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Sprites: HowTo

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Originally posted by N!ghtY
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Here a quick version of a howto. A brainstorm edition right now.
However this will improve.

Feedback is appreciated and help wanted :)




http://217.18.70.66/spritehowto.html
Click to expand...

Nice N!ghtY, you can also simplify the process of making the different veiws by creating the D-NW, D-W, D-SW bmp's and then using your image software to mirror the D-NW and then save it as the D-NE bmp. Do this for the remaining 2 bmp's mirror D-W and rename as D-E and so on, this saves loads of time. I also use the D-NW as the basis for my Fire or Fight D-NW and just add the animation frame by frame to the existing image, and save as Fight D-NW. Use the D-SW the same way for the stand bmp just without the animation. You basicly just need 5 base veiws and then mirror or animate as needed for the rest. Base views are D-N, D-NW, D-W, D-SW, D-S. I have found this to be the best way to proceed.
 
nice one

excellent tutorial. that pretty much sums up the whole issue on making sprites actually. a few notes from what i know:

- i think the higher the speed in the sprite is actually something like an i'th of a second, so the lower it is the faster it animates.

- also, neon blue (RGB 0,255,255) constitutes a shadow in the game, and should BETTER be second in the palette after the compusory Pink transparency.

- the origin system: I think the x and y coordinates just mean the general orientation of the graphics in the game. x adjusts the horizontal (right positive) and y the vertical (up positive). so if you find your units drawing to close to the enemy in say, firing NW, just decrease the x and y, and so on.

i hope this helps. and great work.
 
Not bad so far, try to make a few areas like explaining how you get the spr file that format, like once youve written the code thier, you have to save it in a certain format!

ive had a look in thsoe spirit files ages ago and look here and thier, dont forget to write down the save name so that it changes into the write format.
Though I dont get the concept of the pixels thing, farames i know what you man byb that jsut not pixels.

also I gues you write the coding info for the Tank info for what country they belong to in WordPad or NotePad? be helpful to know which one?

Also how do you get the Pallet into Photoshop 7?

also dont understand the X & Y location thingy of what you guys are talking about lol?

one more thing, how do you get the new spirits to move thier turrets whether it be Tank or Ship, or a propelore of the Airplane/Bomber? that would be nice to know as well :D good im a newbie to this, hopfuly I cna turn out some great graphics for this once the guids completed! :rolleyes: :D
 
:eek: thats 80-90% better :cool: now I get the gist of it more, want more want more lol

hmm a much better way also is to also explain wiht loads of pictures showing each step, like the layering, and the Pink backskin and what not, beacuse one thing you said you have the pixel then you use pink as background which is transparent in the game, but the Shadow part? do you layer the blue/black layer of colore ontop of the pink layer??

Maybe you can see what I mean by detailed explaining, so far ok for most, i know writing a manual for potetial moders and spirits makers to be! is hard i jsut trying to tell you the things i dont get, and what others might not ;)

hope you dont mind my ideas or the constructive helping :p

Oh dont forget to show the layerings or explain that other wise the spirits might turn out inverted lol, or for me any way they might :rolleyes:
 
first, the sprite files. basically the name of the sprite file itself ie. "T-PANZER A-FIRE C-USA L-2 D-NE.spr" designates the target sprite in the game. you can edit the file simply by Notepad.
As being pointed out before, the file looks like

Sprite = {
Bitmap = "T-PANZER A-FIRE C-USA L-2 D-NE.bmp"
Origin = { x = 29 y = 33 }
Frames = 15
Speed = 5
Palette = "DEF2.bmp"
}

THis tells us:

T-PANZER = class Panzer
A-FIRE = action FIRE (Others include STAND and WALK)
C-USA = Country USA (GER, JAP, etc)
L-2 = Level TWO (1-4)
D-NE = Direction North East (N, W, SW, etc)


Bitmap reads the corresponding image from the bmp folder to be used as the sprite in the game. it is of type Windows BMP, and 256 color using the specified palette.

Origin is the general location of the sprite in the game world. If you want the unit displayed a little to the left, then INCREASE the x coord, and vice versa. If you want it a little moved up then INCREASE the y coord and vice versa.

Frames is basically howmany frames meant to be in the sprite. a sprite of individual size 64x56 with 15 frames would have 64*15 = 960x56 size of bitmap. Sideways flickering usually caused by misspecifying the number of frames. While inconsistent shaking of the graphic is usually result of very MINOR misplacement of the individual frames in the bitmap.

Speed is basically shows how fast the sprite is animated IN THE FORMAT of I'th of a second DELAY. So the lower speed is, the faster it plays.

and palette is just the 4x4 bitmap to be read from the palette directory in GFX. it is in BMP and has the same palette to be used in the sprite, which in this case is DEF2.bmp
 
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On the issue of Pixel, Palette and animation:

Pixel is Picture Element. it's a little dot in an image. HOI uses sprites, so it reads an image of BMP as a horizontal series of frames. each frame is can be of size 64x56 with each of that size a pixel.

I'm sorry but I never use Photoshop. I've seen it and it's too complicated and more angled towards, well, Photoediting. I use Jasc Paintshop Pro, which is an easy to use and quite feature rich graphics software. get the shareware from www.jasc.com. In that program, you load up your sprite and if it's of 16 bit or higher color, decrease color depth to 256, and it would employ error correction to result on the best 256 palette. Then edit the palette
s first entry to the pink 255,0,255 and the second 0,255,255 Neon blue. Then save the palette! By this time don't worry if the color of your sprite looked... screwed. ANyway, reload the image and load the palette as well. You'll then have the correct palette format for HOI in 256 colors!

As for animating, to have turrets rotate and fire you should use a 3D modelling software. Not necessarily on the lines of Max, Maya or Lightwave. A good choice would be discreet's own Gmax, which is free on www.discreet.com and is a toned down version of their 3D studio. Also, use Milkshape 3D (I forgot the URL) which is an excellent lowpoly (or high too?) modelling program. Rendering each frame of animation should'nt be problem after you get the model and textures right.

WHew! hope that helps.
 
wow:eek: thanks for that sekinoss, Nighty include this in your manual too :D this is shaping up really well!!

Images would still be nice be nice, jsut like the images being used to good effect on how to create your own EUII or Hoi Flags or Shields!
 
Oh boy this is going to ages to get around wiht Milkshape is thier an easer program to use then that?, thats more newbie friendly lol :rolleyes: hate to be a nusance, but id love to make a Bismarck class BB spirit and the Foker 190 etc etc
 
wait till you see gmax or :eek: 3D studio. I'd say as a model building software, Milkshape can't be any more newbie friendly. 3D studio and Maya are (I think ) more geared towards making a 3D scene, which includes scenery, building, objects etc, and simply are too feature rich for me as a learning modeller to comprehend :confused:.

Milkshape is more to the point. The tools are limited but useful. Texturing is the easiest for me (next to Valve's Hammer). I didn't say it's going to be a walk in the park: there are things to learn: vertex, scaling, and animating. But once you get to the basics it should'nt be hard. And for me, it's worth it! For more info and help, check out my post on the M4 Sherman ... post. Enjoy!
 
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