Cutout Animation

[KingMabus]

How hard would be to use cutout animation instead of the spreadsheet animation in Löve2d? For those wondering about what I mean, check this video: https://youtu.be/lRVnk1PMDTs?t=368

[zorg]

Well, depends on what you mean by "spreadsheet" animation; but in any case, it's not too hard to do basic bone-like transforms in conjunction with SpriteBatches, that have all possible "limb parts" in a texture, for example; You also store all the joint positions, and data regarding them.

[KingMabus]

I was thinking exactly on doing that, but thought someone would have a better way to accomplish the task. It is not going to be hard, really, perhaps only time-consuming—which might bring me back to the common spreadsheet method. Thanks friend, for the answer.

[zorg]

No worries; still, both approaches will result in their own animation style; still, the cutout way means a bit more freedom at runtime, if you think about it, since you can orient each shape in ways that might not fit into one (or more) texture(s); granted it will consume a bit more processing power, depending on the number of joints, it shouldn't be too hard on the CPU, nor the GPU to deal with it.

Edit: (never )

[KingMabus]

I had just finished a small simple test of an animated stick (using cutout) and thought of asking about this: performance. The objects I plan to animate are not going to have more than three or four joints. As you’ve just mentioned, and as I believe indeed, if I keep this number small, things are going to run smoothly.
Thanks again.
And of course, now you can turn off this magical prediction tool you’ve be using to answer questions ahead of their time.