1.Can someone tell me what would be good programs to make sprites and ship graphics. 2.If you can, tell me where to download them. 3. How do you make masks.
thanks.
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OK, most sprites are made with a 3D program. A good free one is Mechanisto (it says shareware, but disregard that) avaliable (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/ev/")here(/url) in addons -> utilities. (url="http://"http://www.strata.com")Strata 3d(/url) is also free, but I dont know much about it.
If you want to move into the commertial area, Cinema 4d by (url="http://"http://www.maxon.de")Maxon(/url) on academic discount is ~US$280 iirc. There are some others out there, but the pickings are thin these days.
You make masks by taking the sprite and changing all the pixels you want to show up to white and all those you dont to black. This can be done with almost any graphics program, photoshop is good if you use the curves function to raise the brightness of almost everything appart from black.
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--sitharus
(url="http://"http://www.damnsw.net/~triplet/forums/")Carracho Help - Updated, upgraded and better!(/url)
EV Development IRC channel: #evdev on irc.ambrosia.net
Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong. Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
Ok, as for sprites and ships and things, you can use most 3D programs... However, assuming you aren't going to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a graphics program, you can do the following:
1. pirate a good piece of software (kind of illegal, so stay away from it
2. buy it from somewhere, perhaps a student discount edition or whatever
3. ask people, someone like me (whose graphics program is currently offline) to make you sprites and stuff for a ship... Once I needed that done...For making sprites, you have to fool around with animation capabilities of graphics programs, you can even do it yourself without one. I suggest m2s or p2s for quicktime pic animations and stuff..... these are two small applications that convert consolidated animations to standard layout sprites and masks. Da, that's all I can think of in the immediate time.
Have fun.
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() To make a sprite file, you need a 3D modeler. I reccomend (url="http://"http://www.strata.com/")Strata3D(/url). It is very easy to use; the hardest part is making textures, and you don't even need a manual for that (I was making my first okay textures within a couple hours, and my first high quality textures within a week).
() As for mask files, I use (url="http://"http://www.sutherland-studios.com.au/family/evo_software.html")Movies2Sprites(/url). You make a QuickTime movie of your ship rotating, feed it to m2s, and it creates a sprite and mask file in about two seconds. Very cool.
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Have a spritely new year (pun intended)!------------------
ŃCafall(This message has been edited by Cafall (edited 01-01-2002).)
(This message has been edited by Cafall (edited 01-02-2002).)
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Oops. Your link to Strata appears to be mislinked.
Darn. I meant to fix it and forgot.
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Ok, excuse me for being off-topic, but---- STRATA, EASY TO USE!?!??!
Have you ever even used Strata3D? Once you learn the ropes, it's perfect for those of us who like a mac-like interface. It's a good deal even for those who can't figure it out; it has a built-in link to a tutorial site, and if you decide to trash it, there's no money wasted.
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ŃCafall(This message has been edited by Cafall (edited 01-02-2002).)