Anyone have any ideas for how I would put a 2D character into a 3D world? I was thinking about it and I think it could look pretty cool. The 2D character has to look pretty much exactly like he looks in the bitmap...

You must open MED. Then you open the 2D Character with Height Map Imagine. Than you save it and open it with WED. I will get stars.

Perhaps I did'nt understand right, but I think he wants to use a 2D-Character as a 2D - Object in a 3D World, not that he wants to generate a 3D character based on a 2D image.

So, it's pretty hard to do it well, but you can goal with it. If you wanna use 2D Sprites, you must save 24 images of motion for one second to get a good (should I say recommend?) animation-cycle. For example: you want the character goes straight ahead, and the cycle is a half second, you must create 12 frames. But that will produce a lot of diskspace, man. Do ya want to create a cartoon-style game? I would prefer in this case 3D Models with faking-shape and cartoon-art. But if you can't model and want to search for another solution, ask someone, if he helps you.

It is a bit tricky to do, but it is possible.

Youc an use animated sprites for it. by changing my.frame in a while loop, the sprite will be animated.

The only real problem is the fact, that you need to show the sprite from different angles according to the player's rotation and the camera angle. You have to morph to antoher sprite then. Colission detection can be done by moving an invisible map entity box along with the sprite and making the sprite passable. I hope that helped. If you need to know more about morphing and how to animate sprites: it's in the manual, I think there are even examples for this stuff.

Dani: Blahblah and no stars.

cutscenes

You can take a 3D model, and make a 2D sprite out of it. (Take a screen shot of the 3D model, and save it.) Use a paint program to get rid of the background and everything that is not the model. Color the background black, to make it transparent.
Save the 'sprite' in your 3DGS working folder, and load it to your level. Set the sprite to always face the camera.
If you want the model to walk, you will have to add animation frames. Several packages out there make it pretty easy to do that, (Poser, trueSpace5, etc.), but you can create those animation frames by adjusting your 3D model, and taking more screen shots.
I think this is the same technique that is used for the people walking the streets in Grant Theft Auto 3. Usually, they are shown in long shots, so a lot of detail and great animation is not required.
By the way, this works fairly well for trees, also. And if you use LOD (Level of Detail), you can put a lot of objects in your scene, without seriously hurting your frame rates.
Good luck!

Why dont you make animated sprites as in doom and set their animation and code it as you do for a 3d model. Put My.Facing flag 0n if you want the sprite to face the camera always or Oriented flag if you do not

willy, i dont think gta3 uses 2d sprites.. the people on streets look pretty 3d to me....

@willy
you mean gta2
you mean gta
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so to your question..
a 2d in a 3d world??

if u are making a demo/just for fun or a commercial game..
2d look shi* in a 3d world..
mostly it is used for backgrounds or sites the player cant go..

like in "SHENMUE" for the dreamcast...
the tree´s where 2d but it where in a position the player would not see it from the side.
it is mostly used just to conserve space .

so i cant anwer your question
but i can tell a 3d with 2d that the player can see if he rotate ..
uhmm it will be so much work
and not just in programming also in painting..

thats why 2d is mostly used for backgrounds..

example :
a beisball game or tennis game
the (audiense/publicum?)well the people that are sitting and looking...
they are 2d just with max. 3-4 animation
cuz they just move the arms..

DaRk - aNgEl

Remember "Paper Mario", "Pa Rappa the Rapper" these were cool flat 2D looking images that lived in a 3D space.

These were just very flat 3D models with a Cartoon texture. The effect is very cool.

Animating spites would be a pain and take up way to much memory. I would use a flat 3D model and take advantage of all the tools the 3D engine offers.

The new Zelda / Link game on the game cube is going for a Animie look in 3D. This is a very popular and cool art style in games right now. A direction worth pursuing for an A5 developer.

Just my two cents worth.

Ken