How to properly animate "shinies"?

This feels like such a dumb question, but whenever I try to use one of the little sparkle graphics in the RTP, I can't seem to set its move route in such a way that it appears to shine naturally.

I'm wanting it to glisten and then disappear for a moment, much like the tabs in Chrono Trigger, so that if you don't notice it glisten, you might miss it entirely.

Can anyone offer any insight? How do you set up an event so that the sparkle seems to glisten in a way that doesn't look awkward?

which sparkle graphics?

Normally you'd just turn on stepping animation - that makes it animate in the correct way.


If you want the sparkle to appear and disappear, then add an Autonomous Move Route that says Wait 300 Frames (5 seconds), Change Opacity to 0, Wait 300 Frames (5 seconds), Change Opacity to 255.


If you want it to be more random, instead of doing a Wait for X frames in the move route, you can do a script call and make it determine a random number of frames to wait each time. If you want help with this, let me know, and give me the minimum/maximum times you want it to be visible and invisible.

Thanks for the advice, Shaz, but it looks like it animates like a treasure chest. The problem is, I can't seem to get it to look right. Its movement always looks kind of stilted, like I've not got my wait times set correctly for it to look more natural.

And the screenshot of the event? Showing the move route? And those other questions?

Oh jeez, sorry about that. I thought I attached the event file too, but apparently I didn't.

It doesn't need to disappear randomly, although that might be kind of neat. It's difficult to explain without being able to actually show it animating, but there seems to be too much of a pause between movements. I thought maybe this was the 3 wait frames between each turn, but when I removed them, it didn't seem to improve that unnatural pause between each state.

Have you tried to set the frequency to something higher? The frequency is what controls the pauses between animations, the speed just makes the movement faster. :)

Man, I'm always confusing speed and frequency. XD; That's my first problem! Even if I set it faster though, the timing still looks off. I suppose it's a delicate balance of wait times between frames and frequency, but I can't seem to get it right. I'll keep playing with it, though!

oh yeah, that move route won't be very nice.


Try this ...


Turn Left


Turn Right


Turn Up


Turn Right


Turn Left


Turn Down


no waiting


Then set the frequency to 4.


A frequency of 5 is just way too fast, even with the wait of 3 frames. So as you say, it might be a matter of experimenting with waits and frequencies. The extra turns is so it won't "jump" between the bottom and top images - it works its way down, then works its way up again, for a slightly smoother look.

That looks a lot better, but it still seems a little unnatural. I wish there were more precise settings between 4 and 5. 5 is way too fast, and 4 isn't quite fast enough for some things. 

I appreciate the help! I might have to just make do, since there aren't many frequency options. :)