User blog:PlasmoidThunder/The Handy-Dandy, Fancy-Dancy Super Animation Ripping Tutorial!

Hyper Turbo Galaxy World 3D Edition, yada, yada, yada.

So hey! Have you ever wondered to yourself, "Aw man, this character's attack animation is real complex, like. Fighter Factory ain't gonna cut it, yo.", or something similar? Or are you perhaps wondering how Movelist sections like N64Mario's Pulseman's have animations with afterimages on them? Then you've accidentally stumbled across the right blog post, skipper! Uncle Plas is going to show you how to rip animations directly from M.U.G.E.N itself!

Do be aware that in most cases, this is more tedious than merely exporting them from Fighter Factory, but if you don't mind getting more accurate animations, then good for you! Also of note is that this isn't a mandatory method that you have to use; both methods are fine, though this one is preferred.

Prerequisites
Uh oh...

Downloadables

 * M.U.G.E.N 1.1 - this is a necessity, actually. Previous versions of M.U.G.E.N are limited to 16-bit colour, meaning certain colours don't display correctly, including the background colour of this wiki, which is vitally important, I'll have you know.
 * Fighter Factory - any version will do, though FF3 is preferred. While it's not required, it just makes it easier and saves you having to add characters to your select.def.
 * Auto Key Presser - a free piece of software that automatically "presses" an assigned button (or buttons) at the delay speed specified.
 * Photoshop CS2 - while I'm lead to believe any other version above CS2 can perform this task, CS2 is free, which is why I linked to it. Photoshop Elements does not have the features needed, unfortunately. Yes, Photoshop CS2 is a hefty 340 MB; I am very sorry for those who don't already have it.
 * Import Folder as Layers for Photoshop CS2 - by default, CS2 does not include a Load Files into Stack script and newer Photoshop scripts are not backwards-compatible, unfortunately. The Import Folder as Layers script essentially mimics the Load Files into Stack Script, only you select the folder to be imported rather than individual images. From what I've tested, this script actually loads images faster than at least CS3's built-in stack script.
 * My custom-made MUGEN Photoshop Action - at the press of a button (F2), this Action will automatically remove the background colour of a single layer and then shift to the next layer. Yes, this does mean you'll have to keep pressing F2 (in CS2, you can pretty much mash it), but it doesn't take that long, I assure you. Please note that it'll only remove a specific colour, which is why you'll need...
 * This stage - a stage consisting of nothing but the MUGEN Database's background colour (dark grey). Allows animations with transparent effects to display correctly on this site, seeing as .gifs don't support partial/alpha transparency.
 * Invisichar - should P2 be needed during an attack, use this character. Even though he's invisible, he can still be attacked.

Other stuff

 * Set M.U.G.E.N 1.1's gamespeed to 20 - this can be found in mugen.cfg, and allows for better frame capture. Don't ask me why, but anything lower than 20 seems to be worse.
 * Hide lifebars and player 2 (unless the attack requires either) - in most cases, they just get in the way, but if an attack requires the presence of P2 (like a projectile, grab or whatever) then leave them there. I can only think of one instance where the lifebar would be needed. Remember to use Invisichar when P2 is required.
 * Remove obstructing effects - dust, envshake, hyper backgrounds, hyper portraits, superpause sparks, superpause darken (add darken = 0 to superpause states), hitsparks, etc. To remove dust effects that are generated by the engine itself, remove them from fightfx.sff. Do not remove effects like afterimages. Should a character have fullscreen effects like Rare Akuma that are part of the character itself rather than a specific move, remove them. If you're unsure about removing something, ask me.
 * Set your opponent to Invisichar and the M.U.G.E.N executable as 1.1 in Fighter Factory.

That should be it.

Part 1 - Recording
To be clear, this is exactly how I rip the animations -- programs included -- so there's a chance that not everything will apply to the programs you're using; they should be similar, however.

For starters, open up Fighter Factory and the character you want the animations for. In this example, we'll be using Kung Fu Man because why the heck not. While you're at it, open up Auto Key Presser and Photoshop if you're feeling brave enough.

Go to the commands tab and change the activation method of the move you're going to record to a single button; to avoid conflicts, don't alter every move, just the one you're going to record.



You can now open M.U.G.E.N through Fighter Factory. With M.U.G.E.N open, press Ctrl+L to remove the lifebars, and Ctrl+Alt+2 to remove P2. If you want to speed the intro sequence up, press Ctrl+S, but remember to press Ctrl+S again to return to recording speed.



Providing Auto Key Presser is open, go to it and make it look like this (haha, laziness):



Do be aware that in order to get a delay of 0.01, you'll have to select 0.5 from the dropdown menu first and then change it to 0.01, making sure to not remove the decimal point (it's a bug, I'm sure).

With that all set up, hit Start and return to M.U.G.E.N. I recommend waiting at least 5 seconds before doing anything for best results (trust me, I tested it), and then activate the attack you wish to record.



After the attack animation has finished, return to Auto Key Presser, click Stop and press enter (it wont actually stop otherwise), then go back to M.U.G.E.N, wait another 5 seconds for the images to be dumped and then close M.U.G.E.N (if you don't close M.U.G.E.N, it will continue dumping images for quite a while, despite the key not being pressed any more). I wouldn't advise closing Auto Key Presser unless you're done with recording animations.

With that out of the way, go to your M.U.G.E.N 1.1 folder and you should notice a multitude of images (I'm so sorry). Within these images should be the attack animation, so just delete any images that don't resemble the animation (they're typically the idle animation). That's it! You've successfully recorded an animation from M.U.G.E.N!



"BUT WAIT! These images are 640x480 pixels! That's way too big for such a small animation!", I hear you cry. Do not fear, young one, that's what this next step is for.

Part 2 - Cropping and exporting
Open up Photoshop. If you haven't already, install both the Import Folder as Layers script and the MUGEN Action. Don't fret, I'll show you how.

To install the script, go File > Scripts > Browse... and locate Import Folder as Layers.jsx.



To install the action, go Window > Actions (if the Action window isn't already active), then in the Actions Window, click on the little arrow on the right and select Load Actions.



You could instead place the two files into their respective folders inside the Photoshop CS2 program folder, but I won't go into that.

With that out of the way, you'll have something like this:



This is good. From here, go File > Scripts > Import Folder as Layers and locate your M.U.G.E.N 1.1 folder. Click OK. Photoshop will then begin importing all your images as their own layers in a rather hasty fashion. Once all images are imported, the fun can begin.



Mash F2. That's all it takes, really. Don't mash it too fast or you'll get an error message saying the action cannot continue or whatever. Dismiss that and return to pressing F2. Once the background has been removed from all layers, you'll end up with something like this:



If this is a low-res character, go Image > Image Size... and change the settings so that Resample Image is ticked, Resample Image is set to Nearest Neighbor and Width and Height are both at 50 percent.



Click OK. You'll notice that the image has been halved in size, but the image quality has remained intact and not blurred.



The next thing to do is crop it. Select the Magic Wand tool, tick Sample All Layers, click on the transparency and press Ctrl+I to invert the selection. Then go Image > Crop. Perfect cropping every time!



You're almost done! Yay! Using the Animations window (Window > Animations if it's not already active), click on the little arrow on the right and select Make Frames From Layers. This will turn each individual layer into its own animation frame.



Using that same little arrow on the right, select Select All Frames.



With all frames selected, click on the 0 sec. underneath any frame, select Other... and enter 0.03.



Click OK. All frames should have their delay changed to 0.03; anything lower will cause the animation to run slowly on web browsers. Almost done. I'm serious, just a bit more! Would you believe it's as simple as File > Save for Web... and then clicking Save? Because it is!



Save it as if it were an animation exported from Fighter Factory, typically meaning CreatorCharacternameAttackname.gif or something similar.

Part 3 - The finished product


Ta-dah! A perfect rip from M.U.G.E.N itself!

Part 4 - Closing notes
If you have a question about this, please do leave a comment. That's about it, really. It may seem like quite a long and tedious process, but it's actually quite quick and produces better animations than merely exporting from Fighter Factory.