Move an image using a spritesheet in an if statement - animation

Question

I have a beaver that is meant to follow the user frog. It moves in the direction of the frog at a slower pace. However I want the beaver to have a left and right animation. So I have the movement working, just not the animation.
local BidoofSheetData =
{
width = 32,
height = 48,
numFrames = 8,
sheetContentWidth = 128,
sheetcontentheight = 96
}
--Set File Actual size
bidoofSheet = graphics.newImageSheet ("BidoofSpriteSheet.png", BidoofSheetData)
--Set the sequences
local bidoofsequenceData = {
{name = "bstop", start = 1, count = 1, time = 300},
{name = "bleft", start = 2, count = 3, time = 300},
{name = "bright", start = 5, count = 3, time = 300}
}
--frog mask
local physicsData = (require "bidoofdefs").physicsData(1.0)
--Link sheet data to previous settings
beaver = display.newSprite(bidoofSheet, bidoofsequenceData)
beaver.x = display.contentWidth/2
beaver.y = 284
physics.addBody( beaver, "static")
beaver.isFixedRotation = true
--
function moveBeaver ()
if frog.x > beaver.x then
beaver.x = beaver.x + 0.5
elseif frog.x < beaver.x then
beaver.x = beaver.x - 0.5
elseif frog.x == beaver.x then
beaver.x = beaver.x
end
end
Runtime:addEventListener("enterFrame", moveBeaver)
I've tried to add it in the moveBeaver function, but it doesn't work.
EDIT:
i tried adding beaver:setSequence("bleft");beaver:play() into the different areas. it played one frame for left and one for right if you move in the respective directions. if you move to far left or right and stopped, it would play both left and right frames constantly.
but it didn't play the 3 frame animation i want it to.

Answer 1

First off, I noticed an inconsistency in your sheet data.
local BidoofSheetData =
{
width = 32,
height = 48,
numFrames = 8,
sheetContentWidth = 128,
sheetcontentheight = 96 -- Shouldn't this be sheetContentHeight ?
}
I'm not sure if having the proper capitalization of sheetContentHeight matters, but I thought I'd bring it up. I think I know what the issue is with your animation now. You were setting it to play any time the beaver needed to move, which would reset it to the first frame of the animation.
Try this instead:
function updateAnim(who, seq)
if who.sequence == seq then
-- We're already animating the way we need to be.
return
end
who:setSequence(seq)
who:play()
end
function moveBeaver()
-- Get the distance from beaver to frog's position.
local d = frog.x - beaver.x
-- This will allow the beaver to stop precisely on the frog's position,
-- without exceeding a distance of +/- 0.5 per move.
if d == 0 then
updateAnim(beaver, "bstop")
elseif d > 0 then
beaver.x = beaver.x + math.min(d, 0.5)
updateAnim(beaver, "bright")
else
beaver.x = beaver.x + math.max(d, -0.5)
updateAnim(beaver, "bleft")
end
end