Mugen characters are impossible to make

[niko5461]

Everything about character creation is terrible.I tried to make a character and everything went haywire.Looked for tutorials but found nothing informative.After an entire days changing things all I was able to do was change the animation and that too of a character just standing animation, it's like changing kyo into ken but the moves are stills kens(only the face belongs to Kyo but the character is still ken)
Cannot even create new animations or create special intros and change even the portrait (what is this color index anyway?).Then the worst part the target states.Why does creating just a character be this difficult?If you want to make more than one character then that is literally impossible then.
cmd,cns,sff,air,and,def why so many files?And all of them are complicated.Searching for tutorial only shows some guy creating a character that already exist.All he did was just add the character on his roster.The character was already created so why are these called tutorials?
I have edited other game characters before but only if Mugen was easy like those
If only simple tutorial existed but that seems asking to much in this god-damned world.

[pikeofao]

Not impossible, just a high learning curve imo if you don't have experience or knowledge already in certain things.
And you also need additional programs for sprite editing, sound editing etc.

If you're making a character from scratch instead of an edit, it takes even more time.

I'm saying this as someone who just started learning this myself recently. Its been a slow process for sure but I'm making small steps.
And I don't know what you consider simple, but youtube searches already tend to give me good info on the process of making characters, even from ones like 9 years ago.

For .cns or states, you can just open the basic Kungfu man with Fighter Factory, there's comments made there to describe how and why the values work.

I'd recommend you start experimenting with KungFu man first, since there's guides in the codes. Ready-made characters don't tend to have those.
Also you experiment by copy and pasting states from other characters and into your own and see how they behave.

There's many files sure, but understanding them isn't exactly complicated imo
This is what I've learnt and understood so far, I might be incorrect(if any other experienced char makers wish to correct me, feel free.)

.sff - Your raw sprites.
.air - Animation files, which you arrange your raw sprites in to make animations as well as set hit-boxes(?)
.snd - Your sound files.
.cmd - The file which stores your command inputs.
.cns - The state files, where you how your fighter 'behaves' as a result of your command inputs. Its also where you link the animations and sounds together depending on what state your character is in.
.def - Simple file, but is the one which links all of the above together. Also where you put your character's name, creator's name, version etc.

Its not exactly simple, but...
http://www.elecbyte.com/mugendocs-11b1/tutorial1.html

[niko5461]

I did what this guy said and everything was a failure.I am new to this so his ranting doesn't help.Just a few screenshot and then he runs his mouth "I got kfm now what,I got sff now what" well I don't understand this method and every YouTube video does the almost the exact same thing
Following his method gives def failed to load and anything CNS related makes my head spin.And I have not seen a single video about creating layers instead it's all about damn palettes.Who wants a pallete or a stage.If I want a venom I'll download it not try to create it.I wanted to create a character that doesn't exist on Mugen at the moment but YouTubers only show characters that have like 5 version of them already
For now I just want to know how to make animation layer and that index color(whatever that is because I can't change portraits because of it) but if that's not possible then I'll just give up

[UmbreonLover]

Not impossible, just a high learning curve imo if you don't have experience or knowledge already in certain things.
And you also need additional programs for sprite editing, sound editing etc.

If you're making a character from scratch instead of an edit, it takes even more time.

I'm saying this as someone who just started learning this myself recently. Its been a slow process for sure but I'm making small steps.
And I don't know what you consider simple, but youtube searches already tend to give me good info on the process of making characters, even from ones like 9 years ago.

For .cns or states, you can just open the basic Kungfu man with Fighter Factory, there's comments made there to describe how and why the values work.

I'd recommend you start experimenting with KungFu man first, since there's guides in the codes. Ready-made characters don't tend to have those.
Also you experiment by copy and pasting states from other characters and into your own and see how they behave.

There's many files sure, but understanding them isn't exactly complicated imo
This is what I've learnt and understood so far, I might be incorrect(if any other experienced char makers wish to correct me, feel free.)

.sff - Your raw sprites.
.air - Animation files, which you arrange your raw sprites in to make animations as well as set hit-boxes(?)
.snd - Your sound files.
.cmd - The file which stores your command inputs.
.cns - The state files, where you how your fighter 'behaves' as a result of your command inputs. Its also where you link the animations and sounds together depending on what state your character is in.
.def - Simple file, but is the one which links all of the above together. Also where you put your character's name, creator's name, version etc.

Its not exactly simple, but...
http://www.elecbyte.com/mugendocs-11b1/tutorial1.html

You are starting off in the right track, but you did forgot about ".st" which falls in the same topic as ".cns".

I did what this guy said and everything was a failure.I am new to this so his ranting doesn't help.Just a few screenshot and then he runs his mouth "I got kfm now what,I got sff now what" well I don't understand this method and every YouTube video does the almost the exact same thing
Following his method gives def failed to load and anything CNS related makes my head spin.And I have not seen a single video about creating layers instead it's all about damn palettes.Who wants a pallete or a stage.If I want a venom I'll download it not try to create it.I wanted to create a character that doesn't exist on Mugen at the moment but YouTubers only show characters that have like 5 version of them already
For now I just want to know how to make animation layer and that index color(whatever that is because I can't change portraits because of it) but if that's not possible then I'll just give up

if you can't follow pikeofao suggestion, nor the videos in youtube... I would suggest you to give up if you can't read, follow, or understand the process of creating a character. Youtube is there to assist, not to make your life easier. Creating a Character from scratch, you need the following skill set:

Experiences in Programming field
Experinces in drawing Art, this include the basic fundamental of animation.
ASMR editor/producer
and finally~! Patient

All of these create a personality, and the function of a character if done correctly. It's a heavy time consuming part for those that want to do it, but the one that takes away most of your time would be the Art side due to animations and the complex of a character

[LarkinSpark]

Everything about character creation is terrible.I tried to make a character and everything went haywire.Looked for tutorials but found nothing informative.After an entire days changing things all I was able to do was change the animation and that too of a character just standing animation, it's like changing kyo into ken but the moves are stills kens(only the face belongs to Kyo but the character is still ken)
Cannot even create new animations or create special intros and change even the portrait (what is this color index anyway?).Then the worst part the target states.Why does creating just a character be this difficult?If you want to make more than one character then that is literally impossible then.
cmd,cns,sff,air,and,def why so many files?And all of them are complicated.Searching for tutorial only shows some guy creating a character that already exist.All he did was just add the character on his roster.The character was already created so why are these called tutorials?
I have edited other game characters before but only if Mugen was easy like those
If only simple tutorial existed but that seems asking to much in this god-damned world.

Making a character is very complicated in the very beginning. Once you learn more it'll be easier. No one is going to provide a tutorial from absolutely nothing because that could take years to do. The tutorial exists as only a reference point for explanation. It's meant for you to take the info and work with it rather than copy it.

You already made good progress by learning how to add sprites and change animations. Most people look at the code and get overwhelmed at what looks like mountains of information before ever even taking a moment to analyze things. Start slow and work your way up.

I did what this guy said and everything was a failure.I am new to this so his ranting doesn't help.Just a few screenshot and then he runs his mouth "I got kfm now what,I got sff now what" well I don't understand this method and every YouTube video does the almost the exact same thing
Following his method gives def failed to load and anything CNS related makes my head spin.And I have not seen a single video about creating layers instead it's all about damn palettes.Who wants a pallete or a stage.If I want a venom I'll download it not try to create it.I wanted to create a character that doesn't exist on Mugen at the moment but YouTubers only show characters that have like 5 version of them already
For now I just want to know how to make animation layer and that index color(whatever that is because I can't change portraits because of it) but if that's not possible then I'll just give up

Remember, the tutorials are reference points with information, your method and content will be different. The code is not difficult to read when you take it slowly. It is designed to be very simple for everyone to understand. What you do with it however can be very intricate and extremelycomplicated, but you're not at that level yet. There are some confusing bits for beginners though like how within the code, "[statedef]", is the actual state and [state] is actually the state controller(AKA the instructions. sctrl for short.).

Info on the explods.

► Show Spoiler

Mugen does not directly support animation layers, but you can "create" them in a sense. If you want to have parts of an animation draw in front or behind something else, you will need to make use of something called an explod in the cns. Basically all it does is play an animation on screen where you tell it to and for how long. You will put this in any state

The explod looks like this with some simplified info by me.

► Show Spoiler

Here's a link to it from elecbyte as well.
LINK

Code: Select all

[State 0, Explod]
type = Explod
trigger1 = !time	;What makes it load. We'll use !time as that stands for the 0th frame of the state, AKA when it starts. time = 0 also works.
anim = 			;The animation you want to load.
ID = 			;The ID in case anything else needs to reference to the explod on screen.
pos = 0,0		;X and Y values for where it draws. 0,0 is the exact coordinates of where it is calculated via postype. I.E 0,0 on p2 is at the bottom center of player 2. 
postype = p1  	 ;This determines where it will position from. p1 is player 1 and p2 is player 2. The directions are screen based. We'll stick to p1 here.
facing = 1		;Which horizontal direction it'll face. 1 for normal, -1 for flipped
vfacing = 1		;Which vertical direction it'll face. 1 for normal, -1 for flipped.
bindtime = 0		;Defines how long it'll stick to it's position based on postype. Useful for things like custom meters. Leave at 0 for now.
vel = 0,0		;Sets its velocity. We're not using this so leave it at 0,0
accel = 0,0		;Sets its acceleration. We're not using this either so leave it at 0,0.
random = 0,0	;Randomizes the position by up to the values. Also not using this so leave it at 0,0.
removetime = -2	;Sets the time the explod exists. Setting to -1 will make it last until removed via other code and -2 until the animation ends. 
pausemovetime = 0	;Sets how long the explod continues animating and moving during Pause. Pause is by code, not the pause button or hitstop.
scale = 1,1		;Scales explod size by these X and Y values. Leave them at 1,1 OR const(size.xscale),const(size.yscale) if character size is changed
sprpriority = 0	;THIS is where the layer is. Higher draws in front of other sprites, lower is behind. sprpiority is used in a lot more places too.
ontop = 0		;If this is set to 1, it will always draw above everything else.
shadow = 0,0,0	;Draws a shadow based on RGB values. You can ignore this for now.
ownpal = 1		;This will make it be unaffected by palette changes like being hit by fire or something. 0 by default which makes it affected. Use 1 here.
removeongethit = 0	;This makes it disappear if the player is hit. Leave it at 0. 

Here is all you'll usually need.

[State 0, Explod]
type = Explod
trigger1 =
anim =
ID =
pos = 0,0
postype = p1 ;p2,front,back,left,right
facing = 1
vfacing = 1
removetime = -2
scale = const(size.xscale),const(size.yscale)
sprpriority = 0
ownpal =1
removeongethit = 0

Here's a bit of info for color indexes and palettes

► Show Spoiler

For the index color, this is usually done outside of mugen via your art program of choice. However if the sprite is not indexed then when you add it to fighter factory, you have a few choices on how to go about it.

► Show Spoiler

Image's palette, if not already added.
The default choice. This just inserts the image and if it has a palette, cool. If not then you will have to make one via the image editor.

Force the specified palette(adapt the image)
This will set the palette to whichever is chosen. IT WILL CHOOSE THE NEAREST COLORS IF THE SPRITE HAS NO PALETTE!

Exchange with the specified palette
This will import the image and assign the new colors based on the chosen palettes indexes. If the image has a palette then all the colors will receive them in order. I.E slot 1 of the original image is green. The new palette slot 1 is pink so now it is exchanged from green to pink.

If you have sprites without an index at all then add them by images palette and go into the image editor. You will have to use the palette menu to create a new palette and then edit it. From there you want to find a button that looks like a picture pointing to the palette swatch. This will let you generate a palette from a chosen image. After that, there should be a button of just a floppy disk that'll let you save the palette as a file.

The learning curve for mugen is very steep in the sense that it starts very simple with changing sprites/sounds, but then you kinda get slammed with a wall of code. Just take a moment to read states slowly every now and even change a value here and there to see what happens. Never do a lot all at once because if something goes bad, you won't know what happened.

I hope this answers your specific index and layering questions. I added spoilers on the stuff to try and reduce on all the text.

[Tetchi]

Everything about character creation is terrible.

Everything commented in previous answers, would be the congruent thing to do but we are human and sometimes being honest with ourselves and our limitations (not all of us have the same conditions of possibilities but if we should be able to do anything we are the same species), it is good; you have the alternative of paying for them to do it there are several pages on patreon where you can make a char for a payment, I know that this may be something you are not looking for but it is one more solution, the best is to learn we all start from scratch, in my case the language It was an important factor to have the information in a language other than mine and in those times the Internet was not really as "powerful" as it is today when I am writing this message.

Courage and try it, if we can as a species go out into outer space, that a code cannot be interpreted, it is a piece of cake.

[Noscopejfk]

I feel you.. Making sprites & icons on Byond is preschool stuff compared to this...

Nobody has made Streets of Rage 4 characters yet & nobody takes requests. But unfortunately this isn't something I can do myself as I'm a complete brainlet when it comes to coding

All my hopes died when I realized the request page isn't for requests but for requesting information
Nobody has even made 3D animation porn of SOR 4

Do you know how awesome it would be to make a SoR4 version of Tobf? With those enemies including the chick with the Nora/alternate color versions in the place of Poison? Ms. Y

Anywho... Yeah... I easily get overwhelmed any time I even attempt it but I've accepted that I aint cut out for coding. I already respect those who created these characters but jeez it lets you know what they went through even more

[UmbreonLover]

Which is why "free request" is a taboo, and those that do "free creation" is because they want to build it, either because they are a fan of the character('s), or they want to put their learning into the challenge. There are people who does commission for certain pixels art poses, but building your whole characters from scratch will be very costly, and time consuming.

Creator may sometimes abandon the work because its too much to handle for a single person, or because the commissioner is a **** at the coder/artist for taking too long for the character to be made lol