How to format character sprite?

[Risciaven]

Apologies for the noob question, but how, exactly, do you format character sprites?

You see, i downloaded a skeleton character sprite from dainiri (great stuff, btw, check it out here), but it doesn't seem to be in the right proportions or something. This is what you see when you try to select it:



As you can see, it's like the selection box is too small. I know this is probably a very dumb question, but does anyone know how to fix it? I really want to use these sprites.

 

[PoptartPresident]

I can tell you exactly what the problem is in this situation!

Do you notice how your Skeleton Soldier is a singular spritesheet? (You have the format right).
The thing is, you just have a singular spritesheet. (The motions of down, left, right, up).

With the current name of the file, you told the engine, "Here is an image with a set of 8 character spritesheets". This is how the engine reads those character files sheets by default! (Notice your Actor1, Actor 2 sprite sheets are all sets of 8 characters)


What you need to do is insert an exclamation mark, and dollar sign at the beginning of your file. So it be like:

Skeleton Soldier

to

!$Skeleton_Soldier

You need these operators because the dollar sign tells the engine, "This is a singular sprite sheet", and the exclamation point makes sure that the spritesheet isn't offset by 6 pixels.

If you need more explanation, I'd love to give you some more. But if you just need a reference, scroll all the way down and find those generic spritesheets with the !$ operators already in front. Notice how they are just singular character sprite sheets as well?


I hope that helps!

 

[Risciaven]

It worked perfectly! Thanks! a million!

 

[ATT_Turan]

What you need to do is insert an exclamation mark, and dollar sign at the beginning of your file...the dollar sign makes sure that the spritesheet isn't offset by 6 pixels.

You actually don't want to put the exclamation mark there. The whole purpose of the 6 pixel offset is to put the shadow underneath characters like this skeleton knight (which comes from the exclamation mark, not the dollar sign).

If you reference the files you talk about in your post, you'll see the ! is used on objects that should line up with the map tiles, none of the images that actually reference characters have them.

@Risciaven All of this information is right in the help file that comes with MV. Just click Help -> Contents -> Documentation -> Asset Standards and every kind of file you can use in the editor is fully described there.

Also, it's best practice to change your file names now while you're working on things - leaving spaces in the filenames can cause your game to have errors on some systems.

 

[Avery]

The dollar sign is the one you want, because that is what marks a single sheet.
The exclaimation mark is there for the offset

 

[PoptartPresident]

You actually don't want to put the dollar sign there. The whole purpose of the 6 pixel offset is to put the shadow underneath characters like this skeleton knight.

If you reference the files you talk about in your post, you'll see the $ is used on objects that should line up with the map tiles, none of the images that actually reference characters have them.

@Risciaven All of this information is right in the help file that comes with MV. Just click Help -> Contents -> Documentation -> Asset Standards and every kind of file you can use in the editor is fully described there.

Also, it's best practice to change your file names now while you're working on things - leaving spaces in the filenames can cause your game to have errors on some systems.

Ooooh wait really? I had no idea.
I'm honestly surprised myself that I never caught onto this lol, thanks for that! I always wondered what the 6-pixel offset thing was for. (For the Exclamation Mark I mean, as Avery pointed out)

 

[ATT_Turan]

I always wondered what the 6-pixel offset thing was for.

Per the help file,

Including a "!" at the beginning of the file name will prevent the image from being shifted 6 pixels and will no longer appear half transparent by bush elements. This is primarily used for objects found in the map such as doors and treasure chests.

 

[Risciaven]

Thanks for the help, guys! Will make the changes asap!