Graphics

[ComradeCrimson]

-I think I'd do a certain amount of re-coloring if I was going to use several bases from Bases19 in a custom faction set, to avoid any sameness of look - SMACX just added prominent stripes in the faction flag color, and that might be enough.  -Just an awful lot of grey-tan in that bases set ...

Yeah, was likely going to recolour a lot of these in GIMP, edit them a tad as well.

Will post my results soon enough I reckon.

[terzaerian]

So I was out this weekend and on my laptop, and was looking at a "Custom Faction Creation.zip" file that I had downloaded to it a few weeks back. Inside the file, are copies of samples as well as a palette that purports to be for FLCs! I'm going to try and make a test file with it and see if this is actually it. The readme inside also referenced Shuft's guide (but didn't include it, unfortunately) and Paint Shop Pro, so I'm hoping it will work.

[Misanthrope]

How old of a copy of PSP and Animation Shop do I need to have to get it to produce FLC files? I HAVE an old copy, (JASC) but dunno where it stands in terms of compatibility there.  :/


Edit: Is PS ver. 5.01 and Animation Shop 1.02

I looked around for options on the file formats it can work with, and while there were a bunch that it (at least CLAIMED) could work with, .FLC was not on that list.

[terzaerian]

How old of a copy of PSP and Animation Shop do I need to have to get it to produce FLC files? I HAVE an old copy, (JASC) but dunno where it stands in terms of compatibility there.  :/


Edit: Is PS ver. 5.01 and Animation Shop 1.02

I looked around for options on the file formats it can work with, and while there were a bunch that it (at least CLAIMED) could work with, .FLC was not on that list.

My old copy of PSP 8 came bundled with Animation Shop 3, the latter of which allegedly can save to FLC.

Unfortunately that latest lead was a dead end as well.  My only other guess is that I need to make gif with the palette and then convert it to an FLC.

[Buster's Uncle]

DiplomacyLandscapes5


23 diplomacy landscapes, size/croped and scanlined to copy/paste as-is into the .pcx of your next custom faction.

Diplomacy landscapes are one of the easier aspects of a SMACX faction graphic to create -provided one hasn't anything terribly specific in mind- but it is hoped that these graphic goodie files will give beginners at faction modding a leg up - given a logo appropriate to the faction, all the elements of a faction graphic are available in AC2's Download section for anyone with elementary copy/paste skills and a graphics program that can handle .pcx files - a good eye/taste helps, too.  (See also the Bases and Portraits series.)

For info on art techniques and/or to communicate with BU and ask any questions, see the Graphics thread: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=1237.0  These are a lot of work to put together, so please be sure to credit me in the empty space of the .pcx.  Posting to let me know you found it useful would be okay, too.

[Kilkakon]

I did this sketch of a woman for my C&C project today, what do you guys think?

I'm not very used to drawing girls 

[Buster's Uncle]

Hmmm.  Her head-shoulders proportions might call for a slightly bigger head or narrower shoulders...

A lot's going to depend on the detailing as you go, of course.

[Misanthrope]

Diplomacy landscapes are one of the easier aspects of a SMACX faction graphic to create -provided one hasn't anything terribly specific in mind- but it is hoped that these graphic goodie files will give beginners at faction modding a leg up - given a logo appropriate to the faction, all the elements of a faction graphic are available in AC2's Download section for anyone with elementary copy/paste skills and a graphics program that can handle .pcx files - a good eye/taste helps, too.  (See also the Bases and Portraits series.)

Absolutely GORGEOUS! <3
Thanks for sharing!
Question though... what if one DOES have something incredible specific in mind?  The in-game factions have art specific to their bases, so I was wondering what it would take to create something like that around a custom-made base?

Still working on the forever-ago promised faction(s) and the bases are the holdup, sorry.

Speaking of, I feel like I've just about hammered all the bug out of the text for the faction with one minor exception.... wasn't there an option to have numbers in the faction bonuses and penalties in the Social Engineering screen, or am I just imagining that there was?
Faction I'm (still) working on has a +3 growth, -2 research and -2 morale... that's a lot of individual icons and they're spaced weird.


Back to work!

[Buster's Uncle]

...Someone at the old Network Node site seemed to have access to 3D models of a lot of the custom bases - if you can generate a shot of a base from an odd, non-game but recognizable angle, it's merely hard work to blend it into a landscape and make an impressive DL...

Not sure I understand about the #s in the SE screen...

[Misanthrope]

...Someone at the old Network Node site seemed to have access to 3D models of a lot of the custom bases - if you can generate a shot of a base from an odd, non-game but recognizable angle, it's merely hard work to blend it into a landscape and make an impressive DL...
Not sure I understand about the #s in the SE screen...

Hey BUncle!

Sadly, looks like both are no-go's. 
The bases I'm making would be custom pixel-by-pixel and done by hand... I'd have to build a digital model for rendering to work, so changing the angle and adding a background wouldn't be possible.  I -COULD- do it, but I'd have to get (and learn) new software, and that'd probably take longer since I'm only doing ONE faction for now; other factions maybe later, but if that happens, it'll be... later.



The "icons" thing in the SE screen is the social bonuses and/or penalties inherent to each faction.
For instance:
Peacekeepers have -1 Effic, so the bar has a single red arrow.  Caretakers get +1 Planet, so there's only a single green tree there.  Both are just there in the middle with their neat, centered, lonely icon.

The Hive has four icons: two red economy, one green growth, one green industry. They're centered and still look good.
Gaians and Consciousness each have FIVE icons and they start to get a little snug on that bar.

Believers have SIX and they start to scroll a bit, cutting the edges of the two on the outside.



The faction I'm building has SEVEN and only five of them fit on the bar, the first and last not being displayed.

My question was, is there a way to make number appear next to an icon in the faction-inherent bar, like they do in the buttons, to declare a multiple value instead of merely repeating the same color icon?

[Buster's Uncle]

The art part would be easy enough - but I imagine it would take alterations of the actual game code to make it work - and Yitzi often says there's not a lot of room in the code to insert changes...

[Xen]

Yeeehaaa! Thanks to you I've just completed (more or less) my first faction graphics plate; most of it from the files you provided. Thank you so much. 

I have but one big problem. I've never used Photoshop before and find it hard to wrap my head around. For this reason I've used Caretaker base icons rather than any of yours because I don't know how to apply the shield icons to the bases in such a way as to occlude the bits that must be occluded and not occlude those that don't. Is there some simple way to do this or is it a painstaking process?

[Buster's Uncle]

In the versions of PS I've worked with, it's a simple matter of copy/pasting the row of bases over top what's there.  You've found the Shields file, of course.

You ARE going to post your faction to Downloads and link it here?

[Xen]

Oh yes I found the shields file alright. Are you saying you just have to Copy/Paste the bases over the shields?

[Buster's Uncle]

Yah.  I talk about this extensively on page two...