The way I approach critter building is to bring each critter direction into PS with its own layer folder e.g.: NE – E – SE – SW – W – NW (NW = North West). I color code everything and name each layer/folder, so I won’t confuse the order of the layers. I prefer to organize each layer so that they align correctly, so when you turn your layers off and on the animation will run in sequence, and in the correct position.
Most critters simply require a change in the head (add a bald head or long hair head), so understanding the use of “masking” is critical…also how to build the best “actions” to suit your needs. For instance I have actions that will export the image, crop it to size, and change the background color to the desired blue and save it as a BMP in the Fallout palette with just one push of a button.
Or an action that will do the above Fallout palette save, but with up to fifteen layers, with each save using the correct naming sequence i.e.: 001, 002, 003, etc.
Or an action that will rename the layers into their correct description i.e.: NE_001, NE_002, NE_003. Time is an important issue with critter building, and you want to streamline and reduce as much time as possible from the process, because 50 frames might sound like a fairly easy experience, but 1500 frames certainly isn’t.
If the layers are correctly designed each layer will have a new critter (but in the same position) – Black Leather (blue layer) – Normal Leather (green layer) – Metal Armor (yellow layer). The long hair or bald critter would be the top layer (red layer). Then it’s a matter of turning the layers off and saving the images…so the critical thing is to build the correct layers and actions – that’s about 70% of the time spent in PS…and we haven’t even mentioned the Frame Animator yet.
I want to put together some master PS files of the critters – the same as above, but with every critter animation of the one type in the one file (i.e. Walk - Run, etc). But there are 2 different animation types – the original Fallout 1 (Blue Vault) and the stupid Fallout 2 animations (Vic, Myron), so each would require different master files. All up there are almost 200 animation cycles, so that would mean 200 master PS files.
In fact I grab here everything at least slightly usable in the project, and this V13 overall is maybe the very sole case it's completely out of the question for us (no V13 PC default critter, and obviously no other V13 citizens in there). I'm actually surprised you care about so much 
Yeah, I did the AB vault suit frms last night, though they probably don't need done. I've got alot of free time so i'll be able to work on it probably.
