Number Cruncher's Guide to Making/Aligning a PD Sheet

[balliztik1]

I've seen a lot of guides on how to draw a paperdoll, and stuff like that, but there aren't that many that show how to align them so they show properly.

Part 1: How Many Items?

First thing's first, you have to pick a place to start. To determine where you want to start your Paperdoll, consider how many item pictures you will need. Get a general number in your head. We'll call this number "Q". We need to find the "Y" that you'll start your PD at. So use this equation (SIZE is either 1 or 0, depending on if you use 32x64 sprites or not):

```
Q = (((y * 6 + x) * (SIZE + 1)) / 32) * 6
```
Basic algebra; To find y, x must equal 0.

```
Q = ((6y * (Either 1 or 2)) / 32) * 6
```
So, I'm going to use 500 as an example amount of items.

```
32 x 64 Sprites:

500 = ((6y * 2) / 32) * 6
500 = (12y / 32) * 6
500 = (72/32)y
500 = (9/4)y
222 = y
```

```
32 x 32 Sprites:

500 = ((6y * 1) / 32) * 6
500 = (6y / 32) * 6
500 = (36/32)y
500 = (9/8)y
444 = y
```
So if you wanted 500 items, you would have to place your initial PD item at the 32 x 32 Square closest (rounding up) to y-coordinate 222 or 444, depending on your sprite size.

Part 2: Where to start paperdoll?

I'm going to use the example 500 again. We need to find where to start our paperdolling. We'll use another equation. "P" will stand for where we need to start our paperdolling and "Y" will be the y-coord we got from last time, rounded to the nearest 32x32 square. Here's the equation:

```
P = (y * 6 + x) * (SIZE + 1)
```
Since we already know y, we can put in that value. Also, we are going to make x = 0 (222 is closest to the square at 224, and 444 is closest to the square at 448, and SIZE works the same as earlier)

```
32 x 64 Sprites:

P = (224 * 6 + 0) * 2
P = 1344 * 2
P = 2688
```
```
32 x 32 Sprites:

P = (448 * 6 + 0) * 1
P = 2688 * 1
P = 2688
```
Now this will be the Y-coord you start your PD at.

Part 3: How big does the sheet need to be?

Ok, we've gotten the starting points, now we just need the very end of the sheet. To find this, guess what we need…yup, another equation! We'll use the variable "P", we just found, the number of items, "Q", that you picked earlier, and then the variable, "S", will be either 32 or 64, depending on sprite size. Finally, the variable, "E", will stand for the end of the sheet.

```
E = P + (Q * S)
```
Sticking with the 500 items example, the equation would go like this:

```
32 x 64 Sprites:
E = 2688 + (500 * 64)
E = 2688 + 32000
E = 34688
```
```
32 x 32 Sprites:
E = 2688 + (500 * 32)
E = 2688 + 16000
E = 18688
```
Now, just make your sheet the number of pixels, "E", long.

Part 4: Aligning additional Items

Once you've gotten the right coordinates down, it's easy to align any other items you put in the PD. Each item square corresponds to a paperdoll row. The first item square (at the initial y-coord we found), will correspond to the first PD row(at the second y-coord we found; "P"). Then, just move down a PD row with each new item. I have no pictures to help with this, so refer to this one:

http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=4534.0

I hope this has helped you on your way to getting our Paperdoll sheet customized to how you need it.