How To Change the Intro Sprites of FireRed

[Dr. Seuss]

Hi to all! this my first tutorial in this forum, this tutorial is already exist, to be accurate was written by SteveN/Dante, but her tutorial is a bit inaccurate and thr images are broken, is because I decide write a new tutorial about this, using her method, but in a better version and more detailed, ok let's go!

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Required Tools
===============
• VisualBoy Advance
• Unlzgba or NLZgba
• Paint (I suggest use Paint of Windows XP, but any version is valid)
• APE
• Character Maker Pro/IrfanView, GIMP or any program to index bitmaps
• Adobe Photoshop (Any version is valid)

Ok, with the requiered tools, It's time to start!

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Step 1
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First to all we need pick a boy sprite to use in the intro, the intro sprites size allow a maxium of 64x96 pixels, we can use a DS sprite without resize, but Is necessary index the image to 16-colors bitmap, I choose for the tutorial this sprite, credits to Aero for the sprite:

Spoiler:

Now with Character Maker Pro, or irfanview, or your favorite program you need index the sprite to 16 colors, to be honest is not necessary use a background color, I'll explain why later.

Spoiler:

Now is time to export the pallete, In Character Maker Pro only Hit Pallete>Export palletes, and save your pallete in .act format.

Spoiler:

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Step 2
=========

Now I need write to the ROM the new palletes for our future sprite, for this action we need open our ROM with hackmew's tool APE, and go to the desired offset of the sprite to change, the offsets are:

Boy Pallete: 0046161C
Girl Pallete: 00460EF0
Rival Pallete: 004623B0
Prof. Oak Pallete: 00461CF6

In APE import the desired pallete, in my case the boy palletes.

Spoiler:

now we import the previously saved pallete and save the new pallete.

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Step 3
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Now is time to make the exportations, opem your ROM with VBA and start a new game, in the intro when you came to the boy sprite you can see the boy sprite with a strange colors, is because you're watching the new palletes.

Spoiler:

Now without skipping the sprite screen in VBA go to Tools>Pallete Viewer, and a window with the current used palletes appear, in the bottom of the window hit "Save BG" and save as "BG.act"

Spoiler:

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Step 4
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Now we need make the final sprite to be inserted, now open yor ROM with Unlzgba and mark the option "256 color mode" and activate the option "use Black/White", now go to the desired index, the intro sprites are placed around the numbers 330-350 (The boy sprite usually is placed in the 341 number, but in my case is placed in 335), you can identify the sprites easy because you can see their respective silouettes, when you found your desired sprite hit "save as" and save the image in .png format.

Spoiler:

Now is time to use photoshop, open the exported image, you can only see the silouette, if you like see the colors need import the full palletes, now go to the photohop toolbar and hit Image>Mode>Color table, and a window with the current palletes is opened, now hit in "load" and find the file "bg.act".when you select the pallete you can see now a full colored sprite, but with the strange colors, hit in "Ok" and save your image.

Spoiler:

Now I can put our new sprite, I recommend use for this operation Mspaint of Windows XP because Mspaint of Windows 7/8 not works good with indexed bitmaps, when you're completed our new sprite you are ready to insert in your ROM

Spoiler:

Now we need return to unlzgba, go to the sprite to change and uncheck the option "Black/white mode" and is time to import our new sprite, if the new sprite not use all the 64x96 pixels is probably that not necessary make a repoint (I don't explain how to find free space and repoint)

Spoiler:

If you follow properly every step of the tutorial the final result would be ok:

If you follow all the steps and not obtain the desired result try again,remember make a lot of backups if you not are sure if you can doing this.

Credits to:
SteveN/Dante; Original creator of this method, I only make a more easy way to change the sprites and explain some things better, found the correct Oak pallete, (And put a lot of images)

 

[Teh Blazer]

I think your Oak palette might be wrong, I used 00461CE8 for my Oak palette in fire red and it worked. Other than that, great tutorial!

 

[CJBlazer]

This is the best tutorial I've seen so far. I just wish I had Photoshop availible. Is there any alternative that lets you import a color table? Gimp doesn't seem to do that.

 

[Dr. Seuss]

I think your Oak palette might be wrong, I used 00461CE8 for my Oak palette in fire red and it worked. Other than that, great tutorial!

Remember, the intro sprites are a 256 colors graphics, you're inserting a 16 colors sprite, obviously you can use any slot of the 256 colours of the BG palletes, the problem of use any slot is the risk of overlap the colours of other things, in the tutorial I use the same offset of the intro Oak sprite, using these pallete I'm sure to not overlap other palletesn

 

[Teh Blazer]

Remember, the intro sprites are a 256 colors graphics, you're inserting a 16 colors sprite, obviously you can use any slot of the 256 colours of the BG palletes, the problem of use any slot is the risk of overlap the colours of other things, in the tutorial I use the same offset of the intro Oak sprite, using these pallete I'm sure to not overlap other palletesn

Are the 256 colors for the intro sprites also the same colors used for the title screen?

 

[Dr. Seuss]

Are the 256 colors for the intro sprites also the same colors used for the title screen?

Nope, all palletes are fully different, but are used to other things or the intro (for example the slot 0 are usee to the intro BG)

 

[HijiYamari]

This is an excellent tutorial, and I've been looking into how to do this for about a week.

But no matter how closely I follow the tutorial, I can't get it right.

I have no idea exactly what goes wrong, but I've tried 5 times, with a fresh Rom each time.

I MUST be missing a step somewhere.

 

[DarkenedEclipse]

This is an excellent tutorial, and I've been looking into how to do this for about a week.

But no matter how closely I follow the tutorial, I can't get it right.

I have no idea exactly what goes wrong, but I've tried 5 times, with a fresh Rom each time.

I MUST be missing a step somewhere.

Do you mind elaborating on the error you're having? We can't help unless you tell us what is wrong. Nice tutorial ~GOLD. I'm sure it'll help people in the future.
~Eclipse

 

[HijiYamari]

Do you mind elaborating on the error you're having? We can't help unless you tell us what is wrong. Nice tutorial ~GOLD. I'm sure it'll help people in the future.
~Eclipse

I plum forgot.

I went to post an image link but I don't have a high enough post count, and forgot to specify afterwards.

The end result is my sprite with a messed up palette.

Pretty simple, but still aggravating.

 

[DarkenedEclipse]

I plum forgot.

I went to post an image link but I don't have a high enough post count, and forgot to specify afterwards.

The end result is my sprite with a messed up palette.

Pretty simple, but still aggravating.

Reread the part of the tutorial with the .act color table. Obviously you must've messed up the palette insertion... Or even the sprite insertion.
~Eclipse

 

[HijiYamari]

Reread the part of the tutorial with the .act color table. Obviously you must've messed up the palette insertion... Or even the sprite insertion.
~Eclipse

I followed literally everything he typed/translated.

The one thing I'm curious about is adding the ACT to the Red sprite in Photoshop.

What exactly do you do with that picture afterwards?

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Edit: I thought it might have been saving my sprite in Paint as a PNG, because when I'd try to open it in Character Maker, it gave me the error:

"File "trainer-iondexed.png," is not effective..."

But when I saved the image in Photoshop, Character Maker opened it up no problem.

Unfortunately, that didn't help.

I re-did the tutorial again, made sure to pay attention to the ACT and insertion sections, but it still didn't work.

 

[DarkenedEclipse]

I followed literally everything he typed/translated.

The one thing I'm curious about is adding the ACT to the Red sprite in Photoshop.

What exactly do you do with that picture afterwards?

----------------------------------------------------------

Edit: I thought it might have been saving my sprite in Paint as a PNG, because when I'd try to open it in Character Maker, it gave me the error:

"File "trainer-iondexed.png," is not effective..."

But when I saved the image in Photoshop, Character Maker opened it up no problem.

Unfortunately, that didn't help.

I re-did the tutorial again, made sure to pay attention to the ACT and insertion sections, but it still didn't work.

Oy vey.... What sprite are you using? Is the sprite part in 16 colors?
~Eclipse

 

[HijiYamari]

Oy vey.... What sprite are you using? Is the sprite part in 16 colors?
~Eclipse

Do you mean is the sprite I have only using 16 colors?

Then No.

Edit: I stand corrected.

For some reason, when I checked the sprite -G0LD used last night, there were more than 16 colors...

I just checked it again and Character Maker's showing 16 colors now.

I'll have to re-do my sprite while keeping it at 16 colors then.

Thanks for leading me to find that out, Eclipse.

I'll re-do the sprite and try the tutorial again.

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Edit: Nope, still didn't work.

Something I've noticed though;

My sprite is using the background colors from that particular scene and a random Fuchsia color, probably a placeholder.

 

[colonelsalt]

Thanks for a highly informative tutorial. I've followed the instructions to a tee, but for whatever reason, when I open and subsequently export the palette for the player character in VBA, the background color (that is, the first color in the palette) is listed as being black, whereas in your example it appears to be blue. This small error prevents me from inserting my new sprite (which has black as one of its colors), and I was wondering if there is anything that can be done to fix this.

 

[MrElephant]

Yeah the palette for prof. oak is not working for me using this tutorial. In the past I have followed Steven's and Zels, but without the pictures, they arent as helpful. Is anyone else having problems with prof. oak?

Edit: I just noticed that my post followed the last post by 3 months. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

[kalarie]

I know you shouldn't revive old threads, but since I think the following information might help a lot of people I'll post it here.

The palette offsets provided in this thread are not completely correct, but part of two palettes.

The intro sprites have two palettes to work with, which offsets will be posted here:

Boy Palette 1: 004615FC
Boy Palette 2: 0046161C

Girl Palette 1: 00460ED4
Girl Palette 2: 00460EF4

Rival Palette 1: 004623AC
Rival Palette 2: 004623CC

Oak's Palette 1: 00461CD4
Oak's Palette 2: 00461CF4

 

[mrlance]

Somebody know how to do this on emerald?

 

[Eloh Araphel]

Just in case another person like me is having trouble with Intro Gray's OverWorld Sprite, edit it in APE, its offset is E98004.

 

[PKMNTrainerGui]

Somebody know how to do this on emerald?

In emerald, They reuse the trainer's sprite for the intro.

 

[inared]

I have all tools, but...
In the UNLZ-GBA, i tried to find the Sprites, but it appears glitched in grayscale, And yes, Can we use Nameless Sprite Editortoo for changing sprites?

Same happened with NLZ-GBA. (Could someone, PLEASE, Help me to fix this!?)