Custom DS Character Help

[TheGamerDracul]

I've recently got hooked on DS and since I heard you could make your own character I was excited.
And after a while I started regretting it...
I've looked up so many tutorials but I cannot find anything that will help me. I got as far as editing the files thanks to this 

But after that I'm just running into different problems.
First off is editing the animations.

Any helpful advice is greatly welcomed. I want to learn how to do this instead of paying to have someone else make my character.

[Mobbstar]

So what do you need help with? The tutorial you found should be pretty self-explainatory (that is the point of tutorials, eh?)

I assume you use the template as used in the tutorial.

[TheGamerDracul]

Right now I'm trying to figure out editing animations. 

One part I'm trying to edit, is the way his hair is. How do I explain this...
His hair doesn't change direction when looking forwards and backwards?

[TheGamerDracul]

This is what I mean. I want the hair to change direction when he turns around.

And yeah I know it looks weird right now. I'm still working on the rest of his sprites.

[Mobbstar]

The "hair" is part of the head sprite, right? Just flip the sprite for facing back.

[TheGamerDracul]

That's the problem...
The original sprite IS turned around, but it still shows as THIS.

I also tried Spriter to edit it but that didn't work either. 
I read a tutorial about using THAT program for animations but it didn't work. NOTHING I changed seemed to work in the game.

 

[Mobbstar]

I just tried flipping "headbase" and "headbase_hat" and the spriter file shows the change.

Are you recompiling properly?

[TheGamerDracul]

That's totally what I did!
Gah...but it doesn't work...

And I don't know what you mean. I just start the game. Doesn't that compile it too?
I also use the compiler in the DS Mod Tools but I don't think that works either.

 

[Mobbstar]

Try manually compiling the scml file as described in the tutorial. If it throws an exception, you probably deleted a file or something.

Does it actually flip the image(s) in Spriter? If not, the forget about the compiling stuff.

[TheGamerDracul]

Yes it did but then I flipped it myself in Spriter. I thought that would do the trick but nope...

I actually don't know what the point of the .scml file is. I thought I could use that to edit my character but ingame it looks like nothings changed at all.

[Mobbstar]

2 minutes ago, TheGamerDracul said:

Yes it did but then I flipped it myself in Spriter. I thought that would do the trick but nope...

I actually don't know what the point of the .scml file is. I thought I could use that to edit my character but ingame it looks like nothings changed at all.

No, you have to flip the actual image. Editing the spriter project doesn't have an effect. (the game takes the images from the resulting animation and slaps it onto pre-defined ones)

Edited April 13, 2016 by Mobbstar

[TheGamerDracul]

Well this said different.

[Mobbstar]

"this" is a tutorial on adding an animation bank(actual animation), but you are trying to create a build(images). You can create a custom bank for custom actions if you want to, but unless you want to reconstruct all player animations in the entire game, you should make a proper build.

tldr just flip the image already

[TheGamerDracul]

Alright, flipping it worked. But now it's got a bit of a white outline to it. Nothing too bad but the top tip is really noticeable. And I used PS to edit the files.

[TheGamerDracul]

Alright, so what do I do if I want to like say, change the position of my face or ears?

[TheGamerDracul]

And now I have a situation where the feet overlap the legs.
If ANYONE has advice for that I would greatly appreciate it.

[TheGamerDracul]

If anyone knows the answer to my layer overlapping situation PLEASE tell me soon!

[Mobbstar]

On 13.4.2016 at 10:27 PM, TheGamerDracul said:

white outline

Make sure there are no almost-transparent pixels. Did this really occur after you simply flipped the image?

I have no idea what you mean with overlapping, but the Z-order of the images is set in the player animations (banks).

[TheGamerDracul]

Like this. If you look closely you can see the feet overlap his curved knees. Same thing happened with his ears at side view.
I don't know what to do about it. 

And I am sure I'm doing the first thing right. I also use photoshop to make sure the keep the transparent background.
It's weird but whenever I give it a black background to see any white lines, theres nothing there.

[Mobbstar]

As said, you can't change the position and order of the sprites from the build. How about you simply make the feet shorter?

[TheGamerDracul]

Exactly. And I could but they would still look disconnected. And it still wouldn't solve the problem with the ears on the side.
Theres no way to edit the animation at all?

[TheGamerDracul]

Does ANYONE have any helpful advice out there...?