I'm trying to make a character, and it seems that there are some basic concepts, I don't get. For instance the whole boning system. Some bones have a green line i addition to the bone... What are they? Can I rotate the BONE but not the sprite? This particular character doesn't seem to fit the default bone stature.

And something about basic multiangle for a simple 3 angle character... Apparantly, I get a LOT of work for each angle, but seem to remember some kind of "auto" functions when setting up 0 degree...

But screen shots and messenger would make life easier for me...

While you are in Character Composer using the Sprite Editor the outline of the sprite turns green.
You can then size and position the selected sprite as needed. This does not change the bone though.
You you can copy sprites into the other angles by using the "Copy to All Angles" function.

Using the Validate Multi-Angle Setup you can adjust the position and size of the bone, sprite, and joint mask.

There is a hidden trick to rotating the bone.
While holding the left mouse button and rotating the bone you can click the right mouse button (while still holding the left mouse button down) and then the bone keep it's position.
This can be done in Composer mode or on the Stage in Runtime Composer. Basically anytime a sprite has a blue outline.

Don't forget to look at the on-line Help for CTA2, there is plenty of good info there on creating a character.

Also, yoonsunlimited has done an 11 part tutorial on how to create a Buddy character that you might find helpful.

Jeff




Get my Plugin Manager and TaskNotes plugins for iClone.
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Thx a bunch! Very helpful! Though the process of making characters using sprites from [insert graphics software here] directly in CTA2 using character composer is tedious, and (as I can tell from my current experience) somewhat impossible trying to rig the character I'm currently working on... I have attached it, and maybe someone can tell me what I am doing so wrong?

its abit time consuming but ultimately it is ridiculously easy. its just drag and drop.
the only hard part comes in that you actually have to draw the pieces yourself.

You characters looks perfectly fine to me. you're just using several sprites that correspond to other angles or additional embed mouth and hand sprites.





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I have added more sprites to the character now for all angles... Still need for 225 and 135.

Everytime I adjust bones for some angle, it adjusts for every other angle... Is this intentional??  Also is there a way to mirror-copy the 90 angle to 270 angle? 

Try applying a walk to the character... It results in right lower arm cutting through a part of head... But not all of head... What am I doing wrong there? Masking? Or...?

I'm not sure I fully understand all these settings like "Angle linked", "Transform all angles" and "Turn to multi angled character" - and maybe the basic concepts of the bone system...

Surely there must be an easier way... 

I think that you have the edit multiple angle thing turned on.  You don't want that on unless you are trying to modify all of the angles at once (like making the arms larger).

Also, you want to make sure that you aren't moving the bones when you MEAN to just move the SPRITE.

If you just want to move the sprite then open the sprite editor and then you can move the sprite without modifying the bone.

I had a very difficult time with this too.

You might want to start over on the other angles and try and adjust the sides without moving the bones... they are pretty screwed up now.

The front angle is awesome.

You might also want to look at the copying sprite tools...