Help With Modding (How to size body parts?)

[Sweetie Softpaw]

I was following a tutorial on how to make a modded character. I'm using the extended sample char as a base. I've been following a video and for importing the art all the video recommended was start with a higher res canvas and then plop it over the old image and replace. Well I've done that and the body parts aren't really lining up well. Is there a better way of refitting or do I have to keep moving/resizing my art on the canvas till it fits? This is my first time doing this btw so please be gentle XD

Edited July 7, 2023 by Sweetie Softpaw

[Sweetie Softpaw]

Can I move stuff in Spriter to fit better and save it like that? I don't want to mess up the animations, but its so hard to guess where things should go and how big I need to resize them.

 

[Chesed]

Without the files to look at I'd have to guess, but misalignment errors like this generally happen when the canvas size of the sprite doesn't match the canvas size listed in your character.scml file (if you open it with a program like notepad++, you'll see a bunch of image resolutions in there - these need to be changed manually if you ever edit the size of a canvas. If there is a mismatch, the sprites will begin to float in weird places like this).

I would recommend shrinking your art to try and get as close to the original size as you can, and then making the canvas a little larger to fit anything that doesn't quite make it in. Just remember to open your character.scml in a text editor and update the sprite resolutions. I don't recommend making things too much larger than the game expects, or items and animations might look janky for your character.

Also, unfortunately you cannot change anything in Spriter itself. The game uses a universial rig for all of the characters, so anything you'd change in Spriter would just snap back in-game anyway. The Spriter file is just to preview your character.

Edited July 8, 2023 by Chesed

[Sweetie Softpaw]

7 hours ago, Chesed said:

Without the files to look at I'd have to guess, but misalignment errors like this generally happen when the canvas size of the sprite doesn't match the canvas size listed in your character.scml file (if you open it with a program like notepad++, you'll see a bunch of image resolutions in there - these need to be changed manually if you ever edit the size of a canvas. If there is a mismatch, the sprites will begin to float in weird places like this).

I would recommend shrinking your art to try and get as close to the original size as you can, and then making the canvas a little larger to fit anything that doesn't quite make it in. Just remember to open your character.scml in a text editor and update the sprite resolutions. I don't recommend making things too much larger than the game expects, or items and animations might look janky for your character.

Also, unfortunately you cannot change anything in Spriter itself. The game uses a universial rig for all of the characters, so anything you'd change in Spriter would just snap back in-game anyway. The Spriter file is just to preview your character.

So what I did was start with a large canvas then take what I drew and place it over what supposed to be the correct size for the body parts. I did align it as best as I could over the old before deleting it. If you recommend shrinking my art what size do you recommend? I believe I was already technically shrinking it by putting it into the smaller canvases piece by piece. The first picture will be the example characters art and the second one will be my art over it and the old art deleted(same size as example char canvas). Im not trying to make a big characters or anything, in fact I want them to be quite small. It seems to work well with the arms but for some reason the head and hair just get blown up.

[Chesed]

Huh, that's really weird that this is happening! I compared your character's headbase to that of my character and they are the exact same resolution, only your character's head is sized much smaller on the canvas.

If nobody else knows what the issue is, I'd recommend maybe uploading your mod here for someone to look at if you're comfortable doing so. I'm sorry I can't help you much beyond that!

 

[Rickzzs]

Basic things you need to follow:

1. Do not touch Spriter, you are only allowed to view animations.

2. Do anything in your art program.

3. Save a new scml file every time you resize any image.

For alignment, without any experience with code, I'd recommend you:

1. Screenshot Spriter animation.

2. Paste it into your art program.

3. Align image with screenshot.

4. Edit image. So that you see the effect immediately.

 

For more details, here is a guide written in Chinese https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv25049617

Edited July 18, 2023 by Rickzzs

[Littlefat1213]

I have suffered a lot from it .

[Terry_Rosario]

I usually move things from the png
I didn't find any other way.