options that are alterable during the animation. Of course, one of these is massively altering the perspective to resemble the 2-D view in
Super Paper Mario.
- Modeling tools that are nearly as good as the ones in Maya at the very least. Of course, you can rig these up like puppets if needed. Also, auto-UV mapping and the ability to directly draw textures onto surfaces are helpful.
-Access to a graph editor that lets you manipulate the motion tweens of objects much like how it works in Maya.
- Multiple effects, such as ones created through particles and ones that distort the world (i.e. Dimentio teleporting).
- Tools that you hide objects and alter transparency. Also, files that contain multiple scenes (AKA fresh animations that are independent from each other) is useful.
- Basic sound editing tools (i.e. volume control) are necessary.
- A powerful import/export tool that not only lets you import sprite sheets and models, but also lets you take characters and environments from other animations and dumps them into the current animation. Exporting the characters and models created in the application for use in other applications is not necessary, but potentially useful.
I know this sounds like a lot of work, so I don't expect this to ever happen until Paper Mario animations are on the same level of popularity as Minecraft animations. Still, I would like a little bit of progress made on something like this in the near future. Heck, I'm even up for drawing out concept sketches and mockups to provide better references to what I have in mind. For now, though, I'll have to stick with Maya and Fireworks for all my Paper Mario animation needs.
This isn't a concept of a fan game per se, but it is very useful in the field of animation and could potentially be used for fan games. You see, I had an idea like this floating around in my head for a bit, but after discovering this application, I was given additional inspiration and fleshed out the germ of the idea.
[spoiler][video]https://youtu.be/k-Epl53tMnY[/video][/spoiler]
Seeing how there's software specifically designed for Minecraft animations, what if there's a Paper Mario counterpart for that application? The primary feature I have in mind is how it handles character animation. Sure, advanced rigging setups similar to the ones in Maya (including using custom attributes in a channel editor) are still possible in this program, but the most ideal way for animating characters is using what I call the "Wonder Paper System." Basically, they are just image planes with an animated texture on them, but how you are able to animate the texture is the real beauty of this system. By selecting a "sheet" of "Wonder Paper" in the scene, you're given the option to go into an editor with an interface not unlike what you see in Adobe Animate (formally Adobe Flash). From there, you'll find a timeline that'll let you animate your character like in any normal 2-D animation application. Not only does it provide you with a layout that's isolated from the main one, but you also have the option to actually work in the main layout to get a good idea on how the character is interacting with the world. You even get an option for the camera to directly look at the character in the scene. Besides the expected puppet system (attribute editor and all), the other powerful feature of the "Wonder Paper System" is frame-by-frame animation capabilities. That way, you can even animate the characters on the same level of quality as expected from a Mario & Luigi game. As you could expect, with the quality of the drawing tools I plan to have in this program (both vector and raster-based tools with tablet support), I don't insist on this entire application solely being used for Paper Mario animations. Instead, I imagine it creating feature length films that are a solid match for anything Disney can produce as far as cel animation is concerned.
I know I'm getting way too ahead of myself on this, but I couldn't help but speculate the possibilities (especially with cinematic camera angles thrown into the formula). Overall, I was only thinking of an alternate way to animate Paper Mario characters without creating countless puppet parts on a perfectly square sheet ahead of time and toiling over ensuring that they fit together and animate properly. Instead, I could just dive right into animating and only creating the parts when they are needed (on top of fixing certain bits of the character that just doesn't look right on the fly). Plus, since the "Wonder Paper" is only just a single plane, I can easily manipulate it with several deformer tools, such as taper, bend, and twist. With the current system I have, I'm not sure if it's possible to easily distort puppets made of multiple parts and the best I can currently work with is a static image plane (even though it's possible to give it a dynamic texture). Besides, even if I work around that problem, there's still the oddity of sprite layering that the second and third Paper Mario games have to deal with.
[img]http://66.media.tumblr.com/ab2637ceced9ec10d8c7be3e9b5d6f29/tumblr_o63w3z4UbG1rrftcdo1_500.gif[/img]
[b]Other features I'd like to see in it:[/b]
- An interface that's flexible and won't intimidate beginner animators.
- The ability to create a good quality render preview as you work and the capability of rendering the entire film quickly. If it matches the kind of quality seen in [i]Paper Mario: Color Splash[/i], then I'm golden.
- A good camera system that lets you use multiple cameras (especially if you want to switch to another camera when the animation is playing) and provides multiple options that are alterable during the animation. Of course, one of these is massively altering the perspective to resemble the 2-D view in [i]Super Paper Mario[/i].
- Modeling tools that are nearly as good as the ones in Maya at the very least. Of course, you can rig these up like puppets if needed. Also, auto-UV mapping and the ability to directly draw textures onto surfaces are helpful.
-Access to a graph editor that lets you manipulate the motion tweens of objects much like how it works in Maya.
- Multiple effects, such as ones created through particles and ones that distort the world (i.e. Dimentio teleporting).
- Tools that you hide objects and alter transparency. Also, files that contain multiple scenes (AKA fresh animations that are independent from each other) is useful.
- Basic sound editing tools (i.e. volume control) are necessary.
- A powerful import/export tool that not only lets you import sprite sheets and models, but also lets you take characters and environments from other animations and dumps them into the current animation. Exporting the characters and models created in the application for use in other applications is not necessary, but potentially useful.
I know this sounds like a lot of work, so I don't expect this to ever happen until Paper Mario animations are on the same level of popularity as Minecraft animations. Still, I would like a little bit of progress made on something like this in the near future. Heck, I'm even up for drawing out concept sketches and mockups to provide better references to what I have in mind. For now, though, I'll have to stick with Maya and Fireworks for all my Paper Mario animation needs.