Canvas (re)size during the mesh phase

[Khelz]

Hello,

I'm working on a Godot project with Creature and I have the following question:

Basically I'm using the Skin Swapping feature in order to change clothes and weapons on the fly with CreatureGodot. This works very well, but I have a workflow issue/question:

Basically, the original canvas of any creature project has a fixed size (width/height), and when I create additional items I need to import extra images inside the creature project and make them fit in that canvas. At some point, I would need to be able to INCREASE the size of the canvas of existing creature projects without breaking things. Is it possible to increase the size of that canvas to add new images without breaking the mesh/rig of an existing project?

I tried "repack atlas texture", and it somewhat works, but as the documentation indicates, it can create artifacts and I'm a bit worried that at some point it could break an entire project, requiring a complete remesh, rig and weight painting phase to clean up things properly. The thing is that I don't need to change the location of the current meshes, just adding new ones in empty areas.

What is the suggested official/workflow for that kind of use case?

In advance thank you.

[chong]

Hello,

You have a couple of options:

1) If you use PSD from the beginning and put all your body parts into different layers, run the import -> PSD image option again and that should take care of it for you.

2) You can make your new character atlas and then import it in as a new single image. Creature in most cases will try to find the correct images and match them to your current meshes/rig as long as the original images didn't change and you are just adding new ones.

In both cases, it will ask you if you need to do a round of auto-weighting and try to transfer the weights over. You might still have to manually tweak/paint some of your weights however but most of the work should hopefully be automated for you.

Thanks

[Khelz]

I see thanks, I'm trying different things now without getting optimal results (always some artefacts). Why not adding the option to just resize the canvas within creature itself so that images can be added easily without never ever modyfing meshes that are already rigged/weightpainted?

If I had a missing feature in this fabulous application, it would just be that

[chong]

Hello,

Yes that sounds good, will investigate into that feature
I just remembered there is also Import -> Repack Atlas Texture
You can pick a much larger resolution for that. Then after repacking, you can go in and add a new image part from the import menu as well.

Thanks

[Khelz]

Thanks for the information about repacking. This seems to work a bit better than with the other options, but it's still causing artifacts unfortunately.

If you can add the feature/possibility to resize the mesh canvas within creature, it would make the software perfect for all 2D game development needs in my opinion! I hope it's already on the roadmap for an incoming version

[chong]

Hello,

Actually improving on the repack atlas feature will be the way to go. It already allows for resizing of the texture atlas, I think what is needed is to address any potential artifacts for some cases when things are resized. Will investigate.

Update: Can I know what are the artifacts you are experiencing when you resize the texture atlas? Will like those issues noted down so once can investigate.

Thanks

[Khelz]

In fact I'm getting artifacts when repacking even WITHOUT modifying the size of the atlas as per the screenshots below:

BEFORE REPACK (meshes also had to be fine-tuned manually after import, but all parts are covered correctly by triangles):
Example 1 : https://www.dropbox.com/s/hal1n7wzu4jih ... e.jpg?dl=0
(And animation sample using these assets: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p0s3ngaksp09q ... e.mp4?dl=0 )

Example 2 : https://www.dropbox.com/s/l2862zhadqw30 ... e.jpg?dl=0
(And animation sample using these assets: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kczyv9xvc096f ... e.mp4?dl=0 )

AFTER REPACK:
Example 1 : https://www.dropbox.com/s/z0vfoakgzlpvi ... r.jpg?dl=0
Example 2 : https://www.dropbox.com/s/l7tpwnac0efv5 ... e.jpg?dl=0

As you can see, in the first screenshot, the semi-transparent blond hair is changing colour (it becomes a bit darker after the repack), and some parts of the hands are cut out. In the second screenshot, same kind of issue with the small red bits for example. I'm also highlighting the right arm and you can see that some parts of the arms are not covered by triangles anymore, while they were fully covered before the repack.

The thing is I think the automated process will necessarily modify stuff, if everything could be kept it would be great, but wouldn't it be easier to just allow to modify the size without having to reorganize and remesh everything with all the consequences it might lead to?

Thank you so much for your assistance on this.

[chong]

Hello,

Thanks for the info, will investigate. I will also look into giving users a new option to resize or shrink ( with some limitations ) the texture atlas without any rig region changes ( basically close to what you described ). Will put this on the TODO list.

Thanks

[Khelz]

This is really awesome, thank you so much for the support

[chong]

Hello,

Good news a way to resize the atlas without affecting the rig meshes will be in for the next update.

Cheers