2d Sprite Animations without using XNA or other third-party libraries

Question

I want to create a simple game, similar to what can be created with RPG Maker. What I am primarily looking for at the moment is a tutorial which can guide me on how to accomplis

Answer 1

I threw together than example of what I think it is that you were after. This example can be applied to buttons or picture boxes. I chose this way of out of simplicity.

Each instance of an animation holds a timer, and a list of images. Updating the image of the target control whenever the timer fires its event.

I have uploaded my project file here. http://mcspazzy.com/code/ParTest.zip

Hopefully it is enough to help. Just ask if you need more explanation.

The class

public class Animation
{
    readonly Timer _animtimer = new Timer();

    public List Frames;

    public int FrameIndex;

    private Button _target;
    private PictureBox _ptarget;

    public void Target(PictureBox target)
    {
        _ptarget = target;
    }

    public void Target(Button target)
    {
        _target = target;
    }

    public int FrameSpeed
    {
        get { return _animtimer.Interval; }
        set { _animtimer.Interval = value; }
    }

    public Animation()
    {
        Frames  = new List();
        _animtimer.Interval = 100;
        _animtimer.Tick += Update;
    }

    public void Play()
    {
        _animtimer.Start();
    }

    public void AddFrame(string file)
    {
        Frames.Add(Image.FromFile(file));
    }

    public void Stop()
    {
        _animtimer.Stop();
    }

    private void Update(object sender, EventArgs eventArgs)
    {
        FrameIndex++;

        if (FrameIndex == Frames.Count)
        {
            FrameIndex = 0;
        }
        _target.Image = Frames[FrameIndex];
        _ptarget.Image = Frames[FrameIndex];
    }

    public static implicit operator Image(Animation a)
    {
        return a.Frames[a.FrameIndex];
    }
}

This was in my Form load. Can really go anywhere that stuff is initialized.

    private void Form1Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {

        _testAnim.AddFrame(@"F:\Im\Black.png");
        _testAnim.AddFrame(@"F:\Im\Blue.png");
        _testAnim.AddFrame(@"F:\Im\Green.png");
        _testAnim.AddFrame(@"F:\Im\Orange.png");
        _testAnim.AddFrame(@"F:\Im\Red.png");



        _testAnim.Target(ButtonTest);
        _testAnim.Target(PicBox);


        _testAnim.Play();


    }