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Pixx Suite

Animate · Portrait & dialogue animator · Intermediate

Pixxara — Intermediate

Build real conversations: Pixxava characters that stay up to date, custom text box frames and fonts, branching with variables, text tags, cues and translations.

Open Pixxara

#What you'll learn

  • How to bring in characters from Pixxava, keep them up to date, and carry their credits.
  • How to give your text box a custom frame from Pixxico and a font from Pixxypo.
  • How to structure branching dialogue with ids, jumps, conditions and variables.
  • How to use inline text tags for timing, effects and mid-line expressions.
  • How to add music, sounds and shakes, and run a translation round.

#Before you start

  • Read the Pixxara beginner guide first: cast, expressions, lines, choices and export are assumed.
  • For Pixxava characters, frames and fonts you need a Pixx account and those apps in your plan.

#How-tos

#How to use a Pixxava character and keep it up to date

  1. In Pixxava, send your character to Pixxara (or save it to your library).
  2. In Pixxara, click + From library in Cast and pick it. It's cropped to a bust and auto-rigged.
  3. The character remembers it came from Pixxava. Its credits (for example the template's maker) show in the Cast panel.
  4. When you change the character in Pixxava and save it again, Pixxara offers A newer version is ready: Update from Pixxava. Click Update from Pixxava, or Check for updates to look yourself.
  5. Updating re-rigs the picture in place. Name, voice, colour, side and palette lock stay as they were.

#How to use a custom text box frame

  1. Make a nine-slice panel in Pixxico and send it to Pixxara as a UI frame, or save it to your library.
  2. In Text box, click Frame from library and pick it. It becomes the box style, and its corners stay sharp at any Scene size.
  3. Pixxara keeps the text inside the frame's padding and colours the name plate and choice menu from the frame.
  4. To go back, pick one of the built-in styles: Classic RPG, Parchment, Night glass, Terminal, Comic bubble, Royal gold, Pastel or Dungeon stone.

#How to choose fonts for the box and the name plate

  1. In Text box, click Text box font to open the font picker, or Font from library for a font from Pixxypo.
  2. Set Name plate font, or keep Same as the text.
  3. Tall fonts fall back to the classic small font in name plates and choice menus so those still fit in their rows.

#How to structure a branching conversation

  1. Give important lines a readable Id (for example shop_intro). Links to a line update when you rename it.
  2. Use + Choices for menus. Each choice has a target, an optional if condition and variable changes.
  3. Use + Jump / branch for silent routing, with Conditional jumps and a default Then go to for when no condition is true.
  4. Pick the entry point with ▶ Make this the start; Restart from the start node replays from it.
  5. Lines with a missing target or a broken condition turn red with a note; fix those before exporting.

#How to write conditions and set variables

  1. Create variables in Variables with a starting value: a number, true/false or text.
  2. Conditions can use numbers, text in quotes, true / false, maths (+ - * / %), comparisons (== != < <= > >=) and logic (and, or, not, or &&, ||, !). Write a variable as gold or $gold.
  3. Examples: gold >= 3, trust >= 2 and not angry, name == "Aria".
  4. On a line or choice, + Set variable changes a value, for example gold = gold - 3.

#How to use inline text tags

  1. Select text in the line editor and click a tag button, or type the tags yourself:
    • [wave]…[/wave] and [shake]…[/shake] animate letters.
    • [color=#f00]…[/color] colours text.
    • [speed=2]…[/speed] types faster (or slower with values below 1).
    • [pause=400] waits 400 ms.
    • [expr=happy] changes the face mid-line.
    • [mute]…[/mute] types without voice blips.
  2. ▶ Play from here to check the timing.

#How to add cues and run a translation round

  1. Select a line and use When this line starts: + Shake (strength in px, length in ms), + Music (Start the music / Stop the music) or + Sound effect.
  2. Load music in Music & sound with From library (for example from Pixxune) or Open WAV….
  3. For translations, open Languages, + Language, then Export CSV for your translator and Import CSV to bring it back.
  4. Choose the language in Lang to preview it. Lines that are too long for the box are flagged.

#Workflows

#A character from creation to conversation

  1. Build the character in Pixxava and send it to Pixxara.
  2. Set up expressions and a voice; write the conversation.
  3. Later, tweak the character's outfit in Pixxava and save it. In Pixxara, click Update from Pixxava: the dialogue keeps working with the new look.

#A shop scene with sound and consistent UI

  1. Make a shop panel frame in Pixxico, a font in Pixxypo, a coin sound in Pixxibu and shop music in Pixxune.
  2. In Pixxara, set the frame and font in Text box, load the music, and add a + Sound effect cue on the purchase line.
  3. Use a gold variable: the buy choice has if gold >= 3 and sets gold = gold - 3.

#Dialogue as a Flow step

  1. In Flow, use the Dialogue scene template: Pixxava + Pixxico + Pixxune → Pixxara → Pixxizi.
  2. Each input step sends its result; the Pixxara step opens with the newest of them.
  3. Send result to Flow sends the whole dialogue (script, portraits, voices) to the Pixxizi step for packaging.

#Tips and shortcuts

  • Space or Enter advances, ↑ / ↓ pick a choice, P switches Scene / Portrait.
  • Ctrl+Z undoes, Ctrl+Shift+Z redoes, Ctrl+S exports.
  • Show rig boxes in Portrait shows the eye, brow and mouth boxes on an imported picture.
  • There are 12 ready expressions: neutral, happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, smug, thinking, hurt, determined, embarrassed and sleepy.
  • Right-side speakers are never mirrored, so lighting and asymmetric details stay correct; the layout mirrors instead.

#Troubleshooting

  • Update from Pixxava never appears. Sign in, then click Check for updates. The character must keep the same name in Pixxava.
  • The frame's text sits too close to the edge. The frame's padding sets the text inset. Increase it in Pixxico and send the frame again.
  • A condition is marked broken. Check quotes around text and spelling of variable names; only the operators listed above work.
  • A translated line overflows the box. Shorten it, pick a smaller font, or increase Scene size.
  • A cue sound doesn't play. Check the sound still exists in Music & sound, and that sound isn't muted at the top.