How to use the FOX Editor

This tutorial will show you how to use the FOX Editor so you can create or edit your own custom art! Most often people use FOX Editor to customize all the art for their Dreams. (A Dream is the name given to your personal maps, and dreamweaving is a term used to mean creating a Dream.) Customizing your art and sounds in Furcadia is collectively called patching.

If you're unfamiliar with all this, you may find the How to make a Dream tutorial helpful as a good first step (if you've never tried making a Dream before).

The FOX Editor only comes in handy when you're ready to start making custom art for your Dream, though sometimes players have been known to use it for other things, such as portrait commissions or other art projects.

Table of Contents

Feature Diagram

                • The Object Navigator shows you what Object you currently have selected, along with options to add more.
                • The Tabs vary depending on the type of Object, and allow you to choose which part of that Object you are editing.
                • The Shape Menu gives you options specific to the Shape within an Object, such as frames, poses of an Avatar, and remap settings.
                • The Tools buttons contain editing tools, and the ability to manipulate how your Edit Window displays such as by changing the background.
                • The Drawing Window is where you can see the Shape you are currently editing, and manipulate it within the space.
                • The Palette where you can quickly access and swap colours, and change the size of the tool you are using.
                • The Footer gives you information on how large your selection area is, the location of your cursor, and the size of your Shape.

The following sections describe these aspects of the FOX Editor in more detail! Towards the end there is also a list of Keyboard Shortcuts and more information about the Menu Bar.

Object Types Chart

The art made in FOX editor is often referred to as objects. We call them objects as a way to categorize any art we use within Furcadia, since there's so much art involved, and every piece has varying applications.

Most of the object types are specifically for Dreams, including Item objects (chairs, tables, stuffed pookies), Floor objects (what you walk on top of), Effect objects (weather), and more.

However, some object types are for other uses besides just Dreams, such as portrait objects (for people to create their own custom portraits that you see when you click on people in the game), system objects (a catch all for miscellaneous art), and others.

Whenever you open FOX editor, it defaults to adding a new item object. You may be curious on what the other object types are for, though!

Note: Tabs and Shapes are explained more in depth later within this page (under the Tab section and Shape Menu section, respectively). This chart is a handy reference though, so it's included up here anyway.

Here's a list of all the object types:

Object type

General use

Tabs

Shapes are only used in the:

Item

Items are the most basic object type. It's the art that players interact with, in the sense that items can be picked up, held, used, kicked and sat upon in the game.

Small, Large, Icons, Properties

Icon tab (small, medium, and large size shapes are needed for icons.)

Floor

Floors are what people walk on! They always appear beneath other object types and other players.

Small, Large, Icons, Properties

Icon tab

Wall

Walls are normally for buildings or fences, and they're usually placed on the edges of tiles instead of on the tiles themselves.

Small, Large, Icons, Properties

Small, Large, and Icon tabs.


For both Small and Large tabs, you need shapes for east and west facing walls.

Effect

Effects are non-interactive items, and they usually display over players, items, walls, and floors. They are often used for weather and other neat things.

Small, Large, Icons, Properties

Icon tab

Ambience

Ambience is a translucent layer with many blending options, and its primary function is to change the overall luminosity and color tone of a Dream. Most often it's used to create day and night tones.

Small, Large, Icons, Properties

Icon tab

Lighting

Lighting is a secondary translucent layer that mathematically interacts with the ambience layer either additively, or by subtracting (cutting holes) in the ambience layer. Most often it is used as lighting, by cutting holes in the ambience to create brighter areas.

Small, Large, Icons, Properties

Icon tab

Region

Regions don't need custom art, but they're here anyway just in case!

Small, Large, Icons, Properties

Icon tab

Portal

Portals are what the entrances to someone's custom Dream look like. The Dream pad (a place players can upload to) and the portal itself can be customized. Some group packages include more extravagant portal entrances as a perk.

Small pad, Small portal, Large pad, Large portal, Icons, Properties

Small portal, Large portal, and Icon tabs.


For both Small portal and Large portal tabs, you need shapes for all 7 types of portals.

Avatar

Avatars include a ton of art assets, including the walkabout that you see when you move in the game, the gendered portrait that appears when you click on someone, the specitags that appear by the person's statements in the game, and the butler that appears in the whisper window and FurEd (where you edit your character).

Small, Large, Portraits, Specitags, Butlers, Icons, Properties

Small, Large, Portraits, Specitags, Butlers, and Icon tabs.


For both Small and Large tabs, you need 20 shapes for all the different facing walkabout types. Portraits and Specitags need shapes for the 3 genders. Butler shapes include small and large versions.

Gendered Avatar

Gendered avatar objects are the same as the regular avatar objects, except that the walkabouts and the butlers have 3 slots (for female, unspecified, and male genders) instead of just one.

Male Small, Male Large, Female Small, Female Large, Unspec Small, Unspec Large, Portraits, Specitags, Butlers, Icons, Properties

Male small, Male large, Female small, Female large, Unspecified small, Unspecified large, Portraits, Specitags, Butlers, and Icon tabs.


For all three Small and Large tabs, you need 20 shapes for all the different facing walkabout types. Portraits and Specitags need shapes for the 3 genders. Butler shapes are gendered too, and include small and large versions.

Portrait Set

This is for just a set of gendered portraits, often used when uploading art to the custom portrait upload service.

Portraits, Specitags, Properties

Portraits, Specitags


Portraits and Specitags need shapes for the 3 genders.

System

This is a catch all object type. You can use it for a singular portrait upload, legacy style DS buttons, and other things.

System, Properties

None

Button

This is a future object type planned for when Furcadia's interface is updated. Currently it isn't being used and doesn't work with the interface yet. Use system objects for buttons.

Normal, Mouseover, Clicked, Toggled, Properties

None

DS Button

This is a future object type planned for when Furcadia's interface is updated. Currently it isn't being used and doesn't work with the interface yet. Use system objects for DS buttons.

Normal, Mouseover, Clicked, Toggled, Properties

None

Object Navigator

Objects are different types of categories Furcadia uses to determine how you want your art to be applied in the game. Each object comes with its own set of shapes.

This section mainly helps you move between objects. You can scroll through them by either clicking the arrow buttons, or by using the + or - key on your keyboard. Also, holding down the arrows or holding down the + or - key will scroll through them more quickly.

The + symbol button in this area will let you easily add a new object. If you don't adjust the object type, it will default to the last added object type. You can adjust the type of object by using the dropdown arrow. If you choose the wrong object type, the Edit menu above has a Convert Object tool.

Tabs

This section will change reflecting the type of object your file is. The most basic type of objects, such as items for instance, will have 4 tabs: Small, Large, Icons, and Properties.

                • Small is for the regular size version of the art in your Dream.
                • Large is for the double size mode art. (Note: This is not currently supported in the game! This is a planned future feature.)
                • Icons are smaller versions of the art to display in DreamEd, or other areas of the game. (Note: This is not currently supported in the game! This is a planned future feature.)
                • Properties is where you can adjust the settings for every object, and those also will change depending on the type of object it is. For instance, floors have properties for you to set whether or not a floor can be walked on by people.

Note that some objects have a lot more tabs associated with their use. For instance, avatar objects are the most complex of objects, so you'll see several tabs pop up if you're making one of those.

Shape Menu

What are shapes?

Shapes are subsections of the art that is in an object's tabs. It may help to think of the difference between objects, tabs, and shapes if you think of it like a filing cabinet. The object is the box or cabinet container for all the different tabs. Each tab is like a folder in the cabinet that can have different files and pieces inside of it, separate from what the other tabs have. These pieces inside the tabs are the shapes.

For an item object, there is only one shape needed for both its Small and Large tab, so the little drop down menu will say Item Shape (1) and there won't be any other drop down options. In other words, item objects don't use the shape drop down menu. But more complex objects, such as avatar or wall objects, require multiple shapes to be complete.

Why? Well, let's say you're making a brick wall, so you're using a wall object type. That brick wall will need to have two different direction shapes associated with it for it to work properly in the game. You'll need one shape to face west, and the other to face east. So the drop down for the wall’s Small and large tab will say: Wall Shape SW (1).

While wall objects have only 2 shapes on their small and large tab, avatar objects have tons of tabs (small, large, portraits, specitags, etc.), and each tab requires multiple shapes to work properly. For example, under the Small tab of an avatar object, the walkabout has 20 shapes facing all four directions to include a sitting, 3 frames of walking, and a laying. Under the portraits tab for an avatar object, it has 3 gender shapes: female, unspecified, and male portrait shapes. Etc.

Shapes are also the nuts and bolts of your art file. The shape contains information about your art on the most basic level: it's where your art is, more or less.

Kiwi Layers

The kiwis in this Shape Menu represent another aspect of your art: the layers (similar to layers in Photoshop). The difference though is that every kiwi layer has specific uses in relation to how the art is meant to be used in Furcadia.

There are 5 layers for each shape:

    1. The main drawing layer
    2. How opaque or translucent it is
    3. The remap colors it has on top (if any)
    4. The shadow underneath it (if any)
    5. An invisible comment layer

    These are described in detail below.

    FOXEd Image toolImage When the Image layer is selected, the art for your shape will display as normal -- as in how it will look when you upload your Dream. This is the default view, or layer. If you have the Remap, Markup, and Shadow layers checkmarked, those will also be viewable here, but not editable.
    FOXEd Alpha toolAlpha

    When the Alpha layer is selected, only the Alpha layer of your Shape will be displayed. This allows you to adjust the transparency of your art. Anything black is fully transparent (invisible), anything white is fully opaque (completely visible), and all the greys are a spectrum of translucency in between.

    Portraits and specitags can't use this layer. Art for portraits and specitags must be fully opaque (or colored white, in the alpha layer).
    FOXEd Remap toolRemap

    When the Remap layer is selected, it shows you the layer on top of your art where you can add remaps.

    Remapping is how you can make art that reflects the colors players choose for their character. For instance, you can color on where exactly you want for the player's eye color, fur color, and more to appear on your artwork.

    Only certain types of shapes in certain types of objects can remap to a player's own color code, depending on what it is. For instance, avatar walkabout shapes, portrait shapes, and specitag shapes have the potential to remap. You can paint on where and what colors you want to show here.

    Anything you add remaps to will turn the art underneath to grayscale. You don't have to add remaps to all parts of the art if you don't want to, either. It will only be partially remapping, in that case.

    There's a checkmark to the side of the Remap layer to give you different viewing options. If you play around with it, you'll see that if you're on the image layer, and remap is unchecked, your art will appear as normal/without remaps on it (useful for shading). If you are in the remap layer and it's unchecked, you'll see the remaps in flat color (useful for adjusting where you want them at the pixel level). Checking the checkmark while you're in the image layer will let you shade with the remaps on, and if you're in the remap layer, you can paint on remaps while also seeing the shading underneath.

    Item, wall, floor, effect, ambience, lighting, region, and portal objects can't use the Remap layer.
    FOXEd Shadow toolShadow

    This is the Shadow layer, which appears underneath any other art you have on your other layers. Anything drawn here will become 40% opaque (as in, it will be mostly translucent) once it's in the game. Shadows are meant to be drawn in FoxEd as fully opaque, since they all stack together and then have their opacity adjusted in game, but you can play with transparency if you paste them into FoxEd.

    Shadows have an option to be auto-generated! You can click the make shadow button, then move this generated art around as you like, or edit it in the editor.

    You can also make your own shadows within the editor, or paste in ones from another program, if you'd like.

    Portraits, DS buttons, and specitags can't use this layer.
    FOXEd Markup toolMarkup This is an optional layer, and anything put here will not be viewable in DreamEd or when you upload your Dream to the game. It's useful for anything you'd like, but most people use it for things like leaving random comments or doodles, drawing arrows, keeping isometric lines, etc.

    Tools buttons

    You can hover over buttons in FoxEd if you forget their name!

    FOXEd Pencil toolPencil The default tool selected. Draws pixels on the drawing window when clicked and dragged (color and size adjusted at the top right of the program). Left click for foreground color, right click for the background color.
    FOXEd EraserEraser Erases pixels on the drawing window (size adjusted at the top right of the program)
    FOXEd Canvas PawCanvas Paw Moves the drawing window view (much like the move or grab tool in other programs).
    FOXEd EyedropperEyedropper Selects a color (or lack thereof) from the drawing window. Left click to change the foreground color, right click to change the background color. (Ctrl + click will temporarily turn your active tool into the eyedropper)
    FOXEd SelectSelect Draw a rectangle selection around pieces you want to move around in the drawing window. Once selected, click and drag to move them around. It only picks up what exists in the Kiwi layer you're on.
    FOXEd Paint BucketPaint Bucket Fills the area inside any lines and or until the edge of the canvas with the foreground color. If nothing is drawn on the drawing window, it will fill the entire window. Left click for foreground color, right click for the background color. Isolate smaller areas to fill by surrounding it with pixels.
    FOXEd LineLine Draws a straight pixel line. Previews a pixel line to draw on the drawing window when clicked and dragged (color and size adjusted at the top right of the program). Left click for foreground color, right click for the background color. Release the click to create the line. Hold down shift to force the line to be in one of 16 directions, which many people find very handy for drawing isometrically!
    FOXEd TextText Add text: this tool opens a window that allows you to choose the font, size, styling and alignment of text to input and gives you a preview. Once you click Okay, the text will appear with a selection around it so you can move it where you like on the drawing canvas. If you made an error, click the text tool again to adjust it before deselecting. Click outside of the selection rectangle to place the text.
    FOXEd Line RectangleLine Rectangle Draws a pixel rectangle. Previews a pixel rectangle to draw on the drawing window when clicked and dragged (color and size adjusted at the top right of the program). Left click for foreground color, right click for the background color. Release the click to create the rectangle.
    FOXEd Line EllipseLine Ellipse Draws a pixel ellipse. Previews a pixel ellipse to draw on the drawing window when clicked and dragged (color and size adjusted at the top right of the program). Left click for foreground color, right click for the background color. Release the click to create the ellipse.
    FOXEd Filled RectangleFilled Rectangle Draws a filled pixel rectangle. Previews a pixel rectangle to draw on the drawing window when clicked and dragged (color and size adjusted at the top right of the program). Left click and right click will reverse foreground and background color. Release the click to create the rectangle.
    FOXEd Filled EllipseFilled Ellipse Draws a filled pixel ellipse. Previews a pixel ellipse to draw on the drawing window when clicked and dragged (color and size adjusted at the top right of the program). Left click and right click will reverse foreground and background color. Release the click to create the ellipse.
    FOXEd Solid RectangleSolid Rectangle Draws a solid filled pixel rectangle. Previews a pixel rectangle to draw on the drawing window when clicked and dragged (color and size adjusted at the top right of the program). Left click for foreground color, right click for the background color. Release the click to create the rectangle.
    FOXEd Solid EllipseSolid Ellipse Draws a solid filled pixel ellipse. Previews a pixel ellipse to draw on the drawing window when clicked and dragged (color and size adjusted at the top right of the program). Left click for foreground color, right click for the background color. Release the click to create the ellipse.
    FOXEd Center ViewCenter View Moves the viewpoint of the drawing window to center on your drawing.
    FOXEd Solid / Peek ViewSolid / Peek View Quickly allows you to view the drawing at 100% zoom. Only works if you're zoomed in/out already past 100%. Click again to return to your last viewpoint. Some find this handy for when you’re working on pixels but want to see the full picture without losing your place.
    FOXEd Cycle Bg BackwardsCycle Background Backwards Change the background, cycling backwards. Starts with isometric ground tiles (the size of small size Furcadia ground tiles). Also has checkerboard patterns and various solid colors.
    FOXEd Cycle Bg ForwardsCycle Background Forwards Change the background, cycling forwards. Starts with isometric ground tiles (the size of small size Furcadia ground tiles). Also has checkerboard patterns and various solid colors.
    FOXEd Zoom InZoom In Expand the size of the drawing to work at closer detail.
    FOXEd Zoom OutZoom Out Shrink the size of the drawing to see the drawing as a whole more clearly. 100% is normal size.

    Drawing Window

    Simply put, this is your art canvas. You can put any art you'd like here! You can use the Kiwi Layers (the icons with the kiwis on them in the Shape Menu) to change which layer you're on. You can view more info on what each Kiwi layer does, above.

    Selected Colors

    These show you which foreground and background colors you have selected at the moment. You can left-click colors from your color palette to adjust your foreground color, and right-click to change your background color.

    Left-clicking with the eyedropper tool will let you pick up a foreground color off your Drawing Window / art canvas, and right-clicking will pick up a new background color.

    Brush Size

    You can change how big or small your brush is here. Choose between 1 pixel big, circular, and square options.

    Palette Editor

    The drop down menu here lets you pick between default (and even custom!) palettes. Usually most Dreams will pick one color palette to make sure the colors are cohesive and look nice together.

    The Palette editor has a lot of functionality, too -- you can actually make an entire palette here if you want! The Recent Colors palette will reflect whatever colors you eyedroppered or selected.

    To make your own new color palette, start a new FOX Editor window, paste in an image, and left click with the eyedropper tool to set all your colors. Then you can save the palette, and choose it in your drop down whenever you want to use it!

    Keyboard Shortcuts

    + and -

    Will move you through objects one-by-one

    Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab

    Will move you through tabs one-by-one

    Shift-Right and Shift-Left

    Will move you through shapes one-by-one

    Ctrl-Right and Ctrl-Left

    Will move you through animation frames one-by-one

    Ctrl-N and Ctrl-O

    Opens a new or existing Fox file, respectively

    Ctrl+I and Ctrl+shift+I

    Opens the import window for either objects or animation frames, respectively

    Ctrl-S

    Saves the current file you're working on

    H / J / K / B / N / M / L

    Selects the Pencil, Eraser, Canvas Paw, Eyedropper, Select, Paint Bucket, and Line tools, respectively.

    T / Y / U / I / O / P

    Selects between various styles to make rectangles and ellipses

    R / F / E / D / W / Shift+W

    Adjust your view of the art between zoomed in, centering, and peeking back and forth, as well as adjusting background styles

    Delete

    Deletes art that has a selection marquee around it

    Spacebar

    Alternates between the drawing and markup layers

    Ctrl-Z and Ctrl+Y

    Undo and Redo an action

    Ctrl-X and Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V

    Cut or copy marquee selected artwork, and paste

    Ctrl-Shift-C and Ctrl-Alt-C

    Copy an entire shape, including the positioning data, or even an entire set of art in a tab. Use the import tool instead if you're wanting to copy an entire object.

    Ctrl-A

    Draws the selection tool around the edges of the art you drew, for you to then move, or copy and paste

    Ctrl-K and Ctrl-Shift-K

    Takes every pixel in your art that matches your Selected Color and changes it to whatever is your currently selected background color, and vice versa

    Ctrl-T and Ctrl-D

    Add or remove the current object

    Ctrl-Shift-E

    Opens the Animation window

    Ctrl-F and Ctrl-R

    Opens the Shape/furre position settings window and the View Dye Recolors window

    Hopefully with these shortcuts handy, you'll ultimately be able to figure out your own style and workflow for making art in the Fox Editor!

    Menu Bar

    Finally, this is the Menu Bar. This is standard on most applications, so you're probably familiar with its appearance.

    File Menu:
                    • The File Menu gives you the standard options of New, Open, Save, Save As and Exit.
                    • Save your map as a Legacy FOX file. - you can use this option to take any artwork you've made in the FOX Editor to then be able to open it in the legacy FSH editor.

                  • Open a Copy is handy for seeing and editing all the default Furcadia artwork, and even older legacy versions of the art is included there.

                  • You can also export your art here with Export to PNG images.
    Edit Menu:
                  • The Edit Menu offers you the standard Cut/Copy/Paste, Delete, Select all and Undo/Redo options.
                  • You can also use this menu to flip your artwork horizontally or vertically, or skew your artwork to be isometric
                  • There are tools to remove old style dithered shadows, and upgrade old style remapping to be modern and 32bit (which also re-adjusts the shading underneath to match, too!)
                  • More tools let you work with objects, including adding and removing objects, converting them to different types, and moving their order around. There's even a way to revert the art you edited back to its last saved appearance.
                  • The Resize Tool is also in this menu, which is very handy for making the other size version of your art be scaled automatically for you! There's options to make small art into large, and vice versa, as well as giving you the ability to pick the type of scaling algorithm you'd like to use per object, or en masse.
    View Menu:
                    • The Shape/Furre Position settings is located here, which is an important tool to let you adjust how objects you make will look on the tiles of your Dream, as well as how players will be positioned when they're on top of that object.

                  • View Dye Recolors lets you look at how your remapped art appears when a color string is added to the input box. You can get color strings by going to FurEd (editing a character) then clicking the gear and copying the generated Your Color Code text.
                  • Show Brush is a toggle for whether you want to view the size of the brush as you draw or not.

    Move Menu:
                  • These options let you move between objects, tabs, shapes, and animation frames.
    Tools Menu:
                  • Lets you select different tools to aid you while drawing, including the standard Pencil, Eraser, Canvas Paw, Eyedropper, Select, Paint Bucket, and Line tools.
                  • There are also ways to select between various styles to make rectangles and ellipses, and additionally ways to adjust your view of the art between zoomed in, centering, and peeking back and forth, as well as adjusting background styles.
    Animation Menu:
                  • Where you can open the Animation editor! There's options for adding new and removing animation frames, and ways to cycle between the frames.

    That's it for the How to use the FOX Editor tutorial! If you need more visuals to understand how all the tools work that FoxEd now has, you can check out this page (the FOX5 format section).

    Once you've finished creating some custom art, you may be looking for how to add it to your own Dream. That's where the Attaching custom patches tutorial may come in handy! There's also a tutorial for adding a custom drawn avatar to your Dream in the Local Species tutorial.

    If you have any further questions about patching, feel free to contact the Beekins (who are live volunteers) in game by saying help I need help with my patch!

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