Sprite editing - help/guide/advice needed!

[SterlingArcher]

Hi guys,

Earlier I made a topic asking if people could help me with a project I'm working on, but to no avail.

So I'm here trying to get help/advice/guide on sprite editing.

My question is it possible to use the sprites that are implemented with the character? And if so, is it possible, after editing, to just overwrite the sprites with the edited ones?

And if any good samaritans want to help me with the project, feel free to message me .

Thank you guys in advance.

[sky79]

Often times, yes, but it also depends on what you're planning to do. there are lots of little tricks to spriteing.

[Cyanide]

Well, you could completely export the sff file, provided you never changed the underlying size of the images, you can edit over the top and then import them again for a perfectly funcitonal sff (this is basically sprite swapping)

Just remember that things are placed based on the top left corner. If you take a sprite of ryu, and make the image bigger vertically to give him bunny ears, it will ruin the alignment of the sprites where that happens.

Alternatively you can replace the sprites in the sff with your new ones and realign on a per sprite basis. This will probably take longer but it's the only way to do it if you are making radical changes to the sprite set.

[SterlingArcher]

Generally I would like to just edit the sprites costumes, so no resizing would be necessary, so if I export the sff file, which program should I use for it?

Tried opening the .act file in Photoshop but to no avail. I want to make the costume from CA:Civil War for Spider-Man, but I just can't seem to find the right engine to do so.

Any tip is highly appreciated since I'm just starting to get more seriously into this.

THANKS!

[Cyanide]

Open the character with Fighter Factory 3. Under the sprites menu will be an option to export the SFF.

This will give you hundreds of images (some will be the same, you can effectively just copy paste and rename rather than editing the dupes, you still need them though, don't just delete)

These images can be opened with most paint programs. You may want to re-palette to return them all to 32bit images before editing, and re-palette before bringing them back in. I suggest you run through a couple of tutorials for how to do this BEFORE you do it with the edits.

[SterlingArcher]

Ye I've exported to SFF file into BMP.

I will try to change a few of them to see how this works, but how do I pack them up again into the SFF file? Do I have to do it manually or can I somehow just merge them into a .SFF file and change the whole file inside a characters folder?

And do you mind sharing a few links if you have about that re-palette tutorials?

Much thanks

[Cyanide]

They can be reimported, once more within FF3 by using the FFD file you created when you ran the export.

I can't link you a tutorial because i don't have any on hand, but there are heaps. Paletting your sprites is something everyone does a little differently. Search out a tutorial for your chosen application and run through it.