Lokinta's Tips 'n' Tricks~

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⚠️⚠️ I have noticed several errors and inconsistencies, and am working on corrections currently (5/18/17.)
Please have patience or contact me (Lokinta in Cocoppa Play) for help. ⚠️⚠️

INTRODUCTION

This page is written to introduce the Selfy model "from square one" to a user who is not at all familiar with the Selfy dress-up system.

Veteran Selfy game users may prefer to skip the introduction section and start at the Building section, or farther on to the Resources section. I will add clickable links to jump down the page in the future, sorry for the inconvenience.  Look for the big orange words in the meantime.

For experienced Selfy-builders who know their way around these addresses and methods, direct links to resources will be put onto my "HOME" page in the near future so you do not need to go through the tutorial to get at the resources! My focus at the moment is zapping all these confusing and outdated tutorial wrinkles. Thank you for understanding.

What is Selfy?

Selfy is the name for a virtual dress-up interface consisting of a Flash script doll body upon which the user can apply components from an expansive combination of facial expressions, clothing, accessories, special effects, poses and scenery.  Selfy are now also hosted on an app server in a format other than Flash, but for this Selfy-building method, a web browser with Flash capability is necessary.

At the time of writing, there are nearly 95,000 unique items available which can be combined to dress up a Selfy.  Selfy has been disributed by a series of sites, apps, and games, each of which offered a unique user experience, but the Selfy model has been faithfully preserved and refined since 2006.

A Selfy may be made to depict an original character design, a fan-inspired "cosplay" of a favorite character, a mini-me, or simply to enjoy exploring the vast library of fashion for inspiration.

Despite the relatively small and low-resolution image at left, when you are working on a Selfy in your browser window, the image is of very high quality and is nearly infinitely resizeable.
Give it a try to witness for yourself the beauty and versatility of Selfy building!

Selfy gets built piece-by-piece

(Resources to do all this are available on the main page, and instructions for using them will follow the introduction section.)
Once you have opened a Selfy template in a browser tab, any items you want to wear will be added one component at a time.

This can be used to do some interesting things.  You can try on any item from the history of Selfy, regardless of whether you own the item, and also you may try on items which could not normally be combined. For example, you may wear two hats at the same time, experiment with layering skirts and tops, or hold two separate hand items simultaneously. This is not possible in the actual game, nor in structured Selfy builder tools. Editing the Selfy's address "in the raw" allows an exponentially greater freedom with the items.

This method allows freedom in being able to combine components which normally could not be worn together, however the components' established layers or positions can not be adjusted from where they normally appear. No matter where you place the item's ID code in the Selfy's URL, it will appear where the artist intended them to fit on the Selfy.

Selfy uses 15 categories of items

Every available item (or "component") of a Selfy is identified as one of fifteen categories. The category determines how the component will be worn in games and apps. These categories can help you find what you are looking for when searching for or browsing available components. In browser based Selfy building (this tutorial's method,) codes of the first 14 categories may be interchanged freely.

The categories are:

hair
hat
face
accef (accessory, face [Glasses])
accen (accessory, neck [Necklace])
acceh (accessory, hand)
back
shoe
coat
top
bottom
bg (background)
fg (foreground)
ffg (foreground 2)
motion* (which also includes non-moving Poses)

*motion is a relatively new feature to Selfy, which changes things a bit, but we certainly can use it by this method.
Motion is the only category in which the address code for the motion must be assigned to its proper category for the Selfy to display correctly.

In the past, Selfy had various skintones available with the category "bodycolor," though I am experiencing problems getting the skin colors to work correctly now. If I can figure out how to use that feature successfully, I will re-add it to the list as a sixteenth available category. 

BUILDING A SELFY

Begin with a Selfy base body

There are two codes by which a Selfy may be built in a browser. First, let's get familiar with the process using the simpler version.

Copy and paste this URL into the address bar of your browser, and bookmark it if you'd like:
http://image2.atgames.jp/selfy_motion.swf?&hat=0&accef=0&hair=0&face=0&accen=0&acceh=0&coat=0&top=0&bottom=0&shoe=0&back=0&bg=0&ffg=0&fg=0&bgFlg=0&motion=0&width=396&height=640

I'll be honest, I don't know what the bgFlg at the end is, but it needs to be there with its value at 1.

Notice that all of the categories for components (the interchangeable 14 of the 15 listed above) are here, and each is between an & and an = .

At this point the Selfy is completely blank.  This makes sense since its component values are all at 0. 
To equip items, these 0s must be changed to the ID code of the desired components.

Find the ID code for the component you wish to wear

Various resources faithfully document and provide access to the full current catalogue of Selfy's available items.  @trade search is my personal favorite at this time.  Other very good resources are available, and each serves a slightly different purpose. Links to these resources will be added to the "HOME" page of this site.

For beginners, I highly recommend the above link. The item ID numbers we seek are displayed neatly along with a preview image.
The number associated with each item is 6 to 8 digits long.

For example, at right, the "snuggly shoulder riding squirrels" ID code is 10711424.
On @trade, the code appears above the preview image. Highlight and copy this number.




When you perform a search
or browse on @HighTrade,
the item's ID code appears in
gray beneath its picture.
↵

On some other resources, such as @games or Gachaholic, the code is not displayed in the open, but you can usually still find it.  When you see the item you want to wear, Right Click the image, then select View Image. 
In the address bar of your browser, the item's location should appear as something like this:
http://img.atgames.jp/shop/clothes/top/top_10329023_shop.png
This is the address of a top, so copy the 8-digit code from there.

Paste the item ID into Selfy's URL

With the item ID copied, open the tab in which your blank Selfy base is waiting. In the URL bar, look for the category where you want to apply the item code, then paste the code into the URL at that position, replacing the placeholder 0.
Like so:
http://image2.atgames.jp/selfy.swf?&hair=0&face=0&top=10329023&.....&bgFlg=1

Then press Enter, and the Selfy will refresh, now wearing this top.

At this point, you may put more items onto your Selfy by entering codes in the rest of the available component spaces.

Solving common problems

If you encounter a problem, such as the Selfy disappears when you try to refresh with a new item, the item does not display, the item appears broken or misplaced, or if the page otherwise will not load:

Check your work first:
Make sure you copied and pasted all the digits of the item's ID code, and that the digits all appear in their correct order.
Only one component ID code may be entered per location in the URL.
Make sure it is in the format of : &location=######## (&hair=10432832&top=10329023&bottom=0&accef=10405931….. and so forth.)  You may shuffle the categories around as you like (with the exception that bgFlg=1 must stay at the end) but do make sure the punctuation is all in its proper place.

Spaces should not be present in the URL address bar.
Leaving placeholder 0s in the URL will not cause an error.
Changing an item's code to start with a 0 instead of a 1 is a quick way to turn an item "off" to see how the Selfy will look without it, but without erasing the entire code and having to find it again. When you want it to re-appear on the Selfy, put the original digit back.

Some components may clash, interfere with one another, make your Selfy appear to be in a very painful or impossible situation, or otherwise appear to be disobeying the laws of thermodynamics. Ah, adventures in a 2-dimensional playground!  It's not your fault - some components just do not play well with others.

If an item is cut off at the side of the page, unfortunately this is normal.  Although inconvenient, there are options to move the item back into view. Since it is one of the most complicated and fussy problems to solve in browser Selfy building, I discuss this at the end of this tutorial.

Some items are simply glitched and will not work, even if you have entered them correctly. You may try again later, in case the server managers discover and patch that item back into working order.

If the entire Selfy is not loading at all, the servers may be closed for maintenance.  This occurs on a regular basis, typically 2 or 3 times per week, and lasts for an hour to several hours at a time. Some reference sites also become unavailable during maintenance periods. Bookmark your most recent Selfy URL to "save your progress" then you may continue when the servers go live again.

Getting adventurous: Layering items & Impossible Selfies!

If you want to wear two items that normally both fit in the Glasses slot, you have to sacrifice another item position for it. 
If I want to wear my magpie and a pair of glasses together, I'll have to wear the second item as a necklace, back item, bottoms, foreground, or something else instead.  For this example, I'll wear it as a necklace. 

 &accef=1034671   will be worn instead as   &accen=1034671

Shown at left is the result of doing this.

http://image2.atgames.jp/selfy.swf?&hair=10432832&top=10329023&bottom=0&accef=10405931&accen=10315511

Again, the location that the item appears does not change no matter which "location" you put it at in the address.

Tops are very tricky to layer effectively

To the left is an example of what can happen when wearing two items of the same role at the same time.
Of course, this is a silly example using two tops you probably wouldn't want to try on together,
but it shows an extreme case of the two main problems you'll encounter. 

http://image2.atgames.jp/selfy.swf?&hair=10432832&bottom=10781012&top=10785104&accef=10405930&face=10464901&hat=10782362&bgFlg=1

Clashing flash components will alternately layer over one another, becoming visible at the "joints" of the selfy doll, and also at at places where the upper layer doesn't completely hide the next layer.  In this example, you can see the the bear suit showing between the joints of the arms of the dress, and also showing at the legs where the dress's shape isn't wide enough to cover up the bear's feet.

The layers can not be changed or rearranged.  It does not matter at which item location you put the first or second top - they will always appear where the artist programmed the components to sit, and there's no changing it. 
If two tops don't layer together right away, it's a shame but they just aren't going to work out no matter what.


Here is another example of two tops layering.  The effect is that the shirt now has the appearance of a ruffled hem because of the onepiece underneath.  From a distance, it looks okay.
The onepiece does not stick out from the shirt's sleeves at the joints.   However, the sides of the onepiece are still visible along the back and front of the selfy. 
It's better, but still has its problems.

http://image2.atgames.jp/selfy.swf?&hair=10432832&bottom=10318144&top=1039344&accef=10405931&accen=10315511&face=10517884&hat=10395694&shoe=10429682


Lastly, here is a selfy wearing two tops where the striped sleeves, hood, and tail from the second top can be seen in addition to the first top, the dress.  It's a more successful layering attempt because the dress has the wider shape and happens to layer over the shirt I chose.

This selfy's code:
http://image2.atgames.jp/selfy.swf?&hair=10432831&bottom=10361003&top=10388373&face=10719953&hat=10519521&shoe=10428663

More often than not, it doesn't work out.  It takes a lot of play to find something that works together.  Consider it a challenge ^_^

Poses and Motion

The system for poses and motions is very slightly different: a new prefix is used in the selfy address to make the pose and motion feature possible. 

The _motion in the "prefix" makes it possible to now animate the selfy with pose and motion codes.
You'll see that the location for a motion code has also been added to this base address.
A height and width constraint have been added at the end to tell the browser how large the selfy should appear.
You can adjust this, but it causes a couple of things to happen, which are a bit frustrating.  ><
(Right-click and select View Image to make it full size for easier reading!)

Here's what I've come up with:
Firstly, when adding height and width, your selfy will become top-left aligned in the browser.
This often cuts off items on the upper and left edges of your selfy if you're posing or wearing large items. (as in the top right image)
The reason that Dreamselfy and Selfy Lab can center their full-size selfy outputs without this happening is because they are incompatible with pose and motion.  So we had to brainstorm a solution...

Leaving the height and width constraints off gives you a very big, horizontally centered selfy whose bottom edge appears at the height you specify.  (the 3 screen-captures along the left side illustrate this)
Once the selfy gets larger than your screen you can not scroll to view the parts that are off-screen.
You can move the huge selfy around within the browser by adding a height value without a width value.
Could be useful if you're wanting to get a really good look at your items or something like that.

The solution!  (so far...)

If you add only a width, you'll get a selfy of the width you specify, vertically centered on the browser page, and left-aligned.  The top and bottom will get cut off once you exceed the width that proportions the selfy beyond the height of your browser. (above, the second screencap on the right illustrates this)

The easiest all-around "fix" to view your entire selfy with pose/motion in effect is to enter a width value, without height, that is large enough to cause the selfy to be too tall for your browser.  Then resize your browser window just a bit and the selfy will fill the field without getting cut off at any edge, but will look stretched out.  From this point, resize the browser window until the selfy has regained normal shape.  For me, on a MacBook's 1280x800 resolution, the ideal width to make this selfy fit in the window was 500.

Unavailable items

A few items were TinierMe exclusives and can not be worn by @games hosted selfies using the above method. 
Most of them start with the number 50, unlike typical @games items which begin with a 10. 
Such items include:
50000971, 50000941, 50000931, 50000924, 50000911, 50000904, 50002246, 50002251,
50008646, 10486492, 50008624, 50008652, 10330704, 50000984, 50000961
there may be more.  They do work on DreamSelfy's server, but most motions and @games exclusive items including poses and motions do not work there, as of yet, though there appears to be intention to implement @games items on their site in the future.