Hello,

I know this is a bit of a longshot, but I'll ask anyway. I'm looking for a way to take an existing ship graphic and modify it in certain ways. I want to be able to add extra details, remove extraneous ones, paint on company logos, that sort of thing--basically, create new configurations of existing ships so that they're recognizably different.

Is there an easy way to do this? Ideally, I'd like to be able to import a graphic into a 3d program like Blender, but I don't see how that's possible. It looks like the only way to do it is to pull the PICT resources into Photoshop and fix them up that way, which would be the opposite of an easy way...

Thanks for any advice, even if it's just "Not no way, not no how."

Hi, welcome to the boards!

Let's start with the first part. Unfortunately, there really isn't a way to do what you want without creating a ton of extra ship resources, as you won't be able to just change the sprite of the ship. Second part. As far as I know, and I'm not a Blender person, there is no way to import 2d images like a sprite into Blender. Third part. Technically you're right. That is the hard way. However, that's the only way I know how to do it. Just as a double check, what tools are you using? MissionComputer or EVNEW? Or even ResEdit?

@shig23, on 01 May 2011 - 07:01 AM, said in Modifying existing ship graphics:

It looks like the only way to do it is to pull the PICT resources into Photoshop and fix them up that way, which would be the opposite of an easy way

There’s certainly no way you’re going to turn the sprites back into 3D images and re-texture them. I suppose it might be possible to create a 3D model of the extra bits that you want, and then superimpose it on the existing PICT, but I doubt the alignments would be easy.

If you can’t do what you want with Photoshop, I’m afraid the next easiest alternative is probably to re-model the ship from scratch yourself.

Just an unhelpful thought. Buy the probably $1000 software Ambrosia used, and ask them for the models. Again, an unhelpful thought.

@spartan-jai, on 01 May 2011 - 09:38 AM, said in Modifying existing ship graphics:

Just an unhelpful thought. Buy the probably $1000 software Ambrosia used, and ask them for the models. Again, an unhelpful thought.

ATMOS used Lightwave for the ship graphics, I believe, but pipeline has made it clear that he isn’t giving out the models. (Although the ones from EV Override are out there, albeit in Infini-D format.)

I guess I was more unhelpful than I thought.

Re-modeling the ships in Blender or any other program would be extremely difficult. It would be possible, though tedious, to use Photoshop or other image manipulation programs to "paint" over the existing sprites the kinds of things that you want or want to remove, after exporting them to an appropriate format. I certainly wouldn't want to do it.

Thanks, everyone, for the quick responses. I figured it was probably the case, but you never know until you ask.

Oh well. At least I can still change colors... which I can do in Nova anyway, so it's moot... Maybe I can still add flags and things, and just tweak and skew them to rotate with the... Gahh! It really would be less work to just make entirely new ships, wouldn't it.

Spartan, I'm using Mission Computer on a Mac. I do remember ResEdit, though.

@shig23, on 01 May 2011 - 10:45 PM, said in Modifying existing ship graphics:

At least I can still change colors... which I can do in Nova anyway, so it's moot...

In Photoshop you at least have the Hue/Saturation adjustment box, which will allow you to create much more elegant colour schemes than the paint outfit can do.

@shig23, on 01 May 2011 - 10:45 PM, said in Modifying existing ship graphics:

Thanks, everyone, for the quick responses. I figured it was probably the case, but you never know until you ask.

Oh well. At least I can still change colors... which I can do in Nova anyway, so it's moot... Maybe I can still add flags and things, and just tweak and skew them to rotate with the... Gahh! It really would be less work to just make entirely new ships, wouldn't it.

Spartan, I'm using Mission Computer on a Mac. I do remember ResEdit, though.

You would definitely have a hard time modeling over any of the existing ships in any way. The only thing that might be possible as far as flags and such is the removal of flags in Photoshop or GIMP. Colorization is also pretty easy to do and should be done in Photoshop/GIMP if you're looking for permanent changes to the ships. I used to change the ships' colored areas in EV with a Photoshop-like product, and earlier on in NOVA I would use it to change the ships' looks, but it wasn't as great of an effect because the ships in NOVA have flags, in EV they had spots or wing colors.

I spose this doesn't help as far as logos goes however if ships have the same size spreadsheet once turned into PICT, you can merge them into new ships.
That is how I have effectively increased the amount of ships I can put in my plug in at least ten fold.
Maybe that will help you out.

I have attached a photo to show you what I mean.

Attached File(s)

• Hybrid.png (84.84K)
  Number of downloads: 41

@sp3cies, on 04 May 2011 - 12:51 PM, said in Modifying existing ship graphics:

I have attached a photo to show you what I mean.

There is no other word for that besides awesome.
That's really cool Sp3cies.

Didn't I recall someone once made a plugin that added in a Pirate Mod Starbridge? I think it was pulled off using Photoshop by merging pieces of the Pirate Starbridge with those of the Mod starbridge.

Yeah, that plug is called Revenant. It's what inspired me to do the other stuff.