Looking for a weap. sprite

You might not believe how much time I've wasted on this so far.
I've created a new weapon which is basically an artillery-type cannon. Nothing fancy, your basic turreted unguided projectile.
All I need is a sprite for it. I've already used the chaingun sprite from Nova several times, and nothing else even comes close to looking right
(tried the EMP torp sprite, the stellar grenade, etc.) I'm trying for a near-future feel, so big glowing laser cannons don't feel right.
I have literally no graphics tools on hand beyond Preview/iPhoto (not even Photoshop).
I've looking in the various shipyards linked above, but found almost no weapon sprites, and none that really work.

Anyone have something on hand I could use? Or be willing to take a few minutes and make something?
I don't think it would take long... cut the size on the EMP torp by about 50%, make it grayscale, and it would probably work... or even just a bigger chaingun round....

This post has been edited by Otter : 14 September 2007 - 10:15 PM

Have you looked at EVC and EVO yet?

@joshtigerheart, on Sep 14 2007, 11:59 PM, said in Looking for a weap. sprite:

Have you looked at EVC and EVO yet?

Hmm, good thought.

ms paint is also, surprinsingly good for this, too. We're talking about something of less than 15x15 for a common weapon's sprite, so unless you want something big and flashy, which I doubt, it should do. And it only takes 5 minutes.

@mumbling-psycho, on Sep 15 2007, 12:19 AM, said in Looking for a weap. sprite:

ms paint is also, surprinsingly good for this, too. We're talking about something of less than 15x15 for a common weapon's sprite, so unless you want something big and flashy, which I doubt, it should do. And it only takes 5 minutes.

Amazing. Made something fairly usable with Appleworks and deRLE/enRLE.
Thanks

You can also download GraphicConverter, which is free, to do resizing very easily. Here is the link.

This post has been edited by Archon : 15 September 2007 - 03:11 AM

Nagware, to be precise ;). GC is not free and I'm a bit annoyed that you have to pay again to upgrade to v6.

This post has been edited by Guy : 15 September 2007 - 03:20 AM

@guy, on Sep 15 2007, 04:09 AM, said in Looking for a weap. sprite:

Nagware, to be precise ;). GC is not free and I'm a bit annoyed that you have to pay again to upgrade to v6.

(Otter begins downloading GC)...
At 80 MB just for the disk image, this thing had better feed the cat, do the laundry, and take out the trash in addition to resizing images.

If you still need something, I can make you an image that should hold gunpowder. Just give me a yell.

GIMP is better AND free, but it's a bit of a hassle to use. I hear it's just as powerful as Photoshop. I have my doubts from personal experience, but it is much more powerful than Graphic Convertor.

Quote

GIMP is better AND free, but it's a bit of a hassle to use. I hear it's just as powerful as Photoshop. I have my doubts from personal experience, but it is much more powerful than Graphic Convertor.

I use the GIMP. It is great, it is somewhat of a hassle, and it doesn't handle PICT graphics. I'd reccomend it if you don't happen to have 1000 USD laying around for photoshop. By the way, does anyone happen to know if photoshop can save in PICT format?

Photoshop Elements 2 (the old crappy version that I have) can save as PICT. It can even save as a PICT resource in a resource file.

Really? Cool. I'll need to look into that.

So I was trying to create a spob sprite from a picture (can't say more, mustn't spoil the surprise, just in case my plug ever comes out. )
So, not that hard, right? NOT.
1. create a mask (finally managed this, after about 3 hours)
B. make the mask the same size as the base image. (much harder than it should have been, but I was using Appleworks, so there goes another 45 minutes)
C. actually get the mask and base image to line up (gave up after 30 minutes)

I finally gave in and dug out the copy of Photoshop 4.0 which I still have lying around. It's probably of somewhat questionable legal status, being installed on a machine as part of an academic site licence back when I was middle school, and having just sat around in the back of one folder after another for almost a decade now. I think this is third, or possibly fourth machine it's been copied to, as I replaced old computers and hauled all my applications along for the ride.
It still works, and very well, but I'm worried that it sets a precedent - next thing you know, I'll be writing dëscs on an electric typewriter, and shortly after that I'll be carving NCB set expressions into stone tablets.

I was about to give you a link to an EVN utility site which has a special place in my heart when I discovered that

WOOTWARE IS DOWWWWNNNNN!!!!!!

Here's a utility that you can use to generate a sprite and mask from a single image. It is primarily useful for spobs.

(attachment=4645:p2s.zip)