I am not going to sugar coat this for you. Making a character will not be easy. Not necessarily because the program is hard to use, but because there is alot that goes into making a good character. A good character is original, inspiring, dramatic, has flaws, has strengths, has weaknesses. A character is... a character. The program provides the engine to drive and display the character, but it is up to you to define the character. Who s/he is, what they do. What does s/he like or dislike? Does s/he get bored easily? Does s/he eat alot? What kinds of clothes does s/he wear? For what purpose or occasion? There are countless other questions you need to ask yourself as both an artist and programmer to make the character stand out and feel alive.
The guide is broken into two parts. One part is aimed specifically at programmers. There I explain the state machine, the task-stack, and numerous other things that programmers will want to know before starting their work. The other part is aimed at the artist. There I explain how resources are found by the program in order to display your character on the screen. I will also introduce you to the programmer way of thinking and provide tips on how to better communicate ideas to a programmer.
In a nutshell, it would behoove you to read and at least try to understand both sections of the guide. I am specifically addressing artists here, as understanding how the artificial intelligence system works in Moji could greatly benefit you as you can make the programmer's job a bit easier. Creating artificial intelligence is not an easy task, and that is essentially what you are doing here. The artist's job is a very skill based job. One that requires years of training and dedication. The programmer's job, on the other hand, is a very knowledge based job. A programmer's job is very heavily based on problem-solving. It is very rare that a programmer will make a good artist, or an artist will make a good programmer. They require completely different skillsets and training. But if a programmer and an artist can communicate effectively and work well together, some really cool stuff can happen.
If you are itching to learn more about Artificial Intelligence, I would highly recommend the book Programming Game Ai By Example. While Mat makes heavy use of Microsoft's horrid STL implementation, he more than makes up for by providing an excellent reference to anyone interested in exploring this exciting area of programming.
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