This is from the PM I sent to Gulde, since it was requested by other I thought it's best to have it in another thread. I added in some points that were not in the PM. Feel free to ask questions if something is unclear.
[PM]
Step by step (I'm assuming you know the basic stuff of your gfx software like resizing, selection/masking tools, color correction procedures, layers). If not the help system of your image software should explain them:
- Best is to load an existing icon to look for the correct size first. All icons are in ..\Doomsday\gfx\interface\models
- Notice the two green bars on the right? These are needed in the game to show strength and org - make sure your new icons have the same bars, in the same position, and with *exactly* the same green color too (means exact the same RGB color value which is R: 0 G: 255 B: 0). Best is to cut them out, make them into a new layer (or "object" in CorelPhotopaint) to combine them with your new, finished icon later before saving
- Then take the pic you want as icon, resize to the correct size, sharpen again, since most software does anti-alias while resizing, so the pic loses sharpness. Paste it into the existing icon you loaded in the beginning.
- If its a color pic you're done here and can go to the next step. If the pic is initially black and white, you may want to recolor it. This really needs some routne and work, so it's not that easy. What you do here is using selection tools to mask a certain part of a pic, then change the color of that masked part only. Example: you have a b/w pic of a ship - you want the ship to be slightly greyish, the sky a brghter blue, and the ocean maybe dark blue or a bit greenish. So you have to mask all these parts (possibly create separate layers out of them too - depends), then use the color correction of your software to increase the blue value of the sky part, or the green value of the ocean etc. Make sure your changes don't affect those green bars (thats why layers are nice, because you can decide which of them you change, and which remain untouched).
- When you're done, save, and name the icon with the correct icon number and country tag. Every unit type in the game has its own number, like "eng_model_21_4" mean it's a BB5 for UK (country eng, unit 21, model 4 is actually the fifth cause they're starting with 0). You need to use the correct country code for Czech icons instead of eng in the example of course. Again it's best to look how exiting icons are named to get an idea how its done. The save format is 24bit standard Windows BMP (so if you work with layers, you have to combine them all into one pic first in most software to be able to save as BMP - at least that's the case in my software).
[/PM]
Some things are not explained here, like how to get the specific SKIF look with the icons "fading" into the background grey color on the right.
[PM]
Step by step (I'm assuming you know the basic stuff of your gfx software like resizing, selection/masking tools, color correction procedures, layers). If not the help system of your image software should explain them:
- Best is to load an existing icon to look for the correct size first. All icons are in ..\Doomsday\gfx\interface\models
- Notice the two green bars on the right? These are needed in the game to show strength and org - make sure your new icons have the same bars, in the same position, and with *exactly* the same green color too (means exact the same RGB color value which is R: 0 G: 255 B: 0). Best is to cut them out, make them into a new layer (or "object" in CorelPhotopaint) to combine them with your new, finished icon later before saving
- Then take the pic you want as icon, resize to the correct size, sharpen again, since most software does anti-alias while resizing, so the pic loses sharpness. Paste it into the existing icon you loaded in the beginning.
- If its a color pic you're done here and can go to the next step. If the pic is initially black and white, you may want to recolor it. This really needs some routne and work, so it's not that easy. What you do here is using selection tools to mask a certain part of a pic, then change the color of that masked part only. Example: you have a b/w pic of a ship - you want the ship to be slightly greyish, the sky a brghter blue, and the ocean maybe dark blue or a bit greenish. So you have to mask all these parts (possibly create separate layers out of them too - depends), then use the color correction of your software to increase the blue value of the sky part, or the green value of the ocean etc. Make sure your changes don't affect those green bars (thats why layers are nice, because you can decide which of them you change, and which remain untouched).
- When you're done, save, and name the icon with the correct icon number and country tag. Every unit type in the game has its own number, like "eng_model_21_4" mean it's a BB5 for UK (country eng, unit 21, model 4 is actually the fifth cause they're starting with 0). You need to use the correct country code for Czech icons instead of eng in the example of course. Again it's best to look how exiting icons are named to get an idea how its done. The save format is 24bit standard Windows BMP (so if you work with layers, you have to combine them all into one pic first in most software to be able to save as BMP - at least that's the case in my software).
[/PM]
Some things are not explained here, like how to get the specific SKIF look with the icons "fading" into the background grey color on the right.
