PNG to in game sprite in 3 steps

Phase's PNG to in game sprite in 3 steps
Using these steps, you can easily replace any Pokemon sprite with your PNG image.

Tools you'll need:

• Image editor for the PNG
• Irfanview for indexing the image
• GIMP for easy-peasy palette changing
• Nameless Sprite Editor 2.0 for inserting the sprite

0. Create the image
Create your image in Paint.NET or whatever. Make sure your background color is something abstract and not in the image anywhere. The file extension of your image should be .bmp. Here's mine.


1. Index the image
Open your image in Irfanview. You'll need to decrease the color depth to 16 colors. Image => Decrease Color Depth


2. Swap the palette in GIMP
Most people use Irfanview for this, but GIMP won't mess up the original image when swapping the palette, so you can directly import it to the ROM.

Using GIMP, you want to go to Colors => Map => Rearrange Colormap


Then you want to find your background color and move it to the front of the list. If there are more than 16 colors, you didn't do the indexing right.


Now export with Ctrl + Shift + E. You can then close GIMP. It will ask you to save it, but you don't have to because already exported it.


3. Importing the image into the game
I'll be using Fire Red for this, but it will also work with Emerald, as NSE works... with Emerald. NSE won't work with Ruby, but you can wait for a future update for support. Once you open your ROM, navigate to what image you want to replace. Here's mine:

Doing this with images other than Pokemon sprites can be difficult, so we'll just stick to those for now.

There are a couple keybinds we can use to make this next part super-quick. Ctrl + I will start the import process. Hitting enter here will open the file slection, select your file and it will go back to the import screen. If your background is clear, you've done the previous steps correctly. Make sure you've selected Image + Palette and save. This WON'T save it to the ROM. You'll need to save the Palette to a new Pointer (or don't if you're like, super advanced).


Next you can hit Ctrl + S to save the sprite. If you go to a different Pokemon and go back, you can see if it worked. If the image in the top left corner is correct (correct palette and clear background), then you've done it! Go in game and see it!

You can edit the name and sprite height in G3TS. Once you memorize the keybinds and where you need to go, you can put in a new sprite in under a minute.

Very nice! A simple and easy to understand tutorial. I'll just point out that if you save the image as a .png it can be used in programs such as unLZ-GBA and GBA Graphics Editor and that the process is not just limited to Pokémon sprites, but rather any sprite you encounter in the games.

Lost Heart said:

Very nice! A simple and easy to understand tutorial. I'll just point out that if you save the image as a .png it can be used in programs such as unLZ-GBA and GBA Graphics Editor and that the process is not just limited to Pokémon sprites, but rather any sprite you encounter in the games.

Click to expand...

I like NSE2's interface more than unLZ's, so I use it more. It also took me forever to understand GGE. This is mostly a tutorial on indexing the image, you can insert it anyway you want. I've never seen GIMP being used for palette changing on here, so I thought I'd show it off.

So to make the palette swap I need gimp after all... Thank you, I wasted quite a few hours trying to understand what I was doing wrong while trying to change the character's back sprites (it turned out pretty creepy if you ask me).
Now let's see if I'll be able to make this work...
EDIT: it seems to work! I'm finally removing Leaf's hat one sprite at a time (making the edits myself)

Glasikino said:

So to make the palette swap I need gimp after all...

Click to expand...

You don't need GIMP, but it's the easiest to do it in. Irfranview does it fine, but it will swap the colors on the original image, giving you some demented version of your sprite, which is probably what you saw. That can be fixed by editing it in MS Paint or something, though Paint.NET will screw it up after you swap the palette. My point is that Irfranview can do it, but GIMP can do it better. I usually have Paint.NET, Irfranview, and GIMP open all at once when importing sprites.

Phasesaber said:

You don't need GIMP, but it's the easiest to do it in. Irfranview does it fine, but it will swap the colors on the original image, giving you some demented version of your sprite, which is probably what you saw. That can be fixed by editing it in MS Paint or something, though Paint.NET will screw it up after you swap the palette. My point is that Irfranview can do it, but GIMP can do it better. I usually have Paint.NET, Irfranview, and GIMP open all at once when importing sprites.

Click to expand...

Once you edit the palette in Irfanview, you can simply export palette, then reopen the image and import it. It's much faster and the sprite won't get messed up. I'm sure using GIMP is fine but if you don't want to have to install it just for that purpose you don't have to.

I had no idea you could swap the palettes with a "rearrange" button in GIMP... Now I don't have to use paint xp and paste the old over the new etc.. We learn something new everyday I guess eh?

Phasesaber said:

You don't need GIMP, but it's the easiest to do it in. Irfranview does it fine, but it will swap the colors on the original image, giving you some demented version of your sprite, which is probably what you saw. That can be fixed by editing it in MS Paint or something, though Paint.NET will screw it up after you swap the palette. My point is that Irfranview can do it, but GIMP can do it better. I usually have Paint.NET, Irfranview, and GIMP open all at once when importing sprites.

Click to expand...

Glasikino said:

So to make the palette swap I need gimp after all... Thank you, I wasted quite a few hours trying to understand what I was doing wrong while trying to change the character's back sprites (it turned out pretty creepy if you ask me).
Now let's see if I'll be able to make this work...
EDIT: it seems to work! I'm finally removing Leaf's hat one sprite at a time (making the edits myself)

Click to expand...

PokéMew said:

I had no idea you could swap the palettes with a "rearrange" button in GIMP... Now I don't have to use paint xp and paste the old over the new etc.. We learn something new everyday I guess eh?

Click to expand...

You can also swap (and switch) palette colors in NSE by right-clicking another color in the palette window.




"Swap," (as shown above) simply changes the palette while "Switch" also conserves the original image.

Nice tutorial btw.

For what I was looking to do gimp is perfect.
I was used to paint.net before and atapting is tough but it's always better than starting all over again.

You can index with GIMP too. (I got GIMP 2.8)
Image > Mode > Indexed...

Or you can just use Advanced Series and avoid what apparently is a really and pointless tedious work right here :/ ...