Character Creator 2D - Editor & runtime character customization

Sure, it is not a big deal really, and comes down to personal preference, In the pic below i am creating an item database, because i am using your items, i need to use the partslot, as you can see by default it is set to Armor, the editor lists the enums in order, so for me as a general rule, i always add the None category to my enums as the first selection, that way until i do something with it, the item is set to no slot, and not defaulted as armor.

 

Thanks for the explanation! That's actually a good reason to add none to enums, but you're also correct that it'll break the existing charData or any characters created beforehand. We'll see if we can do something without breaking previously made characters. In the meantime, may I suggest a workaround? How about adding a bool, say 'Is Equippable', in your item, and default it to false?

 

I have that currently, and it can be worked around, i just have programming OCD

 

Hi everyone, just a little update, made a bit of progress on the cape:

 

Wow! This is fantastic!!! Love it. I had a question for this.. are facial expressions in the pipeline for this asset? Or is that too hard to implement

 

Unfortunately, it's low priority for now, so probably not anytime soon. In the meantime you can work around it if you want to, by equipping different mouth/eyes/eyebrows in runtime.

 

Mochakingup, can you receive emails through your website ? asked a professional question days ago and not and answer

 

Hi, cosperda! thanks for notifying us in the forum!
I just checked, and for whatever reason, email from our website ended up in our spam folder
should be fixed now, and I've replied to your email!

 

Hi, mochakingup, this is an awesome asset, but seems can not display parts only, say item inventory. create a parts/item viewer may help.

 

Love the capes release!

 

Hi,
Really great asset! Very helpful!
I send you my personal wishes for extensions, maybe some are also relevant for others:
1. Would be good, when the talk-animation would directly move the mouth. I have many dialogs and the current talk animations are with much hand movements and no face changes (seams repetitive).
2. Also more emotional face changes would be great. So that you see the Character is happy, sad, angry etc.
3. More modern clothes. Must not be a fashion selection, but that you can use the Characters for Games in the current century (school, office etc.).
4. easier adding of glasses ( I made them on top of the eyebrows).

Can you also explain, how/if you can change the basemodel? I wanted to change the female siluette.
Can you also describe if/how you can change the shadow of the characters. I wanted to make softer shadows with more gradients.

Thanks again for your great asset!

 

Hi everyone!
Sorry for the inactivity, it's been a crazy month for us!

Character Creator 2D v1.2 is now live on the Asset Store!
What's new in this version:
- Capes!
- And we recategorized weapons on the UI so it's easier to choose from. It'll now look like this:



If you haven't already, update your asset and let us know what you think!
Right now there are only several capes available, but hopefully, we can add more in the future.

---

Thanks, @helloroy ! you are correct, there is currently no item/parts viewer. Maybe once we have all the main features done, no promises though.

Thanks! glad that you like it!

Hi @CCM thanks for your feedback!

On 1 & 2 we have thought about it a lot, and currently, it is not possible to do without a major change in the character structure. On top of that, we'd need to add different expressions for each different part (each eye would need its own set of expressions, each mouth, etc). A workaround is to change the character's face on runtime using script.
3. This would fit better as an add-on/different asset I think. As you can see our current set is focused on fantasy theme. However, we have 1 or 2 more features planned before we can start on different themes/adding more variants.
4. Good point, probably face accessories in general? We'll see about it.

To change the base model, you can modify the sprites in 'Character Creator 2D/Sprites/Bodyset'. It is not officially supported though, and most likely will break a lot of things. Changing the silhouette, for example, would require you to change the silhouette for each part as well.

 

Hi,

great tool! But it seems that there is a Problem when Unity creates a lower case Assets Folder. Like it was in my case. (W10 Pro, German, Unity 2018.1). Dont know why my folder was lowercase.

CharacterUtils.cs line 18: if (completePath.Contains(Application.dataPath)) //..jika path contains project path

Thank you.

 

Hi, that's weird.
Has it always been lowercase for you?
Can you try changing "Assets/" to "assets/" in line 180 of CharacterUtils.cs ?

 

I havent touched it, if you mean that.
I renamed it to uppercase because I dont want to touch it everytime I got an update from this asset ^^. (Event it doenst need any because it is already awsome).

I really love this Framework you created. I would ask you what would you suggest me if I would like to redraw the sprite to be able to create smaller Players (In relation to the screen). Just replace all sprites with and adjust animation?

Thank you very much.

 

Hi sorry for the late reply,
For a smaller character, you could just scale the resulting prefabs. Replacing sprites, while it might works, I wouldn't recommend it, because it could interfere and break other stuff.

Thanks! we're working on it!

 

Hi everyone!
A little sneak peak on what we've been working on



Testing on gun and aiming animation!

Right now the aiming is done on a different layer. And a parameter ranging from -1 to 1 will change the direction/angle of the aim. What do you think about this approach?

 

Looks great!! Keep it up! Love this asset!

 

Great, that you continuously extend the asset!

1.) I have a question regarding usage of the generated characters directly in the Unity UI. Is it possible to position the animated characters directly in the UI and have all the advantages of automatic handling of the different screen resolutions?
Please can you explain if and how you can use the generated characters in the Unity UI Canvas?

2.) For animations I will only need "idle" and "talk" and would like to make lip syncronisation equiping different "mouth parts". Can you shortly explain how to add directly in the animation the changing of the mouth positions (open mouth, half open mouth, closed mouth from the existing mouth parts)? I am using "adventure creator" and this seams to be the easiest solution to do lip synchchronisation based on animations.

Thanks for your support!​

 

I like this i think you've done a great job but when i pick a colour it won't let me.


I am using a mac if that matters.
I can use the colour picker.

 

I'm debating buying this pack but without varying emotions I probably won't buy it until then/if you implement it based on what you had said above. It'd be exported as a spritesheet animation and used in a RPG-Visual Novel hybrid. I love that the player would be able to customize their character/race/color. It's not impossible to get someone to draw expressions, though it may not match the current style. Would you be able to export as GIF/other than JSON?

 

Hi @CCM I'll try to answer your questions below:

1) Not directly. Unfortunately, you cannot use standard game objects in Unity UI. You can work around this by setting up a different camera for your character, render it into a RenderTexture (https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/class-RenderTexture.html), and then put the texture into Unity UI by using RawImage component. (https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/script-RawImage.html). I think this is a common way of doing portraits, but there are probably other solutions/workarounds for this.

2) For creating new animations, you'd need to create a character as a prefab first. Then add new animations and animate it through the Unity Animation Window.
For your specific purpose, you want to modify the mouth object, in the hierarchy it's located at "Your Character Prefab/Pos_Hip/Bone_Hip/Pos_Body/Bone_Body/Pos_Neck/Bone_Neck/Pos_Head/Bone_Head/Head/Mouth B & Mouth F". (you need to click on 'Show Child' button in the inspector to show the child objects)
Change those objects' sprite into the sprites you want. The mouth sprites are located at "CharacterCreator2D/Sprites/Base/Mouth".
Please be aware, by animating the mouth sprites, you won't be able to customize the mouth in CharacterCreator2D, as they will be overwritten by the animation.
For further implementation with Adventure Creator, you have to refer to their manual on how to set up the animator/mecanim.

Hi @davidtylr
that definitely looks like a bug, though not really sure if it's Mac specific bug or even CharacterCreator2D bug. Looks more like Unity UI bug. I'll try to replicate the bugs, thanks for reporting this in. In the meantime, could you try upgrading to the latest version of Unity?

Hi @Neeka
Unfortunately, there's no sprite sheet export for the moment.
If you are planning to allow the player to be able to customize their characters, then you have to save it as JSON, so you can customize it at runtime.
Just to clarify further, exporting as JSON won't let you use it in other engines. Character Creator 2D is created and designed to be used within the Unity engine. Exporting as JSON is an alternative to exporting as Prefab, because Unity can't create Prefab in runtime.

However, if you want to export it as sprite sheet, I've come across a free asset that could probably help with that. I haven't personally tried it, though.
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/animation/sprite-sheet-creator-57044

(edit: some typos)

 

Expanded the Aim Layer for bow as well.



Also, just finished writing and updating the documentation for version 1.3. Submitted to the store, we'll let you know when it's live!

 

Hi everyone,
version 1.3 is now live on Unity Asset Store!



What's new on 1.3:

• New parts: Guns
• New animations (aim and shot)
• Added Aim animation layer

Also changed the default background into a darker one, you can still use the old background if you prefer it, of course.

On top of expanding the current base asset, we are also started working on a themed add-on. We are planning to release these add-ons as separate assets once it's done.

And with the addition of guns and rifles, we should be able to start working on the sci-fi theme. Really excited about that one!

Let us know what you think!

 

Created a simple web demo on itch

Character Creator 2D Web Demo

 

Hello,

Happy to see the updates for this asset that I really love.
Add a web demo is certainly a good idea.


Two remarks for the actual version :

1_ Too bad that there is not more facial little animations (eyes) to have something more alive (everybody here seems to be agree with this). I'm sure it could give something more appealing

2_ It could be great to have more section in the foot of the characters ...
I had bought another asset for more simple characters with full of animations called "2D Anim Heroes", and they have the feet section for something more realistic for the walk



So, you plan to create a SciFi Thema = I'm in
Any idea for the release date ?
The price ? (no to high please)
SciFi only or Cyberpunk too ?

 

With "Aim Main Hand" new feature, I think that you could put all the arm a little further back (pivot) for something more natural.

 

Hi @Ateam_Studios thanks for your continuous support!

1. yeah, I hear you guys. I won't make any promises, but I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do this without having to compromise other features that are already in place. I have some ideas but it would require further testing and experiments. A simple blinking animation though, I think would be easy.

2. fair enough, the reasoning behind this is, we've tried to strike a balance between the number of sprites required for animations and how easy it is to customize/add your own parts. and that's why we decided to go with our current route.

Can't give release date yet, we are still working on another theme right now, once that done we'll start with the sci-fi one.
Price range probably around 7-10 USD. What do you think?

Can you elaborate more on this?

 

here's a little sneak peek on the upcoming themed add-on that we are currently working on

 

Hi everyone,
Our first themed add-on is now live in the asset store!


Oriental Pack for CC2D

Also updated the web demo to include the pack as well.

 

Hello,

I recently purchased this for use in conjunction with Corgi-Engine and I've run into a bit of a snag. How can I generate a character with multiple painted (custom colored) weapons, then switch the weapons at runtime? I understand I can use the API to equip parts, but how do I custom color several weapons as "parts" then equip them? When I save my prefab only one weapon is saved along with it. Furthermore, Corgi-Engine defines weapons with a script dropped onto a game object for that weapon then that weapon has parameters for hand position, etc. Is there any way I can design a character, customize several outfits and weapons, then use corgi's wonderful weapon management system to equip and use them? I'd hate to circumvent Corgi's awesome 2D asset and write my own weapon switching code. Any suggestions? The Character Creator 2D asset is BY FAR producing the best results for my art and animation needs, but I would like to be able to use the output with other 2D assets like Corgi easily. Any suggestions?

-D

 

Hi @Awesumo
Thanks for using Character Creator 2D!

You can set the colors of any parts during runtime using the 'SetPartColor' function inside the CharacterViewer class.

You can also make a prefab with custom color, but this can't be done through the Creator UI. For example, you can make a new script and then attach it to your object, and add the colors through the inspector. like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2.  
3. public class MyWeapon : MonoBehaviour {
4.  
5.     public CharacterCreator2D.Weapon weaponPart;
6.     public Color color1 = Color.white;
7.     public Color color2 = Color.white;
8.     public Color color3 = Color.white;
9.  
10. }
11.  

(you can pass weapon part directly or you can use string and input the weapon name)
Then pass that object's parameters to the 'EquipPart' and 'SetPartColor' function.

As for equipping the part, you have to do it through the CharacterViewer. You can either extend the Corgi's weapon switching function, or you can call the function somewhere else on your script when you switch weapon.

just a quick example on equipping the part:

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using CharacterCreator2D;
3.  
4. public class MyWeaponEquip : MonoBehaviour {
5.  
6.     public CharacterViewer character;
7.     public MyWeapon weapon;
8.  
9.     void EquipWeaponMain() {
10.         character.EquipPart(SlotCategory.MainHand, weapon.weaponPart);
11.         character.SetPartColor(SlotCategory.MainHand, ColorCode.Color1, weapon.color1);
12.         character.SetPartColor(SlotCategory.MainHand, ColorCode.Color2, weapon.color2);
13.         character.SetPartColor(SlotCategory.MainHand, ColorCode.Color3, weapon.color3);
14.     }
15. }

I'm not familiar enough with how Corgi's weapon works, so maybe there are another and better way/workarounds for this.

 

Version 1.32 is live on the Asset Store !

What's new:
- new muzzle flash animations
- new melee attack animations
(some animation names are changed. for example 'Attack One Handed' is now 'Attack Main Hand', etc)
you can preview the new animations in the web demo

Bugfix:
- Some shaders not rendering correctly on RenderTexture

 

Thank you, I will give your suggestions a try.

 

Just purchased both the Character Creator 2D and Oriental Pack. I fully admit I have only played with it for about 10 minutes, and have not fully tested everything out, but so far I love it. My only gripe is that it appears as if it is not possible to do things like Wizard Robes, Dresses, or Trench coats... am I missing something? If not is there a way to request this ability?

 

Hi, thanks for using our asset!

you are correct. currently, there is no way to do that. Can't promise anything right now, but it's something that we might look into.

 

Hello ...

About :
With "Aim Main Hand" new feature, I think that you could put all the arm a little further back (pivot) for something more natural.

I just want to say about the position of the arm when player aim with gun
But, perhaps this pivot is good enough for the other position so ...

 

Hello, I've just purchased and tried it a bit. It looks great! I think I can use it as the character system in my game. Does it support NGUI?

 

ahh, yeah the pivot of the arms is there to make sure it's good enough with the other animations. You can always modify the animations to your liking though!

Hi! Thanks for the purchase!
I'm not that familiar with NGUI but I think it should be compatible. Although, the included Character Creation UI is built using the Unity UI.

 

Hi,
any new plans regarding supporting emotions and talking animations? This would massively increase the possible usage in adventures and narratives in storymode. I believe this would also highlight increase customers / market size for the asset.

 

Hello,

Is it possible to export the character in png format ?
For my project (not in Unity) I need the png sprites,

Regards,

 

Hi, everyone!
First of all, happy new year!
sorry for the slow activity and update, it's been a crazy month for us.

Unfortunately, this is not possible at the moment.

since this came up frequently here in the forum, I've decided to make a quick workaround for this. please read below.

---

Expression/Emotions Workaround (Temporary)

As I said, since this seems like the most requested feature in the forum, I've decided to create a quick workaround for this. Please be aware that this is just a workaround and not a final solution. It doesn't work out of the box and it requires you to do some manual setup.

1. Download the attached CharacterFaceEmote.cs script and import it into your project
2. Add the component to your character prefab.
3. Setup time:
   
   add emotions as needed.
4. Name your emotion, used when calling the function.
5. Drag any parts that you want to be associated for that emotion. You can find all the parts in "Assets/CharacterCreator2D/Parts/"
   (make sure you drag the correct part into correct slot, example: Eyes part to eyes slot, etc)
   (you don't have to fill every slots, for example, "Blink" emotion in the picture above only need to change the Eyes part)
6. Call Emote function in your script

Functions & Example script:

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using CharacterCreator2D;
3.  
4. public class ExampleScript : MonoBehaviour {
5.  
6.     public CharacterFaceEmote characterEmote;
7.    
8.     void Update () {
9.         // pass additional float to determine how long the emotion should lasts
10.         if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Q))
11.             characterEmote.Emote("Blink", 0.1f);
12.  
13.         // without float parameter, emotions will stay until resetted or another Emote function called
14.         if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.W))
15.             characterEmote.Emote("Angry");
16.            
17.         // use this to reset the character's face
18.         if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.E))
19.             characterEmote.ResetEmote();
20.     }
21. }
22.  

this is the results:


On top of that, you can also use this in any animations by calling the function in animation events:


Additional notes:
If you want to create your own expression/emotions sprite, you still need to add it as a new part. Please refer to the documentation on how to add your own part.

Let us know what you think.

I'm still thinking how to best integrate this to the current asset and UI, the aim is to make it easy to customize using the Character Creator UI. So until that happens, I hope this will suffice.

 

Hi, everyone!
Happy new year!

@

I'm sure that you can find something simple to export the animation in .PNG format for your use.
I check quickly and found this for example :

I also read this
http://blog.firebornegame.com/post/102823317780/making-transparent-gifs-with-unity-and-photoshop
(from the link here : https://forum.unity.com/threads/exporting-out-unity-animation-as-a-png-sequence.322275/)
Hope it could help.

I'm very happy to see that there will be an integrate solution for Expression/Emotion in the Character Creator UI.
Actually it seems to go in the good way.

Thank you mochakingup to enhance this great package!

 

Seems official emote features were integrated with yesterdays release.

Havent had a chance to try it... does this support talking animations too now?

 

Hi everyone!
as @jdiperla said, Character Creator 2D version 1.40 is now live in the Asset Store!

What's new in this version?

Emotion

This one is a frequently requested feature.
You can find the emotion menu under the 'Face Tab'



In that menu, you will find Preset and Custom emotions. Presets are used for the built-in animations (eg. Blink in Idle, Attack, and Talk). Customs are emotions that you can customize and use to your heart content. We've provided 10 custom slots for this. To call custom emotions you can do so from a script. Custom emotions are empty by default.

Now you can choose which emotion you want to customize



You will be presented with facial parts that are associated with that specific emotions. Here you can change each part as necessary. Choosing null means it will use the default part of the character.

That's it! now you can call your custom emotions through script!

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using CharacterCreator2D;
3.  
4. public class MyScript : MonoBehaviour
5. {
6.     public CharacterViewer character;
7.  
8.     void changeEmotion()
9.     {
10.         //change the character’s emotion to Emote_0
11.         character.Emote(EmotionType.Emote_0);
12.  
13.         //change the character’s emotion to “My Emotion”
14.         //(make sure you’ve already set the name properly when customizing
15.         // your emotion through the Creator UI)
16.         character.Emote(“My Emotion”);
17.  
18.         //reset the character’s emotion
19.         character.ResetEmote();
20.  
21.         //change the character’s emotion to “My Emotion”
22.         //then reset after 1 second
23.         character.Emote(“My Emotion”, 1f);
24.  
25.     }
26. }
27.  

Additional Notes:
Emotions use regular parts. You can add your own parts to be used on emotions.

For more information on emotions, please refer to the Online Documentation


Copy Paste Color

This is more of a quality of life feature, you can now copy and paste color in the Creator UI. It's pretty straight forward, just hover your mouse to the right of any color slot



There are other small improvements to the asset, but I think that's about it for the major one.
Go give it a try and let us know what you think!

Get Character Creator 2D on Asset Store


PS. there's a minor bug that prevents you to rename custom emotions in the UI, I've uploaded the fix for approval, might take a week or so before it's live on the asset store.
Edit: the fix is now live

 

WOW, the new emotions are great. Thanks a lot for the steady improvement of the asset!

 

Hi, Very interested in the Asset, wanting to know if the pack comes withthe character source files to be able to make more content or exactly how does importing custom content and parts go?

 

Hi @Aaron2348
If by character source files you mean the raw .psd files, then it's not included. However, the asset contains template/guide textures to help you create new parts. To give you an idea on how to create and add new parts, please refer to this specific section of the Online Documentation.

 

Nice!! great asset and exactly what i need!!

 

DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO INTEGRATE THE ANIMATION ACTIONS INTO UNIITY. YOU CAN'T USE SPRITES CAN YOU?