Character Creator 2D

Character creation and customization tool · By mochakingup

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I GOT IT - Feature Request

A topic by Kombowz created Apr 22, 2020 Views: 580 Replies: 14

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Kombowz4 years ago

I'm the parent of some great kids, I must have done something right.

My kids purchased CC2D for me! Very excited about this tool!

After our discussion in the other thread, I came up with a solution:

RECAP - Getting body parts to work in other tools like spriter:

1. On EXPORT you select single image which is already there

2. Add a checkbox that makes all character parts individual images

This way, you get the benefit of your program for colorizing and making everything look great.

Which also allows us to use the epic sprite parts in something for animation that would integrate into our game engines (like spriter, spine, creature, moho, anime studio etc etc etc).

Thank you for your time,

Kombowz

mochakingupDeveloper4 years ago

I am glad to hear that!

You bring a good point on the other thread, and I can see how this could be useful to be used on other tools like Spriter. Exporting individual parts, while seems like simple enough, it is easier said done. We have to change a lot of things to get it working that way.

But I was thinking overnight, and I might have an idea on how to do this (well, more of a compromise, really). What if, we add a new animation / pose with all the body parts blown up / separated? something like this (just a preview, of course) :

Then you can export them to PNG!

The only downside is, depending on your tools, you might have to slice them up per parts manually using image editing software. What do you think?

Kombowz4 years ago (4 edits)

OMG YES!

Most animation and game dev software for 2D has something that can handle this kind of thing. It is definitely more of a hassle, but if we could get this until MAYBE you're able to do individual part images? I would still love you, LOL.

individual images just makes it easier, but right now I will settle for the possible =)

You get individual images export working, and I will buy every asset you have available now and in the future, LOL

If you can somehow space them out evenly like a 256x256 (per part) virtual grid or something, there's also easy spritesheet cutters that can take the pain of separating them manually also, then we can just use: https://isometric8.itch.io/sprite-sheet-slicer =)

mochakingupDeveloper4 years ago

It's pretty unlikely that we will ever do individual parts export. As I explained before, it requires significant changes, and these changes will require changes in other places too. Besides, that is not the actual purpose and intended use for this tool.

To cut the pictures, it occurred to me that you can use the export png configuration to do this. You can set it to your desired resolution, then position the separated pictures above so that only certain parts are visible in the final output. Once you are happy with it, you can save the configuration as preset, say, something like 'upper leg left'. Do this for each body parts and limbs. Then when you need to export another character, you can simply load your saved preset.

Kombowz4 years ago (2 edits)

Hi Mochakingup,

Fair enough,

If you can make the image atlas like you showed us above possible, it will still make something possible that isn't possible right now. I would be more than happy about that. As for the PNG export, I was thinking about this last night when I was trying to sleep too LOL.

Based on how awesome the art is (it's basically how I would draw my characters if I could, honestly), the ease of use of the tool and your amazing on the ball supportive attitude with even looking into things / fixes. I've decided that later today I will be buying all of the art packs. Not because I will need them all, but because It seams you care about the people trying to use your product.

Thank you so much for making this great tool and hearing the users. You are awesome!

Thought of another way, I remember reading how to make your own animations (can't remember where I saw the instructions). But if I (or you) made an animation that moves each individual part/weapon etc into a frame at a time, I can just export an animation sequence and that would be all that is needed to do this easily. Totally pain free!

Side note, if I make an animation in the unity version can I make it into a pack to use with my stand alone version?

Kombowz

mochakingupDeveloper4 years ago

Hi Kombowz,

You don't have to do that, but thanks for the support!

Yeah, creating your own animations is possible, but once again, only in Unity version, unfortunately.

You won't be able to export the animation back into the standalone version. But if you are already using Unity, there is no reason to use the Standalone version. As it is exactly the same tool, only run within Unity, and with few extra features. You can still export to PNG even using the Unity version.

Kombowz4 years ago

I'm fully invested in you and this software. I don't think I would ever use some of these, but I want to support you, and I even threw some money at you for the "FREE" glasses (It's nice to have it sitting in my library) =):

I'm using the unity version as my main tool now so I have the ability to make parts. If it possible to export the custom parts and characters to the stand alone version?

So now that I'm broke AF, I'm hoping that you'll be able to split the characters up into parts as we've been talking about. The animation way I mentioned at the bottom of my last post would be easiest and ideal LOL.

mochakingupDeveloper4 years ago

It is possible to export parts to standalone, but it involves some amount of coding. But again, if you are already using the Unity version, I'd think there is no reason to use the standalone version at all.

I might add a brief guide to the manual, regarding adding or editing animations. Since there has been a lot of people that asked about it.

As for our focus right now, we are currently in the middle of experimenting with something, that I'd think will benefit the tools and open up new possibilities for the tools in the future. The separated parts will most likely come along with that, so it might be a while. And to clarify again, it won't be for each part, but as a separated character as I shown in the preview image on my previous post.

Kombowz4 years ago

That's awesome, thank you so much for listening to my reasoning. I hope this will make your program even more successful.

Like I said, as long as every part can be separated based on what you have on the character like weapons and such is separated somehow, even on a texture atlas as you described is good enough for me. It makes it possible to do more things with the art which is a + for everyone.

Looking forward to seeing what you are working on... =)

WHITEFRANK4 years ago

I am a user of the standalone version and it is exactly what I need.

Other than adding more packs at reasonable prices it's perfect for me as is.

If you want to release some sort of limited API or something so we can add our own textures or costumes etc. that would be wonderful but if not - I am still so grateful to you for breaking the monopoly of those god awful lazy chibi characters :)\

Kombowz4 years ago (1 edit)

You can add your own parts and equipment etc in the unity version. The unity version works with the free unity download. I would suggest using that as it has more available to you that allows you to add things to it. The truth is, this was built in unity for unity. At first, I wanted to use the stand alone version as well but since it's built in unity for unity there's more power and incentive to use the unity version.

P.S. I'm with you on the Chibi Chars... *BARF* LOL

WHITEFRANK4 years ago

lol ikr

and they took over the whole 2D scene, still don't know why.

OK, so if I bite the bullet and install Unity, can I basically just "run" Unity purely to use the Character Creator 2D program? Then go back and export to PNG series for my animations? That's the magic bullet for me :)

Kombowz4 years ago (1 edit)

Hi Time Traveller,

Easy to get working in unity
1. Download unity
2. Install Unity
3. Download CC2D.unitypackage from your library
4. Double click the package and unity will open it.
5. In Unity go to Window>Character Creator 2D>Create character

If you close the window by accident etc, just right click the play button in the top middle and it will close the run state of it and you can start it through the window menu again.

Hope this helps,

Kombowz

mochakingupDeveloper4 years ago

Hey everyone,

So I think this tool will be useful for cutting up images from an atlas automatically, it also has a lot of sprite-related functionality:

http://renderhjs.net/shoebox/

I don't know why I didn't remember this before. I used this tool a lot before I started using Unity.

I've just tested it, and it still works perfectly!

Kombowz4 years ago

I found something called alfred spritesheet cutter, but this tool looks great. I will give it a try once we have spritesheet export.

Thank you for sharing.