This tutorial is for graphics using palletes with only 16 colors. With this method, you will be creating the palette yourself. For this example, I am going to replace the Bat Mask under Masks/Etc category with classic Sting facepaint.



The important thing with VPW studio is that palettes are very important. With more advanced graphics, you need to use one with alternate colors on the colors past 16. If you want to see the original graphic, go to VPW Studio and choose File Table under the project menu.

Then choose Search under the navigation menu and type in "Bat Mask", it will take you to the palette and graphic entries for the Bat Mask.






2673 is the CI4Palette for the file. It shows the 16 colors used defined from 1-16.


Note that Color 001 had the Transparent checkbox highlighted. That means the in graphic will not show any part of the graphic with that color. Remember this for later. It can be extracted using the Export Palette function, but it is not necessary for this particular step. 2674 is the actual graphic used in the game.


It cannot be defined alone, but it will have the graphic matching the appropriate palette, the aforementined 2673. This can be extracted by clicking the right mouse key on the window and choosing "Save PNG". I'm going to save it under "2674 - batmask.png" to keep track of the position in the file table.


Now I'm going to go into Paint Shop Pro 9. This program is great for working with VPW Studio, since it is possible to extract palettes that are compatible for later tasks. As you see, the graphic is 32x64. I have another graphic I have from my old project that I will use.


Now one thing note to know is that even though the Bat Mask graphic can and was exported with the transparency intact. But it can NOT be imported with the transparency in the picture. So we have to define a color that we can define when imported. So, I'm going to fill the transparency with Red (255,0,0).


Then I will choose Image-Decrease Color Depth-16 Colors




Now we have a 16 color palette picture. Note that the PSP order of colors goes from 0-15 instead of 1-16 like it is in VPW Studio. Also, remember the red background is color #12.


Save the graphic file (File-save), then save the palette (Image-Palette-Save). I'm going to name both "Stingface".




Rename the file from ".PspPalette" to ".pal" It makes it easier to plug into VPW Studio. Go back to VPW Studio, find the palette file (2673 in this case), RIGHT click and choose edit information.


Choose pick best for encoding, go to browse, and choose the palette file you just made "Stingface.pal".


Now if you click 2673 twice, you see the palette. Remember how VPW Studio uses 1-16 instead of 0-15 and the red color from before was 12.


That just means you add 1 and choose color 13. Change the color to 0,0,0 and click the transparent button. The red will turn transparent. Now this part is important. THE FILE IS NOT SAVED, SO DO NOT PRESS OK! Instead export the palette using the VPW Studio format.


Click right and edit information again, Browse and choose the ".vpwspal" file. This instructs the program to use this file for the information when building the rom. Also it should be noted that it is best not to move or erase any files. Each time a rom is built, it uses the directories and files that you defined when editing the information! An advantage of this is that you can edit the graphics in an outside program, and it will work in game since those are the files used. Now do the edit information command for the 2674 file, using the Pick Best option and choose the graphic you made.


Now go to file-save to save your progress, and choose Project-Build Rom to create a playable rom.


And if you did everything right, you'll get something like this...