Character Creator 2D - Editor & runtime character customization

A month later, do you have something magic to tell us? Please ...

 

Hey @mochakingup,

I love Character Creator 2D! This is such a neat package out of the box with the character creation tool, animations all hooked up, emotes, everything.

I want to use these characters in a 3D environment with lights. I'd like for the characters to receive shadows and cast them as well. However, I'm having trouble getting this to work. I've tried switching what shaders the materials are using with varied results, and it seems like there's more that I need to do but I'm not sure where to go from here. Can I get some guidance as to what I should try?

 

Hi @The-Adrian
Thanks for using CC2D!

What render pipeline are you using?
We do have diffuse lighting shader included, that should work with built-in renderer lighting, but it doesn't work with shadow, unfortunately. URP is not currently supported yet.

I've experimented a bit with enabling shadow for the built-in renderer, but so far I can only manage to enable casting shadow to other objects, but not receiving shadow from other objects. I don't know much about shader, but it seems like receiving shadow on transparent objects can be tricky. I can switch the shader to transparent cutout, but then they don't seem to take sprite sorting order into account. To be completely honest, I'm stumped at this.

Bonus glitchy bug gif:


If you are familiar with shadergraph, or shader in general, I would recommend to mess around with that, see if you can make SpriteRenderer work nicely with shadow.

Also, SpriteRenderer by default won't cast or receive shadow. You can override this, however, by going into the inspector debug mode and enable them manually.

 

It's not done yet and there's still a couple of things that need to be done.
don't want to reveal too much, but uh...
hail hydra?

 

@mochakingup
Is there a chance that someday swimming and swim-idle animations will be added?

edit//
If you created a separate pack with extra "de luxe" animations, for example:
- sheathing weapons, weapons by the belt, weapons on the back, swimming, floating (on water surface), sitting down, sitting (for example by the fire) etc.
Then I think not only I would be willing to pay for them separately.

 

hey @Szaruga
we'll see what we can do for swimming animations!
weapons by the belt and on the back can't be achieved using only animation, I'm afraid. It'd require some major changes on the system itself, so it's less likely to happen anytime soon

 

Sorry for the noob question.
I created a character (as a prefab), integrated animations and clothes with my design and everything works well.
But I have one small problem:

I normally have something like this --->


But when I start a game, it changes to such a thing --->


I tried different things, settings etc. but nothing helps.
Only manually switching ( and only in "runtime" mode) "Apply Root Motion" value helps - but that's not the solution.

edit//
Setting Culling Mode to "Cull Update Transforms" or "Cull Completely" helped. At the default value: "Always Animate" does not work.
If I do something wrong, please give me a suggestion.

 

hey @Szaruga
we've never encountered this before,
which version of Unity are you using?
and does it also happen in the Creator UI?

 

Unity 2019.3.13f1.

Creator UI? I'm sorry i dont understand.

 

Sorry, I mean when you are creating character with Character Creator 2D, does it also happen?
Did the animations play when you are creating character?

 

In your creator/scene, everything is ok.
In it I create a prefab.
Which I then use in my scene and then the problems described earlier begin.

 

I can't seem to replicate the issue, it might be something other than CC2D that caused it.
Does it happen if you drop the prefab on a new empty scene?
Do you have a script that modify the animator in any way?

 

Yes.

No.

I understand. Is the use of "Cull Update Transforms" and "Cull Completely" settings not recommended in this case?

 

I'm not sure why that happened, but if changing culling mode fixed it for you, then it should be fine to change it.
Could be something with the Animator component itself, we'll take a further look into this, will update here if we found anything.

 

perfecto

 

Ciao,
complimenti per tutto, ho 2 domande, la prima: è possibile modificare o personalizzare una animazione? la seconda: avete pensato a fare un character creator 3D?
grazie, ciao

 

ciao,
come posso fare cambiare arma al personaggio? mi spiego meglio, dopo aver esportato il personaggio senza armi durante il gioco voglio utilizzare diverse armi, come posso fare questo (non mi riferisco al codice ma alla grafica), grazie in anticipo

 

Hi @salvobef

Yes, it's possible to customize or add new animations. We use the built-in Unity animation system (https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/AnimationSection.html).
Simply save a character as prefab, then you can edit animations from the animation window.

We have thought of a 3D version, but no solid plan for that yet.

Do you mean how to re edit the character using the UI?
If so, you can start the Creator UI, then load your previously made character. And once you've done editing the character, you can save it on top of your old prefab/JSON.

 

Hi,
I also have a strange issue now with the Unity version 2019.3.13f1 and the new character creator version.
Some of my existing prefab characters (not all?) are no longer animated. They worked before - but I updated several assets (adventure creator, character creator and also unity) - so I am not sure what led to the problem.

Also when I start a new character in the CharacterCreator UI - the character is not animated. But sometimes (not always) when I create random characters, those get animated in the UI??? Very strange.
The "cull Update..." Option (instand "always animate") did not help in my case.

Any idea?

 

Hey,

I've just tested it on 2019.3.14, there's definitely something weird going on with the Animator. It seems like something has changed within Unity. Not sure what yet.

Although, in my test, there's no problem with prefab animation. The problem only occurs on UI.
May I suggest trying to load the prefabs into Creator UI, then resave it again? It's possible that the prefabs were saved using the older version of CC2D.

Changing the culling mode sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.

Just for reference, everything still works fine on Unity 2019.3.6

Gonna need some more testing to know for sure. Will update here as soon as we know more!

Edit:
Changing the culling mode of the Character Viewer prefab (CharacterCreator2D/Prefabs) into anything other than Always Animate seems to fix the problem for the Creator UI. But still this shouldn't happen. We'll look into it!

 

Hi there,

first of all, really appreciate what you did. A really really great tool. I purchased it a few days ago. But I'm having a problem here. I would be grateful if you help.

The problem is when I create a character that is a prefab and import it into the scene, I looks kinda blurry especially when the animation is playing. I added a video demonstration. If it is too low in quality, please copy the video URL and watch the video on there. You can clearly see the blurry edges at the sword. Please help. Thank you.

 

Hi @EmreKumas
That's what generally happens when scaling down 2D images in Unity, but that does look particularly bad. Are you by any chance, using a pixel-perfect script or something similar?

There is a workaround for this issue, by turning on the mipmap on the texture import settings.
But this would make the image a bit blurred. Here's a comparison:


(first image is mipmap off, and the second image with mipmap enabled)

Depending on your game, and your personal preference, you might find one is better than the other.

To change the import settings of textures, go to the Project window. Then select any texture that you want to change the settings (sprites for CC2D are located under "Assets/CharacterCreator2D/Sprites"). Then enable "Generate Mip Maps" in the inspector window. (https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/class-TextureImporter.html)

Thanks for bringing this up!
It's probably a good idea for us to provide a menu to change all the texture import settings that are used by CC2D.

 

Following up this issue,
Seems like we've found the cause and the fix for this. We're gonna need to test it a bit more, but we should be able to push the hotfix to the Asset Store soon. Still, it might be a while until it got verified by the Asset Store. So if any of you in urgent need of the fix, you can shoot us an email with your invoice number, and we'll send you the fix!

Thanks @BBET and @Szaruga for bringing this to our attention!

 

Actually, I do not use any pixel-perfect script but my game's scale is a little bit small. Since I'm using tiles so small, I also needed the character to be small. I set its scale from 1 to 0.6, even in this scale it looks like that. So I guess I need to use larger tiles and zoom out the camera. Maybe that way the character would look much better.

I also tried the mipmap settings. It's not that great but not that bad also. If there was a setting to adjust the blur level, it would be much better because it seems so blurry.

I also agree that providing a menu to change all the texture import settings would be great.

 

I might've chosen the wrong words here, but by scaling, I didn't mean transform scale. But the scale of the displayed sprite to its actual file resolution. I hope that makes sense, English isn't my first language.
I don't think zooming out the camera will fix this, but I might be wrong.

Another thing that I can think of, is by upscaling the resolution of the game. So basically by rendering 2x of the targeted resolution, then scale the result down. This results in smooth unblurred pictures. That's how the export PNG works in CC2D. But this, of course, would affect performance. There probably already assets in the store that can achieve this.

 

Okay, but I didn't get what you mean by this sentence: "But the scale of the displayed sprite to its actual file resolution". How can I achieve a smooth look? I tried your second suggestion and exported PNG sequence and use it. That's actually looking smooth but you lose the ability to edit the gameObject in runtime and also the performance issue.

Also I tried several different things. I set my camera size from 9 to 5 and it looked really good, just as I want. But then the character is huge and it cannot be used that way. It seems that the only solution is zooming in with the camera or making the character bigger but it isn't practical. Am I the only one facing this issue? If yes, I would change my settings to overcome this problem but even when I create an empty project and scene, I face the same issues.

 

I'm not sure how to explain this correctly. But say, for example we have 1000px sprites. But in game view, it's only shown as 500px or smaller (either by scaling the sprite or zooming out the camera). Then we'd have this effect. You are not the only one with this issue, this asset is not the only one with this issue either.

I wasn't suggesting to use the export PNG, but to upscale the targetted resolution of the game. I don't think there is a native way to do that in Unity yet, unfortunately.

Seems like the best option for now, is to enable Mip Maps.

 

Okay, I get it now. Thank you for your explanations. If anyone finds a solution to this problem other than the Mip Map solution, please update us. I checked the asset store but couldn't find any tool to upscale the targetted resolution. Sorry, if I'm taking your time but I just wanted to let you know about it. Thank you, again.

 

No worries, I'd like to figure out how to deal with this too

 

On another note,

CC2D v1.63 is now live on the Asset Store!

This is just a hotfix for animation issues found on the posts before.
If you are facing this issue, we'd recommend you update it immediately!

 

You really don't reveal too much ... Any other clue ?

 

Hi, I was wondering how can I use my characters and just use your animation rig. An example I have this character and want to animate it using ur rigging. Is it possible?
:

 

Hi @Gamingbir
This is extremely different in terms of the size, proportion, and parts hierarchy.
I don't think this would work with CC2D, unfortunately.
There are other assets in the asset store that are closer to your needs, you might want to check them out, instead.

 

would you add some anime modules like chibis or such?

I really like manga style of art

 

Hi Mochakingup,

Congrats on the asset it's really good value!
I have quick question for you, i'm trying to pseudo-randomize the creation of characters on the fly such that given the same id i get the same character, and it works really well for SkinColor, Color, Body and BodySliders, but for some reason Part does not seem deterministic so when i call the same id (the one I pass to Random.InitState beforehand), it gives different parts and it looks like my NPC are changing clothes super quick

Any idea or hints as to where it comes from? I assume there is a sorting somewhere that changes every time we call the function (uiCreator.RandomizePart())

Thanks!

edit: never mind, it probably wasn't in your code because if i re-initialize before every Randomize call I get the same parts and all is well, thanks!

 

can you make some detailed tutorial on youtube explaining your tool? Especially how about you go making custom assets and use them with your tool. Video is more helpful than the document. Thanks.

Also if anyone has figured out how to make custom animations or models please let me know.

NOTE: Can you also add a search feature for your parts in the UI
Example here:https://i.gyazo.com/99e4d7b2561e6c5204a9eabd4272a8e6.png

For example, I think you used a lot of custom things in your game
Paw Paw Paw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTQcZx4Trso

 

Hi @lekane
Glad to hear that it works for you!
We are not really familiar with how the random seed works, we've tested it and get same results everytime.
So I'm not really sure what's going on, unfortunately.

 

Hi @Gamingbir
Unfortunately, we have no such plan at the moment.

You can see a more detailed manual on how to create custom parts on our online documentation (http://bit.ly/CC2Ddoc) under the "Creating Custom Part" section.

For adding animations, please take a look at the following post,
You need to be familiar with how Animation works in Unity, however.

I will add this to the online documentation eventually.

Thanks for checking out our game!
Paw Paw Paw wasn't made using CC2D, however.
We made CC2D near the end of its development cycle.

 

Hi @mochakingup
I was wondering if you will add more animations for it? Like 4 directional or somersault.

This list of animations here is amazing if you want to check out
https://rvros.itch.io/animated-pixel-hero

 

Hi There,

so whatever characters i create with this could be used commercially ?

Thank you

 

Hello, I am not the developer but to answer your question, yes, any characters you create with this package can be used commercially. This is the nature of the Asset Store, to provide assets that can be used by developers in their future projects and products.

 

Hey, thanks for the reference! A lot of good animation there.
As I've said before, 4 directional won't be coming to CC2D, unfortunately.

Basically yes, you can use the characters created as part of your game commercially.
What is not allowed is reselling the asset, for example, creating a character using CC2D then selling the resulting character.

 

Hey everyone,
CC2D v1.70 is now live on the Asset Store!
(please remove the old version before updating)

So what's new in 1.70?

New Slot: Body Skin
Added a new slot: BodySkin
On the Creator UI, they are listed under the Body category



On its own, it doesn't change much.
But it allows CC2D to create custom skins for the body type.
This would open up a lot of possibilities moving forward!
Which is why with v1.70 we've also released a new pack that takes advantage of this new slot.
More on that later!

New Parts
Added a few new parts for the base CC2D:
- Facial parts
- Wands



New Animations
Added some new animations

Updated UI
Revamped the export PNG UI so it is much easier to use
Also added some default PNG presets



Added some new background colors for the UI
You can now choose which packs to randomize from in the Randomizer UI



Shader
Lit shader (Built-in Renderer) now can cast shadows and can be lit correctly from both side

New Component: CharacterEntity
Added new component that can be used to preserve changes in the character prefab.
Previously, if you modify the character prefab then instantiate it, all your changes will be lost.
With CharacterEntity component, your changes will be preserved.
Usage:
- Add this component in your game objects
- Only works on custom game objects (non default object from the character prefab)
- Please refer to the documentation for more details

Minimum Unity Version
Updated the minimum Unity version to Unity 2018.4 as required by Unity Asset Store.

At the time of the writing,
CC2D is currently 50% OFF!

Get CC2D v1.70 now!

 

Undead Pack
The newest add-on pack for CC2D,
Released along with version 1.70 update.

Get it now in the Asset Store!

Undead Pack specifically use the new feature of v1.70 update: Body Skin
This allows us to do something that we haven't been able to do in CC2D before,
which is reskinning the base body of the characters!

Included with the Undead Pack are new body skins, new facial features, and new sets of armor!



Get it now in the Asset Store!

And be sure to check out the other packs too!

That's all for now,
Thanks for all your supports!
And have a great day!

 

GREAT idea! It could be great if you add some mechanics skeletons aka Terminator like. Then it could be useful with scifi pack. But I love the iea and the result, well done.

 

>>> GOOD JOB!

I really appreciate all the updates you add to this asset. Thank You.
I hope that we will be more and more users to use it.

 

Can you also add top-down up and down animations in the future? Also, how do I add new weapons? Also is there a way to label your own custom characters like

1) undead characters
2) Elves
3)Orcs

for your custom characters?

 

Hey @ATeam_Production
Yes! That was always the plan!

Hi @Gamingbir
Unless I misunderstood you, creating top-down isn't as simple as creating new animations.
It would be similar to creating 4 direction characters, which again, as we've stated previously, won't be coming to CC2D.

To add new weapons (or any parts) please take a look at our documentation under the Creating Custom Parts section. We have written a step by step guide to do exactly that.

I am a little bit unclear on the label.
What do you mean by label, can you elaborate?
Do you mean the package name of custom parts?

 

yes, I meant a name for our own package made in custom.
set of human etc.

Example like yours: https://gyazo.com/00f51cc5ccf29db4b9b460cabd699ace

 

Hi mochakingup,

In custom characters creation guide, u mention "Notice that you don’t have to use every single part of the guides, but you do have to keep resolution the same (No cropping or resizing)". What do you mean by that?

So, as long my sprite resolution meaning height x width is the same as your guideline(meaning it matches the prodived sprite resolution) I am good? Anyways if I were you I would make a video of the process of making a custom character. I guess you are not doing it since you want to make the custom package and DLC content like this undead package, sci-fi package etc. Most of the asset creator make a video guide even the free ones.

Anyways thanks for your time and consideration.

GLHF.