Getting started tutorial: frog "run_right" animation do not playing

Questions
1

Hi, i have trouble with animation from tutorial Step 7. When frog on ground or on platforms “run_right” animation do not playing, “fall_right” animation is playing, frog can jump, and “jump_right” animation plays too. Group properties for collusionobject of ground.collection and platform.go set as “geometry”.

hero.script contains code from Getting started tutorial: Step 8

-- gravity pulling the player down in pixel units/sˆ2
local gravity = -20

-- take-off speed when jumping in pixel units/s
local jump_takeoff_speed = 900

function init(self)
    -- this lets us handle input in this script
    msg.post(".", "acquire_input_focus")
    -- save position
    self.position = go.get_position()
    msg.post("#", "reset")
end

function final(self)
    -- Return input focus when the object is deleted
    msg.post(".", "release_input_focus")
end

local function play_animation(self, anim)
    -- only play animations which are not already playing
    if self.anim ~= anim then
        -- tell the spine model to play the animation
        spine.play("#spinemodel", anim, go.PLAYBACK_LOOP_FORWARD, 0.15)
        -- remember which animation is playing
        self.anim = anim
    end
end

local function update_animation(self)
    -- make sure the right animation is playing
    if self.ground_contact then
        play_animation(self, hash("run_right"))
    else
        if self.velocity.y > 0 then
            play_animation(self, hash("jump_right"))
        else
            play_animation(self, hash("fall_right"))
        end
    end
end

function update(self, dt)
    local gravity = vmath.vector3(0, gravity, 0)

    if not self.ground_contact then
        -- Apply gravity if there's no ground contact
        self.velocity = self.velocity + gravity
    end

    -- apply velocity to the player character
    go.set_position(go.get_position() + self.velocity * dt)

    -- reset volatile state
    self.correction = vmath.vector3()
    self.ground_contact = false
    
    -- apply it to the player character
    go.set_position(go.get_position() + self.velocity * dt)

    update_animation(self)
end

local function handle_geometry_contact(self, normal, distance)
    -- project the correction vector onto the contact normal
    -- (the correction vector is the 0-vector for the first contact point)
    local proj = vmath.dot(self.correction, normal)
    -- calculate the compensation we need to make for this contact point
    local comp = (distance - proj) * normal
    -- add it to the correction vector
    self.correction = self.correction + comp
    -- apply the compensation to the player character
    go.set_position(go.get_position() + comp)
    -- check if the normal points enough up to consider the player standing on the ground
    -- (0.7 is roughly equal to 45 degrees deviation from pure vertical direction)
    if normal.y > 0.7 then
        self.ground_contact = true
    end
    -- project the velocity onto the normal
    proj = vmath.dot(self.velocity, normal)
    -- if the projection is negative, it means that some of the velocity points towards the contact point
    if proj < 0 then
        -- remove that component in that case
        self.velocity = self.velocity - proj * normal
    end
end

function on_message(self, message_id, message, sender)
    if message_id == hash("reset") then
        self.velocity = vmath.vector3(0, 0, 0)
        self.correction = vmath.vector3()
        self.ground_contact = false
        self.anim = nil
        go.set(".", "euler.z", 0)
        go.set_position(self.position)
        msg.post("#collisionobject", "enable")

    elseif message_id == hash("contact_point_response") then
        -- check if we received a contact point message
        if message.group == hash("danger") then
            -- Die and restart
            play_animation(self, hash("die_right"))
            msg.post("#collisionobject", "disable")
            go.animate(".", "euler.z", go.PLAYBACK_ONCE_FORWARD, 160, go.EASING_LINEAR, 0.7) 
            go.animate(".", "position.y", go.PLAYBACK_ONCE_FORWARD, go.get_position().y - 200, go.EASING_INSINE, 0.5, 0.2,
                function()
                   msg.post("controller#script", "reset")
                end)
        elseif message.group == hash("geometry") then
            handle_geometry_contact(self, message.normal, message.distance)
        end
    end
end

local function jump(self)
    -- only allow jump from ground
    if self.ground_contact then
        -- set take-off speed
        self.velocity.y = jump_takeoff_speed
    end
end

local function abort_jump(self)
    -- cut the jump short if we are still going up
    if self.velocity.y > 0 then
        -- scale down the upwards speed
        self.velocity.y = self.velocity.y * 0.5
    end
end

function on_input(self, action_id, action)
    if action_id == hash("jump") or action_id == hash("touch") then
        if action.pressed then
            jump(self)
        elseif action.released then
            abort_jump(self)
        end
    end
end
2

Hmm, I don’t see anything obviously wrong with the script but surely there must be something not right when update_animation() and play_animation() is called. I would recommend that you add a print() to play_animation() to be able to see when self.anim is changed and to what value it is changed. Something like this:

local function play_animation(self, anim)
  -- only play animations which are not already playing
  if self.anim ~= anim then
    print("Animation changed from ", self.anim, "to", anim)
3

I’m having the same problem — when I did what @brtizl suggested the console printed

Animation changed from hash: [jump_right] to hash: [fall_right]

at the apex of the jump, but nothing when the frog hit the ground. I’ve got the same code as Serj.
Another strange thing about this issue is that when the update_animation and play_animation methods were removed, the frog defaulted to the run animation.

4

The default animation will always play as soon as the sprite (or spine model) is initiated and starts updating on screen.

5

I think it’s strange because clearly ground_contact is true (the hero doesn’t fall through the ground) and the animation exists, since it is the default animation, but the if-statement in update_animation isn’t calling play_animation with “run_right”

6

It is set as default animation on the spine model. It will play automatically.