Galv's Animations/Diagonal Movement/Character Frames?

Thank you for clarifying that @caethyril :)

I don't understand why the DLC is missing something like a nude main template to put things all together with. It seems like things are simple to put together but there isn't a template for the example provided for all of the accessories, nude paper dolls, things like that. So I feel like I have to spend days trying to put everything in an order when it could have been a little more simple just by having a file in the eight frame template. Everything is setup in a three template. Unless I am missing something, it just seems like its too much work to have to go through all of the graphics and try and build this eight frame template for all of the accessories, clothing, figures. Why was this left out? Was it initially meant to run on three frames?

@Bricrue - that explanation was already posted earlier - these resources predate any single plugin and are not exclusive to this engine. These resources (and their format) are something that been around for years now, the plugins came later and the creator of those plugins made certain design decisions that meant that extra work would have to be done in order to use graphical resources with them. So it wasn't that the large spritesheet base template was "left out", it was that it simply didn't exist when these were first made (and having them all broken up into separate sheets for different animations was how previous scripts back on VX/Ace typically worked), and after it did exist it was too late to change template in the middle of a series.

At the moment, a new software is being developed that will allow users, such as yourself, to far-more-easily create characters and their associated sprite sheets. You will even be able to customize what frames of animation you want to export, in which order, etc, not to mention the ability to customize each layer's color/saturation/opacity etc.



Forgive the messiness of the GUI at the moment, it will be neatened up once closer to finish, which hopefully shouldn't be too long in the future.

That would well be appreciated as right now it feels like I am spending all the time trying to work these Sprite sheets and no time working on making an adventure. I hate asking this question but is there an idea when in the not too long future will this be released? I can just work on maps for now and worry about the other stuff later on.

Is there a grid template for these figures that people use or can someone make a gid so that it would be easier to know where to put the graphics spites in?

Or what I am trying to figure out is based on your example, what are the grid dimensions so I can figure out where to put the sprites.

Otherwise I am left trying to paste things over the top of your example to try and figure out how things are all setup. Would just be easier to have some squares to paste the sprites in the middle of them to build something similar to the example you posted.

Hopefully I am making sense.

The quick and easy way to get the dimensions of a sprite inside of an animation sheet (any sprite in any animation sheet, not just mine) is to take the total pixel width of the sheet and divide it by the number of frames of animation. Do the same thing for the height, take the pixel height and divide by the number of rows in the sheet. For example, if the sprite sheet is 1024x768 pixels, and has 4 rows of 3 frames of animation each, so we take 1024 / 4 and 768 / 3 to get the dimension of each animation frame, which would be 256x256 pixels.

The TL;DR version, my resources typically are 128x128 pixels for most humans and such. Certain monsters, animals, etc, might have different sizes, though, so when in doubt, use the above method :)

Are you familiar with GIMP? It allows you to set up a grid and has a snap-to-grid function which makes moving stuff around super easy!

Sorry I am just a slow learner when it comes to graphic stuff. I'm taking your example image and just trying to figure out how to setup a grid on it that fits. However I am not sure how to do it, but I'm sure I will get there soon. Just not sure what the setup in that example is. I tried creating an image of my own but the graphics ended up screwed up as always. So I keep having to go back to your example and trying to figure out how you came up with the setup for all of that. Otherwise as I said I end up having to copy and paste over the images. So I'm trying to figure out the grid but I'm just not sure how to do that. Please take your example you gave me, it already has an image size of width 4000 by height of 1000.

And sorry I am such a slow beginner. This is my first time even messing around with Gimp or any graphical program.

Example is I set the grid config on your example to 128 by 128 but the sprites fall out of the squares.

May have figured it out. Not sure why the image ended up 4000 x 1000 when I recopied the example and it now shows up as 4096 X 1024.... Not even sure how I got the 4000 X 1000.

Update: I got it. Going to be a lot of work so hopefully it won't be a year or two till you get that program sent out. Hopefully you'll add a lot more equipment to the characters.

I am not sure why the image dropped in size, but I am glad you figured out the size discrepancy and fixed it!

The software won't take that long :) It is quite far along and you'll be one of the first to know when it is finished!

Thanks man.. However may need a little more help. I can get the humans done just fine now using your example, but when I go to configure something larger now like the Ettin, of course the sprites are much larger and configuring the grid to 128 X 128 isn't correct. Do you have a larger figure example I can mooch off to get these other creatures done?

Off the top of my head I don't recall what those sheets are in size, but the method I mentioned before will get you the exact dimensions you're looking for.

Take the total width in pixels and divide by number of animations. Take the total height in pixels, and divide by the number of rows. Those are the exact dimensions of each frame of animation :)

Looking at the template you gave with the humans though, there is a large space at the end of the animation sheet after the running sprites. I don't know if there are some animations that are supposed to go in those squares, but thats what is throwing me off. You said to count the number of animations and base it off that, but if I were to crop the animation sheet off where the running animations end and then try and use that it doesn't work. It needs those blank squares at the end of the animations.

So with that, do I assume with the monsters that they also have to have that many squares to base how to make a new image with..... If that makes sense what I said. Sorry if it didn't because as I mentioned before, I'm just barely learning how to use Gimp and so far its all overwhelming.

So take the dragon Idle animation as an example.

Dragon Width 1536
Dragon Height 2048

Okay.... Never mind. Not sure where I got 512 from but if I use that number I've come up with a template.. Now I just have to figure out how I came up with that number.

Idle animations are 3 Across Three down

Configure grid I'm guessing is 512 x 512

So based on that, how do I get the animation sheet built if there are supposed to be 32 animations across and 8 animations down?

Ah, so the extra space at the far right side of the human sheet needs to be there. In Galv's scripts, he has that space alotted for jumping animations I think. Since there were no jumping animations in my resources, I just left it blank in my template. I do believe it is 8 frames of animation though. If you crop the sheet, it won't work because the plugin is still thinks that that last chunk of space on the sheet is reserved for jumping, so everything else gets skewed. Just keep that blank space in there!

For monsters, if you are setting sheets up the same way, then yes, include an appropriate amount of blank space on the far right equal to 8 frames of animation.

If making a new big sprite sheet for monsters in the same configuration as the humans, you will want the sheet to be 32 frames across and 8 frames high (which you already correctly surmised :) ) - If the dragon's animation frame is 512x512, then the sprite sheet's total size will be 512*32 by 512*8 (a very large sheet, but doable). You would put the walking and running animations in like normal, it sounds like you got those down easy enough. The idle animation takes a little extra work. The way the plugin reads idle animations is that it reads it from the left frame to the right frame and then loops back around to the beginning. So since we only have 3 frames of animation, we have to repeat them in sequence. You can basically just take the 3 existing frames of animation and put them in the first 3 slots, then repeat that step for the next 3 slots, then just place the first two frames only into the last two slots that so that the animation sequence looks like 1 2 3 2 1 2 3 2. And, of course, leave the last 8 frames of animation on the sheet blank for the non-existent jump animation :)

Hey! So I see people are still struggling with the whole Diagonal Movement thing using PVGames DLC and decided to try to be a massive help. I put together everything said in this thread that wasn't guesswork, tested the steps using GIMP, and detailed every step in the process down to what menu item to click, what drop-down title to select, what button you push next, the GIMP commands for setting up the grid, how far to drag the running, or walking, or idle animations to get the sprite sheet right, proper edit of the plugin to align with the status quo arrangement of the PVGames template provided, the %(8) file naming requirement, and the rest, all of it in order and down to specific step-by-step language. I hope this "Guide" can be a one-stop shop for FAQs on this topic moving forward to put this baby to rest. :hhappy:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lYFLIZ-lZpS5kRmSCqVptr6oA4IfSEAoGXk3YE8zkOM/edit?usp=sharing

@mathmaster74 - This is a beautiful guide! Thank you so much for putting it together! Would you mind terribly if I stole and added on to it? I could add some images and examples and such.

@Bricrue I caught this thread and read through your posts. Glad to see you got this. :smile: I own a few of the DLCs for this set. While the Golden Week Special Sale is going on (through 5/8) it's a great time to pick up more! I saw you want more equipment for the characters. If you don't already have it, the Medieval: Warfare pack added nicely to my set and it's $4 during the sale! :wink:

I'm there an think I finally got it. Sorry I have not read any other post yet but I will and edit my message if I see something to add.

So yes, I have it all down, it does require some work getting it all setup but even for this complete NOOB that have never used a paint program before, I was finally able to get it all figured out. Thank GOD!

So I decided to buy the rest of the Medieval DLC.. I was reluctant because I am still struggling with the whole Parallax mapping which is my next step to figuring out how to get my RPG maker looking like he Medieval graphics. I decided to finally work on my character so I went through each DLC and saw how many different styles of clothing, weapons and armor there are to choose from. I can't thank the maker enough because everything that would be used to make my character is all there. There is a lot to go through though and if the maker is working on a program that will create a sprite with all these choices you can be sure I'll be right there grabbing that new addition.

Just wanted to give my final update on this since I know I struggled, got frustrated and gave up many times. But thank you all for being patient and not rude toward my slow learning process.

Now I will probably make a new thread this on how the stink to get this parallax mapping to work so any patient people out there who are willing to help a complete Noob the help would be greatly appreciated.

Again thank you Medieval RPG maker for this DLC. My only suggestion and request is to maybe try and come up with some different looking avatars as they all look too similar, and if possible, any chance you can add another child that is bald... I'm wanting my character to start out as a child and eventually become an adult.. Child 3 is okay and works for now but again if there is any chance to add more children I would be all over that as well.

Oh! A scar across my characters chest is the only thing missing that I can see.

Thank you.

@Bricrue - I am glad you are getting the hang of it! For being so new to the RPG Maker software, using these resources probably feels like jumping into the deep end, no doubt! But this is how we learn, and now you've picked up some skills you didn't have before :)

As for parallax mapping, I recommend... wait for it... Galv's Layer Plugin (found in the same spot as the plugins for the animations). It's only one plugin and not 3 or 4, so that's a mercy :)

It will be difficult figuring out how to set up the maps at first but will become MUCH easier once you get the first one up and running. I'd be more than happy to help you with it when you get to it, and would be happy to share some mapping tips and tricks.

Just thought of something and not sure if its even important. When normally creating a character in RPG maker MV, you create a Jason file with sprites tied to your character. Not sure if this is required, I have not tested anything that far. But if you do need to save your whole character as a jason file containing the battle sprites, damaged sprites ect... How do you do this? You can't edit the jason file can you? And when you try and import the other graphics in you are stuck with one square being an old RPG face which I can't get rid of. I'm thinking it might be important to have that Jason file as doesn't it tie in with your character and loading those sprites if you die, or go into combat ect?

The JSON file is just how the software reads the data configured for the character. You can't/shouldn't directly try to alter it or mess with it. It is just a data structure storing the information that you input through the editor.

Then I am guessing when you are defeated the sprites are tied to the combat sheet? Is there anyway you can send me an example of that sheet as I didn't even think about that nor know how to arrange the sprites in the right order for that sheet. sure I can do the setup with the graph and place the figures in the right squares, but I need to know the order to which to do that with combat. I hate to make a post for that if its something you can help me with.

UPDATE:
For some reason all of my NPC's are no longer animating when walking. I didn't make any changes to the game. They all just slide across the screen now rather then walking. I didn't change the plugins, the only thing I did was add more sprite characters.

Has anyone had this issue happen to them?