Tool: Move Animation Creator

[ortz3]

Hello, I've created a tool that allows you to create your own move animations (for Fire Red AND Emerald) by manipulating and combining existing animations, all done via a user interface and without the need to touch a single line of hex code.

Download 1.4.1

I have lots of plans to continue updating this application in the future. If you still prefer to create your custom move animations manually, then follow this link to view the hex code for all moves in the game!

This tool is targeted towards people who have no idea how to make move animations. If you're willing to take the time to learn how to make move animations from scratch, which will allow you to create far more detailed animations than this tool will provide, than I highly recommend reading the Encyclopedia of move animations: https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/gen-iii-animation-scripting-tasks-and-templates.465265/

Discord where you can contact me and other romhackers: https://discord.gg/3HqrYzc

Screenshot

Spoiler:

Assign the animation using Hex Maniac Advance

Or with PGE

Documentation

Spoiler:

More documentation can be found on Github

Selecting a Background
A dropdown list is provided with all the backgrouds for you to choose from. Below are some details on the options provided. If you select a background for your animation, the default behavior for this application is the following: First it will go through each move animation that you chose and remove it's background (if possible), including colored backgrounds. Secondly, it will combine all the animations together so that they are played in sequence. Lastly, the background you chose will be applied to the start of the animation and will be used for the entire sequence, unless specified otherwise via the Keep Background checkbox explained below

• 
  Default: With this option, whatever animation you choose to combine will have it's default background. For example Confusion will have the Psychic Background, Shadow Ball will have the Ghost background etc
• 
  No/Remove Background: This option will remove any background from an animation. This includes both regular backgrounds like Shadow Ball and colored backgrounds like Absorb. Some moves cannot have their backgroud removed. A list of moves that can't have their background removed will be listed below. Any attempt to do so will be ignored
• 
  High Impact, Guillotine and Solarbeam: These moves use different backgrounds depending on who is attacking (you or CPU). This application automatically uses the correct the background depending on who's attacking so you don't have to worry about it

Background Scroll
Some backgrounds are scrollable such as the Thunder background. If you choose to have a scrolling background, the entire animation from start to finish will have it's background scrolled (even if the background gets switched)

Scroll Speed
This setting will affect how fast the background will scroll vertically/horizontally. This setting has no effect if "No Scroll" is selected for the Background Scroll

Animations to Combine
You can combine up to 4 animations together. Select the move(s) you want to use/combine with the dropdown list. Some moves have an abbreviation. The following list will explain what they mean

• 
  Abbreviations
  • 
    CR: Colored Background can not be removed. Any attempt to do so will be ignored. You can still add a background to the move
  • 
    BR: Background cannot be removed. Any attempt to do so will be ignored. You can still replace it with another background
  • 
    BRR: Background cannot be removed or replaced. Any attempt to do so will be ignored

Keep Background Checkbox
If you aren't using a Default Background (see above) and you want a move to keeps its background, check this box. For example: If I Select the background to be "Dark" and the moves I want to combine are Pursuit, Shadow Ball and Tackle, but I want Shadow Ball to keep its Ghost background, I would check Keep Background for Shadow Ball. This is how the animation would look: Pursuit + Shadow Ball + Tackle

Notice how Tackle uses the Ghost background. This is because when you select Keep background, all moves after it will use the background that you chose to keep. The best way to learn how this works is to play around with the application and create some test animations.

It is NOT recommended to select Keep Background for more than 1 move with the Psychic Background. If you Select Keep Background for a Psychic move, every move after it will NOT have a background.

Psychic Background Rare Use Case
If you want to combine multiple moves that use the Psychic Background (such as Confusion + Psybeam) instead of setting the background to Default, set the background to Psychic (may seem redundant, but this will prevent a glitched background)

Pre Attack Animation
A pre attack animation is an animation that will display before the move occurs, such as making the user move in a circle before attacking. These animations are appended to the front and will NOT replace any existing pre attack animations that a move may have.

Post Attack Animation
A post attack animation is the little animation that occurs after an attack, like the water bubbles after Bubble, the poison bubbles after Poison Sting, the ice crystals after Ice Beam and so on and so on. For each animation in the sequence, you can now control what post attack animation displays. You can either leave it as a default, remove it (like removing the poison bubbles from Poison Sting) or insert your own from a list of 30 options. If you add a post attack animation to an animation that already has one, the program will automatically replace the old one with the new one. Check out the example below where we replace the poison bubbles with scattered flames. If you ever wanted to create a move like Ice Fang, now you can by doing Bite + Ice Crystals

Inserting an Animation
To insert an animation, you will need to provide a memory offset. A built in Free Space Finder is provided in the tool. Once you insert the animation at an offset, for example, 82748A, assign this animation to a move using a tool such as Hex Maniac Advanced (recommended), or by going to PGE -> Attack Editor and then inserting the new animation offset to the Animation textbox on the left side of the screen. Make sure you click Repoint!

If you are using CFRU, go to Complete-Fire-Red-Upgrade-master\assembly\data\attack_anim_table and then use the following format to assign an animation to a move

.word 0x882748A @MOVE_movename

Where 82748A is the offset of the animation that you inserted and "movename" is the name of the move such as TACKLE or LEER. Take note of the extra 8 before the offset! There are lots of other examples in the attack_anim_table file. Just follow the same format there if you are confused.

Examples

Spoiler:

1. Default Background: Harden + Mach Punch + Take Down + Recover
2. No/RemoveBackground: Rain Dance (CR) + Ice Beam + Scary Face + Hyper Beam
Because Rain Dance is a CR move, it can not have its colored background removed which is why it's still present in the animation
3. Fire Sting: (Poison Sting + Scattered Flames)
4. Scald: (Light Red Background + Hydro Pump + Scattered Flames)
5. Ice Fang: (Bite + Ice Crystals)

Update History

Spoiler:

1.4.1

Spoiler:

- Added the ability to change particle colours. You can change them to whatever colour/opacity that you want. This does not apply to pre attack particles. Just the main attack and post attack particles.
- Added a handful of new pre/post attack animations
- Fixed a bug that caused the game to freeze at the end of the battle with the pre attack animation: Ancientpower Lift Rocks.

1.4

Spoiler:

- Move Animation Creator is now compatible with Emerald.
- Added the ability to remove Background/Sprite Blinks. A blink is when a background/monster blinks back and forth between a certain colour. For example, in Explosion, the background will blink Red 8 times. With Double Edge, the user will blink twice before attacking. With Blaze Kick, the background will quickly blink on impact. You now have the ability to remove this blink if you want. Do keep in mind, in rare circumstances, the blink is needed to "reset" any previous colour changes. For example, with Guillotine, the foe will turn black and the blink will reset the foe back to its normal sprite. If you check Remove Blink with Guillotine, the foe will turn black and stay black for the remainder of the battle. If you have no interest in dealing with blinks, just ignore this checkbox
- Add a handful of new pre/post attack animations
- Adjusted Speed of Background Scroll for Slow, Medium, Fast and Very Fast. Prior to the change, all the background speeds felt sluggish. Now they will better match the desired speed
- Optimized method of adding/removing scrolled backgrounds. All scrolled backgrounds should now have smooth transitions at the start and end of the animation
- Following moves can now have background removed: Aromatherapy, Destiny Bond, Eruption, Fire Blast, Fissure, Glare, Grudge, Guillotine, Hail, Luster Purge, Moonlight, Psycho Boost, Rain Dance, Seismic Toss, Sky Attack Turn 1, Sky Attack Turn 2, Sky Uppercut, Spite, Sunny Day
- Bug Fixes

Spoiler:

- Aeroblast: Fixed bugs when removing its background
- Blizzard/Extremespeed/Mach Punch: Fixed a bug where removing the background from these moves wouldn't remove the background when the enemy used the attack
- Space Background: Fixed bug that caused the background to slightly delay before beginning to scroll
- Focus Punch: Fixed bug causing the wrong "Impact" background to display
- Icy Wind: Fixed bug where removing the background would remove the Ice background, but not the colored background
- Guillotine Background: Fixed a bug where a soundbite would play when this background is used
- Fissure Background: Fixed a bug that caused the wrong version of the background to display. The correct background will now display depending on whether the user or foe is attacking

Download 1.4

1.3

Spoiler:

- Added a ton of extra Post Attack Animations
- Post Attack Animations can now be used in the main attack slot for increased flexibility
- Added Pre Attack Animations
- Added Slow Versions of every coloured background. This will create a more cinematic effect as well as display a deeper version of whatever colour you chose.
Download 1.3

1.2.1

Spoiler:

- Micro update. Fixed a bug when using horizontal/vertical scroll for Ghost and Space background

Download 1.2.1

1.2

Spoiler:

- Added a built in Free Space Finder

Download 1.2

1.1

Spoiler:

- Added the ability to add colored backgrounds to your animations. You can add light/deep versions of the following colors (black, blue, green, orange, pink, purple, red, sky blue)

- You can now add post attack animations to every animation in your sequence. A post attack animation is the little animation that occurs after an attack, such as the water bubbles after bubble, the poison bubbles after poison sting, the ice crystals after Ice Beam, the health regaining animation after moves like Absorb and Recover and lots more. 30 post attack animations has been added. In addition, you can remove/replace existing post animations. In the examples section, I posted an example of replacing the poison bubbles from Poison Sting with scattered flames.

- Thunderbolt, Thundershock, Thunder Wave and Volt Tackle can now have their colored backgrounds removed

Download 1.1

1.0

Spoiler:

Initial Release

Download 1.0

Credits

Spoiler:

Special thanks to AkameTheBulbasaur whose Move Animation Encyclopedia will allow me to add so many new features in the future

Please reply with any bugs/suggestions. Also, feel free to post any cool move animation that you create. I'd love to see them.

Have fun making your own move animations!

 

[Battle Trainer 1823]

Thanks for creating such an awesome tool :'3

The possibilities are endless! :D

 

[Mason Shu]

Nice

 

[Battle Trainer 1823]

May I ask how to create a move like Scald?

I think it would be Bubble + Overheat (for the background only) + Ember (only the second part), right? o.o

 

[ortz3]

May I ask how to create a move like Scald?

I think it would be Bubble + Overheat (for the background only) + Ember (only the second part), right? o.o

Unfortunately for this version, you can not add your own colored backgrounds to animations (like green, red or blue). If you use bubble + overheat it would just play both animations back to back. Adding colored backgrounds is on my to do list and will be added in a future update. Also, in terms of the post-attack effects (like poison bubbles, water bubbles, flames), those will come in a future update as well. Here is a custom Scald animation that I'm using in my current hack (combines Hydro Pump with flames):

00 A5 27 00 2D 27 0A 03 28 01 0C 0C 08 03 F9 89 09 08 05 05 00 00 00 00 02 00 28 00 01 00 04 06 1B 9D 00 C0 3F 02 00 03 01 B1 0A 08 05 01 64 00 0E 18 F8 84 08 0E 18 F8 84 08 0E 18 F8 84 08 03 F9 89 09 08 05 05 01 00 03 00 00 00 25 00 01 00 0E A9 F7 84 08 0E 18 F8 84 08 0E 18 F8 84 08 0E A9 F7 84 08 0E 18 F8 84 08 0E 18 F8 84 08 0E A9 F7 84 08 0E 18 F8 84 08 0E 18 F8 84 08 0E A9 F7 84 08 0E 18 F8 84 08 0E 18 F8 84 08 0E A9 F7 84 08 04 01 04 01 0E A9 F7 84 08 05 0B 03 0D 08 02 18 F8 84 08 03 04 0A 00 0A 00 00 00 10 00 02 18 F8 84 08 03 04 0A 00 0A 00 00 00 F0 FF 04 01 02 18 F8 84 08 03 04 0A 00 0A 00 00 00 10 00 02 18 F8 84 08 03 04 0A 00 0A 00 00 00 F0 FF 04 01 0F 02 A9 F7 84 08 04 04 00 00 0F 00 01 00 01 00 02 90 F7 84 08 04 04 00 00 F1 FF 01 00 01 00 0F 00 18 28 00 19 28 00 59 27 03 F9 89 09 08

 

[Battle Trainer 1823]

Thanks for the code, and keep up the good job, this tool will help lots of people in their projects! :D

 

[ShinyTillDawn]

If you were to port this to Emerald, all I think that is needed is an updated list of offsets used for 02 and 03, 0E and 11 byte commands that correspond to those of FireRed.

 

[ortz3]

If you were to port this to Emerald, all I think that is needed is an updated list of offsets used for 02 and 03, 0E and 11 byte commands that correspond to those of FireRed.

I'll take a look into it. I made the code open source, but I'll definitely give it a go when I get some free time

 

[ortz3]

May I ask how to create a move like Scald?

I think it would be Bubble + Overheat (for the background only) + Ember (only the second part), right? o.o

Hello, I released 1.1 of the Move Animation Creator so you will be able to create your Scald animation. I recommend choosing (Light Red Background + Hydro Pump + Scattered Flames)

 

[Dreamaker]

Much better this version!

 

[ortz3]

Much better this version!

Thanks. I didn't realize how straightforward it was adding post attack effects. If I knew it was going to be this easy I would have included it in the 1.0 release 😀

 

[Fantaseed]

This is a very amazing and promising tool to create battle animations more efficiently.

 

[ardicoozer]

Excuse me,
I want to ask, how to insert custom animation from MoveAnimationCreator to PGE?

 

[ortz3]

Excuse me,
I want to ask, how to insert custom animation from MoveAnimationCreator to PGE?

When you create your move with MoveAnimationCreator, you are inserting it to an offset (remember/copy this offset). For example 843F48. Then, all you need to do is go to PGE -> Attack Editor, go to the move you want and then on the left side of the screen there is a box called Animation Pointer. Just paste the offset of the animation you just created there and then click Repoint followed by Save. Done

 

[AdeptSceptile]

Thank you for creating this.

 

[Dreamaker]

Bug > BG + Skill Swap Animation

 

[ortz3]

Bug > BG + Skill Swap Animation

I just tested it and it seems to be working on my end. Can you specify the exact settings you chose?

 

[Dreamaker]

I just tested it and it seems to be working on my end. Can you specify the exact settings you chose?

Sorry, I think it was a temporary error (of beginner '-')

 

[MattCatDad]

Hey this is a great looking program. Any luck getting it to work with Emerald? Or anyone try to do it since it is open source?

 

[ortz3]

Hey this is a great looking program. Any luck getting it to work with Emerald? Or anyone try to do it since it is open source?

I do plan on eventually porting this to emerald, however I'm quite busy right now with other projects. Hopefully I'll be able to get working on this in the near future