It's been more than a year after I discovered EV but I am finally trying to make my own sprites for an EV/O version of the railgun.
I am using the 'Make Spin' program by Steven Kienle and I am having trouble with making a mask work effectively:

I created a railgun shot picture with photoshop (with a black background) and the sprite size is 32x32.

I use the program's 'Use a single pict and rotate' command and the sprite looks ok.

The program says it will create a mask for me, but It obviously doesn't, because when I play Override and fire the weapon so that it passes over one of my own escorts, I see an exact copy of my photoshop picture (background and all), that basically looks like a 32x32 blob, shooting over my escort and not looking realistic at all.
Maybe I am using a paint program i.e Photoshop that isn't suited to this kind of work, or maybe it is a problem with Make Spin.

Anyway, Can anybody tell me of an effective way of producing a (simple!) sprite and mask set, and also of a good program to use (preferably freeware, I have Mechanisto, but that is a bit complicated) to make the pict files with?

If anybody has had similar problems with Make Spin then can you please tell me what I am doing wrong, I think I may have to create a mask of my own (damn :))

----------------
Thanks
----------------
Will

By far the easiest way to create a mask is to find a paint program that will allow you to adjust the "threshold" GraphicConverter is a good program. All it will do is everything that is not black will be turned white, and it there are any parts of your ship that need to be back when threshold is done just paint them white with the paintcan tool.

You'll have to do a search for GraphicConverter but its very good program and even if you dont pay for it you just have to watch a screen for 5 sec. and it doesn't expire after 30 days . That is by far the easiest way to create a mask. Good luck.

I'm sure PhotoShop most likely has Threshold also but you'll have to check.

------------------
If violence doesn't solve the problem... your just not using enough violence.

I would write a way to make a mask here, but considering the fact that there have been numerous posts about this topic, I'm not going to waste my time doing that. Just try the search feature of the web board.

------------------
Mike Lee (Firebird)

Or just use the "Magic Wand" tool in Photoshop, change the threshold to 0, click on the black, invert the select (command+shift+I, I think), and delete what's left.

Matrix

------------------
"Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."

OK,

If i'm trying to make a standard set of sprites (36 frames(?) how much do I need to rotate the first picture by each time... Hang on, it's 10 degrees isn't it? :rolleyes:

Also, which program allows you to rotate a picture by a set number of degrees?

I'll check photoshop now, but I'm pretty sure that it can't do that...

------------------
Shouldn't there be something in this space?

GraphicConverter, if you use Applescripts... far easier, though, is to render it that way, as an animation.

------------------
"Insert witty quote here." - Thomas Castiglione

I agree with Gul. If you render it as an animation, it'll come out much higher quality.

Matrix

------------------
"Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."