Fading a screen from either side?

Hi, is there a way to fade the screen from the sides, like a left-to-right fadeout? So far the only fadeout I've been able to manage is a whole-screen fadeout by a brightness change.

You can fake it with a picture. Create a picture 600 x 416. The image should be almost completely black, but put a gradient on either the left or right side of the image that goes from black to transparent. This gradient should be no wider than 50 pixels, for instance, from horizontal pixel 550 to 600. This will require at least a little bit of graphics knowledge with GIMP or Photoshop. If you don't have that experience, finding someone to make this for you should be trivial around here.

In RPGMaker, for a  wipe from left to right, use Show Picture with coordinates of -600, 0. Then, immediately use Move Picture to coordinates of 0, 0. The amount of frames you specify will determine the duration of the wipe. For a right to left wipe, use starting coordinates of 544, 0 and ending coordinates of -50, 0. It is possible to make the gradient portion of the image longer, but the image would then need to be larger and all of these coordinates would have to be re-calculated.

The coordinates are designed to move the gradient part of the wipe outside of the visible window. It's probably hard to describe how this works without actually showing it, but this is an extremely simple solution that won't require any complex scripting to implement.

EDIT: Probably worth noting - you really don't need any of the gradient stuff, if you're just looking for a hard wipe. You could just make a solid black image 544 x 416 and move it from -544, 0 to 0, 0. That's even easier, but in my opinion, doesn't look quite as classy.

Thanks for the advice!

I'm also thinking of making a fully black .png file and import it as animation frame data, and then make the fadeout animation by moving the black frame from one side of the screen to the other and slowly increasing the frames' opacity. It should achieve the same effect as the method you mentioned above. I'll try both and see which one I prefer! :)

I was curious so I made these pictures to use to fade the screen in from either the right or the left.

Those images are pretty much spot on! The width of the gradient can be made wider if need be, as long as the size of the solid black portion is at least 544 pixels wide (the width of the screen).

I was thinking about this some more. If you're wiping into a transfer, there might be some added complexity, especially if you want the wipe to continue in the same direction. You'd actually have to use both of those images. I'm not at a computer with RPGMaker, but here's the general workflow for a wipe-out, wipe-in, left to right.

Show Picture 1, Gradient_on_Right.png

Move Picture 1, Gradient_on_Right.png, Move Picture from -600, 0 to 0, 0 (pan right)

Fade Out - # This is to make the screen black in engine, instead of our "fake" black

Wait 60 # Allows the Fade Out to complete. This value might be different, as I do not know the exact time length of an engine fade

Erase Picture 1 # Remove our "fake" black

Transfer to New Map

Show Picture 2 at -50, 0 Gradient_on_Left.png

Fade In - # This is to remove the in-engine black and instead display our "fake" black

Wait 60 # Allows the Fade In to complete. This value might be different, as I do not know the exact time length of an engine fade

Move Picture 2, Gradient_on_Left.png, from -50, 0 to 544, 0 (pan right)

Erase Picture 2 # The picture is completely off screen, we don't need it any more.

The Fade Out and Fade In are not absolutely necessary, but they allow us to get the screen back to real black so we can shuffle around the maps and wipe images without the player ever knowing. Half of being an effective RPGMaker mapper and eventer is learning how to do things seamlessly behind the scenes. :)

Hmm, I think the Fade In and Fade Out values can be figured out through trial and error! Thanks Deb for the images, too!