Custom Sprites import

[drerius]

Hello all,

I am having trouble using custom sprites, I find them online available for use from other users since I am not able to edit them myself (I have Photoshop but I am not familiar with pixel art) Once I save them as a .png file I import them and when I go to use one for my Hero I click on it and a section of one part of the sprite is selected such as his leg or a piece of him as if the sprite sheet has been separated into about 20 pieces.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for your help!

Drerius.

 

[dadevvtsvre]

You're using VX, correct? VX uses character sheets, meaning they come in sets of eight. If you're just importing one set, simply put $ at the beginning of the file name. (ex. "$character_set")

 

[drerius]

Yes, I am using VX. I am going to try putting $ before the file name before importing but I have encountered a problem with a different character set. I downloaded or saved don't remember a character sheet from online as a .JPG file, and now I go to open it in Photoshop to change it to a .PNG file and I get this error message:

"Cannot complete your request because an unknown or invalid JPEG marker is found"

What does this mean?  :huh:

 

[dadevvtsvre]

That sounds like an actual problem with the image file itself. I'm actually not sure about that one. Try searching the error on Google.

 

[drerius]

:dead:Alright, Thank you.  :lol:

 

[Mikee]

Try downloading/saving the image again.  Sometimes files can get out of order while being downloaded, leading to corrupt files.  This happened to me once during a World of Warcraft six hour patch download....  I was sooooo angry.....

I didn't know about the $ trick until right now.  I would have told you to just multiply the width of your character sheet by four and leaving the rest of the canvas blank, and the height the same but by two.... if that makes sense XD.  But the other way seems MUCH easier. lol.  Good luck.

 

[drerius]

THANKS! I'm using Safari for Vista to save the picture.. it doesn't give me the option of saving it as a png or anything.(automatically a .jpg).... how do I go about doing this?

Remember: I got this message when opening it in Photoshop...

"Cannot complete your request because an unknown or invalid JPEG marker is found"..

hmm...

 

[Mikee]

Okay, there are several ways of going about this.  The simplest one would be to just imply try to save the jpg again and see what happens when opening it.  Next would be trying a new web browser... a hassle, I know.  And another would be using a different image editing program to save the file in another format.  Try opening it in mspaint or something like that just to save it in a different format.  I can't remember what's available to you using mspaint, but I don't think it saves in jpg's, so you should be safe as long as you can get it opened.  If this doesn't work, let me know.  I'd ask for the link to the image you need, and I'd see if it was just a corrupt file, but I think that the mods would block it...  meh...

 

[drerius]

IT WORKS! Thanks! XD I resaved them using Explorer 7.0.. I hate using it but I had it lol.

I have a few more questions if you are okay with that.

I am having a hard time understanding how to make it seem as though it's night time in my town. Something with dimming the screen.. just can't figure it out..

There was something else too.. but I can't recall it haha! Thanks

 

[Mikee]

Alright.  In the demo I made you for your cutscenes, I used the "Tint Screen" event command.  It's the third from the bottom in the second tab under the "Screen Effects" section.  You can change the screen however you want.  I like to add a little grey into my games, making the color a bit different.  Then you can emphasize certain things by enhancing the color for a moment back to normal. 

For a good night effect, I'd just drag all the sliders down a bit.  This all depends on what kind of theme you want your game to have, however.  I've seen people who add a purplish/bluish tint to their night screen tones.  Just play around with "Tint Screen" til you find something that fits.  Pay attention to the timing too.  You can set it to transition instantly by setting your time to 0 frames, or you can let it fade out by setting the time higher.  This can get a bit tricky if you're walking in and out of houses.

Oh!  To make the screen change, put the Tint Screen in a new event on the map with a parallel process trigger.  (bottom left of the event screen)  That way the screen will change as soon as the player enters the map.

EDIT:  Oh yeah!  I forgot.  I once made a game that had quite a few events that happened during the day, then one big event at night.  But instead of setting up a switch to hide all of the events/npcs that I didn't want wandering the town at night, I just copied and pasted my town map, deleted the npc's in the second one, then set the screen tone for it.  Then where I transferred onto that map from the previous one, I just made one switch that sent you to the night map, if the night switch was triggered.  And vice versa for the day time map.  Just an idea.

 

[drerius]

wow, thanks, I will try that! You're very good at explaining how to do things.

now.. how do I make my characters to show up and be visible and ready for the cutscene after a certain thing happens? (Variables I know) just haven't gotten a chance to mess with them. (e.g. come into town at night and walk across the bridge no one's there, until I go into the inn and come out later that night THEN they're there fighting.)

thanks.

 

[drerius]

lol... can't find a decent tint level haha! It either looks like it's black and white or too dark to see...

do you, by any chance, have a recommended settings level for this to make it look authentically night time?

 

[Mikee]

The map in your demo, is that the one that's supposed to look dark?