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[Tutorial] Using Extended Sample Character Template


Dragon Wolf Leo
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Does anyone know which face files match up to which emotes? I've been using this video as a reference, but Dleowolf's character barely resembles Wilson and there are a bunch of lazy edits in the face files. I can't tell what's what aside from the obvious ones like /angry and /waves.

 

EDIT:

 

If possible, could someone please upload a video with all of the sample character's emotes? I don't have DST so I can't do this myself. I know this would probably take a while, but I'm sure a lot of people would be able to use it!

Edited by DragonDePlatino
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Does anyone know which face files match up to which emotes? I've been using this video as a reference, but Dleowolf's character barely resembles Wilson and there are a bunch of lazy edits in the face files. I can't tell what's what aside from the obvious ones like /angry and /waves.

 

EDIT:

 

If possible, could someone please upload a video with all of the sample character's emotes? I don't have DST so I can't do this myself. I know this would probably take a while, but I'm sure a lot of people would be able to use it!

What I do, while modding, is I put a color coded dot somewhere in the .png and then make a list. (example: red = face-01, yellow = face-02 etc.) not sure if its the best way, but I never had too many examples except for THIS tutorial by DanaAdams ( which is extremely helpful in so many ways) 

 

But to figure some stuff out, little color coded dots help you get somewhat of a starting point, while in the creation process. 

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What I do, while modding, is I put a color coded dot somewhere in the .png and then make a list. (example: red = face-01, yellow = face-02 etc.) not sure if its the best way, but I never had too many examples except for THIS tutorial by DanaAdams ( which is extremely helpful in so many ways) 

 

But to figure some stuff out, little color coded dots help you get somewhat of a starting point, while in the creation process. 

 

Yes, I've done ROM-hacking in the past so I'm aware of this method. The problem is, I cannot see any of these animations in-game. All I can see are the emote images, and I have no idea which face matches up to which emote.

 

@Dleowolf Could you please tell us all which face file matches up to which emote command? I have worked on this character for several months and this is the final thing I need to draw before I start scripting.

Edited by DragonDePlatino
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@DragonDePlatino,

 

Animations are located in that fairly obviously named player_emotesxl.zip

 

emotes.lua:

local EMOTES ={    ["/wave"] =             { anim = { "emoteXL_waving1", "emoteXL_waving2" }, randomanim = true },    ["/waves"] =            { anim = { "emoteXL_waving1", "emoteXL_waving2" }, randomanim = true },    ["/goaway"] =           { anim = { "emoteXL_waving4", "emoteXL_waving3" }, randomanim = true },    ["/bye"] =              { anim = { "emoteXL_waving4", "emoteXL_waving3" }, randomanim = true },    ["/goodbye"] =          { anim = { "emoteXL_waving4", "emoteXL_waving3" }, randomanim = true },    ["/cheer"] =            { anim = "emoteXL_happycheer" },    ["/cheers"] =           { anim = "emoteXL_happycheer" },    ["/happy"] =            { anim = "emoteXL_happycheer" },    ["/angry"] =            { anim = "emoteXL_angry" },    ["/anger"] =            { anim = "emoteXL_angry" },    ["/grimace"] =          { anim = "emoteXL_angry" },    ["/grimaces"] =         { anim = "emoteXL_angry" },    ["/frustrate"] =        { anim = "emoteXL_angry" },    ["/frustrated"] =       { anim = "emoteXL_angry" },    ["/frustration"] =      { anim = "emoteXL_angry" },    ["/sad"] =              { anim = "emoteXL_sad", fx = "tears", fxoffset = { 0, -.8, 0 }, fxdelay = 17 * FRAMES },    ["/cry"] =              { anim = "emoteXL_sad", fx = "tears", fxoffset = { 0, -.8, 0 }, fxdelay = 17 * FRAMES },    ["/annoyed"] =          { anim = "emoteXL_annoyed" },    ["/annoy"] =            { anim = "emoteXL_annoyed" },    ["/no"] =               { anim = "emoteXL_annoyed" },    ["/shakehead"] =        { anim = "emoteXL_annoyed" },    ["/shake"] =            { anim = "emoteXL_annoyed" },    ["/confuse"] =          { anim = "emoteXL_annoyed" },    ["/confused"] =         { anim = "emoteXL_annoyed" },    ["/click"] =            { anim = "research", fx = false },    ["/heelclick"] =        { anim = "research", fx = false },    ["/heels"] =            { anim = "research", fx = false },    ["/joy"] =              { anim = "research", fx = false },    ["/celebrate"] =        { anim = "research", fx = false },    ["/celebration"] =      { anim = "research", fx = false },    ["/dance"] =            { anim = { "run_pre", "run_loop", "run_loop", "run_loop", "run_pst" } },    ["/bonesaw"] =          { anim = "emoteXL_bonesaw" },    ["/ready"] =            { anim = "emoteXL_bonesaw" },    ["/goingnowhere"] =     { anim = "emoteXL_bonesaw" },    ["/playtime"] =         { anim = "emoteXL_bonesaw" },    ["/threeminutes"] =     { anim = "emoteXL_bonesaw" },    ["/facepalm"] =         { anim = "emoteXL_facepalm" },    ["/doh"] =              { anim = "emoteXL_facepalm" },    ["/slapintheface"] =    { anim = "emoteXL_facepalm" },    ["/kiss"] =             { anim = "emoteXL_kiss" },    ["/blowkiss"] =         { anim = "emoteXL_kiss" },    ["/smooch"] =           { anim = "emoteXL_kiss" },    ["/mwa"] =              { anim = "emoteXL_kiss" },    ["/mwah"] =             { anim = "emoteXL_kiss" },}
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@Corrosive

I appreciate the help, but I'm afraid this does not solve my problem. You see, in the newest version of the Extended Sample Character, there are a bunch of face files labelled face-0 through face-30. I do not know which face file matches up to which emote. Your emotes.lua lets me know what all of the commands are, but I do not know if something like face-19 is supposed to be /cry, /sad, or something else entirely. It's hard to tell because many of the faces look very similar.

Edited by DragonDePlatino
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When I made my character, I didn't bother to test the blank template out before I started, so when I went to apply my mod it said "out of date", so I couldn't see/select my character on the character screen. I decided to go back and start from scratch, I didn't mind because the thing that took the most time was artwork, I enjoyed making it and I could just re-use it. But when I started from scratch again, I tested it out (on the blank template, before I started anything else), same thing happened, just said "out of date". The only thing I can think of is the dpi number and that's at 6, the most current version. Anyone got any ideas on whats going on?

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@DragonDePlatino,

 

If you have both the extended character template mod(or more specifically, the .bin files in /anim/esctemplate.zip), as well as the player_emotesxl.zip files, then you have all of the data you need to figure out what's what.

 

Place ONLY the anim.bin from player_emotesxl.zip into a new folder.  Place the atlas and build files from esctemplate.zip into the same folder.  Run krane on that folder.  You'll get a project with all of the emote animations.  The actual animation will be on drugs because of the whole 2d-matrix transform issue with spriter, but the sprite swaps will be shown just fine.

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@Corrosive

 

Yes! Yes! Yes yes yes! That's exactly what I needed to know! The spriter file looks a little derpy, but I can see all of the animations and the facial swaps. Thank you so much for helping me out with this! Now I'll finally be able to finish this character's art after months of work. Yeah, and it looks like Dleowolf made his character a lot more "cheery" in some of the animations (like /facepalm) so it's a good thing I found out how to view these.

Edited by DragonDePlatino
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Ok so me and my friend are working on a few characters. The problem we have is how do we use this template to make more then one custom Character? I know a lot of people have more then one custom character... but have not found anywhere how to do this?

 

How do you change the Slot when you are using the same template for multiple characters?

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@Zchu,


Mmmmm.... what? What slot?

You need to rename every file to be uniquely named, and you need to change every reference within those files to refer to the new name.

Here's an example of how you might do this if you were using the extended character template(esctemplate):

1. In the "extended sample character" folder, remove all of the .zip files(the one in anim\ and the ones in exported\esctemplate and exported\esctemplatecleared").

2. Make a copy of the "extended sample character" folder so that you have 2 copies of it. (You want one "fresh" copy at all times. I'll call this the "original" template. The one that you want to modify will be the "working" template.)

3. To be safe, rename the working template folder to superawesomecharacter, or whatever you want to call your new character.

4. In your working template folder, do a find-and-replace on every file, replacing "esctemplate" with "superawesomecharacter"(or whatever you want to refer to your character as-- make sure though that it's unique enough to not be used by someone else.)  You can easily do this by dragging the entire folder over to Notepad++ or Sublime Text(make sure you have no other documents open before you do this!), then doing either "Find in Files"(Sublime, Ctrl+Shift+F), or "Replace All in All Opened Documents"(Notepad++, Ctrl+H).

5. Rename every file in your working template folder with "esctemplate" in its name to reflect the new character name. For example:

scripts\prefabs\esctemplate.lua                   -->   scripts\prefabs\superawesomecharacter.lua
scripts\speech_esctemplate.lua                 -->   scripts\speech_superawesomecharacter.lua
exported\esctemplate\esctemplate.scml   -->   exported\superawesomecharacter\superawesomecharacter.scml
etc., etc.

 

(make sure to change both the folder name and the .scml file name in that last one)

4.  Double check that everything is updated.

 

5.  Triple check that everything is updated.

 

6.  When you want to create a new character to add to your mod, make a new copy of the original template folder, and go through the same process as above.  Once you've renamed everything you can copy all of the FOLDERS inside your second character's working template folder, and paste them into the first character's working folder.  MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT COPY/PASTE MODMAIN.LUA OR THE OTHER FILES IN THE BASE TEMPLATE FOLDER!  THEY ARE NOT UNIQUE TO EACH CHARACTER LIKE THE OTHER FILES! IF YOU DO THIS, YOU'LL NEED TO REDO ANYTHING YOU DID WITH THOSE FILES!  (You only need to copy the bigportraits, exported, images, and scripts folders.  You don't need to copy the anim folder, but it won't hurt you.)

 

7.  Open both your first character's modmain.lua, and your second character's modmain.lua, and add everything related to your new character from the second modmain.lua into the first.

 

For example

PrefabFiles = {	"superawesomecharacter",        "onlykindaawesomecharacter",  --    <--  from your second character's modmain.lua}Assets = {    Asset( "IMAGE", "images/saveslot_portraits/superawesomecharacter.tex" ),    Asset( "ATLAS", "images/saveslot_portraits/superawesomecharacter.xml" ),    Asset( "IMAGE", "images/saveslot_portraits/onlykindaawesomecharacter.tex" ),         <-- from your second character's modmain.lua    Asset( "ATLAS", "images/saveslot_portraits/onlykindaawesomecharacter.xml" ),  --   <-- from your second character's modmain.lua... etc.}local require = GLOBAL.require --  note that you only need to have this line once, don't copy it from your second character's file
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Dleowolf, do you know any good programs for making a character? I want to add a character from another game but i don't know how to do that, i tried Paint.NET and it doesn't work for my Windows system because its ahead i guess. I have the character and all the perks and stuff i want to add but i have no idea how to do that let alone do the model, the video thats in the topic doesn't look too complicated though. Hopefully you may help me.

 

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I love Gimp. I can practically do anything I need to do artistically in it. As to the face problem, it's super easy to put a colored dot in the eye to see what face it is in game. Dot comes up, that's the face you want. It's really that simple.

But your not lacking in your desire to know. I faced the problem when I started creating characters. That's how I found out (specifically, which one was the idle face, how crazy is that!)

Drag and drop works well in gimp too. On investigation, I made a face 31. When I wasn't sure if this particular face-12.png was, I dropped my alt face in, found it, and replaced it with the associated face.

So there's two ways to do it, colored cigarette burns, or alt smiley face. Either works great on trying to figure it out.

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@Corrosive GIMP won't work because it takes up too much space on my potato :/ for my character i have all the lines i want him to say i just need to figure out special...events like WX's system overload i want that feature and some other stuff and i just need a model i have a pic i want to use i just need something or someone that can help :s

 

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@Zchu,

 

7.  Open both your first character's modmain.lua, and your second character's modmain.lua, and add everything related to your new character from the second modmain.lua into the first.

 

For example

PrefabFiles = {	"superawesomecharacter",        "onlykindaawesomecharacter",  --    <--  from your second character's modmain.lua}Assets = {    Asset( "IMAGE", "images/saveslot_portraits/superawesomecharacter.tex" ),    Asset( "ATLAS", "images/saveslot_portraits/superawesomecharacter.xml" ),    Asset( "IMAGE", "images/saveslot_portraits/onlykindaawesomecharacter.tex" ),         <-- from your second character's modmain.lua    Asset( "ATLAS", "images/saveslot_portraits/onlykindaawesomecharacter.xml" ),  --   <-- from your second character's modmain.lua... etc.}local require = GLOBAL.require --  note that you only need to have this line once, don't copy it from your second character's file

 

So why is step 7 not mention anywhere? No mod tutorials, not on steam...? Does this mean even if i am not a modder and i downloaded more then one character from the steam workshop I would have to go into the mods and ad the other character mods into there modmain.lua?

 

Right now I have two character mods, my custom character that has everything renamed, and the original ecs template character. I can load them both just fine individually, but when i try to activate them both the game crashes to desktop.

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@Zchu,

 

My "guide" (if you can even call it that) was to show how to make multiple characters inside the same mod, which I had assumed was why you couldn't figure out how to make multiple characters.  If you want your characters to be in separate mods, then you really don't need to do anything special apart from name them differently!  There shouldn't be a conflict between two character mods.  What is the error that's generated in your log file?

 

 

Log.txt (Steam and Standalone)

In order to find your game's log.txt file:

PC: Go to your documents folder at Documents\klei\donotstarve\log.txt 

Mac: Go to your documents folder at ~/Documents/Klei/DoNotStarve/log.txt

Linux: Go to your Klei folder at ~/.klei/DoNotStarve/log.txt

 

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@Zchu,

 

My "guide" (if you can even call it that) was to show how to make multiple characters inside the same mod, which I had assumed was why you couldn't figure out how to make multiple characters.  If you want your characters to be in separate mods, then you really don't need to do anything special apart from name them differently!  There shouldn't be a conflict between two character mods.  What is the error that's generated in your log file?

 

 

Ohhh!! Oh i see!

 

I missed the ghost anim file when i was renaming everything, so both my mods had the same name and it kept saying "this has already been compiled!"

 

So now it works lol

I feel silly.

 

Thanks for the guide it helped me catch it was the renaming that i messed up on.

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First of all, thank you so much for this template, it's absolutely wonderful! But I'm having some trouble, as you guessed.

So I've gotten a little bit done of my custom character, and I want to see how they look in game so far (aka all the parts look nice, animations work etc), in Spriter they look like this currently; (ignore the wonky horns oops)

 

But in game, even after enabling and disabling the mod about 10 times, they just have the default template sprite. Am I doing something wrong? Is it something with the code, their long hair instead of pigtails? Or something entirely different?

 im have this same issue my atlas files wont update... am i supposed to do it manual  orrrrrrr?

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 im have this same issue my atlas files wont update... am i supposed to do it manual  orrrrrrr?

Did you delete the  .tex and .xml files like it says to do in the tutorial? AND did you delete the original layer of the body parts? 

Edited by RedRock911
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