Flags Needed...Again

[valmont]

Well, I really want to learn how to do this! Here's my first attempts: the Chinese and Afghan flags that Patine posted.

Please tell me what you think.

[Sarsstock]

Well Valmont I'd say you did a pretty damn good job. I love how you rendered out the curve in the dragon's back on the flag, I know its challenging to do when your restricted to using such a small number of pixels to create your artwork.

The advice I'm going to give you relates to shading small and narrow bars of colour, I'll use the upper green bar in the Afghan flag you rendered out as well as the upper green bar in the African Union flag I created. Basically, when rendering narrow bars of colour you have to create a wider range of shade between light and dark colours, this is something I only picked up on in the last few months myself from studying Fairline's new ToT units.

The end result may appear insignificant up close, but when the flag is observed at actual size it will appear to have more definition and dimension. Please, don't take that little tibet of advice as a critique because you really did a great job on those flags.

[valmont]

Originally posted by Sarsstock
The end result may appear insignificant up close, but when the flag is observed at actual size it will appear to have more definition and dimension. Please, don't take that little tibet of advice as a critique because you really did a great job on those flags.

Not at all, that's exactly the kind of feedback I want! I want to get better. Thank you for the tip.

[CapTVK]

Good point, I've also noticed this 'gleam' trick while i was working on my own units. Working up close you don't notice the effect. Amazing what a few shades can do.

Excellent rendition of that chinese flag Valmont. The green dragon really stands out.

[Patine]

The flags look great, valmont! The Chinese one is certainly better than mine (though I've tried a few others lately, though mostly alterations, such as turning a modern Japanese flag to a WW2 one, or a modern US flag to a Revolutionary one; I'll post those shortly to see what you and Sarsstock think). My big question here of Sarsstock is, though, will you include dependencies in your North America collection (like Bermuda or Puerto Rico) or just independent nations (and the same for Oceania)?

[Boco]

When you choose shades, can you use the Brightness/Contrast adjuster in PSP? If so, how much difference do you use between each shade?

[Sarsstock]

You could use brightness/contrast adjuster in Photoshop, but that could lead to compatibility issues with the Civ II pallet. Though I do use Photoshop, I typically just eyeball the colours.

To answer Patine's question, I'm not quite sure. I'll probally resort to the "Whatever the heck I feel like" approach when I sit down to make up the continent. As it is a small contient (nation count wise) maybe I will.

[Patine]

Hey, could someone please try this old Siamese flag for me? I gave it a try, but it looked abyssmal. If Chris is busy, could one of you other guys please try it (some of your work is quite exceptional)? Thanks!

[valmont]

How's this?

I couldn't decide between the two versions. They are almost identical; the only differences are two pink pixels.

[Sarsstock]

Valmont you did a great job there, good work!! The only comment I have is your use of grey tones for shaded white area's. Its good that you reconized the need to use them within the elephant graphic, but I found a lone time ago that beige makes for a much better representation of shaded white.

[valmont]

Sarsstock thanks for your kind words of encouragement. I have revised the graphic using the beige tone you suggest. Indeed it looks better, the shades blend better and the illusion of the elephant's head is more convincing.

I am learning a lot from you!

[Patine]

Thanks a lot, valmont! It's perfect! I've been unable lately to post my altered flags so you all can see, as the bitmaps are too big. I'm using mspaint, and I can't seem to get rid of that big white square palette that blocks up so much when you click 'New' on the file menu. I'll try superimposing them over a copy of some other flags I downloaded from here lately.

[Patine]

Here's my altered flags set. I used valmont's china/afghanistan palette to cut down on wasted space (sorry valmont, but I needed a two flag, small one). The first is Chris' modern Japan flag turned to a World War II Japan flag. The second is Chris' modern US flag converted to a Revolutionary one. This may not be flags from scratch, but it's a start. What do you all think?

[Patine]

Here's something I just did, actually. It's the South Vietnam flag I've been bugging you for a few times, Chris. Tell me what you think, and maybe a few pointers, if you could, please. Thanks!

[Sarsstock]

Well Patine, the major tip I can offer for your South Vietnamese flag is try to add the darker shades of yellows and reds on the graphics outer edge. Basically, try to use the plain colour flags I supplied a while back as a reference.

In case you lost them, I'm attatching the plain graphics that I've used to make all the flags in my collection. Hopefully they will help you get the more three dimensional look.