Messages

Why reduce the color?!
I think it looks awesome!

Yes, the character (in shape , composition and shadows) looks nice, but it gots a smooth effect caused by the use of to many colors (probably by using brush or effects tools). Is easy to reduce them to 24-32 colors and the smooth effect will dissapear.

There is not a rule that you can use this type of characters on games but if you see for example, Enterbrain RTP, you can see that they use pixel art characters (made pixel by pixel, no effects tools, and using a small palette of colors) and this one is not a pixel art character.

The character is great but the use of to many colors, in my opinion, drops quality.

BTW, I forgot one: I can't switch back to english after clicking the spanish button...

Yes, other tester send me that error, Its solved now

The sprite looks weirs because it use 256 colors. Is better to reduce the palette to less than 24 colors for this small sprites (you can use photoshop to reduce colors). Despite the colors, I like them (may use more contrast on the blood).

This is a bit of a personal preference, but I like it when the I can filter certain file types, even among the supported types. I also like to always have an "All Documents" filter. Although the user obviously cannot open any document without an error, it is noce in some situations when you want to check what other files are in the directory, etc.

"Image Formats|*.png;*.jpg;*.bmp;*.gif|PNG|*.png|Bitmap|*.bmp|JPEG|*.jpg|GIF|*.gif

I added |All Documents|*.* to my saveFileDialog.Filter. I agree with you, some times you want to see all the files on a directory. Thanks for the idea.

Another thing, the Save Output is bugged. First of all, you shouldn't force the user to enter in a filename when they can enter it in the Save File Dialog. Thats just a tad bit redundant. Also, even if I click the Cancel button in the dialog, it still saves.

Solved, ty.

You need to allow more than just a .gif formats for Upload.

OpenFileDialog.Filter = "Image Formats (*.png; *.jpg; *.bmp; *.gif)|*.png;*.bmp;*.jpg;*.gif

I'm having problems with the output PNG file if I use any image with more than 256 colors, for that reason I only accept GIFs uploads at the moment.

Also, some of the graphics are screwed up and don't align right. And a suggestion, you can load files from folders for the graphics.

List<Image> heads = new List<Image>();
string[] extensions = new string[] { ".png", ".jpg", ".bmp", ".gif" };
foreach (string file in Directory.GetFiles("Images\\Heads"))
{
    if (extensions.Contains(Path.GetExtension(file)))
        heads.Add(Image.FromFile(file));
}

And so on and so fourth. Taking this route will make it so people can easily add their own graphics and you don't have to have an online database to keep track of graphics. Just a thought.

Is a good idea, I put on my list (may I´ll combine the two options, program own resources and loads from folders).

Thanks for taking your time testing the program.

Thanks to ShadowPierce and Game_Guy, need 1 more and we can start testing.

Come on guys, 2 more to test Actorsprite Maker (no need to be a programmer).

Actorsprite Maker is close to have a public version and I'm looking for a few people that want to test the current version and help me to improve it and correct bugs (the program have a tool to send feedback). I´m a noob programmer and this is the first tool that I'm going to share, so the testing part is new to me, and I want to take my time and also learn on the process.

If you are interested  please reply on this topic and I will send you the current version so you can test it (I hope I can get at least 5 people).

Testers:

- game_guy, ShadowPierce (from Chaos Project forum)
- Orochii, akyratorr, Dragón x3, saulodeabreu, Paco  (from Mundomaker forum)
- raulxito99
- Protogeo
- Jdlp

Thanks,

(I don't know if this forum is the correct one to looking for this, sorry).

I´m testing now ClickOnce, but propably I´ll try your recomendation.

thanks ForeverZer0.

I´m finishing Actorsprite Maker (on Visual C#) and now I´m thinking on a way to update the program. I have 120 resources ready to launch with the first version (I use imagelist/listview to manage with them inside the program), and I want to update those resource online. ClickOnce looks like what I'm looking for, so I want to ask if any of the programmers here have ever use it or at least now if it's suitable for my objetives.

I installed it, made a few test and it's working fine. A very usefull tool that save a lot of time splitting tilesets using pant.net/photoshop, etc...(is now in muy RPGmaker tool folder).

In this video you can see upload and HUE/Sat/Light features (also the new interface design):

Video inside: ShowHide

http://www.youtube.com/v/Hlie0QbVaeI

I gots some code for hue rotation if you want to include that, or check out ColorMatrix in System.Drawing.Imaging, because it is bad ass.

It will be nice if you share it with me (I have a few ColorMatrix examples but I didn`t analize them yet). Next week I´ll go with this task so your code may save me a lot of time.

Good point game_guy, this is the result on the same screen:

Spoiler: ShowHide

Thanks for the code.

[EDIT 09/03/2012]
A input option for each shape is working now. You can upload your own resources to any Actorsprite Maker shape and combine them with the program resources. (only acept GIF format).

Screenshot of the new interface design:

Spoiler: ShowHide

I´m thinking to add the input feature but you will need to use 256 colors images or the final png will change colors after shapes merge (using a gif solve that problem). Probably you don´t see the input button on the first public version.

Some characters generated:

Last year I learned C# just to make a few custom tools to use in my work. Also I began 2 game projects; one is a XNA space game and the other is a RPGMaker XP character maker (I called Actorsprite Maker). Right now I´m very close to public this sprite tool that I think it could be usefull to rpgmaker XP users. In the next video you can see how it works:

Video inside: ShowHide

http://www.youtube.com/v/Q4_ikRJMZLI

Features:
- 6 shapes to combine (head, body, leg, accesories 1, acc 2 and acc3)
- Save png charactersheet (RPGMaker XP format, 4x4)
- Spritesheet preview, 2x Zoom preview and animated preview with 4 diferents backgrounds
- Moving tool (you can move each shape)
- Reset button
- Accesories 1, 2 and 3 contain the same list of sprites so you can combine mora han one of this list

Basically the program is done and I´m now adding sprites to combine. I hope in a few weeks I can make a public version.

Spoiler: ShowHide

If you are curious and want to see how my XNA space game looks like, see the next video --> http://youtu.be/kE4agbLOjn8

5 of the most important songs in my life:

- Killing in the Name of (RATM): Remember me some epic summer parties
- State of Love and Trust (Pearl Jam): Still my favourite song
- Lemond (U2): My girlfrined knows why I like it...
- La Chispa Adecuada (Heroes del Silencio): My favourite song to play at guitar
- Remember the Tinman (Tracy Chapman): Most listened song on sad moments.

Nice video and great work.

One thing about the light source and the shadows. The head and body light source comes from the right but the legs light source comes from the left. I think if you fix legs shadows to a right light source the global picture will increase in consistency (just a suggerence).