The Graphics Workshop

[Eivind IV]

Very impressive! You make it look so easy . Thanks for sharing, Fairline!

[fairline]

The T34-41 an T34/85 source pics:

[Catfish]

Originally posted by fairline
Nice one Curt Just one problem, you didn't show us how to make those superb cartoons you do for the titles

My sentiments exactly.

I guess this is one way to extract a few more superb tanks out of Fairline. Looks great. I'll have a look over it in more detail later. Now if only I could get Fairline to use that dropper on a 24-bit palette.

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by fairline
Nice one Curt Just one problem, you didn't show us how to make those superb cartoons you do for the titles

Cheers!

Photoshop does all the tricky bits!

[curtsibling]

Cool tank tutorial too!

I expect to see an forum-wide outburst of mega-units!

[GoPostal]

Is it possible to take an image, and somehow, in Photoshop, convert it to the Civ2 MGE palet?

[Mercator]

Try this:

Open an existing units.gif file (which you know has the civ2 palette) and save its palette.

You can now load that palette on any file (and probably choose the coloring method as Catfish described earlier for PSP).

I hope that's enough information, because I don't have Photoshop myself.

[Catfish]

Originally posted by GoPostal
Is it possible to take an image, and somehow, in Photoshop, convert it to the Civ2 MGE palet?

For Photoshop 7.0:

1. Open a Civ2 file.
2. Go to the Image menu -> Mode -> Color Table… Click Save… and give it a meaningful name, for example Civ2Title – there are some slight differences between Civ2 palettes. FYI, Photoshop 7.0 stores its palettes in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop 7.0\Presets\Optimized Colors (default path). Click OK.
3. Open your source picture.
4. Go to the Image menu -> Mode -> Indexed Color…
5. In the Palette drop down menu, select Custom… This will display the Color Table dialogue box again. Click Load… and locate the palette that you just saved. Click OK.
6. Select your resampling method (Options) in the Dither drop down menu. You have a choice between Diffusion (amount adjustable), Pattern and Noise. Experiment for best results. IMHO, Photoshop provides superior results to Paint Shop Pro. Click OK.
7. Done.

@Mercator:
You just pipped me. Then my ISP obliged by disconnecting me.

[fairline]

Originally posted by Catfish
Now if only I could get Fairline to use that dropper on a 24-bit palette.

You do the 24-bit stuff so much better

My drawing style relies heavily on constantly selecting the palette and moving a couple of shades lighter or darker to draw pixel-by-pixel. I just cant do that with a virtually infinite range of colours as I'm buggered if I can ever find the same colour twice without memorising it's HTML code

[Catfish]

Ah, but you've never tried. I did exactly the same thing as you did 4 or so years ago (except my units were much crappier ), until I was introduced to ToT. Don't worry too much about finding a particular colour, you can sample your own graphic with the dropper (Ctrl + Mouse Click = Very Fast) or even a source image. Like you, I also always have one or more reference pictures open at the same time.

You can always manually adjust the RGB and HSL settings in the Materials palette. If you want lighter or darker versions of your base colour, adjust the Lightness value. If you want your original colour again, sample your image. When you're creating a basic structure, stick to basic colours. Worry about better shading and fancy effects later.

[fairline]

Originally posted by Catfish
Ah, but you've never tried. I did exactly the same thing as you did 4 or so years ago (except my units were much crappier ), until I was introduced to ToT. Don't worry too much about finding a particular colour, you can sample your own graphic with the dropper (Ctrl + Mouse Click = Very Fast) or even a source image.

I do ! My standard way of working is cntrl-click to dropper-select a colour, but the key part is I need to consistantly get a couple of shades (in civ2 palette-terms) lighter or darker very quickly. This is simply a matter of 2 further mouse clicks - first on the 'foreground colour' on the right menu bar and then selecting the appropriate shade from the pop-up palette. In 24-bit there are no discrete palette 'boxes' to choose from in this second stage; as you know you are presented with however many million colours to choose from in that particular hue. Adjusting lightness and darkness on the fly is a little like an artist remixing his colours rather than using those he already has on his palette (how pretentious a simile was that LOL).

You can always manually adjust the RGB and HSL settings in the Materials palette. If you want lighter or darker versions of your base colour, adjust the Lightness value. If you want your original colour again, sample your image. When you're creating a basic structure, stick to basic colours. Worry about better shading and fancy effects later.

The key problem is this is a rather slow method compared to only having a choice of 256 colours My 6-hour tanks would take 24 LOL. Thanks to your earlier tutorials I'm now fairly competent with the '24-bit' tools PSP has to offer, but I still much prefer creating a unit in a limited, and consistently and quicky selectable range of colours.

I take your point about 'drybrushing' however, and I've started playing with detailed hi- and lo-lighting in 24-bit, after I've finished making the basic unit.

[Catfish]

What about the possibility of creating your basic structure as a greyscale image and then adding colours later? Or even a modified greyscale palette with a few Civ2 mask colours (such as magenta) thrown in so you can contrast the subject with the background? Increase to 24-bit, later, for colouring. Scale down to the Civ2 palette after this.

This could give you improved shading possibilities and at the same time be more in tune with your methods. Just an idea.

Do you realise it's some ungodly hour of the morning here at the moment? And I'm gibbering about Civ2 graphics.

[Mercator]

Originally posted by Catfish
@Mercator:
You just pipped me. Then my ISP obliged by disconnecting me.

But you actually came with a detailed explanation...

Originally posted by Catfish

24-bit in PSP! ToT renders in 15-bit. Mercator will have your arse in a sling for comments like that.

You're damn right I will!

But since it it "only" 15-bit, it should be possible to create some sort of a "ToT-palette" dropper image. A 256x128 pixel image would cover all 32768 colors, for instance...

[GoPostal]

I got it, the problem was, I have PSP Elements 2, a version with slightly less features.

[Catfish]

Originally posted by Mercator
But you actually came with a detailed explanation...

BTW, just to be sure, the was directed at my ISP alone. I need better strategic placement of my emoticons.

Originally posted by Mercator
But since it it "only" 15-bit, it should be possible to create some sort of a "ToT-palette" dropper image. A 256x128 pixel image would cover all 32768 colors, for instance...

That still might prove difficult for Fairline, who finds it easier to reference an indexed palette.

Referring to my previous post, I've attached a modified greyscale palette. I swapped #E0E0E0 and #F0F0F0 for #FF00FF and #875487, respectively. Fairline, how easy/difficult would it be to make, at least, mechanised units with that palette? Imagine all of Nemo's grey German tanks. Be aware that all of the "skinned" units that I've presented in this thread have had the recoloured sections greyscaled first. A good example would be Nemo's Zero, which was done from an entirely greyscale image, with the markings painted on later.

Just trying to get the best out of you, mate.

Originally posted by GoPostal
I got it, the problem was, I have PSP Elements 2, a version with slightly less features.

I take it you mean Photoshop, not PSP (Paint Shop Pro).