An Idiots Guide On How to use the Charas Generators

[A Forgotten Legend]

An Idiots Guide On How to use the Charas Generators

Written by A Forgotten Legend

So you think your ready to make a character for your game with the charas generators?  Well, here's a nice in depth guide to making one!

What you need:

A program that can can an Images size (NOT scaling the image to a different size, changing the canvas size!)
Ultimate Paint/any other image program EXCEPT paint that converts to 256 colors
RPG Maker 2000/2003 (Parts are RmXP specific as well)
Time to read this and make a character!

Table of Contents
Use the find option (Ctrl+F) in your browser to find what you looking for.  Use the numbers I give to the right if the part of the guide to make finding things easy.

Beginning your character              1.0
RPG Maker XP Compatible?         1.1
The Charset Generator                 2.0
Body                                          2.1
Head                                          2.2
Dress(Clothes)                            2.3
Hairs                                          2.4
Items                                         2.5
Different Sized Characters           2.6
Image Size                                2.7
The Battle Charset Generator       3.0
Body                                         3.1
Head                                         3.2
Dress(Clothes)                           3.3
Hairs                                         3.4
Items                                        3.5
Image Size                                3.6
The Faceset Generator               4.0
Base                                         4.1
Eyes                                         4.2
Expressions                              4.3
Hairs                                         4.4
Items                                        4.5
Image Size                                4.6
Importing your Character             5.0
The Image Size                          5.1
256 Colors                                 5.2
Import Button                             5.3
The End                                     5.4
RPG Maker XP Users                 6.0



1.0

Beginning your character.

So, you want to make a character with the Charas generators.  But, you have no clue how to do it!  First off, a Charset is an image in RPG Maker with 8 characters on it.  Yes, 8.  What you make on the charset generator is only 1/8th the size of a charset.  A Faceset is an image in RPG Maker with 16 different faces on it.  Yes, 16.  What you make on the faceset generator is only 1/16 the actual faceset.  A Battle Charset is an image in RPG Maker with different stances for battles in RPG Maker 2003.  These are not used in RPG Maker 2000.  The Battlechar Generator actually produces an image that is two of the Battle charset sheets.  You will need to split them up before importing.  But, more on that later.

1.1

RPG Maker Xp Compatible?

No, none of these are RPG Maker Xp compatible in their current state.  Please go to RPG Maker XP users(6.0) for more information on how to make them usable in XP.

2.0

The Charset Generator

As I explained above, a charset is an image in RPG Maker with 8 characters on it.  What you make on the charset generator is only 1/8th the size of a charset.  That means later on, you will have to open it up in another program and do some editing.

First, you are going to have to open up the charset generator.  Go to this link to get there now: http://charas-project.net/charas2/index.php?lang=en&generator=1

2.1

Body

So, you have the charset generator open?  Good.  Now let's begin.  First, choose a Body.  Look to the left of the screen, see the different Bodies?  Click on the one you want to use.  If the image has more (x) ("x" being a number) there are more color choices.




So, once you choose your body and click on the one you want, you should see this one the right side of your screen.



Look at the options above the image in the right.

"tr"  stands for Transparency.  "fr" stands for frame.  The frames are numbered like so:




In the drop down boxes below the "fr"s, there are three options.  "t" (top) "b" (bottom) and "h" (hidden).  If you choose "t", the frame will be on top of everything, if you choose "b", the frame will be below everything, and if you choose "h", the frame will be hidden.  This normally is used for Items. More on those later.


Congrats, you made a body!  Now, let's move onto the heads.

2.2

Head

So,now that you have a body, click the Head link on the left side of your screen:



Once you've clicked that, you should see a whole bunch of floating heads!  No, not really, but you will see many heads you can use for your characters.  Click on one.  Again, if it has "more (x)" you can choose different colors, even some different styles.

So, here's my character so far,



So, thats pretty much it with the Heads, experiment on which ones you like and such.  Now let's move on to the clothes!

2.3

Dress

Oh no!  Our character is naked!  Ack!  Let's put some clothes on them shall we?  Now, I hope you've already decided what gender you want your character.  Mine of course is a male.  So, scroll down through the clothes on the left side and find something for your character.  Make sure you find clothes that match your characters personality.  Don't make the undead leader of hell wear some pink dress.  I mean,  what the hell?  The only way that works is if you are maing a comedy.

So, I've found what I want my character to wear.  Have you?


So now that our character is not naked, let's move on to Hair.


2.4

Hairs

Ah, hair.  Adds a bit more color to your character.  Now first we need to pick a hair, just like we picked the clothes.
Found anything you want for your character?  I have.  Again, make sure it matches your character.  Don't make the great emperor of a huge nation have huge pink spiky hair.  Thats just plain silly (again, exception being a comedic game).  So, here's mine:



And so, we are are close to ending the Charset part of the guide.  Next is the Item section.


2.5

Items

One of the hardest parts to understand in the charset generator.  Remember the "tr", "t", "b", and "h"?  Those are used here the most often.

First, decide what you want your character to have.  I'll make mine have a sword... and maybe a shield.  But to have both, I'll need to use the Layer 1, Layer 2, and Layer 3 options!

Layers 1,2, and 3 are different levels on which you can put an item onto a character with.

Layer 3 being the bottom layer, Layer 2 being the middle layer, and Layer 1 being the top layer.  You can only have one Item on each layer.  So, to being, let's put a hat on our character.  I want to make it one Layer 3.  But how?  Go up to where the Body, Head, Dress, Hairs, and Item links are, right below it, you should see this:



The empty option will get rid of any item you have on the currently selected layer.  The layer currently selected will be in red.  Right now, I have the 3rd layer open.  Now, I'm going to find a hat I like and add it to my character.




On no!  My hat doesn't fit him!  Now is where the "h" option comes in handy. Find the area I talked about earlier that has the "t", "b", and "h" options.  Notice it has gotten a bit bigger since we talked about it.  Here is a picture of it:



So, here is what you do.  Remember the image I had that numbered the frames?  If you don't, here it is:




Well, In my character, the frames that go right and left are the ones I need to change.  Now, the corresponding frames are 4-6 and 10-12.  I now have to go up to that huge box with the frame options in it (the image I had showed right before the last one).  I'm going to go to the area "Hairs".



I am now going to go to frames 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12.  i go to the drop down boxes, and change them to "h".  That way they are hidden.  Now go to the change button.

NOTE:  Nothing will change unless you press this button.

Here is my character now:



Of course, he still doesn't look perfect, but, I can use Paint to fix it up later in a program like paint.

So, now, I want to make him have a shield, now, let's go to layer 2!

So, I've found a shield.  This shield luckily had it already so then it was behind my character in Frames 1, 2, and 3:




Now, if it didn't do that, I'd have to do this:

Go back to this box:


This time instead of going to the hair, we are going to the Items (Layer 2) area.



Now, I'm going to change Frames 1, 2, and 3 to "h".  Now that should be fixed.  If you ever have an item that in one frame looks like it should be behind the character, then choose the "b" option.

Now, I'm going to finish my character by putting in a sword.  First I'm going to go to Layer 1.  And then find a sword.



On no!  The first 3 frames, the sword should be behind the character!  Let's use the "b" option and fix it!

This time I'm going to go to Items and change Frames 1, 2, and 3 to "b".  And just to make it look a little better, I'll do the same with the last 3 frames as well.




I'm done yay!   But... not quite.


2.6

Different Sized Characters

If you noticed the option that you could make different sized characters, this is what I'm talking about.

There are 10 different options from you to choose from.

Medium, Tall, Little, Soilders, Monsters, Monsters_f, Overweight Torso, Isometric, Chubby, and Dwarf.  Experiment with each a little bit and figure out which one you like best.




2.7

Image Sizes

You remember me talking about that a character you make in the generator is only 1/8 the size of a charset?  Well here is where I talk about what you do to make it.  First, let's look at the RTP (Run-time package) charset that comes with RPG Maker.



(this one comes with both 2000, and 2003)

Notice there are 8 characters on it?  First, save your character.  Do NOT save the character at 3x.  Click here:
 



Notice the different file types.  Please follow the directions below those file types.


Now that you've saved it, there are two ways I'm going to describe to you to make it able to be imported into RPG Maker 2000/2003.

Option 1

1.Create a new image with the Height of 256 and the width of 288.

2.Paste you newly saved character into the image.

3. Save as a PNG or BMP file.

4. Open it in a program like Ultimate Paint or somethign similar that will save in 256 colors.  Do NOT use Paint.  It will ruin your colors.

5. Import into RPG maker.  (More info on that later)

Option 2

1.Open up your newly saved character.

2. Change the Canvas size to 288 width, 256 height.  DO NOT CHANGE YOUR CHARACTERS HEIGHT OR WIDTH AT ALL.

3.0

The Battle Charset Generator

“RPG Maker 2003 has a side view default battle system similar to that of the Final Fantasy series. Those battle characters are for people with Rm2k3 to use for their characters.” Is how I put it to someone who didn’t know what they were for.

And they are exactly that.  Generated character sets designed for RPG Maker 2003’s battle system.  This part of the tutorial will describe how to make your battle characters as well as changing so they will work in your game.

This section is for people using RPG Maker 2003 (Rm2k3)

This generator can be viewed here:

http://charas-project.net/charas2/index.php?lang=en&generator=3

3.1

Body

So, you want to create an RTP styled (Or FF5 styled) battle character!  Unfortunately, there aren’t that many resources for this generator.  But, you can get around that by editing them to your liking or making new resources for everyone else to use to!  I won’t go over on how to do that in this guide.

Now, first off, let’s open the Battle Character Generator.  (Or from now on, I’ll call it the Battlechar Gen. so I don’t have to type the whole thing out. )
You can get there by clicking here: http://charas-project.net/charas2/index.php

So, you should now see the Battle Char Gen.! You should first see that the interface is similar (almost the same in fact) as the Charset generator.  So, let’s begin shall we?

First, click on the body you want to use.  I think I’ll choose this one.


Did you notice how this generator also has the “more (x)” in it?  That means there are different colors of that resource.  When you click on that resource, a pop up will come up asking which one you want.  Simple?  Yes.

Now that we have our body.  Let’s move onto the face.

3.2

Face

Its now time to give our new character a face.  Choose which face you want to give your character.  Also, remember what kind of character they are.  If they’re always angry or sad, don’t give the happiest face you can find!  So, do you have a face?  Good.  Here is what my character looks like so far.



Using the generators gets easier if you learn how to use one first!  They all follow the same concepts.  Let’s continue to Dress.

3.3

Dress

Again, you now have to figure out what gender you want your character.  I mean, why would you put a guy in a dress?  (All of my examples seem to exclude comedies….)

This time, I’ll make a girl character.  Choose something for the character to wear and then we’ll continue to the next part.

So, here is mine so far:


3.4

Hairs

Ack!  She’s bald!  But, we can fix this!  Choose a hair piece for your character.  Some instances may not call for you to be gender specific for this one, but try your best not to cross the defined line of cross dresser.  Once you have a hair piece, continue to Items!





3.5

Items

Items in the BattleChar Generator act exactly the same as the Item generator.  Except that now, there are more frames.  Most of the resources in this section will fit your character perfectly.  There are some exceptions in the Hair part of this generator, but nothing too major.

For more information on Items, go to the Charset Generator section on Items. (2.5)

The only difference between Items in the Charset generator and the BattleChar Gen. is the fact that the battle gen. only has one possible layer for items.  That means only one item per battle charset.  Choose an item for your character.  (You don’t really have to though!)



So, now that you’ve finished up the items, You’ve made your battle character!  (Yay!)  But, your not done yet. (Aw….)  There is a bit more that needs done before you can import it into RPG Maker 2003.

3.6

Image Size

First, you have to save your character!  Save it just like you did with the Charset generator.
Example from that generator:



1. Now that you’ve saved it, I suggest opening up Paint.  Now, without closing that one, open up another one.  (Just to be safe!)

2. Check the size of your image (by going to Image>>Attributes) Notice the size is 288 in width, and 384 in height.  Now, let’s take a look at what I said in the beginning:

Quotes from beginning of this guide
A Battle Charset is an image in RPG Maker with different stances for battles in RPG Maker 2003. These are not used in RPG Maker 2000. The Battlechar Generator actually produces an image that is two of the Battle Charset sheets. You will need to split them up before importing.

That is exactly what we are going to do!

3. Open up your image in the first Paint window, and then the second one.

4. Go to Paint Window 1.  Change the width (by going back to attributes) of that image to 144.  See how you just cut off ½ of your battlecharset?  That’s what’s supposed to happen!

5. Go to Paint Window 2.  Now, this one is a bit trickier.  You are going to have to take the Second half of the Battle character (the one we took out in Paint Window 1) and make it the only thing in the image.  You can do that many ways, but I think its easiest to just move it over until it has taken out the left half.  Now change the width to 144.

You’ve made your battle character!  Now, use a program to convert the image to 256 colors.  (DO NOT USE PAINT TO DO THIS.  IT WILL RUIN YOUR COLORS.)  I suggest Ultimate Paint or Paint Shop Pro.

You can now import the character into you BattleCharSet section of the Resource manager.  Never just place the image into the folder.  Always import the image.

That’s all for the Battle Character Generator!



6.0

RPG Maker XP users

Because of the most recent question being how to convert Charas made characters to RmXP format.  I know how to do this!  
So, I'll show you how.

First off, you need to make your character in the generator.  Now, be warned, the Faceset and Battle Charset generators will not work for any of the default systems in XP.

So, let's begin.  First, open up your character (not a charset!) in Paint.

Next, change the image size (NOT the character's size) to 128 by 128.
Like so:


Right click the green area with the eyedropper tool.

(Zoom in to 2x) Now use the Cut and Paste Tool and copy this area:



Next, move it here:



You image now looks like this:



Now, space your character out evenly.  So it’ll look something like this:

Now, we need to change the positions!  Because, in XP, the alignments are different!

So, move you character’s positions around until it looks like this:



So, your character should be ready to import.  Yes, mine is aligned right, I just checked.  Use mine as a template.

But, if your character seems to jump while walking, go back to your image and edit it a few pixels in the opposite direction.

Again, the Faceset generator and BattleCharset Generator can only be used if you have custom scripts.  I won't go into detail, however.

That’s all for now!



Any questions can also be PM'd to me.

[Grandy]

That generated charset does look a little silly.

 But nice tutorial, I guess.

[A Forgotten Legend]

I'll do the "3" stuff tomorrow.  I wrote up to there this morning.

I don't like the 8 image limit.  (gr...)

[Dragoon de Sol]

It's not bad, man. Though, to get around the limit, why not just make a folder and put all the images in there, and label them "Figure x.x" for whatever number image it is. That way, they con reference the image themselves and you can fit it all in a single post.

[A Forgotten Legend]

Well, I'm trying to go for the easiest to read, so I guess I'll keep it separated.

[ZeroKirbyX]

Thank god. A place to refer all the stupid questions to.

[A Forgotten Legend]

Updated.  Its all one post now too.

I just used html instead of the IMG tags...

[aboutasoandthis]

I think it's excellent imo.

[A Forgotten Legend]

Thanks.  Updated it for the RPG Maker Xp conversion method I know and was going to add.

[Bugs]

well my charas generator doesnt lookss like this o.o
and i took it from the site, theres any diference on versions?

[A Forgotten Legend]

This guide is for the site generators.  It does not include Charas.ex the downloadable version.

Please give more explanation.

EDIT:

This guide covers these two generators so far:

Charset Generator

BattleCharset Generator

[A Forgotten Legend]

If so, I probably should finish this. o.o

EDIT:  I just realized that this was written more than a year ago. o.o  Wow I've been slacking.

[fruckert]

I second on the sticky
It's a good guide

[TGF]

I third the sticky.

Nice guide, pretty useful. "Charas for Dummies"

[zuhane]

There's a character generator on here!!?!?!?!?!