Custom PNG Layers

Custom layers let a pack ship its own art on an NPC - tattoos, face paint, patterns, shirt prints. They work exactly like Inkorporated tattoos, and the same authoring rules apply.

A layer PNG is a full UV-space skin texture, not a sticker

There are no per-body-part square zones your image gets dropped into. The body shares one UV unwrap (torso + both arms + legs in a single texture space); the face has its own. Your PNG is sampled across that entire UV by the avatar shader:

The design’s opaque pixels must sit at the UV coordinates of the body part you want. Everything else must be transparent.

Draw a shape centered on a blank canvas and its pixels land wherever the middle of the body UV happens to be (often across legs/arms) - the classic “it is on the wrong limb” mistake.

Size and format

• Format: PNG with a transparent background (RGBA).
• Recommended canvas: 2048x2048 for body layers, 512x512 for face layers (matches the built-ins).
• No size cap - resolution affects sharpness only, not placement. Big pieces (full sleeve, whole torso) are fine: paint that UV region opaque.
• Colour art works - layers default to a white tint; the manifest tint multiplies over it.

Alignment references

Paint over aligned art instead of guessing:

• Inkorporated’s example pack PNGs (and its DEBUG-build Templates/ export) are aligned to the same UVs.
• The Personify editor previews your PNG live on the menu character - the fastest feedback loop for alignment.

Wiring it into the manifest

"faceLayers": [ { "file": "warpaint.png", "tint": "#FFFFFF" } ],
"bodyLayers": [ { "file": "sleeve.png",   "tint": "#C0FFEE" } ]

The PNG sits next to manifest.json in the pack folder. faceLayers files register on the face mesh, bodyLayers files on the body mesh - putting a face design into bodyLayers (or vice versa) is the other common cause of art landing in the wrong place.