Elements Char Pieces Progress (Patreon)

Hello! Every time I write up one of these, it seems to turn into a massive essay... I'm going to try to keep this one focused on images... though we'll see how well goes........ 🙄

Over the past few weeks since the previous preview post, I've been working on the character asset pieces that will make up the upcoming elements pack.

Today I want to share some of these with you. Check this out:

Here's some of what I've been working on. This image shows what I've come up with for these particular layers: 40 hairstyles, 37 tops, and 20 bottoms.

There are a lot of designs here--if I were to animate all of them, it's certainly too many to get the whole set finished in time. 

I think that we will need to release a core group, maybe with 6-10 of each piece (which would still provide a huge amount of permutations in combination), and then do the others in expansion packs. If I wait to release until I can animate all of these, then I don't think that I'll have them ready before the year is over.

So I thought that I would share these and ask for your opinions: tell me which pieces you want for the first priority release, pick a few pieces that you think would be the most important for a 'base set'. Should we go for a wide variety? The most generic ones for making townsfolk? Should we focus on a theme-- like a set of the archetypal 'hero' pieces? Which character parts do you want to see in the initial release?

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Hair Layers Update:

I've added another layer-- one for the "back hair".

As I've begun to work on putting the pieces together, I've found some major complications with the layering system. One of these involved long hair-- if the hair layer is above the head and body, long hair became a problem.

As a solution, I've added a new layer that will go behind the head and body. This should also give some extra flexibility for designs; now you combine different hairstyles to be long in the back.

I think that other generators have come to similar solutions to this problem.

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Important Note on Color Palettes: 

The above images show some color palettes alongside the pieces. Here's a more detailed look:

One of the major things that I did before designing all of the different parts was to assign a unique color palette to each layer.

Each piece uses individual colors so that sprites can be quickly recolored. There are also some shared colors across all of the pieces-- each piece uses the same black, a ramp of whites, and a shared palette for skin tone.

For some more information about this, I explained the color palette logic in my previous preview post.

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Layer complications:

This is very very complicated. You know that I've already spent a ridiculous amount of time in the planning and organization phase of this project-- and as I was making these pieces, I found myself still going back and forth on some things.

There are a lot of moving parts (literally), and it makes the layering very difficult. For example, any animation that moves the arms in front of or behind the head creates inconsistencies. Some things will even be impossible.

Tbh, I got really really frustrated at some points in this. Eventually I realized that the only way I could move forward is to admit that inevitably, not everything is going to be perfect.

If you are planning on using these pieces in a game engine of your own, note that there will be complexities and edge cases: layers might need to order themselves differently depending on the animation-- I've spent waaaay too much time trying to solve this in an efficient way, and frankly it's unavoidable.

If you're planning on using these pieces to assemble full characters using something like Photoshop, then it will be easier for you to modify and edit individual problems as necessary.

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Full Character Sheets:

When I release the pack, it's not going to be just these pieces. I'm going to make a series of pre-made characters using them as well-- most likely a few sheets of eight characters. Similar to what you're used to from the previous Time Fantasy releases.

These custom sheets would include hero types, but I also want to have a bunch of pre-built normal-looking NPCs, so you don't need to spend time using the pieces to create a bunch of generic people.

These characters would have some custom touches to them to avoid the problems mentioned above (cleaning up layering inconsistencies, etc).

These premade full characters will be designed to be used "out of the box".

The example character below is an example of this.------

Next up-- let's see some finished sheets! First, here's the arrangement of the main export sheet:

(Direct link for the full image)

It's similar to one that I've shown before, though now it includes the new animations that I've added since then.

I have the first sheet of each major layer completed. You can get each one here:

Hair1

Head1

Top1

Bottom1

Shadow

Here's a completed character that I made using them. Note that he's been recolored and some layers cleaned up.

Example Char 1

Example Char 1 - with Shadow

I also put together a version formatted for RPGMaker (this version includes the shadow).

Example Char 1 - RPGMakerMV

The RPGMaker version doesn't include every frame and animation, but I tried to include the most important or useful stuff. I think that the RPGMaker-formatted sheets in the final release will be arranged like this. If you use RPGMaker and have other thoughts, let me know.

Here's something that I put together in RPGMaker to test it out. This shows off some of the new tileset too:

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OK -- of course, this ended up being a long one after all. Well; hopefully you enjoyed this preview. Please share your ideas and feedback with me in this thread.

I'll be back later this week with one more big release to end the month. See you in a few days.

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Thanks!