I have a few questions:

1. How do you make the transparant graphics in Photoshop? (okay okay, so maybe i'm ignorant)

2. What is the easiest way to make your tilesets flow together nicely in Photoshop? Is it the offset filter or is there another way?

3. In my game the character will be able to purchase a sailing ship, I understand you can do this by changing the player icon and using a new map where only the water isn't blocked off...but how can i upgrade the ship with newer and better cannons and such? Is there a way to make certain weapons only equipable when you are in the ship form?

Okay, that's it for now .

thanks.

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Originally posted by sanko:
**I have a few questions:

1. How do you make the transparant graphics in Photoshop? (okay okay, so maybe i'm ignorant)

2. What is the easiest way to make your tilesets flow together nicely in Photoshop? Is it the offset filter or is there another way?
**

1.) transparencies in photoshop are done with Alpha Masks. when you've got your whatever ready to go (for starters, I'd make some simple drawing that you'd like to make transparencies around), open the Channels Pallet from the Window menu. click on that little arrow at the top right of the Channels Pallet and choose "New Channel." now a channel, when selected, looks just like a regular layer in photoshop. except, it's in black and white. whatever you paint in black on this channel will be "masked," and whatever you paint in white will be "unmasked." it's like 1s and 0s -- 'on's and 'off's. now, select the new channel (it'll probably be called "Alpha 1"), and make the channel labeled "RGB" visible (click the little eye icon to the left of the name). when you paint black on Alpha 1, it will appear as a red tint over your image. whatever you paint red like this is masked. don't worry about making mistakes, either. if you paint something too big, you can just change the color of your brush to white and fix your mistake. once you've got a reasonable approximation of your image painted, you're ready to save your file (as a pict or PNG, if you want to preserve the transparency). the image you save out will contain the mask image as well as your graphics, and anything you left in white will show up, while things in black will be transparent. if you'd like to check your work, you can select Alpha 1 and go to the Selection menu and choose "Load Selection." in the dialog, choose "Alpha 1", and you'll see your alpha mask be turned into a normal dotted line selection.

play around with this stuff. no one can teach you all the tricks of photoshop in one session. as a matter of fact, not in a hundred sessions. the only way to learn photoshop is to just play around with extreme prejudice.

NOTE: to other photoshop users who would critcize my introductory explaination: there are a million ways to do anything in photoshop. I just think this is a good starter to demonstrate the principles behind alpha masks.

2.) the offset filter is just a way to check your work. all texturing programs use something simillar to the offset. what you really need to make seemless textures is the rubber stamp tool, the paintbrush, and some patience. just give your image an offset, make the seems disapear, then offset it back to its origional location.

3.) I'm really not too sure about this, but I can't see any reason why it wouldn't be possible. it sounds like you just want to switch some player graphics...

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Do not follow me for I may not lead. Do not lead for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. Just leave me the hell alone.
-Jedi

What about partial transperencies (Clouds and smoke and fire)? Can you do any of that with like 256 grays or something similar to that as apposed to just b;ack and white?

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Originally posted by Kireck:
What about partial transperencies (Clouds and smoke and fire)?

Yes. If you check the log for PoG, you'll see that this feature was added in the as-yet unreleased version of Coldstone which is being used to create PoG:

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Some of the major improvements:
...
¤ Translucency now supported

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Originally posted by Glenn:
**Yes. If you check the log for PoG, you'll see that this feature was added in the as-yet unreleased version of Coldstone which is being used to create PoG:

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Some of the major improvements:
...
? Translucency now supported

**

He mighta been asking how to make partial transparencies.

Saphfire

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Presumably, this will be done with Alpha Channels, which jmitchell did an fairly good job describing, except that for a "translucent" 8-bit aplha mask (which is what I believe Coldstone uses, you have 256 shades available to you instead of 2. This will allow for some nice anti-aliasing, and a good artist will be able to get some nice smoke, fire, and other similar effects out of it.

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People who claim the sky is falling obviously aren't aware the earth is falling, too.

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Originally posted by sanehatter:
**Presumably, this will be done with Alpha Channels, which jmitchell did an fairly good job describing, except that for a "translucent" 8-bit aplha mask (which is what I believe Coldstone uses, you have 256 shades available to you instead of 2. This will allow for some nice anti-aliasing, and a good artist will be able to get some nice smoke, fire, and other similar effects out of it.

**

Sane, can you just upload your brain in the Coldstone Addons for me? It would be just great for the artwork I wish I could do.

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Will I be the willow or the rod? You decide.

thanks for all the help, that's kind of how i assumed transparency would work...but i didn't want to actually start making stuff until i was sure.

as far as sanehatter posting his brain, that would be great, but it would probably take me forever to download at 56k anyway. damn.

ah well, life goes on.

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You could make some really decent spell graphics with that now couldn't you? That brings up anoter question (you knew it was a setup). When you're making attacks (or spells) and everything, how many options do you have with the effects of that attack? Can you make a target get knoced back a few spaces or make it get blown into the sky (with the sprite animation editor or event editor or something) or am I letting my imaginaiton get the best of me?

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Originally posted by saphfire:
**He mighta been asking how to make partial transparencies.

Saphfire
**

Sorry? What's the difference between partial transparency and translucency?

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Originally posted by Glenn:
**Sorry? What's the difference between partial transparency and translucency?

**

They're the same, what I meant was that he was probably asking how to make translucent effects in Photoshop, rather than if they were supported by the engine.

Saphfire

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i did mean translucency, sorry about the confusion. but i think i got it now. just make an alpha channel and paint around the areas you want to be translucent, then save it as a .png right? please correct me if i'm wrong.

i appreciate all the help!

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I would imagine you can do some pretty wicked spell effects with full translucency. I have a couple of ideas myself. Hrm... time to go talk to my buddy with AfterFX and the production pack...

I would guess .png files would work, but I don't know for certain. .png is a nice format.

as for uploading my brian, sorry, I need it. Too many projects going on right now.

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Originally posted by sanehatter:
Presumably, this will be done with Alpha Channels, which jmitchell did an fairly good job describing

thanks. I hope sanko gets what I was trying to say: I teach this stuff to undergrads, but they all develop this sort of glazed look when I get into masking... he's probably smarter than most of the people in those classes anyway (hey, he is an ASW board member...).

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Also originally posted by sanehatter:
**for a "translucent" 8-bit aplha mask (which is what I believe Coldstone uses, you have 256 shades available to you instead of 2. This will allow for some nice anti-aliasing, and a good artist will be able to get some nice smoke, fire, and other similar effects out of it.
**

sorry about the confusion there -- I was just trying to explain the idea behind an alpha mask. I wasn't getting into partial selection and transparency in that post.

I agree with you here -- I'm going to have a lot of fun making spell effects. I plan on making most of my spell graphics very subtle, so partial transparencies are key.

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Do not follow me for I may not lead. Do not lead for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. Just leave me the hell alone.
-Jedi

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Originally posted by saphfire:
**They're the same, what I meant was that he was probably asking how to make translucent effects in Photoshop, rather than if they were supported by the engine.
**

Gotcha. Sorry about the confusion.

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