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Originally posted by Phil Barron: **According to people much smarter than me (like, in this case, Gul Banana): **
Thanks for the compliment, but you're exaggerating - I may well be only slightly smarter than you
------------------ "A taco is merely a rigid, deformed tortilla." - Thomas Castiglione "There will be MUCH CRUSHING!" - Pink
Thanks for the help! I really need to have Nova tools and the other stuff open while reading this, would probly make a lot more sence, but sine i'm at work, on a POS PC... So I open up the shan in Nova Tools, doesn't sound hard (even though I could have swore I already did this and just a bunch of number were there...) but I'll try again till I get this right. And to think I had all the sprites done for the cruiser, frigate and gunboat, now I have to make masks for all of the lights/engine glows. Good thing I have a G4... And Ben, I rendered the Confed cruiser at 160, the frigate at 128 and gunboat at 64. Big I know, but its not as big as you think since its at the 45 degree angle. Feel free to give me any other little pointers! I need all I can get!
------------------ cOMMANDo
One more question, on my revamp of the Rebel cruiser, i was thinking of making some of the rings a gravity block. We briefly discussed the gravity block earlier, but now that i'm thinking about it I'm confused. How exactly do i render it? I mean, do i just put a rotation on the part i want rotated, then spin the whole thing? so there are two rotations going on at once? this is what i was planing on doing, but then when I think about it, it doesn't make sence. seems that if I did it that way, the block wouldn't spin when the ship was still, which is a problem. Little help please, from some of you guys that know what your doing, which sounds like most of you.
You render a 36x (or more if you wish) spin for every "phase", then put them on the smae movie file, m2s will handle it from there... Just set it to be the right kind of animation in the shän editor. You should really come to #ev3 or #nova, at least I have got a great deal of help there... I've nearly finished my 1st ship graphic (only need to rerender the engine glow sprite at a bigger size, too bad I messed up the original file and i'll have to remake it).
ComputerLizard
------------------ "Please call us! We will provide you with any emergency." - (url="http://"http://www.engrish.com")www.engrish.com(/url)
Originally posted by what_is_the_matrix: **I forgot to mention that you need a mask for everything, even glows, and lights. The shan resource has spots for base pict/mask, alternate (animated) pict/mask, glow pict/mask, light pict/mask, weapon pict/mask (that's for adding a picture of a weapon when you buy it), and shield glow pict/mask. NovaTools makes the process of making shans really easy. For examples, just look in practically any of the Nova Ships files. **
falls on knees and pounds the ground Arrrrg!!! And I was just getting the hang (actually I still can't do it) of rendering... Now I have to make MASKS!??!?!?!?! AAAAAAAAA :mad:!!!!
------------------ Ka-BOOM!
Originally posted by SoySauce: **falls on knees and pounds the ground Arrrrg!!! And I was just getting the hang (actually I still can't do it) of rendering... Now I have to make MASKS!??!?!?!?! AAAAAAAAA :mad:!!!!
**
I got a great story for one big nova plug, anyone interested, email me to chofelqb@hotmail.com, ill tell you right now that this will need a EXPERT in graphics editing, and one kick ass programmer.
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Actually, you if you use Dr. Ralph's "Sprites," the program automatically creates a mask, as well as rendering your movie (or folder of picts) into a Nova compatable format.
As for making an animated sprite, let me make one clarification. If your ship takes 36 frames to rotate, you need to make one set of 36 (ship rotation) frames for each frame in the animation. For instance: I used an 8 frame walk cycle (would have used 16 for a smoother cycle, but Sprites couldn't handle that many frames) on my Gundam, and for each step in the cycle, I had to rotate the gundam once.
As for using alternating sprites, ATMOS put in the animated section in their base image (of the Thunderforge), except they made it pure black so it masked out the section of the ship where it would be. I'm assuming that the alternate is on a lower layer than the base, so if you render at an angle (45 degrees), using the black animated section in your base will mask out the base image so that the alternate image looks as if it's behind one part, but in front of another. Kinda on the same topic, I think that the engine glows and lights are on top of the base image, so if the base image is supposed to hide parts of the glows and lights, you need to render the ship (totally black, reflecting no light) as well as the glows.
Matrix
------------------ Captain: What happen? Mechanic: Someone set up us the bomb! Operator: We get signal. Captain: What!
matrix, Thanks for the help! but I'm still a little confused on the rotation on the gravity block, i understand what your saying about the part masked out so the block shows up behind or below it, I saw what you're talking about on the Big grey ship in Nova, but I'm not understanding how to get the rotating block. Are you saying put one full rotation on the "block" (or section of ship that I'm rotating), then render the ship with that rotation in place every 10 degrees? I think it's starting to make sence, but I'm still a little confused. Now what I'm running into is, when i drop a movie (quicktime) file over sprides, it askes me size and clipping etc... then when i push ok, it doesn't do anything, or save anything, it just sits there... do I need to convert it to a gif? then drop it in to sprites? Thanks for the help so far, I have all this rendered stuff... just don't know how to get any of it into nova... one more question, sorry... but after I do get them into sprites, assuming that happens ONE day, you just copy and past them into a shan? er?? Thanks
Originally posted by cOMMANDo: **I don't know if any of you guys have been around long enough to remember jag Werks, but I was the ship builder. Anyways, I'll have some spare time this summer, and with the new release of Nova, which i discovered yesterday... I'd be interested in doing some work. I'm impressed with some of the ships, but some are just kinda, I dunno not very cool? N E wayzzz, If you're interested, drop a reply and i'll try and get you some of my latest stuff emailed to you. **
Well, judging by the posts in this thread you'll have your hands full... but if you'd be interested in helping to make some ships for a Hyperion TC plug, that would be really great. In fact, any help would be appreciated.
For more information, take a look at (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/002714.html")this(/url) thread.
best, Curwen
------------------ "I have learned silence from the talkative, tolerance from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strangely, I am ungrateful to these teachers." -- Kahlil Gibran
Heh, don't worry, masks are very easy to make. As someone said, EnDeRLE make them, and while those aren't always perfect, you can very easily make a mask for things by rendering them with a plain white texture on a black background.
Matrix, see my post a few posts up, I NEED HELP!
thanks
hey guys, what the heck are yall talking about, heezy fahsheezy- your all talking some sort of strange pickle language. someone in here knows who i am. hahaaa
"If you didnt know any better would you think that an orange would be called and orange" quote from: weirdo AA
Sorry about that, cOMMANDo.
Anyway, you're close. You make one full rotation for every step in the animation.
To clarify that, say you have a 8 frame animation of the gravity block rotating. You rotate the ship 360 degrees for the first frame, 360 for the second frame, etc. Did you understand that? tough to figure out.
How about this. There would be two ways of rendering it. 36 sets of 8 (playing through once for each 10 degrees), or 8 sets of 36 (one step for each full rotation). It's the one step for each full rotation (8 sets of 36).
I hope this helped... I hope that this made sense! If it doesn't, I'd be happy to email you the rendered animated sprite that I made.
------------------ "Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."
You know what'd be cool for your Rebel Cruiser? Showing the Mantas on the ring when they're not launched. You have to use the weapon layer for that to work. All you'd have to do is make an animated sprite with the mantas attached to an all black Rebel cruiser (because the Manta's would be on a higher layer, so you have to have the black blob of cruiser mask out the mantas as they pass from the player's view).
Originally posted by weirdo AA: **hey guys, what the heck are yall talking about, heezy fahsheezy- your all talking some sort of strange pickle language. someone in here knows who i am. hahaaa
"If you didnt know any better would you think that an orange would be called and orange" quote from: weirdo AA **
Weirdo AA, please don't ever do that again. It really annoys those of us who actually use the board for constructive comments.
If you weren't unregistered, I'd be pushing for karma to be taken from you.
Sorry I'm putting yet another post on here, but I decided it might be a little clearer if I answered by referring to your original post
Originally posted by cOMMANDo: **matrix, Are you saying put one full rotation on the "block" (or section of ship that I'm rotating), then render the ship with that rotation in place every 10 degrees? I think it's starting to make sence, but I'm still a little confused. **
You've got it backwards. You make one full (360 degree) rotation of THE SHIP for each step in the rotation of the block. Say if you have 8 steps of the block rotating, you rotate (the ship) once for each position of the block.
Now what I'm running into is, when i drop a movie (quicktime) file over sprides, it askes me size and clipping etc... then when i push ok, it doesn't do anything, or save anything, it just sits there... do I need to convert it to a gif? then drop it in to sprites?
Matrix, You are the man, Thanks for the help! Now I just need to get home and try this. It makes more sence, rotate the block 30 degrees ever 360 degree rotation if i'm gonna have 12 instead of 8, the math is just easier that way, plus it would be a little smoother... BUT, will sprites be able to handle it? And about the mantas on the rings, I thought about that, but they'd be tiny, I don't know if you could even see them, so I don't know if it'd be worth the extra work to do it, but GOOD idea. I need to post the ones I have finished on the image board, then yall can tell me what you think of my revamped origional EV ships. I'm still a little worried that I won't be able to get this into the game, so be expecting more questions later, I'll prolly make a new post/topic on the board when my real troubles begin.
Thanks again!
Send me a copy too. I'd love to help you convert EV to Nova. That'd be a really great use of the Nova engine.
Anyway, if Sprites has a problem with that many frames, just break your movie into two parts, and render them in sprites separately. Afterward, use Photoshop (or something like it) to put the pieces together. Just remember to do it in order! All you need to do is put the second part directly under the first, flatten the layers, and copy the image into ResEdit. EnRLE shouldn't have any problems. If it does, it would be a good thing to post so that others know.
Matrix, I just might take you up on that help offer, Its going slow cause I'm having to learn all this new stuff, which luckly I have you and the others to help me out. But its a blast redoing all the old EV ships. I've made models for: Confed cruiser, frigate, gunboat, Rebel cruiser, manta, and the argousy (spelling?). Which all look basically the same with a little more detail. Thanks again for all the help!
Sorry if i'm laggin behind here but i cann't do the graphics at all, and don't care enof to try to learn
I Have a TC pluggin i am working on i have done the ships and most of the map, the missions and plot etc will be following. I do however need graphics, lots of shipping of various sizes and nature (around 100 different ones but most will be variants)
the plug is loosely based on honnor harrington books by david weber. The plot is quite true to the books but the space combat suffered in preference to the gameplay, anyway ship graphics are needed badly as i'm tired of having a Super dreadnought use the shuttle picts....
------------------ Beware of monkeys bearing pins,
Coz the grenade is never far behind