I'm working on a 2D puzzle game for iOS and am about to do the score display widget thingy.

Anyway I was wondering if anyone can think of a visual effect to do when updating the score from one number to another. The last time I did this, I think, I just did an alpha blend thing where the new score cross-fades in but don't want to do that again. This game is already kind of alpha animation heavy (because it's easy and I'm lazy) so I was trying to think of something else.

Anyone have any ideas? (Nothing 3D, please ... the code isn't and won't be set up for 3D effects)

I've always like morphing number animations. You can to create a pre-rendered animation sequence for every possible transition. If you realize that you can play an animation either forward or backward then you can get the number of required animation sequences down to 45. It takes a bit of coding and graphics effort to get it to work properly, but once it's done it's very light-wieght in terms of rendering.

I've always like morphing number animations. You can to create a pre-rendered animation sequence for every possible transition. If you realize that you can play an animation either forward or backward then you can get the number of required animation sequences down to 45. It takes a bit of coding and graphics effort to get it to work properly, but once it's done it's very light-wieght in terms of rendering.

Khatharr, to do the actual morphing did you use your own code or did you use a 3rd party application? Which algorithm or application?

New score and old score scroll down like a car's analog odometer.

Liked this idea and tried it last night, but didn't like the way it looked because it clashed with the art style of the game. Screen shot here (although the score area has gotten bigger now)

It has an oldtimey look-and-feel. I think I'm going to try to do something that looks like the numbers are being painted on or at least colored in. The easiest way I can think to do this would be to do something like image processin morphologocal transformation of erosion to disappear the current number while simultaneously playing the frames of the new number eroding to nothing backwards. Wouldn't look like painting but would look like the number is getting colored in, maybe.

I've always like morphing number animations. You can to create a pre-rendered animation sequence for every possible transition. If you realize that you can play an animation either forward or backward then you can get the number of required animation sequences down to 45. It takes a bit of coding and graphics effort to get it to work properly, but once it's done it's very light-wieght in terms of rendering.

Khatharr, to do the actual morphing did you use your own code or did you use a 3rd party application? Which algorithm or application?

>New score and old score scroll down like a car's analog odometer.

Liked this idea and tried it last night, but didn't like the way it looked because it clashed with the art style of the game. Screen shot here (although the score area has gotten bigger now)

It has an oldtimey look-and-feel. I think I'm going to try to do something that looks like the numbers are being painted on or at least colored in. The easiest way I can think to do this would be to do something like image processin morphologocal transformation of erosion to disappear the current number while simultaneously playing the frames of the new number eroding to nothing backwards. Wouldn't look like painting but would look like the number is getting colored in, maybe.

I've always like morphing number animations. You can to create a pre-rendered animation sequence for every possible transition. If you realize that you can play an animation either forward or backward then you can get the number of required animation sequences down to 45. It takes a bit of coding and graphics effort to get it to work properly, but once it's done it's very light-wieght in terms of rendering.

Khatharr, to do the actual morphing did you use your own code or did you use a 3rd party application? Which algorithm or application?

There's some free morphing software floating around on cnet. As long as you can save the frames to images it shouldn't make much difference.