MV Character design : Fuse/Miximo, Daz3D vs GCH vs Spriter vs Daz3D vs MakeHuman

[Antera]

Hello,

I spent 197 hours to discover RPG Maker MV and try things, now I'd like to have a custom design for my characters.
I'm not much into "chibi" cute design, more into standard characters like Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.

Context : 9/10 project organization (my job), 7/10 web dev (my old job), 3/10 design (but motivation is reasonably here).
It's my 1st game and I know that it won't be a superstar and that I should not aim too big. However I'd like to do something decent with most of the things "customized". Let's talk only about character design here (I'll open other threads for other topics if needed).
Solutions I found for character design :

MV built in generator
Pros : The fastest solution as it's integrated into MV, I know how to easily do some variations in Photoshop
Cons : All MV games will have similar characters, can do only chibi style

My hero :


Adobe Fuse / Mixamo
Pros : Great designs available on Mixamo for free, Fuse is free too, and few MV makers will take the time to do this, so it will be original, not only chibi
Cons : takes a lot of time and it's really hard to do, Adobe Fuse, then Mixamo, then Photoshop
Other con : models look awesome at big size but not super nice when reduced to a few pixels

Process : Create a character in Fuse, import it in Mixamo, work animations (walking ...), export to .dae, import in Photoshop, play and stop animation to copy pictures when walking left, right and center, make it size of MV characters

My first attempt (took me hours to install Fuse, understand it and Mixamo, understand 3d in Photoshop, and put it at the right size for MV just to do this) :

Question : anyone used Fuse/Mixamo to create character for RPG Maker MV ?
Any settings/models/things I should know to make character that can look decent when reduced to a few dozens of pixels ?

Drawing directly in Photoshop
I have Photoshop knowledge but I'm not a good drawer. I did this from scratch :



It's not bad for a first try, not exceptional either.

Pros : everything from scratch = 100% original, not only chibi
Cons : long to do, not a good drawer, and no ideas how to make this walking / very long to do + I will never have time to become a super designer (I can spend time to manipulate but not learning drawing from scratch, lights, shadows, proportions, colors)

Spriter
Pros : original, 2D animations, not only chibi
Cons : it seems you need to draw yourself every parts of the characters, in all positions ? If I can draw it walking, then I don't need Spriter to animate it as I just need a few images for MV.

Default model :


Game Character Hub: Portfolio Edition (GCH)
I first eliminated GCH because not supporting MV, but I saw today an ad for it saying that GCH now supports MV in their "Portfolio edition".
I did not try this one yet so I will guess the pros and cons :
Pros : it's like the built in generator ?, not only chibi
Cons : it's like the built in generator ?

Question : Can we do non-chibi style characters in Game Character Hub Portfolio Edition that are compatible with RPG Maker MV or is it a hassle ?

Daz3D
Pros : awesome models, they have weapons, and can be monsters or humans, not only chibi
Cons : models are f****** expansive, it's more for "real" 3d commercial games ? , characters too big/too much details

Anyone uses this ?

MakeHuman
This is like Adobe Fuse, but free/open source (this is like Gimp for Photoshop)
Pros : open source
Cons : ?, ?, characters too big/too much details

Other solutions ?
Any suggestions of other solutions ?

I can buy a reasonably priced software and/or some 1-5$ non exclusive models and manipulate them in Photoshop
Aim : 1 to 3 hours time spent per character (not 1-3 days or 1-3 weeks/character)
I cant pay a designer to design my game as it would be too expansive and my 1st game will probably sux ...

I would need to choose a solution and stay on it for months, obviously all the characters of a game should use the same design style

The 3d big softwares are good because I can have wonderful looking faces and enemies, maybe battlers, but are bad for character walking on the map (too big/too much details)

If you know what we talk about, what are your suggestions ?

Thanks for your feedback !

 

[Antera]

41 view 0 replies ... nobody manipulates characters design ?

 

[Zarsla]

You can do the RPG Maker XP style sprites, which are not chibi in GCHPE. From the looks of it you haven't really played around with GCHPE, you can make custom grid sheets that fit whatever RPG Maker you have.

Note the RPGXP sprites are 32x64, so an MV version would be 48x96. which would work.

 

[Antera]

You can do the RPG Maker XP style sprites, which are not chibi in GCHPE. From the looks of it you haven't really played around with GCHPE, you can make custom grid sheets that fit whatever RPG Maker you have.

Note the RPGXP sprites are 32x64, so an MV version would be 48x96. which would work.

I bought GCHPE. It's not easy to manipulate things here. I created a new model 48x72 walk and 64x96 battler but when i choose elements from portfolio, it creates new tabs instead of going in the existing tabs ?

 

[Papillon Effect]

I'm using spriter for my characters. You don't need to draw every position. You draw body parts and then use spriter to snap them into position. It's really easy. I would figure you could surmise that by just watching the trailer video.
The program goes on sale a lot. Steam sales as well as if you check in with humble bundle now and again. I got spriter for a dollar from humble bundle.

You mentioned that you want to know how to scale down characters to fit. You don't need to do that. Shaz has a plugin that allows you to use bigger than 48x48 sprites. Here is the forum link. https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/change-tile-size.46748/
https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/change-tile-size.46748/
I would also advise that if you wanted to pay someone to make you some sprites, don't go with Fiverr. I basically got scammed by a "sprite artist" on there by the name of "risingvexx". They will do a good job at first and then do a crap job for other things you pay for, so you end up paying for useless graphics.

 

[Antera]

I'm using spriter for my characters. You don't need to draw every position. You draw body parts and then use spriter to snap them into position. It's really easy.

Thank you for your feedback

So Spriter is a solution used for some people on Rpg Maker MV, I'm happy to hear that !

Do you manually do the settings and export for the 6x9=54 positions for each battlers ???

For example with 10 characters you do manually the 10x6x9=540 positions (battler) + 10x9=90 (walking) = 630 manual images ?

You mentioned that you want to know how to scale down characters to fit. You don't need to do that. Shaz has a plugin that allows you to use bigger than 48x48 sprites. Here is the forum link. https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/change-tile-size.46748/

What size do you use for sprites ?

I would also advise that if you wanted to pay someone to make you some sprites, don't go with Fiverr. I basically got scammed by a "sprite artist" on there by the name of "risingvexx". They will do a good job at first and then do a crap job for other things you pay for, so you end up paying for useless graphics.

Well they have ratings on Fiverr

 

[Antera]

I'm using spriter for my characters.

Also could I see some of your sprites, and your game please ? I'm really curious

 

[Papillon Effect]

Thank you for your feedback

So Spriter is a solution used for some people on Rpg Maker MV, I'm happy to hear that !

Do you manually do the settings and export for the 6x9=54 positions for each battlers ???

For example with 10 characters you do manually the 10x6x9=540 positions (battler) + 10x9=90 (walking) = 630 manual images ?

What size do you use for sprites ?


Well they have ratings on Fiverr

Also could I see some of your sprites, and your game please ? I'm really curious

Sorry as for the game, no spoilers just yet. We are close to a trailer though. I'll give you a heads up later if you are still interested.

As for Spriter, yeah it's actually very intuitive. They even have a special mode specifically for making RPG maker graphics. I'll link you their tutorial page. It does more justice actually showing it, then me explaining it.

This is the companies tutorial page. They are pretty good on responding with questions as well.


This is the RPG heroes pack, you can buy it for some good assets to use if you are tired of the stuff that comes with MV. You don't need to buy the pack to use this function though.


This is the tutorial they list. By the way, we aren't utilizing this. We are using graphics tablets at a higher 1x1 pixels count for characters. This can be easier for you if it's what you were interested in.


Sorry if I'm being secretive, the game we are working on might be considered political. So we are trying to keep it close to the chest if possible.

I hope that helps. Oh and as for the fiverr rating system, it's easily cheated, don't believe it.

 

[Antera]

Hello Papillon,

Thanks for the answers !

So you create the animations needed in MV yourself in Spriter ?

This :

 

[Papillon Effect]

Hello Papillon,

Thanks for the answers !

So you create the animations needed in MV yourself in Spriter ?

This :

No we aren't using side view battlers. We are using animations specific to attacks, like in "Lisa" or "Hylics". Spriter makes that easier. I could see how it could be used for side view battlers though.

 

[Antera]

Oh ok, you use front view, so no battlers then

 

[Papillon Effect]

Oh ok, you use front view, so no battlers then

Yeah, no we don't. Sorry on that part friend.