Character Creator Packs

When a player makes a character they pick a race, a body, hair, an outfit and so on. The art behind those choices is a character creator pack — a folder of part images you import once, per project. Each character you author decides whether players build its look from a pack, and which pack; players never pick a pack themselves.

Until you import one, the creator falls back to a built-in placeholder look (round cut-out avatars) so a character is always creatable. Importing a pack replaces that with your art.

Where you'll find it#

Which art you can import#

VX Ace's Face portraits are not imported. Its portrait and walking-sprite numbers don't match (Face 06 is not Mini 06), so a portrait can't be paired with the right sprite — the import tells you how many it left out.

RPG Maker gives you far more parts to mix; RPG Tools gives you far more animation. Pick per project — a pack must use one art style throughout, and mixing the two is refused rather than drawn wrong.

Import a pack#

1. Open Asset Manager → Character Creator → Packs & Rules and press Import pack.
2. Pick the source: RPG Maker generator, RPG Maker VX Ace generator or RPG Tools character pieces.
3. Give it a pack id (optional, but do it now — the id is baked into every part and changing it later means re-importing) and a name.
4. Point at your art:
   • Paste a folder path (desktop or local project) — the server reads your disk. For RPG Tools, the folder containing assets/Pack_CharacterPieces. For RPG Maker, the folder containing the generator's TV, Face, SV and Variation directories. For VX Ace, the Generator folder from your install, the one holding Mini and Face.
   • Choose the folder in your browser (hosted project, or whenever the server can't see your disk) — your art uploads and the pack is built from it. On a hosted project it goes to your project's cloud storage; on a project with no cloud storage it is saved into the project's own pack folder. A folder path doesn't work on cloud: it is read by the server, which cannot see your machine.
5. Wait. The importer copies every part, measures it, and cuts a small picker icon from each one. RPG Tools packs also get cut into per-animation sheets, which takes a while on large art.
6. The new pack opens in the list. Press Make default if characters without a pack of their own should build from it.

The default pack#

The default pack is what a character builds from when it doesn't name a pack of its own — and what every player gets in a world with no characters authored yet. It carries a Default badge in the pack list. Make default on another pack switches it; heroes already made keep the pack they were made with.

Portraits on character select#

If the pack has portrait art for a body (RPG Maker packs do), the character-select screen shows the face the player built instead of a frame of the walking sprite. The game makes the picture the first time it is needed — right after the character is created, or when the player next opens character select — and keeps it, so it is made once per look.

• Change a character's look, or import the pack again with new art, and the picture is remade automatically.
• A pack with no portrait art for that body, a character built from its own sprite, or art the game can't read keeps the walking-sprite frame. Nothing breaks.
• The in-world character window still shows the character as they look in the world.

Pack rules#

Select a pack to set what its creator offers. Rules belong to the pack, so re-importing it keeps them.

Size in the world#

How big characters built from this pack stand in the game. It uses the same scale as an avatar's Scale: 1 is one tile wide, and 2 is the default.

Sizes run from 0.1 to 8. Type a size or drag the slider. A size outside that range is pulled back into it when you leave the field.

While riding a mount#

What characters built from this pack do while they ride (see Mounts & Rider Fit).

RPG Maker walking sheets have no riding frames, so an RPG Maker pack gets a Riding animation that is mapped onto frames the pack already has. You choose which:

1. Open Asset Manager → Character Creator → Packs & Rules and select the RPG Maker pack.
2. In While riding a mount, pick an option under Riding animation uses.
3. Press Save rules.

The rider always faces the way the mount is heading. Every RPG Maker pack you already imported uses Idle frame without re-importing; players who already made characters pick up a change the next time they log in.

An RPG Tools pack has riding frames of its own and uses them — the card says so and has nothing to set.

Categories#

Categories marked Portrait only (an RPG Maker pack's face, eyes, nose, mouth) have no walking art, so the creator never offers them whatever you set.

Races in this pack#

One row per race from Characters → Races.

Import notes and strips#

Import notes lists anything the importer warned about (a part it couldn't measure, a missing file). Split animation strips re-cuts an older RPG Tools pack so characters render at full sharpness; new imports do this already.

Races#

Database → Characters → Races holds the races players can be — a name, a description and an icon. A race works with every pack; how it uses a pack (which bodies) is that pack's rule above.

• Starting race — the race a new character starts on before the player picks. Default: the first race.
• Order — the order races appear in the creator.
• Deleting a race removes it from every character and pack rule. Heroes already made as that race keep their look.
• A project that set up races in the old Generator JSON box gets a Bring them over banner that turns them into real races and pack rules in one step.

A character's look#

Open a character, Avatar & Animations → Look:

A character you haven't set yet builds from the default pack when your project has one, and uses its sprite animations otherwise. With Character creator, the sprite animations stay useful: they are what a hero wears if they have no created look.

What each art style animates#

RPG Maker art holds one walk cycle and a standing pose. So an RPG Maker character walks, runs (the same cycle, quicker) and stands, in four directions — diagonal movement uses the nearest direction. Attacks and spellcasting fall back to standing, because there are no frames for them. That's the art's limit, not a setting.

RPG Tools art covers the full range — every weapon stance, attacks, casting, being hit, dying — and characters play all of it.

Gotchas#

• Portraits are built from PNG art. Portrait layers saved as WebP are skipped; a portrait with no readable layers falls back to the sprite frame.
• VX Ace parts can't be recoloured. The VX Ace generator has no colour layers, so its parts keep the colours they were drawn with.
• VX Ace files must be named like Type01.png or Type_01.png. Anything else is listed as a warning and left out.
• Pack rules save with Save rules. The bar at the bottom appears as soon as you change something; switching packs with unsaved changes asks first.
• Heroes change size on their next login. A new pack size reaches characters already made from the pack the next time their player logs in. Nothing needs re-saving. Players already in the world keep the old size until they reconnect.
• Generated NPCs follow the pack's size too. An NPC template's own Size still wins over it.
• Players wear the look they build. Once your project has a pack, a character made in the creator walks the world — and shows on character select — wearing what the player built, even if its character template also has sprite animations. The template's sprite only stands in for a hero who has no created look. Heroes keep the pack they were made with if you later change the default pack.
• A race with no bodies in a pack disappears from it. If a character uses that pack and allows only that race, its creator has no race to offer — give the race a body, or allow another race.
• Rules follow a re-import, not a rename. Rules are stored by pack id; import under a new id and the new pack starts with no rules.
• Hosted projects and very large art. RPG Tools sheets over about 4 MB each can fail to upload through the browser importer. Smaller sheets upload fine.
• One art style per pack. Mixing RPG Maker and RPG Tools parts makes the pack refuse to render. Import them as separate packs.
• RPG Tools packs have the body models the art has. If your source only has a Female folder, players only get that build until you add the other art.
• Part names come from the folder names. Tunic_Green reads as "Tunic Green"; a folder called RTP_1 reads as "1". Name your variant folders before importing.
• Weapons are skipped on purpose in RPG Tools packs — weapons are equipment, not appearance, and come from the items you equip.
• Wings, cloaks, tails and back hair are two images each. RPG Maker draws one half behind the character and the other over their back, so they read right whichever way the character faces. The two halves come in together as one choice — you never pick them separately. Packs you imported before this worked are corrected automatically when they load; there is no need to re-import.
• New characters start plain. An RPG Maker pack starts a character with hair and an outfit; wings, cloak, tail, glasses, markings, ears and accessories start at None. The outfit can be set to None too.
• Face, eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth don't appear in the creator. An RPG Maker generator paints those for the portrait only — the walking sprite is too small for them, so there is no character art to show. They import and sit in the pack, but the creator doesn't offer them, because picking one would change nothing on screen. That's how RPG Maker works, not a fault in the import.
• Hair and skin colours are approximate. RPG Maker tints its parts through gradient palettes; the creator applies a flat colour instead. Dark colours land close, pale ones drift.
• A part that can't be measured warns you. It still imports, but a doubled or HD export may render at the wrong size; the warning names the file.