How do you generate the .zip files for putting in anim/ ?

[fsih]

I am trying to learn how to mod, but I am having trouble generating an asset file that's usable in the game. (My goal is to change the color of rabbits in the game.)

1.  I made a mod at

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Don't Starve Together\mods\mymod

and added a modinfo.lua (mostly copied from a sample project). I got the .tex file from the real game's data/anim/rabbit_build.zip file and put it in my mod's mymod/anim folder. I also tried putting the png in mymod/exported.

2. I got Don't starve mod tools in steam and turned on the public beta. (I read a thread from 2013 that said you need to enable the public beta, but maybe that's way out of date)

3. I ran Don't starve together. I think running the game is supposed to run the autocompiler which generates the .zip file that is supposed to go in anim

4. But nothing seems to have been generated in my mod folder /:

Does anyone know how to generate the .zip files? Is there a different way to do it manually? Also, is there a way to view the existing rabbit_build animations in Spriter?

Edited March 17, 2018 by fsih
Add spriter

[K1NGT1GER609]

Well usually most mods that generate zip files for the assets (aka zip files stored inside the anim folder of the mod) usually come from a spriter file along with its pngs it uses. Reading from your post you don't seem to have the spriter file so technically you can't generate the build and anim binary files that are needed to build the zip files, if anything the autocompiler will make .tex and .xml thinking its a picture that its going to be used in items and such. So theres two ways to approach your goal, first is if your interested in retrieving the spriter file for the rabbit animations theres a program named krane that does that job but I've never tried it but here's a direction to go to:

you'll need to dig around the forums and such to know how to operate it just letting you know. The second option is semi common at least on what your trying, its getting the ingame rabbit zip and modify it to your own design. This is done by editing the tex file and replacing it inside, and renaming the build binary file to another thing (idk bunneyalternative? instead of bunny) just to avoid conflict with the ingame bunnies (unless thats your intent to replace the color of the ingame bunnies). Heres a tool needed to rename the build binary:

its the build renamer download. Other than that all thats left to say is that you don't need the public beta enabled to say the least and hopefully I didn't forget to mention something.

Edited March 17, 2018 by K1NGT1GER609