♪ Lesson A: Another Way to KiSS

• I recently discovered this while trying to make my Elladan kiss doll without manipulating the palette. I found that this way saves loads of time. And, while surfing the Otakuworld forums recently, I finally got it to work with multiple BMPs.
  

• First, make the base doll and all of its clothes. If your clothing has backs to it, you'll have to make them separate cels, and put black rectangles around each cel.

• Unless you have a program which can accurately turn 24-bit BMP files to 256-color without the stupid polka dots, you'll need KiSS Cel Workshop. This is also available from Otakuworld and is used by many artists. I don't use it often because it always crashes my computer sooner or later.

  
  This is one of my base dolls. The doll on the left is normal, but the doll on the right was "fixed" by Picview when it tried to change the doll from 24-bit to 256. The shadow is greatly darkened to emphasize this.
  

• Put all your doll's BMP files into one big BMP file. This is my quickly-drawn doll Brad. The image doesn't work since I'm still trying to find the picture.
  
  
  
• Also, if your doll has a background, put that in too. Make sure each separate cel has a black rectangle around it.
  
  
  *** Space-saving Tip: Notice Brad's cape cels. The one on the right is the part covering his body. Notice all the space at the bottom. It's wasted space, because it's not necessary. Cels that have the same object number snap together at the Upper Left corner only. Therefore, if we erase the bottom part, it'll still snap together correctly as long as the Upper Left Corners are aligned. If your doll is big, this will save you a lot of space.
  
  
  
  

• So, after you've downloaded KiSS Cel Workshop, open it. There are plenty of things you can do with it -- make CherryKiSS cels and write your CNF, for a few, but for now it changes 24-bit BMPs into decent 256-color files.
  

• Open your large BMP. Depending on the speed of your computer and the size of your BMP it'll take some time. If it crashes, it's probably too big.

• Under "Tools" select "Color Conversion" at the top and scroll over to the black arrow at the right. Under the pulldown menu select "To 256". Your BMP is now 256-color.

• Save, as "Save as Bitmap" from the Save menu and exit the program unless you plan to make the CNF as well, which is under "Tools" and "To CNF Editor".

• Open the BMP in WSVC. If everything goes right it should load. If it won't load then the BMP is too big.

• Double-click on each separate cel and name them. When all the cels are named, double-click on the background color and name a palette. Then, select "Make All".

• To add another BMP, you must select your new BMP and copy it. Go to the 256-color bitmap. Select everything (Ctrl-A or Command-A) and move it away, but don't cut it.

• Paste the image. Then, save it under a new name as a 256-color bitmap. Load it in WSVC and make all those cels too. (Nifty, huh?)
  
  

• Now you're ready to make the CNF file. One of my other lessons will explain how to do this.
  
  

• *** KiSS Cel Editor Note: The CNF Editor

  Once you've clicked on "Tools" and "To CNF Editor" from the menu, a new screen will appear. The dimensions (640, 480) are already there.

  Under "Edit" select "Add Palette" and locate your palette. The CNF editor will input your palette into the CNF.

  Then, select "Insert Cel" from the "Edit" menu. Add all the cels in. The CNF editor automatically adds the cels in after the blinking cursor.

  Save and load it into PlayFKiSS.

  If you want to add FKiSS, you may have to go to "File", "Editing Level" and select "Advanced". This will allow you to write in FKiSS.
  
  

• Hope this helped! If it didn't, the other way I've described in my tutorials is probably better. Time-consuming, but better for slower computers like mine.