Character sprites & transparency?

[xpace]

Please forgive this noob question. But exactly how are the Character Graphics stored? Is there a certain RGB value or palette entry that's automatically chosen for the transparency? I tried looking for a good spriting tutorial to find out, but the few tutorials I found that mentioned characters did not explain this.

Yes, I know it's PNG. The problem is that, no matter what settings I choose I can't seem to create my own Character Graphic with a working transparency. I can load my custom character, but the border is anything but transparent. I tried selecting Tools > Options and setting a custom transparent color to match what I used in the character, but it still won't work.

I believe part of my problem is that, originally, I was saving this image in Corel Photo-Paint 8... and it does not support transparency for the PNG format. (Yes, I know it's insanely obsolete, but it usually gets the job done.)

I decided to try a different image program and so I installed IrfanView. At least this does support saving a transparent color in PNG. But it still wouldn't fix my problem. I tried with and without compression, but this didn't help either.

Then I installed the plug-in pack for IrfanView and tried saving the PNG with the "PNGOUT PlugIn Options." These are the new choices:

Color Type: Auto, Palette, Gray, Gray+Alpha, RGB, RGB+Alpha
Bit Depth: Auto, 1, 2, 4, 8
Use Huffman only? [checkbox]
Preserve palette order? [checkbox]

Filter: Auto, None, Sub (delta x), Up (delta y), Average (delta x&y), Path, Adaptive (mixed)
Block split threshold [slider bar]
Max passes [slider bar]

I understand the Color Type, Bit Depth, and preserving the pallet order, but the rest reads like greek to me.

I've been saving the character with a 256 colors. I've tried with both my custom palette and the same palette as a default character. Same problem either way. I assume that RMXP only supports an 8-bit pallet for characters, correct? Does this palette have to be the same for every character?

 

[Deltree]

Sprites can be 32-bit (with alpha) color depth, and don't rely on a global palette.  When you import the sprite file, it will ask you to pick transparent and transluscent colors if it's necessary.  Otherwise, it will use alpha settings.  I believe it only asks you to pick the color if it detects an opaque background, so make a copy of your sprite file and fill the background with pink or some other color not present on your character, and then try to miport it and see if it will let you pick the color to exclude.

I think the transparent color under the Tools-Options menu is just a cosmetic choice in the editor.

 

[regi]

You need to import it. Just merely saving it in the Graphics/Characters folder won't set transparency. Press the button at the top near the Sound Test to import.

Another option is to just select the background and delete it (assuming you have something better than MS Paint) and remember to save it as .png to keep the transparency.