[Tutorial] Using Extended Sample Character Template

[Tilas300]

@Blueberrys It turns out the comma was inside the quotation instead of outside. That took way too long to find! And then there was another one, and then I got another error, but the "Mods enabled!" message is in front of it so I can't see what it is. I guess this mod isn't going anywhere? That message always annoyed me.

[Tilas300]

Nevermind, it all works now!

[NickNeku117]

Hello, I'm trying to create a custom character for myself and I don't really know anything about coding. I was hoping you could clarify if this mod will still comply with Don't Starve. If so, could you take a look at the error for me?


http://puu.sh/fQjNl/0177e523f2.jpg

[NickNeku117]

Never mind! I was being dumb and should have read the most-recent comments!

[NickNeku117]

I'm trying to edit the character, but all of the templates don't come up as full-size, so there's a bunch I can't do. How do I fix this, if I even can?

[yanderesunflower]

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?

[HungryBerryBush]

I am guessing the mod tools haven't compiled your character art,

try moving the zip file that's in the anim somewhere else.

The game should notice your mod doesn't have one, and then it'll compile your new character art.

(At least that how it should work, I am having trouble compiling it currently.)

[RedRock911]

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?

 

I keep all my toons in their own file, and make sure you don't have some layer still in one of the PNGs. If that's not it, make sure your dragging and dropping your mod into the mods folder, and not the extended template. 

[Anomen77]

Thanks for the teamplate, it's incredibly usefull (^-^)

 

I only have one problem. The art of my character is near finished... but I don't know how to make the lines look hand drawn like the ones shown in the game. Any suggestions? :S

 

Here's a little example of how does it look:

[Sabeku]

Thanks for the teamplate, it's incredibly usefull (^-^)

 

I only have one problem. The art of my character is near finished... but I don't know how to make the lines look hand drawn like the ones shown in the game. Any suggestions? :S

 

Here's a little example of how does it look:

 

Hello! It looks like you have a more art-orientated question, so I'll see if I can help.

Your style of lines is consistent and clean, however the style of Don't Starve is sketchy and messy. It's kind of hard to get this look, but if you draw with quick, fast strokes you can get this style.

 

For example, the current style you have is more like lineart, drawn with a steady hand or tool.

The sketchy style is more erratic and scratchy. It's also extremely useful to have a tablet or something with pen pressure to achieve that signature look.

Below is gif examples of what I consider lineart techniques and the scratchy style.

 

Also, it would be useful to look at this thread by TheDanaAddams for more art related stuff.

 

Lastly, it was mentioned that the artist of Don't Starve draw in Adobe Flash (an animation / coding program), however you can get this look in most other art programs. I typically draw in Paint Tool Sai (not free), but you can also draw in programs like Gimp (its free and here is their website).

Under the spoiler is the pen settings I use for Sai.

[Anomen77]

Hello! It looks like you have a more art-orientated question, so I'll see if I can help.

Your style of lines is consistent and clean, however the style of Don't Starve is sketchy and messy. It's kind of hard to get this look, but if you draw with quick, fast strokes you can get this style.

 

For example, the current style you have is more like lineart, drawn with a steady hand or tool.

The sketchy style is more erratic and scratchy. It's also extremely useful to have a tablet or something with pen pressure to achieve that signature look.

Below is gif examples of what I consider lineart techniques and the scratchy style.

 

Also, it would be useful to look at this thread by TheDanaAddams for more art related stuff.

 

Lastly, it was mentioned that the artist of Don't Starve draw in Adobe Flash (an animation / coding program), however you can get this look in most other art programs. I typically draw in Paint Tool Sai (not free), but you can also draw in programs like Gimp (its free and here is their website).

Under the spoiler is the pen settings I use for Sai.

 

I was aslo using paint tool SAI and you're right, I've made every line using lineart. I think it's time to dust of my drawing tablet. Thanks for your advice

 

 

Edit:

I've just finished a sketch. Now I have to figure out how to colour the hair. Done

Edited February 22, 2015 by Anomen77

[DragonDePlatino]

Hello! I have a bit more of a technical question here concerning layering.
 

 
I added some wings onto my character's torso, but the z-layering isn't right. On the left is how they currently look, and on the right is how I would like them to look. I've tried editing my .scml, build.xml and animation.xml, but none of the changes are being applied in-game.

Edited February 22, 2015 by DragonDePlatino

[bpl1234]

Hi, Something's wrong with my code and I can't figure out what it is.

 

Every time I try to enable the mod, I get an error.

 

I've been trying to fix this for the last two days, so any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks!

[ServantOfTheEmpress]

Would like to say how handy this template has been in creating my own character. Yet I have a slight issue...

I've changed all the files and such but have not altered any of the artwork yet. However when I start the game it doesn't show

the character however I can still move about and interact within the game. Any ideas as to what's causing the character

to be invisible in game and to remedy the issue?

[HungryBerryBush]

@DragonDePlatino, 
I might know something.
Are you adding the wings via the hairpigtails folder or via the torso folder?
If you're doing it by torso... then that's quite odd, did you save the torso image with the wings behind it as a png? 
or did you add a whole new torso image to the folder?
 
@bpl1234,
Is see the name of your mod's folder name has spaces and apostrophes, which is fine,
though are you also using spaces and apostrophes for the name in the code and lua files?

[Sabeku]

@DragonDePlatino, you're having the same problem I'm having, although mine involves long hair layering. @HungryBerryBush Do you know some workaround to this? Is there anyway to edit the z index or perhaps add another folder altogether?

[DragonDePlatino]

@HungryBerryBush

I initially inserted the wings as pigtails, but they looked really odd when they were animated in-game, with the pivots in the wrong place. Currently I have them attached directly to the torso, like so:

 

@Sabeku

Ah yes, please tell me when you manage to resolve your Z-layering issue! And if you have any hunches as to how to change a character's Z-layering, go ahead and tell me. I'll use my Notepad++ wizardry to play around with the .xml files and share my findings if I manage to change anything in-game.

Edited February 23, 2015 by DragonDePlatino

[bpl1234]

@HungryBerryBush

 

Yes. How Should I write the code for the name?

[HungryBerryBush]

@DragonDePlatino, 

@Sabeku, 

Ah, so that's what the problem is,

I can't say I know how to solve it as I haven't messed with any of it before or know a work around...

though I am curious... have you tried messing with the timeline id numbers?

They appear to go in order starting from face and ending at tail.

 

@bpl1234,

If you are replacing "esctemplate" then use all lowercase letters nothing else,

I also suggest doing just a small part of your mod's name rather than the whole thing.

For example if my mod was to be called "Mod Test Character" I would replace "esctemplate" with "modtestchar"

If you see all caps like this "ESCTEMPLATE" then do the replacement all in caps as well,

for my mod it would look like this "MODTESTCHAR".

 

Now if you're wondering about the name people will see in the game...

 

For the character name you'll see in game you type in the quotes here:

In the modmain.lua:

GLOBAL.STRINGS.CHARACTER_TITLES.esctemplate = "The Sample Character" --This is the character's titleGLOBAL.STRINGS.CHARACTER_NAMES.esctemplate = "Esc" --This is the character's nameGLOBAL.STRINGS.CHARACTER_DESCRIPTIONS.esctemplate = "*Perk 1\n*Perk 2\n*Perk 3" --this is the character's descriptionGLOBAL.STRINGS.CHARACTER_QUOTES.esctemplate = "\"Quote\"" --This is where you would put the character's quote.

And if you want to change the mod title which people see when enabling the mod from the mod menu:

in the modinfo.lua:

name = "Extended Sample Character"description = "A character template."author = "author name"version = "1.0.3" -- This is the version of the template. Change it to your own number.

You just edit what's in the quotes.

 

 

Hopefully I didn't make that confusing.

[bpl1234]

@HungryBerryBush

Okay, I did that, but now it gives me this error

[HungryBerryBush]

Hmmm, it's a bit hard to tell for sure, but I think you're missing an ")" somewhere in the modmain.lua.

 

[Sabeku]

Ah yes, please tell me when you manage to resolve your Z-layering issue! And if you have any hunches as to how to change a character's Z-layering, go ahead and tell me. I'll use my Notepad++ wizardry to play around with the .xml files and share my findings if I manage to change anything in-game.

 

Hm... so far I've got no luck with the scml file, and you mentioned editing the animation file (.xml?) wouldn't work. My guess is that its something to do with the autocompiler and the commands it gathers from looking at the scml. What I mean more simply is that the autocompiler has a set 'list' in which it follows, and even changing the scml file can't change this 'list'. (It's just a theory.) But, this is definitely editable because monsters have a different constructs and layering.

What I think is that we'll find the answer to layering by taking a step back and look into how to create a character from scratch, which means how to deal with custom animation and working in spriter / exporting spriter images. It seems complicated and I'll be looking into this in about a month or two when school lessens up.

Something about this tutorial, the Extended Sample Character is that the parts are spaced out with the dimensioned changed, and it autocompiles correctly even with these major changes in the script. That means it can be changed, somehow. Even other characters are missing folders (some don't have shirts or pigtails, etc), which leads me to believe you can add folders too, and these new folders would need a z index too, right?

Its a lot to look into, and I'm more of an artist, not a coder. But if you happen to find anything new, please let me know! Just throw me a message or mention if you want to bounce ideas or something.

 

Ah, so that's what the problem is, I can't say I know how to solve it as I haven't messed with any of it before or know a work around... though I am curious... have you tried messing with the timeline id numbers? They appear to go in order starting from face and ending at tail.

 

Ah, well it was worth a shot to ask. And yes, I've actually documented my progress with editing the timeline IDs, but changing them in spriter doesn't change how they appear in-game (even when it displays correctly in spriter!)

I even dug around some forms to see if there's a way in spriter to change the z index but it looks like that feature isn't implemented.

What's worse is I can't seem to find any topics related to this issue. I really want to figure out how to make long hair in Don't Starve possible without using pigtails.

[TalginTheKinglsayer]

amazing tutorial, it will really help me when im making my own character. I was just wondering how do i do things to make a more over powered character? stuff like health regen, glowing, starting with items, or a special item only that character can use?

Thank you for your time.

[KuroSasori]

So, I need to change the pivot or png to make the part in the place... why not just change the position of the image? Why it not work?

[hotwingz1]

So I've been using the Extended Sample Character Mod pack to try and make my own character.

http://forums.kleientertainment.com/topic/46849-tutorial-using-extended-sample-character-template/

 

I follow the guide to the point. (I haven't gotten to the art portion of the guide yet). I load my game and I crash. Don't get to press play or anything just freezes on the main menu. 

 

I'm running Rev. 127906

Mod Version 1.1.3

Here is my crash log 

http://pastebin.com/B42wq7AR

 

Any help as to what I'm doing wrong with the mod could be of GREAT assistance.

 

Also another note would be that I'm trying this for DST not DS. I have made sure I'm using the multiplayer version.