Unit design - image requirements

[Stratego (dev)]

A unit image should be:
- 32x32px sized (if single tiled unit) *
- transparent
- RGB colors
- Good looking: should look similar in feeling than existing units (to keep coherency of the game appearance)
- Player colored: this means there is a coloring that can be changed depending on the selected player color in the game setup (red, blue, yellow)
-> to achieve this you have pink colors to use, and the game engine will replace them with the corresponding player color.
-> Acceptable pink color shades: from RGB 255/0/255 to RGB 255/254/255 (so the green part can be any value between 0..254)
-> examples: RGB 255/100/255 and 255/20/255 and 255/135/255

*: the 32 px in vertical direction can be exceeded up to approx 40(max 50) px (eg. a long lance is emerging from the units hand upwards - like the halberdier)


Player coloring (Teamcoloring) quick way:

in GIMP you can use a tool to easily teamcolor complete image parts(without doing it pixel by pixel manually):

- you select the part u want to be proper teamcolored
- select colors/"curves" tool
- select red channel and move "curve" to the topleft corner
- select blue channel and move "curve" to the topleft corner
- select alpha channel and move "curve" to the topleft corner
- (optional) if you want to make result a bit more contoured, use the Green channel and play with the curve for a better color contrast

and you are ready, the image is still "shaded" - i mean there are diffecrent teamcolor darknesses - but all pixel is proper teamcolor.

sample, changing tank turret with one shot to teamcolored

[patroid]

Hi
Sorry that i made the coloring
wrongly. I edited them on my mobil
phone and hoped that the colors are
the right. next time i will do it 100% perfect.
Thanks for the fast answer.

Patroid

[COOLguy]

Thanks for this post !
I will do my best in the future and follow these requirements.

[patroid]

Didnt know where to post-if wrong pls correct.

Hi
Many people asked for tips and help for designing units.
Here i have a file that may help you guys.

Have fun.

Patroid

If anybody post other helping things for guys it would be cool.

[Stratego (dev)]

good idea!
(i have moved the post here)

[TheBluePhoenix]

some doubt:1 is there a software for this?
2 How can we make units based on existing units with free hand drawing?
3 Do you ppl use a joystick or something like that to make sharp images?
4 How are the unit images uploaded in such a small dimension unlike other images

[COOLguy]

1) Yes. I use GIMP2, but there are others. Basically any image or pixel editor that supports transparency and RBG will work. Some good suggestions are posted here: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=525

2) Message either Daniel, patroid, or myself and we can get you practically any image of an existing unit. It is simple to use a copy/paste method to montage parts of existing images with freehand or others.

3) No, I personally do not. I don't think Daniel does either, but I don't know about Alexander82 or patroid.

4) The image size is only 32x32 pixels, so the file size is naturally smaller than others which average 256 kb.

[TheBluePhoenix]

4)I meant to say that when i try to upload an image it becomes very large and blur unlike a small icon

[COOLguy]

4)I meant to say that when i try to upload an image it becomes very large and blur unlike a small icon

What is the image size? Try uploading one here so I can see. It may be just your device.

[TheBluePhoenix]

Ok i will try making an image again and post it
Also if you donot use joysticks then do you make images in large first then downscale them?

[COOLguy]

I do most of my image editing on a pc with a native size of 32x32.

Downscaling: No, not really. I have done that a little bit. Downscaling is useful to get an idea of how an image will end up looking (especially if you are using a large image as a "base"), but it will require a lot of editing. Scaling makes things look blurry, so I try to avoid it.

[TheBluePhoenix]

Okay so my phone cannot install any of the mentioned softwares.any software workable on an android phone?

[TheBluePhoenix]

Can any of the pros (alex,CG,patroid) possibly make a video explaining the complete process of making the unit from scratch to uploading it correctly in the forum

[Alexander82]

I use photoshop, i think it could be better to make a tutorial for gimp users (being a free software).

[COOLguy]

For mobile devices, patroid and I use Pixel Art. (it's free) But working on mobile is much more difficult.

As for tutorials: sorry, I do not have the ability to screen record. You would have to message patroid for that.

[TheBluePhoenix]

Maybe if you have 2 phones or a friend who could record , you could
From Where can i download pixel art
I will try surfing anyways

[balint]

What about making a gimp tutorial? To show off the process whic then could be done on phone.
For PC a good screen recorder (free), what many youtubers use is Fraps.

[TheBluePhoenix]

Cool guy has already started making them. He has even completed making 1 tutorial on pixel art

[balint]

Does he uploads it somewhere or sends it to you via email?

[TheBluePhoenix]

He sent me via email. It was very good but very basic. He is trying to make a full fledge uploadable version of it

[COOLguy]

For PC a good screen recorder (free), what many youtubers use is Fraps.

Yes, but unfortunately the free version of Fraps only allows 30 seconds of recording at a time, which obviously will not work for an image editing tutorial.

I am trying out CamStudio.

[balint]

What about an eternal full trial version?
Upload it somewhere if you finished, ot might raise my drawing skills from thw 6 year old category to the 10 year old category :S

[Enigmus]

What should I do if i am making a Monster that can be exceeding 32x32? example, i will make a giant but it wouldn't 32x32 size?? the image were exceeded on a tile.

I Am an old forumer here long time ago but i forgot the password and email so I registered again and here i am now.

[LordOfAles]

Max size is 32x64

[Enigmus]

Thanks.