How to make characters truly transparent

[AchedTeacher]

I know I need to import them and set the white background to be transparency (and translucency?), but when I do that I get a completely transparent background except for a very thin 1-2 pixel wide border around the character image itself, which is obviously the sort of fading color from the brown hair to the white background. Do I need to make a black border, remove all that faded white and replace it with white or is there a simple way to make the entire thing transparent?

 

[Andar]

Wrong - using colors as transparency placeholders during import is only an emergency solution for pictures that do not contain transparency, and the result will always be less than perfect.


What you need to do is use an image program that supports layer and transparencies when making the sprite or picture or whatever, then save that into PNG-Format including the transparency settings - and you'll get true transparency without that color selection on import.


Programs that support transparency are (for example) GIMP, Photoshop or paint.net - NEVER use MS Paint from Windows

 

[Shaz]

What characters are you using? That sort of thing often happens with spritesheets that are made for some other engine, or those that are ripped from games (which we don't provide help with).

 

[AchedTeacher]

Wrong - using colors as transparency placeholders during import is only an emergency solution for pictures that do not contain transparency, and the result will always be less than perfect.

What you need to do is use an image program that supports layer and transparencies when making the sprite or picture or whatever, then save that into PNG-Format including the transparency settings - and you'll get true transparency without that color selection on import.

Programs that support transparency are (for example) GIMP, Photoshop or paint.net - NEVER use MS Paint from Windows

Man that seems like a lot of hassle. All I really want to do is use a character image from the character creator and make him have heterochromia with a gray and a blue eye. I need to use paint.net for that, then?

 

What characters are you using? That sort of thing often happens with spritesheets that are made for some other engine, or those that are ripped from games (which we don't provide help with).

I am just using the character generator for RMVX Ace, and as stated before, I want to change one eye color to make the character have heterochromia. I amn't making brand new character designs.

 

[Kes]

The generator will export the sprite to whatever folder you tell it to.  It will export it in the proper format.

Use GIMP, paint.NET or whatever to change the colour of the eye.  Do nothing else.  Then using the Resource Manager (Menu Bar at the top of the editor screen) import it back into Graphics/Characters folder and you shouldn't have to do anything else.

EDIT

If you are leaving it as a single sprite, then you will need to put $ at the front of the file name so that the engine recognises that there is only only one.  If you are putting it on to an ordinary sprite sheet (i.e. a total of 8 sprites) then that is not necessary.

 

[Shaz]

In that case, the problem is with whatever graphic editor you're using to change it.


The character generator produces images with transparent backgrounds. If they're not transparent anymore after you edit the eye color, it's because of the software you're using.


I'd guess at MS Paint, because I know that doesn't allow transparency, and will convert any transparent areas to your default background colour. Use a different graphics editor - Paint.NET and GIMP are both free (Paint.NET has an easy-to-use interface). Neither of those will replace your transparent background with an opaque background.


edit: in response to ksjp17's comment - the character generator will give you a single sprite on an image that's large enough for 8 sprites. Unless you're cropping this so it's ONLY big enough for the one sprite, leave the $ off the name. It goes on what COULD be on the spritesheet, not what IS on the spritesheet. So if it's big enough for 8 but you've only got 1 on there, Ace will still need to treat it as 8.

 

[AchedTeacher]

Fantastic, thank you all very much