Cocos Studio 2 Feedback

So I’m not alone in this problem :slight_smile:

Just scroll down, there are windows versions.

Hello everyone,
I checked the cocos studio 2.2.8 in few days, it look greate, i love the ides you put everything together, but i am wondering that the way you use to make animation, is it a new way( no bone in the future)? i ask this because, i need my artist to try this tool( we used the skeletal to make the animation before )
Thanks in advance

Hi @nite,
There is the opacity value for the Label shadow which is calculated from Color4B passed into Label::enableShadow() method. But there is no way to set shadow opacity in CocosStudio (v2.2.9). The color which user can set has RGB format. Please add RGBA support for this option to the editor.

Btw. There is also glowing property available for the label in framework but it is not supported by CocosStudio? Why?

@NC1988 you can still use the “old” skeletal animator which can be downloaded via cocos store.

Hi @Michael, thanks for your reply,
i knew the skeletal animator 1.6, but it still not good enough for making some thing more complicated( my artist’s feedback :smiley: ), because he used to using AE, and spine to create the skeletal animation. they are totally better than cocos now. so i just want to know that there are a tool you guys are still working to improve the old Cocos Skeletal Animation Editor. if yes , i’m waiting for that :D. no :frowning: , i will use spine for next project
thanks

I think the old one isn’t in development anymore. I think cocos studio 2.x will have a skeletal animator in the near/far future. I would say you should use spine if you already have the license and maybe in some months there is a skeletal animator inside of cocos studio.

But why would you come back to the skeletal animator after you have licensed Spine?

It would need to be superior to Spine, which is hard to achieve. Spine is not standing still either :smiley:

Two words: License fee. The more person work with spine the expensive it get ^^

So you already have $500k of yearly revenue then? Do you want to act as a publisher? :wink:

Sure, that’s a valid point for starters.

Besides that, this is pretty much the standard licensing model, but keep in mind that updates are free! And that is not the standard model :wink:

Let’s be fair. Are we really arguing about 300 bucks? Maybe your game makes millions/sells pretty good, cause of the fact , that you created awesome animations with Spine. You will get something in return.

Seriously, the Spine license fee is peanuts, compared to other software fees you have to pay, if you want to get rolling :wink:

I just wanted to point out that it costs more because you asked why someone would come back.
FYI: Every person who is working with spine need their own license. I know the fee isn’t that much (I have one, a college has one) but that’s not the point in this thread.

Sure, sure. No offense! Thanks for your input. You have a valid point, I’m agreeing to.
Let me rephrase the question:
Why would you come back, if you have licensed Spine and your game is already making good money? Would you still decide the same?

Yeah, I’m aware of that.

Me too.
Yeah, sorry for that. I kinda tend to highjacking threads… My Superhuman weakpoint…

At least it’s not a 30-40% revenue fee like the platform holder ones :wink:

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Of course I would not switch because the game is generating revenue.
I would “come back” (for the next game) if for example my designer/animator/artist likes cocos studio and knows how to do nice stuff in it. I wouldn’t push him to spine. He should use the tool he is familiar.

Sure, as technology is changing, you have to reconsider what’s best to be productive.

The reasons we moved away from CS(and to also give feedback on it) were the following:

  • lacks of multi-resolution support with tight integration of resource management system of cocos2d-x
  • lacks of different atlas formats(e.g., compressed and/or encrypted versions; formats various texture packer software outputs)
  • not fully cross-platform out of the box
  • lacking of a skeletal animation tool, which is tightly integrated
  • skeletal animation tool needs: attachments, skins, path animations, mesh deformation, IK
  • lacks full support of binary exporters
  • needs UI improvements
  • needs scripting support for interoperation with other tools(e.g., asset pipeline, importing, exporting)
  • lacks of separated animation timelines (animations are split apart by frame index offsets)
  • lacks of animatable properties like visibility(at least there are workarounds)
  • lacks of supporting polygon sprites
  • lacks of defining bones directly in the sprite atlas
  • lacks of resource statistics(memory stats of atlas and assets, bones)
  • lacks of referencing nodes directly from the atlas
  • lacks of animation preview from the atlas view
  • lacks of easing curves

These are the points, which came along by using CS and in comparison with other tools.

Do you have any replacement for CS ?

There is not really a replacement for CS. At least I don’t know of any one-stop solution, which supports cocos2d-x.

We use different tools for different tasks like skeletal animation, atlas generation, asset creation, scripting or scene definitions.

I would love to see the feature to directly add own shaders to elements inside of ccs.

I know that you won’t use it anyway (comparing with Spine for animation, Cocos Studio can’t compite), but I just wanted to point that:

There are workarounds for this, and aren’t troublesome. The project in Xcode at compilation only searches .plist files, so you can work with x format in Cocos Studio, and then with TexturePacker you can work with .pvr, or another that suits you, is the same for resolutions, you can work with -hd resolutions in Cocos Studio, and then you can export different sets with TP, and in code just add the proper paths.

Yes, you can animate visibility. Just tick “Automatic frame recording”, and then tick on/off the visibility. That will create a keyframe.

Are you talking about the animation curves (EaseIn, out, custom)? Those are just beside the timeline… Or you mean a full curve editor?

I believe CS can help you a lot, but is not strong in any area, at least for now.

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Sure, but those workarounds need extra preparation, as you cannot use already encrypted assets. You always have to keep non-encrypted atlases around. Maybe not that big of a problem, but you are forced to do so.

Personally I never had problems with multi-resolution, as I’m using the design resolution inside CS and the design resolution atlas.
Basically doing the exact same thing you mentioned.

It just seems, that some people are just not aware of that possibility.

Yes I’m aware of that. It’s just most people are complaining about it, cause they don’t know the “functionality” of the “Automatic frame recording”. It’s just inconsistent.
The dope-sheet itself offers to less functionality for fast and easy animation modifications.

Yes, but I was referring to the 1.x armature editor, which is not part of CS anymore. Sorry for that misunderstanding. That editor itself is missing an easing functionality.

Yes, but only for scene/asset animations, as CS itself is lacking the armature animation editor. You are able to import the armature animations form 1.x, but you are not able to apply any curves or even edit the armature.

Also that one, yes. Some editors don’t have pre-defines curves. They just come with a curve editor, like Spine. It would be nice, if CS would provide both.

IIRC, I saw a recent screenshot with some grid on the right. Maybe that was the curve editor?

Yes, for sure, if you are a fan of preparing your scene in some UI. I agree on the “does a lot of things, but none is very strong”. I’m sure it will mature over time.

The main reason I switched to Spine, was the lack of the old armature animation editor and the lack of it’s features. Spine does provide all the features needed and I needed a proper solution ASAP.

I was using both, CS and the 1.6 armature editor, but it was to tedious to always switch between them or to import armatures without the possibility to edit them in place. Additionally it lacked a lot of features, which were needed, so I converted all animations over to Spine.

@Michael-Mate,you are using Cocos from which country since as of now I am using Cocos from India and I can’t see it.