Sprites

Sprites

Sprites put your characters on a stage beside the story, the way a visual novel does. Each character has one picture per feeling, and the stage shows the face that fits the latest message. You can bring your own set, or draw a whole set on your own ComfyUI from one drawing.

What a sprite set is

A sprite set is a folder of transparent pictures, one per expression: neutral.png, joy.png, anger.png and so on. The names are the 28 feelings SillyTavern's expression classifier knows.

The folder is SillyTavern's own sprite folder, in your data folder under characters, named after the character: characters\<name>\. A set made in Kotatsu works in stock SillyTavern, and a set made for SillyTavern works here.

A character can have two sets of the same drawing: a full body in characters\<name>\, and a bust in characters\<name>\bust\. Generate a set makes both. A set you bring yourself can be either framing.

A set does not need all 28. When a feeling has no picture, the stage uses the closest one there is: anger stands in for annoyance, joy for amusement, and neutral for anything else. With no neutral either, the card's art shows.

On the stage

Turning on the Sprite look

1. Open Settings, then Appearance.
2. In the Wardrobe & Shell group, set Messages to Sprites (visual novel).

The chat column floats over a stage, and every character with a sprite set stands beside it. The side panels start closed in this look. One you open floats over the stage instead of pushing the chat aside. Your usual panel layout is not changed: choose another look and the panels come back as they were.

Some themes pin a message look. While one does, you cannot choose Sprites (see Themes).

One-on-one chats and scenes

• A one-on-one chat puts the character on one side of the column.
• A scene with two characters puts one on each side.
• A scene with three or more fills both sides. Characters alternate sides in seating order, and nobody crosses the column. Each side has a front seat and a back seat. The rest wait on the Bench, as small faces in the top corner of their side.

The character who is speaking stands in front on their side, lit and slightly raised. The others dim. When someone on the bench speaks, they take a seat once their reply has finished, and whoever on that side spoke least recently goes to the bench. Seats never move while a reply is being written. The bottom of a standing figure fades into the message box, with a short, soft fade so the legs stay solid.

See Scenes for setting up a scene and choosing who speaks.

Messages at rest

In the Sprite look, a message at rest shows its name and its text and nothing else. Click or tap a message to bring up its date, number, the … and pencil buttons, the timer and token readouts and the cache bar. Click or tap again to tuck them away. Hovering with a mouse, or moving to a message with the keyboard, shows them too.

A background

The stage can have a picture behind the characters. It shows only in the Sprite look. In every other look the page keeps the theme's calm backdrop, so the text stays clean. Kotatsu remembers the choice for each chat either way.

To pick one, choose Background in the chat header, beside Scene. A panel opens with this chat's images and two buttons:

• Choose one of the thumbnails. It shows the newest images from this chat. Pictures drawn as The place are tagged Place, and the current background is ringed.
• Upload an image adds one of your own.
• No background takes it away.

To use a picture you drew, open its Picture options menu and choose Use as background (see The picture menu). The place draws surroundings with nobody in them, which suits a stage best. The panel's empty state says the same.

The background is the chat's own background in SillyTavern's terms, so /lockbg, /unlockbg and /bg work on it, and stock SillyTavern shows it too.

Faces that follow the story

When a character's reply has finished, Kotatsu reads it and picks a feeling for it. It does this with SillyTavern's local classifier, on your computer, with no request to your chat model. The feeling is saved on the message, so each swipe keeps its own.

• Every message in the Sprite look shows that message's face beside it, so the history stays readable while the stage shows the latest one.
• Only characters with a sprite set are read. Without sprites, nothing is classified.
• The first time it is needed, the classifier downloads its model. Offline and without the model, messages stay unlabelled and the card's art shows.
• A set that grows later improves old messages too, without reading them again.

Your own messages, narration and pictures light nobody.

Bust or full body

A full-body sprite is shown from the knees up, so everyone shares one floor line. A bust is shown whole. Kotatsu tells them apart by the picture itself: a figure that runs off the bottom of its canvas is a bust.

When a card has both sets, the stage picks one per character: the bust in a one-on-one chat or a two-character scene, the full body when three or more fill the sides. To always show one, set Framing on stage in Card Studio to Bust or Full body. Auto lets the stage choose.

On a phone

On a phone, or any window 600 pixels wide or narrower, the Sprite look becomes a visual novel.

• The scene. The chat's background fills the screen (see A background), with one big figure in the middle. It is the character who is speaking, else whoever replied last, else the first in the scene, in the face that fits the latest message.
• The text box. The latest message sits at the bottom, under its name tab. The box takes about a quarter of the screen, so the figure stays in view. A long message starts at its first sentence. When more waits below, the foot of the box fades and a small arrow shows.
• Turning the page. Tap the text to move to the next part of the message. A line is never cut in half or skipped. On the last part, a tap shows the message's details instead. You can also scroll the box with a finger.
• The details. Tap the name tab, on any part, to show the message's details: edit, copy and the cache readout. Links, buttons and a text selection keep their own taps.
• History. The History chip in the chat header lets the whole transcript back over the scene, with the figure stepping back. The chip then says Scene. Choose it to put the transcript away. Sending a message or changing chats also returns to the scene.
• Switching backgrounds. The Background chip is in the header too, as an icon on a phone.

The faces beside each message and the speaker's small card are gone on a phone, because the figure is the face. A phone held sideways has room for the side stage, so landscape keeps the stage described above.

On a desktop window too narrow for a figure beside the column, the stage steps aside. In a scene, the On stage strip shows the cast.

Sprites in Card Studio

A card's sprites live in Card Studio. Choose Edit card (the pencil) on a card in the library. The third chapter is named after the character, such as How Hana looks. It holds the sprites, along with the card's picture look. Card Studio has a Simple and an Advanced view, switched at the top. See Card Studio for the whole page.

Sprites work on a card that already exists. A card you are still creating says that the character's faces can be added once the card is created.

Both views show a Bust and a Full body switch, each with a count of the faces it holds.

Simple is for looking and for filling gaps:

• Large tiles, a few feelings at a time, the bust set first. Use the arrows to turn the page.
• A row of chips for the main nine feelings. Choose a chip to jump to that feeling.
• An empty tile says what the stage shows instead, such as "Shows joy for now", and has an Add button for one picture.
• Draw the missing 3… (the number is how many of the main nine you lack), or Draw a new set… when none are missing. Both open Generate a set.
• Add pictures… takes several files at once.
• Touch-up… opens Touch-up, on the feeling you picked.

Advanced shows all 28 feelings in a dense grid, with:

• Generate…, Add pictures…, Import a pack (.zip) and Touch-up… (plus Touch-up bust… when the card has a bust set).
• Framing, with a live preview.

Next to the chapters, the card's hero shows the character. It has a Sprite and Card art switch, arrows to flip through the feelings, and Fix holes, which opens Touch-up on the sprite you are looking at.

Bringing your own set

• Upload on an empty tile in Advanced, or Replace on a filled one, takes one PNG, WebP or GIF for that feeling. Delete removes it. In Simple, Add does the same for an empty tile.
• Add pictures… takes several files at once. A file named after a feeling goes to that slot: joy.png goes to joy. A file with any other name is skipped and listed, never guessed.
• Import a pack (.zip), in Advanced, takes a ZIP of <feeling>.png files, SillyTavern's own pack format. A picture for a feeling the set already has replaces it.

These go into the set you have on show: the full-body folder characters\<name>\, or the bust folder characters\<name>\bust\. Generate a set makes both at once.

Pixel checks

Kotatsu checks every sprite it shows and writes what it finds under the tile (in Advanced, a warning mark you can hover):

• No transparent background: the stage will show a box.
• Touches the top edge: hair or head may be cut.
• Touches a side edge. A bust is not checked for this, because a bust's shoulders meet the sides on purpose.
• Small, followed by its size: may look soft on the stage.

A warning does not stop anything. It tells you where to look. Touch-up fixes leftover background.

Framing

Characters drawn by different hands rarely stand at the same size. Framing sets this character's place on the stage. It is in the Advanced view of Card Studio:

• Height on stage: their size against the rest of the cast.
• Vertical position: up or down on the stage.
• Face position: where the face sits in the sprite, for the face chips beside messages and on the bench.
• Face zoom: how close the face chips crop.
• Framing on stage: Auto, Bust or Full body, for a card with both sets.

The preview beside the knobs shows the figure the way the stage draws it, and a face chip. Changes save on their own. Reset puts the four knobs back and keeps Framing on stage. The framing is saved in the card file, so it travels when you share the card.

Generate a set

Generate draws a whole set from one drawing: a neutral face and five feelings, each in both framings, cut out on a transparent background. Every picture is the same drawing with a new face painted in, so the outfit, hair and pose never drift between expressions.

In Card Studio's looks chapter, choose Generate… (Advanced) or Draw the missing… / Draw a new set… (Simple). The Generate sprites sheet opens over Card Studio and walks through Start, Masters, Masks, Expressions and Review, with a Face step between Masters and Masks when it is needed.

What you need

• ComfyUI, on your own computer. Set it up first under Settings → Pictures (see Local ComfyUI). An OpenAI or Gemini key draws pictures, but not a sprite set. If ComfyUI is not answering when you open Generate, the Start step says so and offers Set up ComfyUI (which closes Card Studio and opens Settings on Pictures) and Check again.
• The engine's files. When you choose Draw masters, Kotatsu checks your ComfyUI first. If something is missing, Generate lists What this engine needs, file by file, each marked found, missing: needed or not installed (optional). Use that list: it names the exact files for the engine you picked. The Anima engines need, among others, a recent ComfyUI with the AnimaLLLiteApply node and an inpainting model in ComfyUI's models\model_patches folder.
• A face detector, if you like. With the Impact Pack's UltralyticsDetectorProvider node and its face_yolov8m.pt model, Kotatsu finds the face on its own. Without one, Generate adds a Face step where you drag a box around the face. Either way works.
• A look for the card. Generate starts from the card's Pictures look (see LoRAs for the Look group). A card with no look says "Type who they are first".

The engines

Engine	What it is for
Anima base	The default. The most expressive faces, and the eyes stay crisp through every repaint.
Anima turbo	The fast lane, with fewer steps per drawing, and it runs on smaller GPUs too. Its background colour wanders more from seed to seed, so draw more masters. Checked against v0.7.0: in one test run, 3 of 7 turbo masters passed the background check.
Kroma	A softer, pastel alternative from the KREA 2 family. Write colours into the tags, such as red fox ears.

The Anima models are released by CircleStone Labs for non-commercial use under their own licence. Read the terms on the Anima model page before you use them.

Start

1. Pick an Engine.

2. Check Who they are and what they wear. It starts from the card's Always include tags. Write the character and their outfit as tags; the framing and background words are added for you. Changes here are for this set only; the card keeps its look.

   You can give the character a resting face here, such as grin, confident for a cocky captain. Kotatsu keeps it on the master and on the neutral face only. For every other feeling it leaves those words out, so sadness does not come out as a smirk with one tear. Only whole face words are left out (smile, grin, smirk, frown, blush, a mood such as smug, and the like). Traits such as fangs or tear-shaped earrings stay.

3. Leave out starts from the card's Never include. Anima turbo and Kroma ignore it.

4. The card's LoRAs show as chips. Their trigger words go into every drawing. To change them, edit the card's look.

5. Set Masters to draw, then choose Draw masters.

Masters

A master is a full-body drawing on a lime background. Each one is cut out and checked, and shows a badge:

• clean: the cut came out clean.
• A warning in words: white background, not the key colour, background colour too dull, background not flat, figure runs off the top or a side, or stray marks or text.

A warning is not an error. It names what to look at. Draw more with Draw 2 more, or pick a master with a warning anyway if it looks right to you.

Click the master you want and choose Use this master. To start from your own drawing instead, choose Use my own… and pick a PNG.

Kotatsu then cuts a bust from the master and redraws it at a larger size.

Face

This step only appears when your ComfyUI has no face detector, or the detector could not find the face. Drag a box on the master from the top of the head, bangs and crown included, to a little below the chin. Then choose Use this face box. The masks in the next step are placed from it.

Masks

The bust shows with a coloured mask over the face. Anything painted is redrawn for each expression; the rest of the picture stays exactly as it is.

• Mask: Features covers the eyes, brows and mouth, for most feelings. Flush adds the cheeks, for blushes and embarrassment. When the look gives the character a resting face, sadness, anger and surprise start on Flush too, because the smaller mask tends to keep the resting mouth. You can change any of them.
• Tool: Brush paints more of the mask, Eraser takes it away, and Size sets the brush. Reset masks goes back to the proposed ones.
• Mark: click a mole, scar or tattoo to keep it pixel-exact on every expression. Click it again to remove it. Clear marks removes them all.
• Expressions: joy, anger, surprise, embarrassment and sadness, each with a tick, a mild or strong choice, and its mask. Untick one to leave it out.

Choose Paint the expressions.

Expressions and review

The neutral face is painted first, then each feeling in turn, and each one appears as it finishes. Cancel stops the run.

When a drawing is cut out, the eyes, brows and mouth are protected. A bright highlight in an iris that happens to match the background colour stays in the eye instead of being cut out as a hole.

When all are done, Review shows both framings of every expression side by side, cut out on the stage colour. For any feeling except neutral:

• New seed paints it again.
• Try mild or Try strong paints it again at the other strength.

Save

Choose Save onto the card. The full body goes into characters\<name>\ and the bust into characters\<name>\bust\. A sprite with the same name is replaced. The stage switches to the new set without a reload.

After saving, Touch-up full body… and Touch-up bust… open Touch-up on either set, Save again saves after a reroll, and New set starts over.

Closing and coming back

• Closing the sheet never stops a run. Open Generate… on the same card again and it reconnects to where the run is.
• Discard, then Discard this run?, drops a run you no longer want. The run's working files stay in the character's pictures folder.
• If Kotatsu restarts in the middle of a step, the run says it stopped. Choose Start over to draw a new set.

Touch-up

Touch-up fixes what the background cut missed, by hand, across a whole set. Open it with Touch-up… (or Touch-up bust…) in the looks chapter of Card Studio, or from Review after saving. Fix holes on the card's hero opens it on one sprite.

The sprites of the set are listed on the left. Touch-up edits PNG files; other images are listed as "Not editable here (not PNG)".

Tools

Tool	Key	What it does
Wand	W	Click a leftover chunk of background. It clears that pocket only and softens the edge. Shift-click takes every visible background-coloured pixel. It also takes a shadow the model painted on the background under the feet, even in a colour of its own: click the shadow, and it goes with its edge. A patch inside the art, or one larger than a floor shadow, is left alone; erase those with Shift and the lasso.
Lasso	L	Draw around an area. Only background-coloured pixels inside go; the art stays. With Alt it restores inside; with Shift it erases everything inside.
Smart brush	B	Paint over an area. Only background-coloured pixels under it go.
Restore	R	Paints the original drawing back.
Erase	E	Clears anything you paint.
Pan	H	Moves the view. Space-drag pans with any tool.

Brush sets the brush size (also [ and ]). Tolerance sets how close to the background colour a pixel must be to count. Background shows the colour Kotatsu takes as background.

Seeing what is left

• The backdrop buttons show the sprite on a checkerboard, navy, black, white, magenta or a colour you pick.
• Suspects (S) marks pixels still showing whose original colour is the background colour. It points; you judge. On a white background it also marks eye whites and shine.
• Alpha (M) shows the transparency alone.
• Compare to raw (hold C) shows the original drawing.
• Fit (F) and 100% (1) set the zoom. The mouse wheel zooms too, and Up and Down change sprite.

Apply to matching and Sync body

A generated set is one drawing with different faces, so a fix on one sprite usually belongs on all of them.

• Apply to matching sprites (A) is on by default. Each edit also lands on every other sprite whose drawing is identical where you edited. A sprite in a different pose is skipped and named.
• Sync body to matching sprites copies this sprite's edges onto the others wherever their drawings are the same picture. Each face keeps its own. Use it when hair seems to shimmer as the face changes on stage.
• Undo (Ctrl Z) and Redo (Ctrl Y) reach every sprite an edit landed on.

Keep figure (K) drops loose specks and keeps the figure. Revert goes back to the sprite as it was loaded; Undo brings your edits back.

Saving

Save (Ctrl S) saves the sprite you are on, and Save all (Ctrl Shift S) saves every edited one. The first time a sprite is saved, its original is kept once in a .kotatsu\touchup-original folder inside the set's folder. If you close with unsaved edits, Touch-up asks: Save all and close, Discard, or Keep editing.

Sets you brought yourself

A generated set keeps each sprite's original drawing beside it, and most tools compare against that drawing. An uploaded set or pack has no original, so only Erase, Lasso (which erases), Undo and Save work on it. Touch-up says so when you open such a set.

Good to know

• The Sprite look is part of Kotatsu's own layout. It does not show under the classic layout.
• The stage shows only characters that have a sprite set. In a scene, a character without one stays off the stage, and their messages keep the card's art.
• The narrator never takes a place on the stage.
• Sprite sets live in SillyTavern's own sprite folders, so other SillyTavern tools that read sprites see the full-body set as usual. The bust set sits in a subfolder beside it.
• A generated set's working files stay in the character's pictures folder, under .kotatsu\sprite-runs.