Intro Sprites Editing!

[Xatoku]

Hey PC!

I am going to be making a few tutorials about editing the Big Intro Sprites!
Hopefully you will understand throughout the tutorial but if you have any questions, just post them in a reply below :D.

Things You Will Need:
FSF - HackMew's Tool Factory
VBA - Google
Fire Red Rom - Google
unLZ - HackMew's Tool Factory
APE - HackMew's Tool Factory
Irfanview - Google
Paint - Comes with Windows
Calculator - Comes with Windows
NotePad - Comes With Windows

Let's Get Started (MALE HERO)

Spoiler:

Alright first thing's first.

-Okay, first of all, save the sprite you want as a .png.
-Next, open your sprite in Irfanview.
-Click Image>Decrease Colour Depth>16 Colours.
-Next, click Image>Palette>Edit Palette and make it so that the first colour is the transparent colour, if it isn't then switch it with the colour in it's place, don't worry if the image messes up.
-Now save the image as a .png with a different name then the original.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

-Now open 2 Paint windows.
-Open your old sprite of your Hero, and the one we just edited within Irfanview.
-Copy the Old Sprite and paste it onto the new one edited through Irfanview.
-Now the sprite should look fine.
-Save the image and close Paint.

Spoiler:

-Open Photoshop and open your new indexed image.
-Click Image>Mode>Colour Table and then click save and save the palette as a .act file.

Spoiler:

-Now open APE.
-Bookmark these 2 offsets.
>0046161C - Hero Sprite 1
>004615FC - Hero Sprite 2

Spoiler:

-Once bookmarked, go to Hero Palette 1.
-On the 2nd Colour Table below the first one, click the Import Palette button and chose the .act palette we just saved in Photoshop.
-Once imported, change the first colour to your transparent colour for your image, mine being FF7F(White).
-Then click replace.

Spoiler:

-Now load Hero Sprite 2's palette offset and export it.


-Once exported, import it on the 2nd Colour Table under the first.
-After you've imported it, click the first colour and make it the same transparent colour as in the first palette. Once again, FF7F(White) for me.

Spoiler:

-Now open your rom in VBA.
-Make a new game and wait until you can see Red's Big Sprite.
-Once there, click Tools>Palette Viewer>Save .bg and save it as a .act file.

Spoiler:

-Now open unLZ.
-Open your rom and then click 256 Colours + Black & White.
-Got to #340 and Red should be around there. For me he's on #341 but it may differ for you.
-Use the Minus(-) and Plus(+) Buttons to make the sprite look proper.
-Once that's all set click Save As and save it as a .png file.

Spoiler:

-Now open the image you just exported in Photoshop.
-Click Image>Mode>Colour Table and load the .bg .act file you saved through the Palette Viewer in VBA.
-Once that's done, click the first colour and make sure that it's the transparent colour of your sprite.
-Now paste your sprite we edited earlier through Irfanview onto the Red sprite, the colours may have some wierd dots but they should be generally the same.
-Now fix up your sprite and save.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

-Go back into unLZ at Red's #.
-Uncheck Black & White.
-Click Import and chose the sprite you just edited through Photoshop.
-Click Write to Rom and make sure that only Export Image and Auto Abort is checked.

Spoiler:

-If you get an error in unLZ follow these steps:
>Open Calculator + FSF
>In Calculator, go into Scientific Mode and click Hex.
>Type the # unLZ gave you when it couldn't Write to Rom.
>Click dec.
>Copy the number you got in Dec and go into FSF.
>Open your rom in FSF and paste the Dec # in the Needed Bytes section, and in the box below that type in 1, and check the first checkbox.
>Click search and copy the offset it gives you.
>Click Write to Rom again in unLZ and paste the offset FSF gave you in the Offset box, and check the Automatically Fix Pointers Box.
>Click Ok and it should say Pt Changed :D.

-There you go, you should have just successfully inserted the sprite.

Spoiler:

 

[.Seth]

Very nice. I'll have to get Photoshop CS3 sometime. Seems like it's really useful for hacking purposes.
Very good tutorial, has images, and of it working. Great job, great job Xatoku!

 

[o0oBahamuto0o]

I'm Using PTS CS3 for Edit this thing
Thanks men :D
Great Job ^^

 

[sab]

great tut, but could you also use gimp instead of photoshop?

 

[Xatoku]

I've never used Gimp so I wouldn't know sorry.

 

[.Seth]

great tut, but could you also use gimp instead of photoshop?

GIMP can't work well with .pal and .act files if I remember correctly, so no.

 

[Logan]

Well, you can't use gimp because you need to save it as .act.
Adobe
Colour
Table.
So, it only works with adobe products, aka PS.

 

[~*Mew*~]

This Tutorial is good to the NEWBIES and other users.
Though, i already know how to do it.;)
Anyway, this is really helpful.
Well done!:)

~*Mew*~

 

[Xatoku]

Thanks, I tried to make it newb friendly hehe.

 

[Mr.Silver]

this is really handy and more in depth
But i keep getting an error saying something about not being able to save to the rom

 

[NarutoActor]

this is really handy and more in depth
But i keep getting an error saying something about not being able to save to the rom

use a hex editor or free shapce finder and change the picture offset

 

[Mr.Silver]

I did
the error i get is after Unzl,Its on the other pictures

 

[Kakunatops]

Where do you get the offsets for other sprites, like Pro.Oak, and Gary, etc.

 

[Xatoku]

Where do you get the offsets for other sprites, like Pro.Oak, and Gary, etc.

Found them myself, it's not hard but it takes some time.

 

[JerisEnigma1337]

Is there ANY way or other program to do this without Photoshop?
I don't have it and the trial version is 325MB... Way too much for me to download without making my computer go asploud...
I have everything else here and many many tools, so is there no alterative?

 

[Xatoku]

Is there ANY way or other program to do this without Photoshop?
I don't have it and the trial version is 325MB... Way too much for me to download without making my computer go asploud...
I have everything else here and many many tools, so is there no alterative?

Are you sure you don't have enough space? Because 325mb is hardly anything.

 

[JerisEnigma1337]

...shoot...

I'm trying to download it but I'm on a pretty crappy connection so I don't know if I can. Plus, it'd be cool to have something to go to when the 30 day trial is up, seeing as I'm too cheap to buy photoshop. :P

EDIT: NEVERMIND!! LMAO!
I went nextdoor where the neighbors have highspeed and started to get the trial version, and their kid copied me his full to use at home XD Edit2: It turns out you still have to activate it, so I'll be out of luck in 30 days anyway. At least I can do this now!

But actually, it'd still be awesome if there was another option for other people with this problem. I know there are other ways to add sprites, but its a shame to only be able to follow this super easy newb-perfect route only halfway.

EDIT EDIT EDIT!:
Weeelll... This is what I ended up with. *attaches*
Looked great right up until you import the final photoshop edit into the game with Unlz... *head-desk* >.<

 

[Boterham]

Where do you get the offsets for other sprites, like Pro.Oak, and Gary, etc.

Prof.Oak is for me: 342
and
Gary is for me: 343

I don't have photoshop so it won't work for me but when i get the time to download a trial i try this out.

 

[JerisEnigma1337]

Oh. My. Gawd. I redid this 3 times and its happened everytime! At least the one that I posted was the right palette this time, but I can't make it ungarbled! When I view the character in unLz, its only nice like your's in color; if I view it in b&w like in the tut its all messed up like my final result... :'(

 

[Pokepal17]

Awesome tutorial. It's simple and easy to follow It'll help a lot of people. Well done! ;)