using bone movement to prototype

i want to play around with the bone movement more but it's a hassle to first create sprites for each 'bone'.

i don't know how difficult this would be to implement but i would use 'bone' based animations a lot more if i could just set up 'rigs' and then do whatever else i needed to after setting them up.

maybe if each bone had a dynamically resizable rounded-rectangle that it would automatically use when creating new bones and having the option of loading an image or sprite to replace the default at any time afterwards.

this would make the bone movement much easier to use, especially when i don't have any sprites waiting to be used as bones.

i'm thinking maybe it should be an object rather than a behaviour ... anyone?

I always just open add sprite

use the fill tool, turn the blank square into a colored square

then stretch it out to a rectangle in the layout editor

and clone it a bunch of times

I know it's not as convenient as what you're saying

but the whole process takes less than 15 seconds

The reason each object is separate is so in the future it would be possible to give each 'limb' a physics property and have ragdoll physics when your character dies. Also, you could detect collisions from each individual limb (so enemies shot in the head die instantly etc). Having separate objects also potentially means you could give your leg limb multiple animations for different armours and then make your character upgradable etc.

The reason each object is separate is so in the future it would be possible to give each 'limb' a physics property and have ragdoll physics when your character dies.

yayness!

Mwahahahah now we know David's secret plans

Also, the fact that you could have a limb or weapon playing its own unique animations as its being moved along with the rest of the body rocks! (picture a flaming magic sword)... or you could create a boss ship made from multiple parts that can each take damage seperatesly and get blown off.

the cool possibilities are endless.

but all this is still possible with his idea... I agree that stand-in graphics for the bonemovement would be really usefull. It would still be separate objects when you replace it with a sprite.