Complex android animations for a 2D game : what approach?

Question

I'm starting a 2D game for Android ( and iPhone later ). I want to animate animals on the screen ( think a cartoon dog ). What is the best approach to do so ? Should I use the built in tweening apis from Android, and mix them to obtain the good animation sequence ( scale, translate, rotate ). Is there any tool to help me do that ? Would it be possible to do the animation in flash and "import" the animation sequences( through AS3 generation maybe ? )

Otherwise should I do this "by hand", with a blank canvas and write all the draw logic ?

I'm just trying to get the fastest way to animate my characters ( if I need to code 20hours for 1 complex animation I'm not sure i'll go very far ).

Thanks :)

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 03 '11 at 15:04

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I would start to look on existing game engines. e.g. AndEngine - Free Android 2D OpenGL Game Engine or existing game Replica Island

answered Feb 03 '11 at 15:04

Michal Harakal

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score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

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I would highly suggest you to use a cross-platform library dedicated to game development, like LibGDX, which allows you to work with a desktop target, and once you're happy with the result, switch to an android target (same code, 1 line to add to switch :p).

As for the animations, I built a Tween engine that can be used to interpolate any attribute from any object. With it, you can tween rotations, positions, opacity, blur, ...everything. It platform independent and library independent.

For more information, I would advise you to take a look at the answer I made on this other question.

update: extensive documentation built. Check the google code project.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

Community

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answered Apr 13 '11 at 13:54

Aurelien Ribon

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That seems interesting. Is there any example out there for Android ? There isn't very much documentation available. – Alex Apr 14 '11 at 11:39
I'm building extensive documentation. Latest (this morning) addition features a complete javadocs documentation. For now, it has been used successfully associated to the LibGDX game framework (though it is generic enough to be used with any framework, including your own). You can find more information about it here: badlogicgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=494 – Aurelien Ribon Apr 14 '11 at 12:52

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 20 '13 at 12:44

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For this :

Cocos2d-X (Cross platform) free

LibGDX (Cross platform) paid foe iOS

answered Sep 20 '13 at 12:44

Akarsh M

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Complex android animations for a 2D game : what approach?

3 Answers3