Taking names, making games

Creating Video Game Characters From Real Photos In Godot

…and making it look as good or as ridiculous as you please

If the project itself didn’t freak anyone out, this ought to do it. Screenshot property of the author.

Did you know Godot has its own skeletal animation system? That means, if you can piece together all of the separate parts of a character in one image, you can assign them to “bones” of your own creation, then pose and move the creature to bring it to life. It’s easy!

This is the second post in my series about making a whole video game about a buddy on social media just for laughs. You can read the introduction here.

The pièce de résistance of my very ridiculous game, Seb Simulator ’25, was a big, stilted, lumbering version of Seb that would traipse around blurting pseudo gibberish at people. I’ve never heard him speak in real life. Communication seems like it would have to be a major element of his career success. But damn if I wasn’t going to lean into the vibe he established in front of the green screen.

I brought this character to life in four basic stages.

Separating animation-ready parts from a photo

As you can see in this article’s cover image, you animate a character in this style by creating a sort of body part sheet…