Formaquestion Mascot

🧸 Formaquestion Mascot

The mascot stands beside the Formaquestion chat and reacts to your questions. The Mascot tab of Formaquestion Settings edits it: a base image with layers drawn on top.

• The mascot's name is its preset's name. Your AI answers as that name, and a screen reader reads it on the mascot.
• The Mascot switch is in the Window group of the General tab. See General.
• With the mascot off, the Mascot tab disables every control. It shows "The Mascot is off. Enable it in “General” to customize it." Select General in that line to open the General tab.

The General tab also places the mascot and sets its size:

• How to Put the Mascot Under the Chat
• How to Change the Size of the Mascot

How to Make Your Own Mascot

1. Select More Actions, then Settings, then the Mascot tab.
2. Select Duplicate. The new copy is selected, and you can edit it.
3. Under Base Image, upload your own image.
4. Under Layers, select Add Layer, and upload the overlay images of that layer.
5. Set Initial Look, Idle Look and Thinking Look. See The Looks.
6. Select Save at the bottom of the tab.

The preview shows each change at once. The window shows the mascot after you save. See The Rig.

How to Set the Head View With the Mask

1. Open the Mascot tab in Formaquestion Settings.
2. Move your pointer over the preview. The Mask box shows eight handles and a center grip.
3. Drag a handle to move one edge, or a corner to move two. Drag inside the box to move the whole box.
4. Watch Head View, next to the preview. It shows the result as you drag.

• To draw a new box, drag on the preview outside the current one.
• With the keyboard, press Tab to a handle, then press an arrow key to move it one pixel. Shift with an arrow key moves it ten pixels.
• The handles fade while your pointer is away, unless one has focus or you are dragging. On a touch screen, they stay drawn.

See The Mask.

Mascot Presets

You can keep more than one mascot. The Preset list at the top of the tab picks the one Formaquestion shows.

Morphie is the mascot that comes with the app. She is read-only, and she updates with each release. To change her, select Duplicate and edit the copy.

The actions beside the Preset list are icon buttons. Hover over one to read its tooltip.

Icon button	Tooltip	What it does
Duplicate	Make an editable copy of this mascot	Copies the mascot you see into one you can edit, and selects it
Rename	Rename this mascot	Renames this mascot
Delete	Delete this mascot and its images	Deletes this mascot and the images no other mascot uses. It asks first.
Reset	Reset this mascot to Morphie	Puts Morphie's rig in place of this mascot's. Cancel takes it back.
Import	Add a mascot from a card	Adds a mascot from a card file, and selects it. See The Mascot Card.
Export	Save this mascot as a card	Saves this mascot as a card
Publish	Share this mascot in Community Creations	Shares this mascot in Community Creations. It shows when you're signed in, and never on Morphie. See Publish a Mascot.
View full screen	View full screen	Opens the whole tab full screen. Exit full screen or Escape returns it.

• While Morphie is selected, only Duplicate, Import, Export and View full screen show.
• While a Supporter Mascot is selected, only Import and View full screen show.
• On a narrow screen, the buttons are in the Preset Actions menu.

Supporter Mascots are for Patreon Supporters.

• A Supporter Mascot you don't have shows in the Preset list with its thumbnail and a lock. Select it to open its listing in Community Creations.
• If your account is a Supporter, selecting it installs it and selects it.
• A Supporter Mascot is read-only: you can't edit, duplicate, export or publish it.
• When your pledge ends, the app removes it, and Formaquestion shows Morphie again.

The Rig

The tab has two columns on a wide dialog. The preview stays in view on the left, and the other rows scroll on the right. On a narrower dialog, the preview comes first and the whole tab scrolls.

Row	What it does
Voice	Tells your AI how help answers sound while the mascot is on. The Mascot Voice chip sends this text.
Preview	Shows the Idle look, or what you select. Select a layer to see the base with all of that layer's overlays. Select one overlay to see the base with that overlay alone. Drag the Mask on it to set the head view. The Transition rows and Play are in the same box.
Head View	Shows the part of the mascot inside the box. A mobile-size screen shows only the head, at the pill. On a desktop, Show Head Only in the pill shows the head in place of the whole mascot. Show Full Mascot goes back. With a percent Mascot Scale, the head draws at that share of its size, and never taller than the chat.
Base Image	Draws under every layer. Upload your own image, or remove yours to go back to the default.
Layers	Lists every layer in draw order, with its name, its kind and its Enabled checkbox
Initial Look, Idle Look, Thinking Look	Set the face and the state that the mascot shows at each moment. See The Looks.
Transition	Sets how the mascot moves when its look changes: None, Dissolve or Jelly. Play shows it on the preview.

• Drag a layer by its grip to change the draw order. A layer lower in the list draws on top.
• Select a layer to expand it and show it on the preview. Collapse it, and the preview goes back to the Idle look.
• Expand a layer to change its name and its kind. An Expression is a face your AI can pick. A State stacks with the face, such as the arms.
• Add Layer adds a layer at the end of the list. Remove layer removes one.
• Each layer holds overlay images, drawn in order and stretched to the base size. Drag an overlay to move it, or upload more. Remove overlay removes one.
• The slots take image files only, not links. This device keeps your images, outside the settings.

Your changes show in the preview at once. The window, the face your AI picks and AI Context keep the saved mascot until you save.

• Save, at the bottom of the tab, keeps your changes. Cancel drops them.
• Undo and Redo, next to them, step through your changes. Ctrl+Z, and Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y, do the same anywhere on the tab.
• When you change the mascot or the tab, or close Formaquestion Settings, with changes not saved, the app asks first. You can save them, exit without saving, or stay.
• When you save, the app deletes each image you removed that no layer of any mascot uses. Cancel deletes the images you added since your last save.

The Looks

A look is one expression and one state. Each look row has two lists, one for the expression and one for the state. The lists show only layers that are on, and each list has None.

Look	When the mascot shows it
Initial Look	While the conversation is empty: when the app starts, and after Clear Conversation. It stays until you send your first question. Morphie waves.
Thinking Look	From the moment you send a question until the answer starts. It stays while your AI reasons.
Idle Look	When the answer starts. Its state shows with every answer. Its expression shows when your AI picked no face.

• Your AI can pick a face for its answer when the Answer Endpoint takes function calls. It picks from the expressions that are on. The face shows when the answer starts, and it stays until your next question.
• On an endpoint with no function calls, the mascot still waves, thinks and rests. Your AI picks no face.
• A look that names a layer you turned off draws nothing for that layer. The tab shows a warning that names the look.
• Each face call shows in AI Context with the other tool rounds.

The Mask

The Mask is the box that sets the head view. It has eight handles, one on each corner and one on each edge, and a grip in the center. Head View shows the result while you drag.

• Drag an edge handle to move that edge. Drag a corner handle to move two edges. Drag inside the box to move all of it.
• The box stays inside the base image and above a small minimum size.
• Drag outside the box to draw a new one. A drag under 16 pixels of the base image counts as a press and keeps the Mask.
• Press Tab to a handle, then an arrow key. A side handle moves along its own axis. A corner or the center grip moves both ways.
• One key press moves one pixel of the base image, and Shift moves ten. Each key press saves at once.
• The handles fade while your pointer is away from the box. On a touch screen, they stay drawn. With reduced motion, they show and hide with no fade.
• Head View sits in a fixed slot. A wide Mask shows a shorter head, so the slot does not move while you drag.

Reset restores Morphie's Mask. This device keeps your choice between Show Head Only and Show Full Mascot.

The Transition

The mascot plays its transition each time its look changes:

• from the Initial Look to the Thinking Look
• from the Thinking Look to a face
• from a face to the Thinking Look, on your next question
• when your AI picks a face

A change during a transition restarts it from the frame on the screen.

Mode	What it does
None	Swaps the look at once
Dissolve	Fades the new look in over Duration
Jelly	Squashes the mascot, stretches it past full height as the new look appears, then bounces it back to rest. Duration, Squash, Overshoot and Settle Count tune it.

• Jelly is the default. Reset returns the transition to the Default's.
• Your system's reduced-motion setting turns the transition off. The tab says so while it applies.
• Play changes the preview between the look it shows and the Thinking Look. Each press plays the transition one way, and the next press plays it back.

The Mascot Card

Export saves the mascot you see as a .webp card, with your changes not saved yet. The card shows the Initial Look. It holds the mascot's name and the whole rig: every layer and image, the three looks, the Mask, the transition and the Voice. Send the file to a friend.

Import reads a .webp card and adds it as a new mascot. Your other mascots stay as they are. It does not change the Mascot switch.

• The new mascot takes the name in the card, and your AI answers as that name. A card with no name takes the file's name. A name already in use gets a number, such as "Captain 2".
• A card with a bad field, or one from a different version, is refused. The error names the field, and your mascot stays as it was.
• The card is an image file with your art inside it. Share it only with people you want to see that art.

Publish a Mascot

Publish puts your mascot in the Mascots section of Community Creations. Other players download it there as their own mascot. Sign in first.

1. Open the Mascot tab and select your mascot.
2. Select Publish. If you have unsaved changes, the app asks you to save or discard them first.
3. Choose Publish as new mascot, or pick one of your listings to update it.
4. Select Publish.

• The thumbnail shows the Initial Look. To show one of your expressions, pick it in Expression. To use your own image, upload it in Thumbnail. Use Initial Look puts the default back.
• To update a listing, pick it in step 3. You can add a Changelog Entry for players who hold a copy.
• To delete a listing, select the Delete icon button (trash) on your card in the Mascots section of Community Creations.
• A mascot can hold up to 10 MB of images. If yours is larger, the app shows its size and sends nothing. Compress the layers, then publish again.
• A mascot that uses art that comes with Formamorph can't be published. The message names the layers to replace. Morphie has no Publish.
• After you publish, your mascot follows its listing, as your other published items do.