Better way to import animations?

Quote from joshjones34

Unnecessary explanation aside, is there any known way to import a png image (maybe a sprite sheet or something of the sort) to import animations and get around using anm files? The reason for this is to allow for user-imported costumes by replacing the sprites or creating sprite sheets in the same format. The current method works fine, so no worries if it's a no-go.

Thanks!

Instead of loading animation files, you need load frames in a loop, note that you already need to have dummy frames in the active for that, as load frame loads into an existing frame, it cannot insert a new one
I actually made an old example about it before loading animation files was possible:

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Quote from joshjones34

My game allows for use of different costumes which act as sprite-swaps. Currently, the method I use is to take my main character object and replace animations inside of fusion, then save as an animation file to reference later.

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These files, namely the first two in the list, are loaded at the beginning of the frame through events. The png (seen below) is loaded into an active object that is referenced by the engine to assign color colors into the character.

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The anm file is loaded into several actives which each represent one layer of the overall sprite and are colored accordingly with a shader. The RGB values for each shader are referenced from the image above at runtime. Unneeded colors are filtered out and replaced with the object's transparent color.

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The result is this sprite-swap for Mega Man:

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This can be done better by using a customized color replacer shader fitting to your color palette, or by still using the replace color action, just done in loops and utilizing qualifiers, as this will greatly decrease the the amount of hardcoded stuff there

I made another example with no need for existing frames. Maybe it is not as optimized?

How do you set the animation speed in your example Linky ?

Edit: Oh I see! Inside the object

Quote from willy

How do you set the animation speed in your example Linky ?

Edit: Oh I see! Inside the object

Yes inside the object, the only custom part animation manipulation part there is how I handled looping animations ( to support animations with different frame count)

Quote from willy

I made another example with no need for existing frames. Maybe it is not as optimized?

I see what you did there, you constantly load a different a frame, into one existing frame, the frame to be loaded is calculated via a custom animation system

The idea it self is nice, but unfortunately constantly reading files from disk is not good for app performance or a user's disk drive health

I tried to tweak your example, Linky . Now with an external text file which should define the animation settings, but I think I am messing up the loops somehow. Attaching the file here

I figured it out! The code got a bit messy, but I think it works

Sorry, missed your earlier message..
Well glad you figured it out

Quote from willy

I figured it out! The code got a bit messy, but I think it works

Thanks a ton for posting the solution you ended up going with, I wish more people did this! It is very helpful for others in the future.