How to Add Files to Ace's Generator

[Lunara]

It can be a little confusing to find where to put new picture files for the generator. VX Ace's Generator takes pictures from a "Generator" folder on your computer. You cannot import/export parts using the Resource Manager, you need to go looking for the folder yourself.

Note: Every new project you open will use this one folder, so you don't have to worry about adding new parts for each project. However, because of this, I strongly recommend that you back up any files that you plan on replacing with new ones! Otherwise, you may have trouble getting them back.

Let's find the Generator folder.

You'll find it in the place where you installed VX Ace. If you let the setup pick the directory, it should be in C:\Program Files\Enterbrain\RPGVXAce. It will not be in the "Common Files" folder!

Once you find the folder, inside you'll find two more folders, titled "Face" and "Mini". It should be fairly obvious what each is for: Face is for faces, and Mini is for sprites.

Inside each folder will be two more folders, for Male and Female. You will also find some files outside of the two folders. These parts are used for both genders!

For Sprites:

To add a part to the generator, it needs a certain name so that the generator will recognize it. Let's say you wanted to add a new clothing piece. The file will have to be named "Cloth#", with the # representing the number it will be in the list.

Note: There must always be two digits for the part number! The first 9 must be labelled as 01, 02, 03, etc.

The following are sprite part names that the generator recognizes:

• Acc1
  
• Acc2
  
• Beard
  
• Cloak
  
• Cloth
  
• Ears
  
• Eyes
  
• FrontHair
  
• Glasses
  
• Kemono (Animal Ears)
  
• RearHair
  
• Tail
  
• Wing
  

Note: When adding accessories, always be careful of which group you put it in. Acc2 will always overlay Acc1!

For Faces:

Pretty much the same as sprites, but some of the files have different names. These are the names for face parts:

• Acc1
  
• Acc2
  
• Beard
  
• Face
  
• Ears
  
• Eyebrows
  
• Eyes
  
• FrontHair
  
• Glasses
  
• Kemono
  
• Mouth
  
• Neck
  
• Nose
  
• RearHair
  
• Tattoo
  

Also of note:

Klandaghi brought up a good point. The post that he made is here.

As a side note, this probably came naturally for any veterans of the RPG Maker line, but don't think you need to swap the head file for ANY reason. If you want to change the shape of a sprite's face, use a beard file. This option is available for both males and females. So anyone looking to add an anthro or some other varying shaped head could simply add a beard file with the desired section of change to the sprite.

See Spolier bellow for example.

Spoiler

Really the Generator is a well planned out Layering system that will place your part layers in a proper order and allow you to make a character without doing something silly by accident, like cover your eyes with your skin.

 

[AstoXx]

Great work, Luna! This is a much needed thread that I'm surprised hadn't been made before. This needs to be pinned/stickied/whatever'd immediately, I reckon. Now we have more reason for generator resources to get posted!

 

[Emmych]

This is an awesome tutorial! I've put a link to it in the VX/Ace Res. Directory beside the generator sub-heading; I hope this is okay! If not, let me know and I'll remove it. :3

 

[Lunara]

@AstoXx: I don't know about it being stickied, but it's certainly something that people might want to know about, especially if they plan on using the generator a lot.

@Emmych: It's okay with me! In fact, I'm glad you did that, and I'm sure others will be thankful, as well. It requires much less searching, and will prevent too many questions being asked(hopefully).

 

[arcana23]

Thanks Lunara!

 

[Klandaghi]

As a side note, this probably came naturally for any veterans of the RPG Maker line, but don't think you need to swap the head file for ANY reason. If you want to change the shape of a sprite's face, use a beard file. This option is available for both males and females. So anyone looking to add an anthro or some other varying shaped head could simply add a beard file with the desired section of change to the sprite.

See Spolier bellow for example.

Spoiler

Really the Generator is a well planned out Layering system that will place your part layers in a proper order and allow you to make a character without doing something silly by accident, like cover your eyes with your skin. I'm going to have to beg my wife to make some parts for me to use for faces. =^_^=

 

[Lunara]

@Klandaghi: That's a really good point to make. I'll add a link to your post in the OP so it won't be overlooked by those reading the tutorial. Or I could just add what you said to my first post, if that's alright with you.

I'm surprised that the generator would have animal ears and tails, but not faces and furry bodies. Seems a little strange.

 

[Klandaghi]

@Klandaghi: That's a really good point to make. I'll add a link to your post in the OP so it won't be overlooked by those reading the tutorial. Or I could just add what you said to my first post, if that's alright with you.

I'm surprised that the generator would have animal ears and tails, but not faces and furry bodies. Seems a little strange.

>.> <.< I'd have to say some of that might be a cultural influence of the creators and I don't blame them for it, nor am I upset. It also means that I get to try to figure out how to make that work. I've heard people get upset about what isn't in the maker to begin with. Personally I think the tool is great. I mean basically they said

"Here is this tool, it can make an RPG as it is stand alone, we are not going to make every aspect that you want pre-programmed into it or we'd probably be worse then Duke Nukem Forever, so here is a scripting language to be able to add to it what you will. Enjoy."

But yea, feel free to add to your original post. Just another example of the different ways people might do things. I was stuck on replacing the head file, which would achieve the same effect, but be harder to manage. I completely skipped over the beard files and then it dawned on me that it was there and was there for both male and females. I have a personal preference for my Anthro's to not have 2 sets of ears so I made an ear file that was just a transparent/empty graphic for that. (Type 5 from my screenshot)

That said, if you want to change the color of your character's skin from head to foot, say you wanted to make a member of Blue Man Group to cameo in your game, you will then need to present a different head file, or Use the beard to cover the area for the skin and leave the eye's open. The beard file goes over the head and eyes file with the glasses file over that. I think I might make a flow chart of the order the generator layers in. That could be VERY helpful for making sprite parts for the Generator.

Scurries off to make a Layer Order reference sheet for the Generator.

 

[Lunara]

I'm really glad you mentioned using the Beard category for skins, it really shows what you can do with a program when you think outside the box. If you do make a flowchart for layering, I'd be very happy to add it to the OP. Knowing the layering would really, really help.

 

[Klandaghi]

I've done work to get what I think is right out of the Face layers. This is what I think is right at this time.

This listing is ordered from 1 to 20 with the layers appearing on top as 1 and the layers on the bottom as 20.

1. Neck##a.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face\[Gender Folder]
   
2. Acc2_##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face
   
3. Kemono##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face
   
4. FrontHair##s.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face\[Gender Folder]
   
5. FrontHair##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face\[Gender Folder]
   
6. Acc1_##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face
   
7. Glasses##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face
   
8. Beard##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face\[Gender Folder]
   
9. Mouth##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face\[Gender Folder]
   
10. Eyebrows##s.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face
    
11. Eyebrows##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face
    
12. Eyes##s.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face\[Gender Folder]
    
13. Eyes##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face\[Gender Folder]
    
14. Tattoo##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face
    
15. Nose##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face\[Gender Folder]
    
16. Face##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face\[Gender Folder]
    
17. Neck##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face\[Gender Folder]
    
18. Ears##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face
    
19. RearHair##a.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face\[Gender Folder]
    
20. RearHair##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Face\[Gender Folder]
    

I am not claiming that this is 100% correct. the ##a and ##s files are a little odd and seem to be like a transparency or alpha overlay. Not 100% sure. I would reason that to effect the layer beneath the a or s graphics would be on top of the regular ##. files.

EDIT:

I've done work to get what I think is right out of the Mini layers, as well now. This is what I think is right at this time.

This listing is ordered from 1 to 14 with the layers appearing on top as 1 and the layers on the bottom as 14.

1. Wing##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Mini
   
2. Acc2_##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Mini
   
3. Kemono##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Mini
   
4. Ears##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Mini
   
5. FrontHair##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Mini\[Gender Folder]
   
6. Acc1_##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Mini
   
7. Glasses##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Mini
   
8. Tail##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Mini
   
9. Beard##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Mini\[Gender Folder]
   
10. Eyes.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Mini
    
11. Head.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Mini
    
12. Cloth##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Mini\[Gender Folder]
    
13. Cloak##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Mini
    
14. RearHair##.png - \RPGVXAce\Generator\Mini\[Gender Folder]
    

Hope this helps.

Edits: I tried copy and pasting my table in and even formatting the HTML. T_T didn't like it, so an ordered list will have to do.

Final Thoughts:

So it looks like if you want to do interesting or different things with your character. you can think of layers that you wouldn't use for that character and place the edits into the appropriate higher level layer. Say you are not going to use wings at all. You could use that to change skin color if you wanted to. Maybe 2 head accessories is too much, you could use an accessory layer to make edits that you like as well. Just remember what will be covered over by what if you decide to be lazy with your sprite parts. The lower the number on that list, the less likely something else will cover it up and the more likely it will cover something else up.

OH Another quick note: If you notice, all the Face graphics have ## but on the mini's, Head and Eyes do not. Head and Eyes are the only two files that will not work with a ## iteration. AKA head.png and eyes.png is the only thing that the generator will work off of at present. To alter those you must make a new file named the same thing ( I highly recommend backing up the originals. I know I did for all this layer mapping =^_^= )

 

[Lunara]

Are you sure the ##s would layer over the ##? ##s is used as a shadow, so I would think otherwise. If you could confirm that, I'll add the list to the first post.

Thank you so much for doing this, by the way. You really didn't have to. ~

 

[Klandaghi]

hhhmmm I'll have to test some more. My reasoning for going over was so they would show up as shadings over top of the items that are there, but if they are shadows, they could go under I know what I can do to test that. Might be tomorrow before I have that conclusion up.

 

[Denn]

So, are the dimensions set? As in, are we stuck with the chibi characters, or is there a way to get sprites to be two tiles high each?

 

[Lunara]

@Denn: As far as I can tell, you can only use the generator to make chibi sprites. However, I'd love to be proven wrong.

 

[Denn]

I did a quick test, but it looks like you are indeed limited to the chibi sprites. It entirely clipped off the the bottom region of the sprite. It did, however, accept the larger sprite without complaining. It could be possible to use larger sprites, but you'd have to make it in multiple segments, then merge the two sets together with an outside program (which kind of defeats the purpose of using the creator, but oh well). Also, I didn't test it with wider sprites, so there might be issues there as well (I assume it'd set different sides to different colors or something). I feel like this could use some further testing.

 

[Scinaya]

I love the idea of creating and adding new pieces to the generator. Thank you both Lunara and Klandaghi for contributing solving the mysteries of the generator. I had not yet figured out the definite order of the layers that eases a lot some work. <3

 

[Klandaghi]

@Scinaya: No problem. This seemed like a good way to help the community and it was rather fun adn will be helpful for me and the games I create. I saw no reason to not share my findings with others. No point in duplicating the work over and over and over again.

@Denn: I do know that it is possible to use larger sprites in the game, but I believe the generator is limited to the normal sizes unfortunately. That might be a feature to request though. In the end, the larger sized sprites have to be in multiples of the original sprite sizes. So having an algorithm or something added to the generator to double the size of the files or triple as desired could be a possibility, though I think that would have to go back to the creators, and I'm not sure that there is a bug/feature request area, or even the ability to perform updates. Though I could be wrong. Not sure I've heard of this being patched before, doesn't mean that won't start through.

 

[wild_bill236]

these are awesome but i was wondering if you were planning on adding the face counterparts so it wont show the default face?

 

[Lunara]

Erm ... I'm not entirely sure what you mean? This is a tutorial, there are no resources here.

 

[wild_bill236]

oh sorry lol i was talking about pieces to the face that when you add it to the sprite you also see the graphics on the face picture.