Is it safe to change the dimensions of pre-composited animations?

[MF99K]

So I'm working on a character mod right now that I had to pause because the character in question has a very large face that would require me to increase the size of the face_#.pngs substantially. I remember a warning about changing sizes of pngs used in spriter files, so I'm wondering what sort of issues I might encounter if I try to change the sizes and how to avoid those issues, hopefully without needing to make custom animations for this guy just to get his face to look right.

[RedHairedHero]

The main reason why they warn you about changing the PNG sizes is because it will be off center with your character. Really the only way to compensate would be to create the png and you would need to change the point of origin for the face. 

Quote

Try not to change the dimensions of any part, unless you absolutely know what your doing. Changing the dimensions (length and width) of the images will require editing the .scml as well, which includes updating the length and width of a part, and also having to recalculate pivots using this complicated equation if resized from the center of the image:
NewPivot = (OldLength*OldPivot+((NewLength-OldLength)/2))/NewLength
Additionally, this will make updating to future versions of the template a bit more inconvenient.

-DLeoWolf (author of Extended Character Sample)

It's possible to do, but it can be a bit of a headache.

[MF99K]

10 hours ago, RedHairedHero said:

The main reason why they warn you about changing the PNG sizes is because it will be off center with your character. Really the only way to compensate would be to create the png and you would need to change the point of origin for the face. 

It's possible to do, but it can be a bit of a headache.

so, say I put in the custom faces and wanted to adjust where they were. What would be the easiest way to go about changing their position?

[RedHairedHero]

22 hours ago, mf99k said:

so, say I put in the custom faces and wanted to adjust where they were. What would be the easiest way to go about changing their position?

I would create a test face using the default face (face-0) to start off with. Once you've created it you'll want to open up Don't Starve and see where the face is in relation to your characters head. Once you've done that you can go into the Spriter file and change the pivot point (this will be the red dot, you'll most likely only need to move it either up or down). After you change it just open up Don't Starve to see the changes. It may take a bit of trial and error, but once you have it down for one face you can change the rest to the same pivot point.

[MF99K]

On 12/21/2016 at 11:40 PM, RedHairedHero said:

I would create a test face using the default face (face-0) to start off with. Once you've created it you'll want to open up Don't Starve and see where the face is in relation to your characters head. Once you've done that you can go into the Spriter file and change the pivot point (this will be the red dot, you'll most likely only need to move it either up or down). After you change it just open up Don't Starve to see the changes. It may take a bit of trial and error, but once you have it down for one face you can change the rest to the same pivot point.

I tried this and the face piece will automatically resize itself to the original face dimensions. what, then, is the easiest way to set up custom character animations?

[Renamon]

unless it is a full custom build, its safe to say stay with the templates image resolution and that is how far you can go, custom builds require custom animation banks, changing image sizes in spriter will not change the characters build after the fact.

Edited January 24, 2017 by Renamon

[RedHairedHero]

Another suggestion would be to look specifically at Wolfgang's Mighty file since he has a massive head, it's possible his own animation template is a bit different then the standard characters.You can use Krane to spit out a Spriter file for him.