Kjorteo
Greenhorn
Hi all,
Semi-inspired to look into a project that we may or may not actually embark on depending on how big it ends up being, but... inspired enough to look into it, at least, and we could definitely use some guidance as far as knowing what we're up against, here.
Some backstory, for context: We're furries and have been using Furry Farmer--specifically, the version that ports all the Furry Farmer assets into a Fashion Sense pack--to play as more anthro forms. Without giving details because of the forum NSFW rules and such, we recently have been looking into mods that expand the farmer's available sprite frames and animations so that the farmer can do things the vanilla sprite sheet does not cover.
Furry Farmer hasn't been updated in a while. It still works as a Fashion Sense pack, but (without actually having encountered them yet) I very much doubt it's going to know how to account for or accommodate the extra animations and such beyond the regular farmer sprite sheet. This might just be our big excuse to finally tackle a long-daydreamed-about "Furry Farmer is nice, but I wish it had..." project to make the farmer look more like how we've always envisioned. However, I would be surprised if any Fashion Sense pack could handle nonstandard animations and expanded sprite sheets, even if we were to make our own.
Let's say we wanted to make some anthro farmer body bases for a few species--feline, canine, some kind of scaly that could work as a snake/lizard/dragon/whatever else depending on accessories (horns, frills, etc.) because oh, yeah, those should be options, too. Etc.
And let's say one of the goals is to be as compatible and future-proof with mods that add new farmer sprites or animations as possible. I mean, it's not Furry Farmer's fault in this case; like I said, unless we're incredibly wrong, not knowing what to do with expanded sprites is a Fashion Sense limitation more than anything else. Or... at the very least, a limitation of the Body slot in Fashion Sense. Perhaps hair, accessories, etc. would stlil work, but that's untested.
The best way to account for the unknown and unknowable "what if someone else makes a mod with new sprites in the future" type stuff seems like it would have to be leaving the farmer's body "human" but converting it through a series of accessories stacked on top. (A longer snout object over the face, maybe a tail, and make the skin green, and now you're a lizard, for example.) That way, any mod with its own custom animations should already come with all the new assets we need; the new animations are already there for the base human sprite. We'd just need to keep the skin tone changes and "accessories" attached.
Speaking of which: First off, are there mods or framework to expand skin tone options from the predefined ones to the kind of "enter whatever RGB values you want" freedom you get with Fashion Sense clothing? Just being able to get away from flesh-colored flesh is at least half the battle to make any stock body less human-seeming right there.
Second, what mods or framework might help with stacking more layers of visual effects and accessories? Like, let's say I wanted to make the sona of the one currently playing on our own run, a hooded cobra. If we're doing that with this proposed project at its most modular, we'd need:
Also, how would one even account for the layer order? A hooded cobra who also has hair would need to figure out what to do so the hair is on top of the hood when seen from behind, but probably the other way around when seen from the front....
Hmmm. You know, the more I think about the scope of this project, the more I'm wondering if we should just make a multi-layered PSD file or something with instructions on how to turn on or off the right layers as desired, export that as a single sprite sheet, and just run a simple non-Fashion Sense direct Content Patcher swap that makes that the farmer's body....
... Wait. No. Generating a custom vanilla sprite sheet just runs directly back into the original problem of not being compatible with anything that adds new sprites or animations. No, we'd have to start with leaving the body "human" for the sake of those and adding everything else on top....
Hmm. I don't know. Apologies for the long post; just trying to figure all of this out. Any advice/suggestions for the best logical way to break it all down would be most welcome.
Thank you!
Semi-inspired to look into a project that we may or may not actually embark on depending on how big it ends up being, but... inspired enough to look into it, at least, and we could definitely use some guidance as far as knowing what we're up against, here.
Some backstory, for context: We're furries and have been using Furry Farmer--specifically, the version that ports all the Furry Farmer assets into a Fashion Sense pack--to play as more anthro forms. Without giving details because of the forum NSFW rules and such, we recently have been looking into mods that expand the farmer's available sprite frames and animations so that the farmer can do things the vanilla sprite sheet does not cover.
Furry Farmer hasn't been updated in a while. It still works as a Fashion Sense pack, but (without actually having encountered them yet) I very much doubt it's going to know how to account for or accommodate the extra animations and such beyond the regular farmer sprite sheet. This might just be our big excuse to finally tackle a long-daydreamed-about "Furry Farmer is nice, but I wish it had..." project to make the farmer look more like how we've always envisioned. However, I would be surprised if any Fashion Sense pack could handle nonstandard animations and expanded sprite sheets, even if we were to make our own.
Let's say we wanted to make some anthro farmer body bases for a few species--feline, canine, some kind of scaly that could work as a snake/lizard/dragon/whatever else depending on accessories (horns, frills, etc.) because oh, yeah, those should be options, too. Etc.
And let's say one of the goals is to be as compatible and future-proof with mods that add new farmer sprites or animations as possible. I mean, it's not Furry Farmer's fault in this case; like I said, unless we're incredibly wrong, not knowing what to do with expanded sprites is a Fashion Sense limitation more than anything else. Or... at the very least, a limitation of the Body slot in Fashion Sense. Perhaps hair, accessories, etc. would stlil work, but that's untested.
The best way to account for the unknown and unknowable "what if someone else makes a mod with new sprites in the future" type stuff seems like it would have to be leaving the farmer's body "human" but converting it through a series of accessories stacked on top. (A longer snout object over the face, maybe a tail, and make the skin green, and now you're a lizard, for example.) That way, any mod with its own custom animations should already come with all the new assets we need; the new animations are already there for the base human sprite. We'd just need to keep the skin tone changes and "accessories" attached.
Speaking of which: First off, are there mods or framework to expand skin tone options from the predefined ones to the kind of "enter whatever RGB values you want" freedom you get with Fashion Sense clothing? Just being able to get away from flesh-colored flesh is at least half the battle to make any stock body less human-seeming right there.
Second, what mods or framework might help with stacking more layers of visual effects and accessories? Like, let's say I wanted to make the sona of the one currently playing on our own run, a hooded cobra. If we're doing that with this proposed project at its most modular, we'd need:
- Expanded skin tone options
- A "generic scaly"-shaped snout/face shape overlay object
- A cobra hood
- A tail
- His markings are so distinct that we'd probably be the only people in the world who would feel suitably represented by this exact patterning. If we wanted to make this more general-use, perhaps we could split the parts of it up. You know, make an overlay for the separate belly patch, the "boots" countershade patterns on the hands and feet, the eye markings, and the freckle-like spots adorning his entire backside. Someone else using this set could mix and match patterning elements.
- All separately colored, preferably, so you're not tied to things like the belly and everything else being just shades of the same overall color. (This is a limitation Furry Farmer currently has.)
Also, how would one even account for the layer order? A hooded cobra who also has hair would need to figure out what to do so the hair is on top of the hood when seen from behind, but probably the other way around when seen from the front....
Hmmm. You know, the more I think about the scope of this project, the more I'm wondering if we should just make a multi-layered PSD file or something with instructions on how to turn on or off the right layers as desired, export that as a single sprite sheet, and just run a simple non-Fashion Sense direct Content Patcher swap that makes that the farmer's body....
... Wait. No. Generating a custom vanilla sprite sheet just runs directly back into the original problem of not being compatible with anything that adds new sprites or animations. No, we'd have to start with leaving the body "human" for the sake of those and adding everything else on top....
Hmm. I don't know. Apologies for the long post; just trying to figure all of this out. Any advice/suggestions for the best logical way to break it all down would be most welcome.
Thank you!