Petz 4 Case Sprites Editing

Instructions

This is a set of templates that should make it easier to create custom carrying cases for Petz 4. After going through the effort of making a case for myself, I figured I could save others some of that effort by providing neat templates, because carrying cases are cool and more people should make them, and it's actually really easy! Easier than making toys or clothes because you don't have to deal with any code or hex editors, just images! Although it is kind of a lot of images...

These templates are designed mostly for simple recoloring of the original sprites, but can be useful even if you're making a fully custom case. For some tips on how to make all the animation frames for a custom door more easily, see the last section.

You will need:
• Tinker [download here]
• Image editing program of your choice which can open PSD files and use layer blending modes (especially Overlay)

I use the 2019 version of Photoshop. Some functions might be slightly different in other programs or other versions of Ps.

SHORT VERSION (if you're already familiar with petz toy editing and image editing)

• Use the "Petz 4 rez.dll" file included in this pack as a base (or use your own if you have one with other tweaks)

• Edit the sprites and save each of them separately. "[CASE] SizeBA.psd" is the open case, you might want to start designing your colors with this one. Adjust opacity as needed.

• Some files contain different sprites in separate layer groups (such as buttons). Some files have multiple sprites arranged in a sheet (such as door animations) which you'll need to crop before saving. Crop to the exact size of the sprite with no gaps.

• Before saving the sprite, index the image with "Petz Palette Color Table (w Transparency).act" (file included in the pack), then put it back in RGB mode, then save as png.

• Import all the sprites into your "Petz 4 rez.dll" file with Tinker. They go in CASE and CASEDOOR. The door sprite in CASE is the same as DoorA in CASEDOOR. The dog icons in CASE are unused (I think?)

• If you used your own rez.dll instead of the one in the pack, you'll need to also edit CASEICON_CATF, CASEICON_CATM, CASEICON_DOGF, CASEICON_DOGM. Use the sprites in the CASEICONS folder, they don't need to be edited (but you can edit if you really wanna for some reason!)

• Enjoy your new case :)

LONG VERSION

1. FIRST STEPS

• Make a backup of your "Petz 4 rez.dll" file! It's in Petz 4\Resource.

• Replace that file with the one included in this pack. I've included modified versions of the cat/dog male/female icons with transparent background in it, so they don't need to be individually edited to match button colors. (But if your file contains other tweaks and you'd rather use it as a base instead, I've included those modified icons so you can add them manually.)

2. RECOLORING SPRITES

• Open the file "[CASE] SizeBA.psd" (or "[CASE] SizeBB.psd" for the travel case) inside the "CASE" folder in this pack. This is the main sprite of the carrying case when it's open. The sprite doesn't include the door or the buttons, but I've added them to the file so you can design them together. (But remember to hide them before exporting the sprite!)

• The file has many layers so it might be a bit confusing at first, but each layer corresponds to a different color area, to make it easier to recolor. I tried to label all the layers so it would be easy to tell what part is which.

• To recolor a part, select the layer corresponding to the part you want to recolor, then simply choose a color and use the paintbucket. The layers should all be locked so the colors won't "leak" outside where they're supposed to be. If you need to make the color darker or brighter, you can tweak the opacity % of the layer or duplicate it.

• If you need to pick a color you already used, switch the layer mode from "Overlay" to "Normal", pick the color with the eyedropper, then return it to "Overlay".

• To check what the colors will look like in the Petz palette, click "Image > Mode > Indexed color..." and press OK when it asks to merge layers (save your PSD before doing this!). Under "Palette" select "Custom..." and open the "Petz Palette Color Table (w Transparency).act" file included in this pack. If you don't like what it looks like, you can try the options under "Dither". If none of them are good still, you can cancel and change your colors. It's good to preview the colors like this a few times as you design your case.

• Once you're done with "SizeBA", move to the next files in the "CASE" folder. "SizeAA" is the carrying case while closed. "SizeAB" and "SizeBB" are the travel carrying case.

• The "Butt" (lol) files are the buttons. The buttons have two states: normal and pressed. These are both included in the same file for each button in different folders. Recolor them the same way you did in the case sprite. For the buttons with icons, there are two versions, the original and a pixel "remade" version. The latter is because it was difficult to overlay dark colors over the original, so if you want the camera icon and the arrows to be a dark color, use the parts in the "pixel" groups in the files. Remember to recolor both the parts in the "normal" group as well as the ones in the "pressed" group.

• In the "CASEDOOR" folder are the files for the door animations and the lock. Despite being MANY sprites per animation, recoloring them should be easy because all frames for each animation are in the same file. Recolor them like you did in the case sprite, but for these, you'll need to crop them into individual sprites. Trust me, cropping them is way faster than recoloring them in separate files.

• (Remember to save your PSD before cropping!) Hide the "background" layer. Then, crop the first sprite, making sure that each side of the sprite is touching the edge of the cropped image. After you save the sprite as a PNG (refer to the next section for that), press ctrl+z until just before cropping, then crop the next sprite. Repeat this until all the sprites are cropped.

3. EXPORTING THE SPRITES

• To export a sprite after you're done recoloring, first you need to index it. Click "Image > Mode > Indexed color..." and press OK when it asks to merge layers (again, remember to save your PSD before doing this!). If you've already done this while editing the sprites, the palette and the dither setting should be the same as you left them before. Press OK to confirm.

• Then, return it to RGB mode. Click "Image > Mode > RGB color". (I'm not sure if this is entirely necessary, but I've had glitches with the transparency if I don't do this.)

• Then, click "File > Save as..." and choose PNG.

4. IMPORTING INTO THE DLL WITH TINKER

• Open Tinker. Click "File > Open..." and browse to Petz 4/Resource. You probably won't see the .dll files there at first, so click the "Files of type:" dropdown and select "All files." Now it should show up. Open "Petz 4 rez.dll".

• On the "Pick a sprite to edit" window that will show up, select "CASE" and click Edit. (The button may be hidden, so you might need to stretch the window by dragging the bottom right corner of it)

• Click the + on the "SizeAA" category. Select the frame contained inside it, then click the "Import..." button and find your edited SizeAA sprite. Repeat that for all other sprites (except IconA, IconB and ToyzA, you can skip those.)

• Remember to select the frames UNDER the sprite names before importing, rather than just the sprite name!

• Once you've imported all the edited sprites for CASE, save the file and open it again. This time, select "CASEDOOR" in the "Pick a sprite to edit" window.

• Replace all the sprites here just like before. You can select multiple frames and import them all at once! Once that's done, save the file again.

• If you used the "Petz 4 rez.dll" included with this pack, you're done!

• If you used your own "Petz 4 rez.dll", you'll need to also edit "CASEICON_CATF", "CASEICON_CATM", "CASEICON_DOGF", "CASEICON_DOGM". Use the sprites in the "CASEICONS" folder, they don't need to be edited (but you can edit if you really wanna for some reason!)

• Enjoy your new case :)

X. HOW TO MAKE ALL 63 SPRITES OF A FULLY CUSTOM DOOR WITHOUT SUFFERING (TOO MUCH)

Don't let the sheer amount of door sprites discourage you from making cool custom doors!

• Make your door in the DoorA.psd file. Save that sprite.

• Open one of the sheets of door sprites and import your door sprite into it. (If it imports as a "smart object", right click the layer and click "rasterize layer")

• Position the sprite over the first one in the sheet. Then, holding ctrl+alt, drag it to the next sprite. It should duplicate it. Continue doing this until you've placed your door over every sprite. It doesn't need to be perfectly aligned for now, just have a door roughly where each sprite is.

• Select the first door. With any selection tool, right click it and click "Free transform". If you want the result to be crisp and not blurry (especially necessary if your door is pixel art) change the "interpolation" setting at the top to "Nearest neighbor".

• Holding ctrl, click any of the corner squares and position them over the corners of the original sprite like this:



• Press Enter to confirm.

• Repeat this for all other sprites, then crop them just like with simple recolored doors. Then do the whole thing again with other door sprite sheets.

The result is not perfect... but in my opinion it's good enough, and way less effort than redrawing the entire door for each sprite, I'm pretty sure.