Somewhat to follow on from my previous Sunless Sea inspired table, this one borrows a bit more from Numenera’s [Adjective] [Noun] Who [Verbs] character structure. A bit of a gothic/dark fantasy random character generator. Roll 3d20 and see what you get!
Okay, I want to go into more detail on this post. On last week's episode, I hooked RPG Maker's character generator onto a post about generators to use other than Midjourney and pals. This is about making sprites like these-
Note that these were all edited (some more than others- I only made light edits to Jovie (the middle one) today, so he's most along the lines of what you're getting if you don't edit).
Though RPG Maker has a generator that does a lot of the work for you, I highly recommend editing the sprites. They have colored eye highlights and other symptoms of strangeness. Plus it lets you do more with the character design! But if you just want to generate characters, here's a quick and dirty guide.
First of all- this is for RPG Maker MV and MZ. They work pretty much the same. VX Ace only lets you generate faces, which look like this-
MV and its sequel MZ allow for more customization options. I used VX Ace years ago, but its generator was nowhere near as good as these two. It's also super old and might not run correctly, so don't bother.
Faces are updated automatically with the rest of your sprite sheet, so I wouldn't worry too much about them.
Another thing to note is that those fancy sprites come in a 9x6 grid that looks like this (watermarked so it can't be used in someone else's game)-
This sheet contains 54 sprites for three-stage animations. Unless you're making a game, you don't need all this shit. The sprite in the top left should do. Although you can use any single sprite you want.
Whether you are using MV or MZ is irrelevant, as the generators work the same. Make a new game project (you don't need to put anything in it), then click the person's head in the toolbar. There are male and female adult/teen options, along with kids (the sheet above is a kid sheet).
When you save- first click "Save Settings". This creates a json file, which you can put wherever. By clicking "Load Settings", your character will appear in the male, female, or kid tab with all your settings intact. You need to click "Battler" to get the type of sprite I use. There's also "Face Image" (if you want a face), Walking Character (for smaller sprites- a 3x4 grid) and Damaged Character (for if your character is knocked out- useful for RPG Maker cutscenes and nothing else).
The side menu has all this shit on it-
In order of appearance-
Face: Adjusts the shape of the face. Only works on the face image. You can also change skin color from here, but the options are shitty (I'll talk more about that later).
Front Hair/Rear Hair: Hair comes in two parts. If you have both of these set to empty, the character will be bald. Eyebrows will be the same color as the hair, and attempting to change eyebrow color will change hair color.
Beard- Gives your character a beard if you want. Only on the male tab. Like eyebrows, the beard color is linked to the base hair color.
Ears- For elf ears and the like.
Eyes- Changes eye color and eye shape in the Face sprite.
Eyebrows/Nose/Mouth- Effects the face sprite only. This is pretty self-explanatory, with each function changing the body part it describes.
Facial Mark- Allows you to put things like tattoos and scars on your character's face.
Beast Ears/Tail/Wing- For non-humans. Beast Ears gives your character kemonomimi ears (catgirls and catboys). Tail and Wing give your character exactly those. You can change the color of any of them.
Clothing/Cloak/Accessory Tabs/Glasses- Everything your character wears. You can choose one accessory form the 1 and 2 tabs, and also change the color of all these things. A word of caution- the clothes tend to get muddy when you alter their color. Clothes have multiple tiers of color, so it might take some trial and error until you find the color you want. Some accessories (coughhatscough) clip weirdly. If you give your character no clothing, they'll be Barbie doll nude (MV) or have only undies on (MZ).
Once you finish and export, the sprite sheet is like any other png, and you can edit to your heart's content. You can just clean up pixel trash, alter expressions, change any color, or completely change everything. You can use any program, too. I use Krita, but if you prefer a different program like pirated Photoshop, then use that instead.
Here's a comparison of Generic Shonen Boy 13 and my character Jonas.
You can also add custom parts to the generator! These can easily be found online. Some parts have terms of use that ask for creator credit, but you don't have to worry about that unless you plan to post the character (in which case just mention the person's name). There's parts that let you make anything, including furry characters.
Now, RPG Maker's generator does have some huge problems, namely-
Price- RPG Maker MZ is $80 on Steam. Watch for Steam sales which drastically decrease the price. Official DLC that upgrades the generator will also set you back 10-15 bucks a pack. If you have MV, it's basically required to buy DLC just to make kid characters (otherwise, you can only change the colors of the same girl). MZ is a lot less mean in this regard.
Generator Corruption- This happened to me in MZ, unfortunately. Adding parts wrong or trying to transplant from MV into MZ (or vise versa) may corrupt your generator. This means absolute wacky shit will happen- clumps of weird pixels, overlapping parts, missing pixels etc. etc. This is easily fixable in an outside program. But if you can't draw/sprite, then just stick to the default parts.
(As side note- here's what generator corruption looks like. Red hair is my OC Moira. Blond hair is the generator character I edited. Note the block of brown pixels between the legs, a transparent pixel on the jacket fur near her leg, and what appears to be an extra arm emerging from her back. I've even found sprites with missing/overlapping arms and hands or extra feet.)
Diversity- The big problem is race. There are a million skin tones that basically translate to "white". But there are only three dark skin tones in MZ, and only one doesn't look like rotting flesh. I had to edit one of my characters pretty heavily just to make him brown. Also, not all male and female parts are interchangeable. This- again- means going to an outside editor. Gender isn't as much of an issue for kids- all the parts are available for them regardless of gender.
And that's pretty much it! If you want to use RPG Maker as an alternative to AI, here's your starter guide. Sites like Reddit and RPG Maker Forums have more parts and can answer extra questions.
The fast entry of a variety of small and medium-sized businesses into the industry, as well as the growing need for high-quality channel presentation, is...
The fast entry of a variety of small and medium-sized businesses into the industry, as well as the growing need for high-quality channel presentation, is...
The fast entry of a variety of small and medium-sized businesses into the industry, as well as the growing need for high-quality channel presentation, is...
The fast entry of a variety of small and medium-sized businesses into the industry, as well as the growing need for high-quality channel presentation, is...
