My Avatar Editor - Transitional Beta

For those of you who haven't already noticed, a transitional beta of My Avatar Editor is now online. This is not what My Avatar Editor will ultimately look like, but its different enough from the Wii's™ Mii™ Channel to get it back on the streets (methinks).



Some of the GUI changes include:

• A change in the color scheme
  
• A change in the button (and other control) styles
• Characteristic buttons (tabs) have been moved to the bottom of the screen
• All characteristic tabs are represented at the bottom rather than having some in sub-tabs (for example face shapes and facial features now are each given their own tab)
  
• Arrows for paging through characteristic variations have been moved to the bottom
• There is no longer an avatar URL

In addition, there were a number of general fixes to the editor. These include changes that would have made it into the original version of the editor but hadn't yet been pushed live before it went offline. These include:

• The character shadow is now correctly behind/below the character's feet
• The eyes on Page 4 Col 1 Row 2 were given the missing eyelashes (the icon preview had them but they were not seen when on the avatar)
• Character names should now end when a null character is reached; this prevents new short names possibly revealing characters from long names used before the short name was set
• Fixed mole size range. It was incorrectly going to 15 (steps) when it should have stopped at 8

This version should also be the last version that will work on Flash Player 9. The next release will target Flash Player 10, currently in beta from Adobe. This will allow a lot of the hacks in the current release to be removed and allow for the updated save and load feature mentioned in a previous post (which supports offline saving and loading). Additionally, the next release should have a new look and feel that is more unique to My Avatar Editor.

There's no telling when this new version will be released, but it will be a while. I'm currently going through a code review now cleaning things up and taking out the aforementioned hacks where necessary. There will be some other architectural changes that could delay this process not to mention the fact that I still have to figure out how to implement Mii™ compatibility within the new feature sets that are to be added. I might provide more detail on that situation at a later time.

Lost Tutorial Mode

The upcoming update of the old editor included a tutorial mode. This mode was intended to help indicate how a character could be created from the default boy character. The big benefit being that you could load up characters found online to your computer and learn how to recreate them by hand on the Wii™ by watching an automated cursor create the character in front of you without having to worry about transferring the raw character data through bluetooth to the controller and from the controller to the console.

Unfortunately, before the update could be released, the editor hit that snag with the big N and had to be taken down. I thought it would be interesting to show off what it did nevertheless. After all, I put in a decent amount of work to make it happen.

Default Girl and Default Boy

The default girl and default boy avatar characters can be loaded using the following XML.

Default Boy:

<avatar value="000000640065006600610075006c00740042006f0079404080807f5fc242899800044240318028a2088c08401448b88d008a008a25040000000000000000000000000000000000000000" />

Default Girl:

<avatar value="400000640065006600610075006c007400470072006c404080807f73c242899800041840018028a2106c08401448b88d008a008a25040000000000000000000000000000000000000000" />

Note: Be careful; the post cuts off the full XML string. Be sure that you copy the entire XML node (ends with />).

A Note on Progress

I'm sorry to say that progress on My Avatar Editor is not going as quickly as I had hoped. I've been incredibly busy with 'real life' and haven't had time to pursue much out of that (i.e. the editor).

Chances are if anything is going up any time soon, it will just be a re-skin of the old editor. This means none of the new features will be available; it will just be the old editor with a different look and feel. But even that can take some time.

If anyone is super anxious just to get their hands back on the editor (in whatever form they can get it), drop a comment. Given enough interest, I can try to get something basic out sooner than later.

XML Revision 1

Here is a sample format for a proposal of the new XML format. As a reminder, old XML files will still be valid. The new editor will not be able to produce those files, but it would be able to still read them. The purpose of this new format is to make the XML more structured and readable, and to help provide the flexibility needed for escaping the limitations of the Mii™ character format.

<avatars>
 <Avatar>
  <code></code>

  <id></id>
  <name></name>
  <author></author>
  <client-id></client-id>
  <birth-day></birth-day>
  <birth-month></birth-month>
  <gender></gender>
  <mingles></mingles>
  <height></height>
  <weight></weight>
  
  <Head>
   <type></type>
  </Head>
  <Hair>
   <type></type>
   <color></color>
   <part></part>
  </Hair>
  <Skin>
   <color></color>
  </Skin>
  <Face>
   <type></type>
  </Face>
  <Eye>
   <type></type>
   <color></color>
   <x></x>
   <y></y>
   <size></size>
   <rotation></rotation>
  </Eye>
  <Eyebrow>
   <type></type>
   <color></color>
   <x></x>
   <y></y>
   <size></size>
   <rotation></rotation>
  </Eyebrow>
  <Glasses>
   <type></type>
   <color></color>
   <y></y>
   <size></size>
  </Glasses>
  <Nose>
   <type></type>
   <y></y>
   <size></size>
  </Nose>
  <Mouth>
   <type></type>
   <color></color>
   <y></y>
   <size></size>
  </Mouth>
  <Mustache>
   <type></type>
   <color></color>
   <y></y>
   <size></size>
  </Mustache>
  <Beard>
   <type></type>
   <color></color>
  </Beard>
  <Mole>
   <type></type>
   <x></x>
   <y></y>
   <size></size>
  </Mole>
  <Shirt>
   <color></color>
  </Shirt>
  <Pants>
   <color></color>
  </Pants>
 </Avatar>
</avatars>

Each object is separated into its own node with its own set of characteristics that relate to that object. This (mostly) follows the actual programmed representation within the character model of the editor itself. Though, the original format actually fit better because of the abstraction I provided to easily modify any of these properties directly off a single object (this could take some additional effort on the backend to have these sync up).

This proposal is not final and suggestions are welcome.

New Logo Ideas

Here are some thoughts I had for a new logo. I'm not sure what the color scheme will be, but I think it's likely I may at least stick with the orange (the red may be replaced with something else). That aside, I think I like #2 the best of this bunch, despite its similarity to (I think) the Apple Macintosh Finder icon.

Mii™ XML File Format Deprecated

Given that the XML format used to describe one, or many Mii™ characters makes a call out to the trademarked Mii™, a new XML format will need to be established for My Avatar Editor. As with the logo, I'll have to figure something out for this one. The problem here becomes a little more complicated as extensions to the Mii™ character format are added.

This probably won't be an immediate change. Much of what will be done at first is just restyling the interface so that it doesn't look so much like the Wii™ Mii™ channel.