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Talking Character Busts!

BMM_Archive · July 15, 2026

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Preserved forum archive. This topic stores the original first post and locally mirrored RPG Maker Web attachments when available. It is posted by the BMMPlay archive account, not by the original creator.

Original Source

Original title: Talking Character Busts!
Original author: Rhino
Original date: June 3, 2017
Source thread: https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/threads/talking-character-busts.79468/
Source forum path: Game Development Engines > RPG Maker Javascript Plugins > JS Plugin Requests

Summary

Archived First Post

Hello! I’d like to request a plugin to make talking character busts possible! The basic role of this plugin is to show a looping animation for as long as text characters are being drawn in the message window. There’s no ‘vanilla’ way to do this with eventing.

I think talking busts would be an awesome addition to MV as;

1) They add more to the world/characters, the visual impact from even such a small animation is huge!

2) They make it really clear to the player who is talking, it’s especially handy in visual novel style scenes where two or more characters might be shown on screen at any one time.

To allow for the widest range of use and compatibility, this plugin should be designed for use with busts made using a show picture event, rather than being incorporated with a bust plugin. (e.g. Galv’s Message Busts)

Example:

Basic features of this plugin:

-Shows a looping animation above pictures whilst text is being drawn in the message window. Must be compatible with the default text codes \., \|, \!, \>, \<, and if the player were to force all the text to appear at once by pressing enter. Should also be compatible with Yanfly’s message core \w[x] and fast forward feature. (Allows the player to skip text at the press of a button.)

-User chooses the images they wish to loop, and the co-ordinates to show the animation at. There should be no defined frame number, to allow the freedom to make simple or more complicated animations.

-Space for multiple animations to be set up (for other characters.) I would suggest at least 30. (A single character may need more than one animation for default talking vs shouting, different poses etc)

-Each animation can be turned on and off easily via switch, variable, or plugin command (ie an intuitive way to make two character busts talk in conversation)

Other Recommended Features:

-The ability to define the closed mouth image that shows once the speech is finished- allows for a simpler way to have a character smile or frown at the end of the animation, rather than having to make two animations with different closed mouths.

-The ability to show more than one looping animation at once- adds functionality for this plugin to be more than just talking busts, by allowing room for other character animations (e.g sweat drops, sparkles etc)

Optional, but cool:

-The ability to turn the animation on/off during a message (by adding some sort of code within the show text command.)

-Ensuring compatibility with Kino's Slow Text.

In Exchange for this plugin:

I will create simple speaking animations for the SF Actor Busts that came in the Extra Assets for MV to be used with this plugin. (Example given in the graphics to use whilst testing.) These will be released to the community free for use in commercial and non-commercial games.

I would be happy to create a little something for the plugin writer in exchange for their time. I am an artist with just under a decade of experience, so can assist in character art/design, sprites or generator pieces. Disclaimer: I have the most experience in drawing anime style characters, and less experience in pixel art. You can see examples of my art and pieces I’ve made for the generator in the spoiler below. If you’d like to see more, please send me a PM.

MV Pieces- My first attempt at a sprite and an original generator piece. You can find more by looking at my resources (linked in my signature.)

Character Busts- (Left) One of the Examples I've made recently for my upcoming game! She's got a blinking animation, but I'd LOVE to make her talk! (Right) A bust I made in 2014 with a more advanced talking animation for lip syncing.

Size has been compressed to fit the forum upload limit, so some quality has been lost.

Graphics to use whilst testing:

Body position: Origin: Center 627 x 239

Mouth positions: Origin: Center 602 x 215

Animation: Mouth closed, 1, 2, 3, Mouth Closed. Should be run at a fast frame rate.

Download Here

The download includes two versions of the bust (with and without a starting mouth.) I wasn’t sure which would work better.

Plugins to look at for inspiration:

Iavra Gif - A potential way to create the animation if single images aren’t feasible.

Soul Sequence Message Bust - The inspiration for this plugin. Whilst Soul’s plugin gives functionality for animated busts, unfortunately it has no features to stop the animation once the message has been displayed, meaning the character just keeps talking on until player input. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but personally I find it makes the bust look sloppy, so between this and static images, I’d rather lose the animation. (Which is a shame, since it adds so much to the game!)

Thanks so much for reading!

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