H3SW: Creature Animations

Creature animations in H2 style is a rather sophisticated task. Due to some requirements and limitations (palette, simplicity of elements, etc.) an artist has often to 'solve a puzzle' - figure out the optimal configuration and movement pattern for each limb, to ensure that each frame looks more or less acceptable. Long and narrow elements like swords and spears sometimes are a real pain.

April Lee, New World Computing wrote:

The Ranger.  She’s the upgrade for the Archer.  All this stuff is hand-drawn, frame by frame.  Talk about pixel-pushing!
The Mummy. I had a fun time giving him a death where his bandages un-wrap (very quickly)!
The Vampire.  I think he turned into a bat to move.  That made animating him easier!!!
The Pikeman (Upgrade).  He gets a feather in his cap and a blue surcoat instead of red.  It was a pain keeping his pike looking straight and not jaggy.
The OrcChief.  A bit too piggy-looking to be at all threatening.  And a bit slow, even for a range-fighter…  You can see all the bitty pixels in his chain-mail.  Yikes.  I was very happy to leave this serious pixel-pushing behind.

These difficulties often cause many strange, bizarre and funny decisions in animation, especially for the movement. What should be noted, it is not common for H2 animation schemes to repeat each other - all creatures are animated in their own unique way.
April Lee animated only 10 (only 10!) creatures for Heroes 2. This leaves us a clue how hard was this task back in the time when people had only Deluxe Paint and Animator Pro.



Another important point is the animation types. In Heroes 3 there are 16 possible types:

- Moving
- Standing - an arbitrary standing animation not implemented in H3 fully (but the DEF files contain all the necessary frames). Restored in Heroes 3 HotA, and was present in H2 for Ghosts, Genies and Zombies/Zombie Mutants.
- Mouse Over - a periodical animation for an active creature in battle, ready to take an action.
- Defend - absent in H2, but will be required for us later, when we will have time. (presumably v1.0)
- Getting Hit
- Attack Up
- Attack Straight
- Attack Down
- Shoot Up
- Shoot Straight
- Shoot Down
- Death - it is important that the corpse doesn't go beyond the borders of 1 or 2 hexes 'native' for the creature.
- Turn Right - not required for H2.
- Turn Left - same.
- Start Moving - see below
- End Moving - see below

The last two animations, if I recall correctly, are also not present in Heroes 2. They have a special function - to provide a smooth transition between the moving and standing forms of the creature for any hex of the battlefield. The only exception of that rule is the Toad (Frog) which possesses a peculiar movement scheme utilizing these Start Moving and End Moving animations (the video is old, and please note that the flying speed is adjustable). It is possible that the technical problems with the animation of the frog were the reason why it wasn't included in Heroes 2 as a 2nd level Wizard creature (see H2 Museum).

Finally, linear size of creatures must also be kept in mind, especially during the Attack animation. A visible interference of the attacker and defender must be present. The shooting animation, however, is more likely to be compact.