I have recently been playing with photoshop to colorize ship sprites.
The first one I chose to be thorough with was the IDA Frigate, in part because of what AAC did with IDAs. Also, the IDA is a very versitile ship. If you're a small government, you dont have the resources to build yourself a totally new class of capitol ship - You're gonna be using IDA frigates. They can adapt to almost any task (as the rebels have demonstrated), and are not difficult to obtain. If you are a plugin developed, you certainly dont want your new small government's capitol ships to look like someone flew an IDA into a leviathan full of garish paint - (besides, who wants to fly a ship like that? nobody!).
This template lets you independantly adjust the colors of the IDA frigate by chooseing the appropriate layer and adjusting hue and saturation (to control color and tint respectively).
Ship color template, IDA Frigate: (url="http://"http://www.aznt.com/EVN/IDAFrigate.psd.sit")www.aznt.com/EVN/IDAFrigate.psd.sit(/url)
Ship color template, Lightning Fighter: (url="http://"http://www.aznt.com/EVN/Lightning.psd.sit")http://www.aznt.com/...ghtning.psd.sit(/url)
Heres how it was made: (so other people can make them for other ships)
I C/Ped the deRLEed sprite of a rebel frigate into photoshop and did the following:
Duplicate the main layer and hide one of them.
On the other one, set the saturation as high as it will go. The thing will now look absolutely garish.
I selected the whole image, then switched to non-contiguous magic wand to deselect the middle part (ie, the part that's green on the rebel one) of the ship (option-click. had to click a few times in different places - experiment to find the optimal tolerance for the sprite in question).
Set tolerance to 0 and click on the black area between the images.
Copy, make a new layer, and paste it in.
Without deselecting what you pasted into the new layer, go to edit->fill and fill it with some color you can recognize (you can easily change it later).
Go set this new layer to use color blending, and turn on the origional layer behind it. You should now have a set of sprites each with a colored part. Now make sure the layer with the colored part is selected and clean it up with the eraser.
Now, you have a layer that you can use to change the color of part of the ship.
If there are other parts that could concievably be colored, temporarally set the color layer blending to normal, duplicate both layers, and merge the duplicates. Hide the other ones (we dont care about them just yet).
Select this merged layer, and select everything. Use magic wand with tolerance zero to deselect the background and the area you have already colored (which since you had it on normal blending when you duplicated it, is all one color).
Copy/paste this into a new layer, and hide the old one. You propably dont need it anymore.
If the ship is like the IDA frigate, where all the parts are connected by one middle piece, the next part gets easy: Fill this new layer, and duplicate it to make enough layers to color each part you want to color seperately. Hide all but the one your working on.
Now go unhide the base layer and the first color layer you made long ago, and set it to use color blending. Set the one you are working on to use color blending too. Now (making sure the one your working on is the one your editing) use the eraser tool to take out parts that shouldnt be there (on an IDA frigate, if you are working on the cargo pods, and had already done the middle part, this new layer would have the cargo pods and the engines, and you would want to erase the engines, so only the cargo pods were colored).
Repeat this until all parts have color layers. You can now adjust the color of that part by selecting it and adjusting the hue. You can make it a lighter tint by reducing the saturation. Whole thing took like three hours to do, but alot of that was due to my inexperience with photoshop, I think i could reproduce it in half that, mabey even less.
If anyone else makes any "ship color templates" like this i would be happy to host them in exchange for being able to use them And even if you dont want it released for some reason, I'd love to see it.
-Az
Enjoy

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(This message has been edited by Azratax2 (edited 08-13-2003).)

You have 8 topics on the front page of the Dev corner... perhaps you would like to slow down?

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(url="http://"http://www.mazca.com/")Mazca(/url) , Moderator, (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=9&SUBMIT;=Go&urgaylol;=yes")EV Developer's Corner(/url)
Go get your knife.

ya, you know, you don't have to make a new topic, after you find the answer to one of your other questions. if you look around, you'll find many topics, asking one question, but containing many inside. like a fortune cookie, looks like a oddly shaped tasty cookie on the outside, but on the inside, is bursting with wisdom, unless they're the kind with the website on the back. :mad:

oh, i wish i could get photoshop. i love doing things like that, only i use appleworks. i can afford it, at the cost of all my money, but for something i would only end up useing for a game???? na, i'll stick to doing nothing. unless there iws a demo version that lets you save.

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Mazca: Sorry bout all the topics.... most of them are about different things though, posted at different times (seems new topics are coming in kinda slow here from everyone except me - was it always like this? Coulda sworn the first few times i came here there were more topics being posted... now the posts at the bottom of the page are approaching a week since last post). I suppose this one should have gone in the one where I asked AAC how he made multicolored vipers....
I will try to slow down.

KarTaniK: I've heard of something called photodeluxe made by adobe as either the demo of PS or the poverty version of PS. Anyone know if that will open PS files and let you modify layers?
And it doenst need to be able to save, i dont think - couldnt you copy/paste the whole image from the photoshop screen into another (cheaper) app? Or even print-screen (if macs have that) and cut out the part you care about? There might also be some free image manipulation programs that will work with layers, though I'm not sure any could read photoshop files.
-Az

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Quote

Originally posted by Azratax2:
**
KarTaniK: I've heard of something called photodeluxe made by adobe as either the demo of PS or the poverty version of PS. Anyone know if that will open PS files and let you modify layers?
And it doenst need to be able to save, i dont think - couldnt you copy/paste the whole image from the photoshop screen into another (cheaper) app? Or even print-screen (if macs have that) and cut out the part you care about? There might also be some free image manipulation programs that will work with layers, though I'm not sure any could read photoshop files.
-Az

**

yes.... i don't think it does need to save. i've often found loopholes(its what i'm good at) by just taking a picture sometimes.
but.... i think, only think, that photodeluxe is a card maker. i'm not even 3% sure.
but, then again....
i suppose appleworks would work as well though, as long as i do not alter the shape of anything. then again, it will be extremly hard and time consuming the get the color in the right way what with angels and all.

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Photodeluxe is a photoshop-type program, with a more friendly interface and fewer features. I personally use Photoshop 5.0 Limited Edition, which lacks some high-end features but is basically a full version of PS5 that came with my $100 scanner. Good deal, really.

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(url="http://"http://www.mazca.com/")Mazca(/url) , Moderator, (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=9&SUBMIT;=Go&urgaylol;=yes")EV Developer's Corner(/url)
Go get your knife.

we got a scanner from a relative, hella packer(probly not spelled right) anyways, really simple. comes with the scanner, and the CD. anyways, did not work on my iMac. asked me if i wanted to search the net for the software needed to use the scanner, there was non. i'm really, really sad. not sure the model, but i could not understand anything on the CD, seeing how it was all based for Windows. i could not find anywhere on the CD case, of the scanner that it was specicly for windows. came in a brown box, so there was no factory case.

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KarTaniK: You tried googleing for drivers (i'd do a search for mac and the model of the scanner in question)?

Also, heres a link to download tryout version of photoshop: (url="http://"http://www.adobe.com/products/tryadobe/main.jhtml#product=39")http://www.adobe.com...html#product=39(/url)
Anyone know in what way the tryout is crippled? If its just lack of saving, that can be gotten around as i described.

I use photoshop 6.0 which came with my $30 used mac.
-Az

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Quote

Originally posted by Azratax2:
**KarTaniK: You tried googleing for drivers (i'd do a search for mac and the model of the scanner in question)?

Also, heres a link to download tryout version of photoshop: http://www.adobe.com...html#product=39
Anyone know in what way the tryout is crippled? If its just lack of saving, that can be gotten around as i described.

I use photoshop 6.0 which came with my $30 used mac.
-Az

**

good idea. thanks. i'll try out that Photo tryout after i've done a driver search.

a $30 mac? what model?

Edit: just in case someone knows this Model, my scanner in a Hewlett Packard ScanJet 3300C
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A604e based mac clone that had had it's proc card torn out and replaced with a G3 card. 160mb ram, two extra network cards looted from the school tech room. No model number on the computer anywhere. And an owner who didnt need it anymore and was really desprate to sell it.
-Az

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Quote

Originally posted by Azratax2:
**A604e based mac clone that had had it's proc card torn out and replaced with a G3 card. 160mb ram, two extra network cards looted from the school tech room. No model number on the computer anywhere. And an owner who didnt need it anymore and was really desprate to sell it.
-Az

**

whoa, take about an overhaul.

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Posted one for a lightning fighter. Goshdarn that one was hard. All those details, and so hard to keep the colors separate. Larger ships are easier.
Until I see either:
Lots of demand for them
or
Some other people posting some of thier own ships or ship color templates
I will not be making any more of these. These are a real pain to make, especially for fighters. I think some of the larger ships that dont have banking turns would be easier.
-Az

EDIT: Fixed the Frigate. I forgot to finish some of the sprites on the bottom row (it was late when i finished those layers :-P)
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(This message has been edited by Azratax2 (edited 08-13-2003).)

nide. sorta like tie die ships. i'm still downloading the trial photoshop. started when i said i was download, and i'm only about 75% done. downloading with cable at about 21k-40k a second. tends to stay 22k the most. "yawn"

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jeeze.... photoshop 7.0 is a bit tuff. i've never used Photshop any version before though. but its a great program. with the hours of downloading a 360Mbs program that you get all options for a 30 day period. the brush strokes are amazing, and detail is absolute. but i don't really know how you change saturation or anything, so changing glows is extremly hard. i quit and went to bed last night, and am at work right now.

DON'T tel me to get back to work anyone, someone said that last time and it really bugged me. i've got one of thous really nice easy plenty of free time jobs, but does not pay much. luckly, i'm still in high school, or else a low pay job would not cut it.

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press command U

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Quote

Originally posted by ArcAngel Counterstrike:
**press command U

**

and this changes the saturation of the whole image? and, once i have finaly done this, what do i use to change the color? not as simple as useing the paint can in appleworks i'll bet.

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cmd-U lets you change both hue (ie, the color, but not the shading) and the saturation.
If you are using a image with layers, these will only effect the selected layer.
-Az

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so what tools do i need to use if i want to make the arachnid's engine and weapon glows red? or any color for that matter?
i know i said i learned my best through trial and error, but i've always had some idea how to do somethings at first glace. photoshop.... i don't have a clue. hehheh.

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You need photoshop or anything that lets you adjust hue, as well as resedit and En/de-rle.

Extract the weapon and engine glows to picts by putting the rles for the arachnid, its weapon glows, and engine glows into a new file then de-rleing it.
Then open the PICT for the weapon or engine glows (whichever you want) and change the hue, and replace the pict in the de-rled file and run it through enRLE.

Engine and weapon glows are thier own RLE resource - not part of the same rle as the ship itself. Whic hmakes everything so much easier.
-Az

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(This message has been edited by Azratax2 (edited 08-14-2003).)

Quote

Originally posted by Azratax2:
**You need photoshop or anything that lets you adjust hue, as well as resedit and En/de-rle.

Extract the weapon and engine glows to picts by putting the rles for the arachnid, its weapon glows, and engine glows into a new file then de-rleing it.
Then open the PICT for the weapon or engine glows (whichever you want) and change the hue, and replace the pict in the de-rled file and run it through enRLE.

Engine and weapon glows are thier own RLE resource - not part of the same rle as the ship itself. Whic hmakes everything so much easier.
-Az

**

AHHAHAhahahahahaha.... i've just finished the glows, and i am quite happy. now i just need to do the base. already tried a bit of it, and its hard. then..... i don't think i can even do the shipyard pict. all that detail. My my.

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