Best approach for swapping gear on an animated 2D Character

Hi guys,

In 3D, the approach is simple: A 3D model is animated according to the bones of the 3D model. Adding a helmet or changing shoes is just a matter of attaching a gameobject to the right bone or swapping a texture. But what about 2D animations?

For example: An artist gives me a spritesheet of a roll animation of the main character. How would I go about adding a helmet or changing the shoes without having to have a different roll animation for each combination of gear?

In the 2D example project by Unity, the main character is composed of different body parts: head, eyes, feet etc. The animations are then done within Unity. In that case, I suppose, it's rather easy to replace the sprites. But what about more complex animations, such as rolling?

I'm aware that one solution is to have a 3D-model with 3D-animations and just render it in 2D, but that would require a lot more work (modeling, skinning, uv-mapping etc.).

I'm sure some of you guys have encountered this problem. What's the best approach here?

Thanks

 

if you are using a normal spritesheet, you would need one for each set of equipment that the character could wear. If you used vector graphics and a bone system like spine or some that are on the asset store you could have a system similar to what you use for 3d, where you replace the body parts, such as chest armor, or add gameobjects for the armor, such as helments.