Character Creator 2D - Editor & runtime character customization

Hi @animarts

Character Creator 2D uses animator for the animation. you can play the animations using Animator.Play https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Animator.Play.html

For the list of all available animations in Character Creator 2D, you can check it on the online documentation under the Animation List.

 

MAYBE YOU CAN HELP ME --

GOOD MORNING,

THIS IS A GREAT PROGRAM BUT . . . . . .

WHAT KEYS DO YOU USE ON YOUR KEYBOARD TO CONTROL THE CHARACTERS -- YOU KNOW -- START AND STOP THE ANIMATIONS?

PLEASE GET BACK TO ME ASAP WITH THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR DOING SO -- i HAVE A PROJECT THAT IS DUE SUNDAY AND I NEED TO KNOW HOW TO CONTROL THE CHARACTERS FROM THE KEYBOARD AS A PLAYER.

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR GETTING BACK TO ME AS SOON AS YOU CAN.
I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT.

AND IF YOU DON'T KNOW PLEASE CONNECT ME WITH SOMEONE WHO DOES.

THANKS AGAIN,

EMMITTA J LEWIS

 

Hi @animarts
that is outside the scope of this asset. there is no built-in function for that, you have to create your own character controller and game logic yourself. Character Creator 2D is only a tool to create characters.
I'd suggest you take a look into Unity official tutorial for those. this link might help:
https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/s/2d-game-creation

 

To me it seems like this asset is optimised for a side-view type of game. Have someone tested it with an isometric perspective?

 

@mochakingup I am having some trouble with the sprite sorting. The character keeps appearing behind some scene sprites. I have a `SortingGroup` component on the `Character Viewer` object but it gets turned off at runtime. The character sprites are all set to `Default` when looking through the character hierarchy at runtime.

Is it supposed to work with the `SortingGroup` and I am doing something wrong during setup or I am stuck with the character using the `Default` sort order and I should just place that where it belongs in the defined layers?

 

Hi @AlexKop
You are correct, this asset is geared more toward side-view game. You can always combine it with isometric, of course. But keep in mind the asset doesn't have back facing character.

Hi @Leslie-Young

It should work with SortingGroup, but it should be turned on at runtime by default. Can you check on an empty project if it still turned off?

The individual sprites will stay on the 'Default' layer, but I believe that's how SortingGroup works. You just need to edit the sorting layer and order of the SortingGroup, no need to dive into each sprite inside the character hierarchy.

 

What is the reasoning behind `ie_refreshsorting`?

The problem seems to be that the character object is disabled right after `sortinggroup.enabled = false;` and thus the ` = true` after the yield does not get executed. The character is disabled during the Start of a controller in the scene the character is defined in. This controller is busy loading a scene containing the level to be played and the character will be set active again after that scene is done loading.

I suppose I can just call an Initialize on the character again once the character is set active but would like to know what `ie_refreshsorting` is actually doing.

 

I see, if I remember it correctly, it was used to refresh the SortingGroup component. After changing body type or loading new character, sprites don't sort correctly (it acted as there is no SortingGroup) and SortingGroup needs to be refreshed to fix that. We did this by turning off the component wait one frame then turn it on again. This was on Unity 5.6.

I've just tested it again using Unity 2018.3, and it seems like we don't need to refresh the SortingGroup component anymore. We're currently working on a proper version for 2018.3 but until then, you can just comment out line 128 in CharacterViewer.cs to disable it.

Edit:
I can see how this can be a problem. And after further testing, seems like it doesn't need to wait for a frame for it to take effect. So we will remove the coroutine in the next update to prevent something like this. Thanks for reporting this!

 

Thanks, I've disabled that code for now.

 

Hello there,
Great tool, it is amazing. I just miss one animation: CROUCH. Are you planning to add more animatons for your characters?
Thanks and congratulations!

 

Hello! I chased you down all the way from your demo on itch.io, and first of all I want to say how amazing this asset is, I cant get enough of it. You guys truly did a fantastic job here.
I really want to buy it and use it for my project, but I don't develop with unity.

Is there any chance you could release the images to itch.io as an asset pack? I am 100% sure alot of people would be very interested in buying it there.
Thanks.

 

Hi @Soternicus

any suggestions for new animations are welcome! As long as it generic enough and possible with our current setup, I'll happily add them in. It's also possible to add custom animations if you are looking for very specific ones, maybe I should write a guide on how to do this.

Are you thinking of simple crouch, or something else? A simple crouch should be possible, I think. I'll see what I can do. Crouch/sneak walking, however, won't be possible with our current setup/rig (could be done but will look real goofy and clunky)

Hi @kicknbrit

I'd love to do that as well! Ideally, some kind of sprite sheet exporter would be nice.
unfortunately, I can't promise anything as of now.
we'd let you know if/when that happens

 

ok

 

Hi @mochakingup,
Thanks for your response. Yes, I just need a simple crouch, no movement at all, well, maybe blinking

I have recently bought your package and it works perfectly. Great job!

 

I also would like to add that a simple crouch with gun would be also very usefull.

 

Possible to add a Bounds property to CharacterViewer, similar to SpriteRenderer.bounds, in a future update

For now I am using the Skins property to get an idea of what size/bounds might be but maybe you know of better way? Not looking for something too exact. Just need to know about how high the character might be to place some world space canvas UI elements there (think health bar for example). In fact, I might change this to just use whatever collider is on the character since i know it will have only one. Still think something like this might be useful to have in CharacterViewer though.

Code (CSharp):

1.     CharacterViewer view = go.GetComponentInChildren<CharacterViewer>();
2.     if (view != null)
3.     {
4.         float w = view.skins[0].size.x;
5.         float h = view.skins[0].size.y;
6.         for (int i = 1; i < view.skins.Count; i++)
7.         {
8.             SpriteRenderer s = view.skins[i];
9.             if (w < s.bounds.size.x) w = s.bounds.size.x;
10.             if (h < s.bounds.size.y) h = s.bounds.size.y;
11.         }
12.  
13.         Vector3 c = go.transform.position + new Vector3(0, h * 0.5f, 0);
14.         return new Bounds(c, new Vector3(w, h, 0));
15.     }

 

Hi @mochakingup,
I have seen your Oriental Pack. What do you think about a sci fi pack? I would be great fantastic. I know we can add our own parts (so far I have added a gun and a sword). And, thinking about packs, a Steampunk pack?

Looking forward for your future packs.

 

yeah, that makes sense.
I'll add 'Crouch' and 'Crouch Holding Rifle' animations, this should be available in the next update soon.
I'd also like to note that Crouch animations should be compatible with the aim layer.

Hi @Leslie-Young thanks for the suggestion!
However, I'm not quite convinced, it seems like this is only useful for a very specific case.
For something like healthbar, I'd just use an empty gameobject to reference the position.

Sci-Fi pack is currently in the work,
for everyone who has been waiting on the Sci-Fi pack, we're sorry that it took so long, it's been a crazy year for us.

---

An update on 2018.3 compatible version:
unfortunately, we hit a setback. It wasn't as straightforward as we thought. We're gonna need to do more experiments and testing on this. In the meantime, please just ignore the warning in the console log :')

Also, for everyone who has created a game or custom content for CC2D (be it armor, weapon, or even body type), we'd love to see what you made! feel free to show it here!

 

Hi everyone!

Character Creator 2D version 1.41 is now live in the Asset Store!

Here's a quick change log:
- New animation: crouch
- Added animation drop down in Creator UI
- Fix: refresh sorting group causing issue on some
- Fix: set tint color also repaint skin color
- Fix: error loading old character prefab without cape
- 2018.3 compatible version

 

How do I control the animation using my keyboard -- I don't need it to be automatically animated I need to control it -- well the player needs to be able to the characters with their keyboard.

 

Hi @animarts
have you tried our suggestion above?
you can do something like this in your code

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2.  
3. public class PlayAnimation : MonoBehaviour {
4.  
5.     public Animator animator;
6.  
7.     void Update () {
8.         // Press Q to play Walk animation
9.         if(Input.GetKey("Q")) {
10.             animator.Play("Walk",0);
11.         }
12.  
13.         // Press W to play Run animation
14.         if(Input.GetKey("W")) {
15.             animator.Play("Run",0);
16.         }
17.     }
18. }
19.  

I'd still recommend you to check the official Unity tutorial listed here: https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/s/2d-game-creation, especially the 2D Platformer Character Controller section. It would help you understand how unity animator works.

 

Hi everyone,

here's a little bit of preview for a new feature that we've been working on:



Export to PNG!

you can export a singular image or animation sequence.
this could be useful if you prefer working with sprite or if you are planning to use the character outside of Unity.
you could also make character portraits or even item icons with this!

we got the basics down just need to iron out the UI and hook it up to the main Creator UI.

curious what yall think of this, let us know what kind of options would you want to see in this particular feature!

 

A bit preview on the png export, here are examples of the exported walk cycle:


please note that the final result is a sequence of png images, not a spritesheet.
I've been fixing some bugs on the exporter and still experimenting with the UI layout. Just need to figure out the best way to fit all the options and buttons in a way that makes sense.

Now here's a little preview on the sci-fi packs!



let us know what you think!

 

Hi, everyone
Version 1.50 is now live on the Asset Store!

What's new in this version?

Export PNG

You can now export your character to PNG image. This could be useful if you prefer working with sprites or use it on another game engine.

To access the Export PNG first click the Save / Load icon from the top menu.



You will be then presented with a list of settings. Change texture size, reposition and scale your character, change target FPS and choose between single image or PNG sequences. All of those settings can also be saved as preset. For more information on what each setting does, please refer to the Online Documentation.

Once you are happy with the settings, click the 'Export' button and then choose where to save.



And there you have it!




Color Palette & Copy Hair Color

On top of that, we've added a new color palette: Bleak.



We've also added a tiny quality of life button named 'Copy Hair Color'. This button only appears when you are selecting facial hair and eyebrow. It will allow you to copy hair color directly and save you a little bit of time.



Bugfix

• Fix: animation dropdown not updating properly
  
• Fix: character cannot be scaled in Unity 2018.3 or newer
  
• Fix: character's emote doesn't reset to default face

We've also thrown in a couple of extra noses and mouths.

Go give it a try, and let us know what you think!

Get Character Creator 2D on Asset Store

 

Hi everyone
Update version 1.51 is now live on the Asset Store.

v1.51 Changelog:

• Fix: error when building the project
• General code cleanup, removed some unused codes
• Improved PNG Export quality on smaller resolution

If you are using v1.50 I'd suggest you update the asset to this version asap, as v1.50 has some errors that prevent you from building your project. Also did some cleanup on the code, removed some unused and old codes that still linger in the asset.

PNG Export quality is drastically improved at a lower resolution, resulting in a much smoother image. Here's a preview of exported PNG at 150 x 200 resolution:



Left is before (v1.50) and right is after (1.51).

 

Hi there,



I love the updates on this! I see very little need for improvements on this as it offers so much. The export feature is a dream tool! The Sci Fi Pack is going to be great! I really would love to see some more in the way of a modern day pack however for an adventure game I am creating. If you are looking for some idea's for clothing in a modern pack here are some thoughts:



Hair:

Mohawk

Buzz cut

Messed up hair style

Balding



Clothing:

Police/trooper outfit

Suit Jacket and pants

Trench coat

Jeans ripped/non-ripped

T-Shirts

Sweaters

Tuxedo

Soldier

Dress

Skirt

Blouse

Ties/bow ties

Prowler outfit.





Shoes:

Dress shoes

Sneakers

Converse type sneakers

High Top sneakers

Boots

Knee high boots

High heel Shoes (various lengths)

Clogs

Slippers



Head wear:

Hats

Fedora

Top hat

baseball cap

Baseball, Football, Hockey helmet

Ski Masks



Accessories:

Sun glasses

bracelets

Necklaces

Rings

Watches

Thanks again for your asset!

 

Hi @jdiperla thanks for the suggestions!
We're still working on the sci fi pack right now, once that done we'll most likely do a casual/modern theme.

 

Do you have some new examples of the incoming SciFi Package to share with us ?

 

well I suppose another one wouldn't hurt

 

This is absolutely the most valuable tool. I cant wait for more asset packs for it.

 

Great example which could also work for Cyberpunk universe ... Good job! I love it.

 

Hi! Today I bought Character Creator 2D in Asset Store unity, I really liked it. Thank you for your hard work. I would like to ask the following: I would like for my project to manage bones, but I have not found such an opportunity in prefab. As far as I understand, the bones are controlled by a script. Could you tell me how I can control the dice to create my animations and change character poses? maybe I need to install some additional package for 2D animations? At the moment I use a 2D animation preview.5-2.1.0 of package Manager Unity. Hope for early reply, thanks!

 

Hi @Truwe4ka Thanks for the purchase!

I'm sorry, I don't quite get that. Are you trying to manipulate bones at runtime with scripts? Or are you trying to create custom animations? Can you elaborate more on what you are trying to do?

In CC2D, bones are just empty Gameobjects with "bone_" prefix in their names. They are all moved by the animations in the Animator component. You don't need to install any additional packages.

Here's a step by step on how to find the bone objects in the hierarchy:
- select/edit your prefab
- in the inspector, uncheck "Auto Hide Children"
- click the "Show Child" button (this will allow you to comb through all the children in your character)
- type in "bone_" in the search field in the hierarchy window

If you are trying to override bone transform through script, you should probably run your script in LateUpdate instead of Update (there are probably better ways of doing this).

If you are trying to create custom animations, simply create new animations using the default Unity Animation Window (Window/Animation). Place keyframe and move and rotate bones as desired. Make sure to only add/edit animation to objects with "bone_" prefix on their name.

Does this help? I'm sorry if I misunderstood you, English is not my first language.

 

Hi! I'm from Russia, and English is also not native But in General you understand everything correctly and answered the question. I want to make the female character more feminine to use in my project. in my project, the female character is not a warrior (I create a custom animation, I do not use a script). So I've already changed the sprites of the legs to be able to wear shoes with heels. Now I'm trying to change the character's pose to a more feminine one. Thanks for the quick response, your product is very useful.


when I finish, I'll be posting the result

 

Glad that it answered your question!
Just a friendly reminder, I'm sure you've already done this, but make sure to back up the original animations and create your custom animations in a separate folder, just in case.

 

another Sci-Fi tease

 

So excited for the sci fi pack! Looks amazing!

 

Hello everyone!

I have a question for the developers of the character creator: why you didn't introduced features like glasses for the characters? Even in fantasy settings, glasses are present in some characters. I was going to design some characters with your engine and to my... (I don't want to say "dissapointment" to not to be too rude, but English isn't my mother language, so...) such feature isn't present.

More else. Another feature that could be great for your character creator, would be the heterochromia and/or serrated teeth (for Vampire like characters). People loves such traits, especially in fantasy and science fiction circles.

Antoher suggestion I want to post, is the introduction of a Steampunk patch. If you will introduce a Sci FI patch, why not a Steampunk one? After all, some of the most memorable science fiction works are in a Steampunk setting.

Can you introduce it? It's a humble suggestion for an user of your product, which is great!

By the way, that Sci Fi patch is amazing! I'm eagerly wating it.

 

Hi @Gary-D-Crowley
Sorry for the late reply,

Thanks for the feedback!
I've been thinking about this for a while actually. But ultimately, we wanted to limit the equipment slot to the current ones. One of the reason is we want to focus on delivering more themed packs, and the more slot we have, then it became slower for us to make a new pack.

So here's what I'm thinking: What if I make some basic glasses part but using the helmet slot.
The upside: Yay! we have glasses, and we don't need to add more slots!
The downside: Can't combine glasses with helmet, oh no!
And to counter the downside I will write a guide on how to combine parts later, but it requires messing around with image editing software outside of Unity.

What do you think?

 

The simplier, the best.

If you can put the glasses, but not the helmet, it's A Ok, mainly because it's really odd a character that has glasses AND a helmet. Also, always is the idea of putting a new design for a helmet that integrates something like googles or visors.

Thanks for the reply and about the other things, don't worry, I'll be patient until you can give me an answer.

 

Aand get yourself some pair of glasses!


Free Glasses for Character Creator 2D

Inside you can find a few selections of basic glasses.

Decided to release glasses as a free additional pack because it probably won't fit with the base fantasy. So it's there as an option for those who want it.

PS. Glasses uses helmet slot.

 

Out of curiosity... any chance of creating a background creator 2D? Add doors, windows, objects... color them, resize them, rotate and move them? I would love if that was something down the line. This tools is so awesome that a tool like that to accompany it would be amazing!

 

Nothing like that planned at the moment, we are currently focusing our effort on CC2D.
That is an interesting idea tho!

 

Quick update on the Sci-Fi pack,
It's basically done, we've submitted it to the store,
just a matter of time now!

 

Character Creator 2D is very helpful, but i have a minor Problem.
i am trying to add an empty game object to the Character as a child in order to mark the starting point of the arrow, but it disappear automatically.
any Help

 

Hi @dragonballzeg
Yeah sorry about that, when Character Creator 2D initialize, it reinitializes the body shape hierarchy, thus any changes made inside the prefab will be lost.
There are several options that I can think of at the moment:

1. You can disable the "Initialize on Awake" on your saved prefab
   
   However, the added objects will still disappear if you change body type in runtime
2. You can structure your game object like this
   
   You can put your script and game logic in 'Character', where 'Character Viewer' is the prefab generated from Character Creator 2D, and the 'Arrow Pos' is your empty object.
   This way, the arrow pos object won't disappear even if you change the body type at runtime.
3. You can edit the original body prefab to include your object.
   The prefab is located at 'CharacterCreator2D/Data/Body Type/'.
   But you might have to do it again every time you update to a newer version of Character Creator 2D.

Let me know if this works for you!

 

Sci-Fi Pack
Hi everyone,
First of all, It's finally here! our 2nd themed pack is now live on the Asset Store!
You can get it here:


Sci-Fi Pack for Character Creator 2D

Edit:
As always, you can check all available parts on our web demo

Version 1.52
And along with that pack, we've also updated the main asset into v1.52
With new animations:
- Rapid shot
- Idle stances

We've also reorganized the animations folder, so just to be on the safe side, it might be better to delete/uninstall it first before updating to this version.
You can get it on the asset store: Character Creator 2D

Let us know what you think!

 

From now, using it with no problems.

 

Glad to hear that!

I'm not entirely sure about fishing and mining, but maybe I could do some generic interacting / collecting animations.

---

A little update,
been working on a basic randomize button, and here's a gif of 100+ random characters

 

Thanks for your Great Asset, but how i can edit in the Animation & how i can add new outfit or Weapons?