Unity Character Customization from Scratch
One of my favorite parts of any new game is creating my character. It allows me to get an understanding of the game and define who I want to be in this new world I am about to explore. Building my own games, well, they were just going to have to like the one character option I provided them with.
Guilt took hold and a few months later and many hours Adobe Animate later, I created a character customization scene for Unity. In this tutorial I walk through how I built, each step of building out this feature. The code and assets are linked below. All of the sprites/characters/assets I built myself and are completely free to use (public domain CC0), same with the code too. Lets make the world a better place one character customization scene at a time.
Plain Text of the ChSceneControllerScript .cs
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;
using UnityEngine.UI;
public class ChSceneControllerScript : MonoBehaviour
{
// Scene UI
public Button randomBtn;
public Button submitBtn;
public GameObject bodyPartBtn;
public Button leftArrowBtn;
public Button rightArrowBtn;
public Toggle sleevesToggle;
public ColorControllerScript colorScript;
// Script variables
public PlayerScript playerScript;
private string[] bodyPartNames;
private int partIndex = 0;
void Start()
{
bodyPartNames = GetPlayerBodyPartNames();
RandomPlayerSprites();
randomBtn.onClick.AddListener(() => RandomPlayerSprites());
submitBtn.onClick.AddListener(() => SubmitClickedLoadNextScene());
leftArrowBtn.onClick.AddListener(() => ArrowClicked(1));
rightArrowBtn.onClick.AddListener(() => ArrowClicked(-1));
sleevesToggle.onValueChanged.AddListener(delegate
{
ToggleSleevesClicked(sleevesToggle);
});
bodyPartBtn.GetComponent<Button>().onClick.AddListener(() => ChangeBodyPartClicked());
ArrowClicked(0);
}
void RandomPlayerSprites()
{
int orgPartIndex = partIndex;
int len = playerScript.bodyParts.Length – 1;
int rndSpriteIndex;
for (int i = 0; i < len; i++)
{
rndSpriteIndex = UnityEngine.Random.Range(0, playerScript.bodyParts[i].GetSpritesLength());
playerScript.bodyParts[i].UpdateSprite(rndSpriteIndex);
partIndex = i;
RandomizePartColor(playerScript.bodyParts[i].tag);
}
MatchSprites(“Leg”);
MatchSprites(“Foot”);
if (GameObject.Find(“Shirt”).GetComponent<BodyPartScript>().GetSpriteIndex() > 2)
{
ShowSleeves(false);
}
else
{
ShowSleeves(true);
}
partIndex = orgPartIndex;
}
void RandomizePartColor(String partTag)
{
String[] hexColors = colorScript.GetHexDefaultColors(); ;
switch (partTag)
{
case “Skin”:
hexColors = colorScript.GetHexSkinColors();
break;
case “Hair”:
hexColors = colorScript.GetHexHairColors();
break;
default:
break;
}
String strColor = hexColors[UnityEngine.Random.Range(0, hexColors.Length)];
ColorUtility.TryParseHtmlString(strColor, out Color color);
ChangeCurrentPartColor(color);
}
void MatchSprites(string tagName)
{
GameObject[] sameItem = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag(tagName);
int index = sameItem[0].GetComponent<BodyPartScript>().GetSpriteIndex();
sameItem[1].GetComponent<BodyPartScript>().UpdateSprite(index);
}
void BodyButtonClicked()
{
Debug.Log(playerScript.bodyParts[0].gameObject.name);
}
void ArrowClicked(int num)
{
partIndex += num;
if (partIndex > bodyPartNames.Length – 1)
{
partIndex = 0;
}
else if (partIndex < 0)
{
partIndex = bodyPartNames.Length – 1;
}
bodyPartBtn.transform.GetChild(0).gameObject.GetComponent<Text>().text = bodyPartNames[partIndex];
CheckColorButtonOptions();
}
void CheckColorButtonOptions()
{
if (playerScript.bodyParts[partIndex].CompareTag(“Skin”))
{
colorScript.ChangeButtonColors(colorScript.GetHexSkinColors());
}
else if (playerScript.bodyParts[partIndex].CompareTag(“Hair”))
{
colorScript.ChangeButtonColors(colorScript.GetHexHairColors());
}
else
{
colorScript.ChangeButtonColors(colorScript.GetHexDefaultColors());
}
}
private string[] GetPlayerBodyPartNames()
{
int i = 0;
string[] allNames = new string[playerScript.bodyParts.Length];
foreach (BodyPartScript partScript in playerScript.bodyParts)
{
allNames[i] = partScript.gameObject.name;
i++;
}
return allNames;
}
private void ChangeBodyPartClicked()
{
playerScript.bodyParts[partIndex].UpdateToNextSprite();
string partTag = playerScript.bodyParts[partIndex].tag;
if (partTag == “Leg” || partTag == “Foot”)
{
MatchSprites(“Leg”);
MatchSprites(“Foot”);
}
else if (partTag == “Shirt”)
{
if (playerScript.bodyParts[partIndex].GetSpriteIndex() > 2)
{
ShowSleeves(false);
}
else
{
ShowSleeves(true);
}
}
}
public void ChangeCurrentPartColor(Color32 newColor)
{
String partTag = playerScript.bodyParts[partIndex].tag;
if (partTag == “Skin” || partTag == “Leg” || partTag == “Foot” || partTag == “Sleeve”)
{
GameObject[] allParts = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag(partTag);
foreach (GameObject part in allParts)
{
part.GetComponent<BodyPartScript>().UpdateSpriteColor(newColor);
}
}
else
{
playerScript.bodyParts[partIndex].UpdateSpriteColor(newColor);
}
}
public void ToggleSleevesClicked(Toggle change)
{
ShowSleeves(change.isOn);
}
private void ShowSleeves(bool shirtOn)
{
GameObject[] sleeves = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag(“Sleeve”);
Color newColor = GameObject.Find(“Head”).GetComponent<SpriteRenderer>().color;
if (shirtOn)
{
newColor = GameObject.Find(“Shirt”).GetComponent<SpriteRenderer>().color;
sleevesToggle.isOn = true;
}
else
{
sleevesToggle.isOn = false;
}
sleeves[0].GetComponent<SpriteRenderer>().color = newColor;
sleeves[1].GetComponent<SpriteRenderer>().color = newColor;
}
private void SubmitClickedLoadNextScene()
{
SceneManager.LoadScene(SceneManager.GetActiveScene().buildIndex + 1);
playerScript.ChangePlayerScale(0.3f);
}
}
