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As you all know, I've developed graphics for Escape Velocity and Override for quite some time now. However, I've taken a recent liking in developing plugins for Ares, and I'd like to learn how to create graphics for it. Are Ares graphics similar to EV/O graphics, in that you need 36 frame sprites (and masks)?
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You can use any number of frames in your sprite. Ares uses 25 frames in it's sprites, the tutorial uses 36 frame sprites, my experamentle plug has some obish and elejee sprites that have 60 frames. just write to correct number into the "rotation resolution" field.
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Quote
Originally posted by Skyfox: **You can use any number of frames in your sprite. Ares uses 25 frames in it's sprites, the tutorial uses 36 frame sprites, my experamentle plug has some obish and elejee sprites that have 60 frames. just write to correct number into the "rotation resolution" field.
**
Gotcha, thanks. 60 frames? Wow... That's gotta be some smooth rotation.
Also, does Ares support 16 bit color, or is it 8 bit only?
Thanks for the help.
Unfortunately, Ares only supports 8-bit colour. The Ares colour table is located in the Hera folder- Graphic Converter or Photoshop should be able to convert your image to the right colours with it.
Another thing to note: Ares does not use masks. Instead, the background should be filled in a solid, pure colour- I suggest 120°, 100% Saturation, 100% brightness Green.
Check the Hera manuel, it has a pretty detailed section on how to handle graphics.
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Quick little tip on masking...
Take the mask, fill it with a single color (pure blue or green is good) Use the magic wand tool to select everything that color Copy, paste into the ship image
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Hmmmm. I don't exactly understand this part about the masks, but maybe a little reading within the Hera manual will fix that.
8-bit color? No problem. EV and Override are both 8-bit games, so I'm used to working with 256 colors.
Does Ares need its graphics imported the same way EV (or Override) would? In other worlds, should I make a single image with all the sprite graphics combined (just like the EV Engine), or should you import the ship spin graphics as a movie?
Thanks for all the help.
Create your sprites as you would EV/O sprites, using Makespin, Pics2sprites or whatever you use to create them. Colour all areas which are not part of the ship in a vivid colour- read the manuel on that one, it's obviously a little tricky to explain- and save the result as a PICT file. Note that it should be a file, not a pict in your plug-in. Then, Hera has an option to import PICT files as sprites. Again, the manuel has more specific details.
Basically, create it as if it were for EV/O, change the background and colour table, and save it as a file.
Originally posted by Sundered Angel: **Create your sprites as you would EV/O sprites, using Makespin, Pics2sprites or whatever you use to create them. Colour all areas which are not part of the ship in a vivid colour- read the manuel on that one, it's obviously a little tricky to explain- and save the result as a PICT file. Note that it should be a file, not a pict in your plug-in. Then, Hera has an option to import PICT files as sprites. Again, the manuel has more specific details.
That makes a bit more sense. In other words, make the background of the sprites "a vivid color?"
I use Infini-D to create my sprites, but I could easilly change the background to an odd color with Photoshop.
When you say to save the sprites as PICT files, does this mean frame by frame, or to piece the frames together like you would with EV/O sprites?
Put them together as you would an EV sprite, yes. I do the colour change in Photoshop, thus why I reccomended vivid green (Hue 120, Saturation 100, Brightness 100). Don't forget to change the mode to indexed colour, choosing Custom and selecting the Ares colour table. Photoshop converts colour tables far better than Ares.
Originally posted by Sundered Angel: **Put them together as you would an EV sprite, yes. I do the colour change in Photoshop, thus why I reccomended vivid green (Hue 120, Saturation 100, Brightness 100). Don't forget to change the mode to indexed colour, choosing Custom and selecting the Ares colour table. Photoshop converts colour tables far better than Ares.
Ok, gotcha. So Ares sprites should be a single image containing all the frames after all...
I'll give Ares sprites a try soon. I'm currently busy on a Confederation set for Escape Velocity, so time is short.
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No trouble. Currently, there aren't many high-quality scenarios out for Ares. It's always good to see someone with past experience in this kind of thing taking an interest.
Originally posted by Sundered Angel: **No trouble. Currently, there aren't many high-quality scenarios out for Ares. It's always good to see someone with past experience in this kind of thing taking an interest.
Well, one reason I've taken an interest in producing graphics for Ares scenarios is because of the lack of plugin and addon files. I've been playing Obish vs Elejeetian plenty at GameRanger lately, but it's really made me realize that there aren't many more (at least net) scenarios available for Ares. Hopefully ship graphics for Ares are in high demand.
They are...
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Chuckle
Does that answer your question?
(quote)Originally posted by Sundered Angel: **Chuckle
Does that answer your question? Thanks.
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I need them PLENTY! PLEEEEEEEASE will someone do 3d graphics for me??? :frown:
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(quote)Originally posted by C. Entropy: **I need them PLENTY! PLEEEEEEEASE will someone do 3d graphics for me???
Another question: Ares sprites do NOT have to be a multiple of eight in pixel size like the EV/EVO engine requires, do they?
Your welcome.
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Originally posted by Captain Skyblade: **Another question: Ares sprites do NOT have to be a multiple of eight in pixel size like the EV/EVO engine requires, do they?
Scratches head I'm 99% sure they don't. I've always made them multiples of 8 anyway, so if I ever choose to import them to EV they'd work.
Then again, with EV:N, I won't need to worry about that anymore, will I?
Originally posted by Sundered Angel: **Scratches head I'm 99% sure they don't. I've always made them multiples of 8 anyway, so if I ever choose to import them to EV they'd work. **
Alrighty, that's what I thought. I myself will probably end up making multiples of eight sprite size for my Ares graphics, since I did have using the sprites for the EV/EVO engine in mind as well. Thanks for verifying that...
(quote)Originally posted by Sundered Angel: ** Then again, with EV:N, I won't need to worry about that anymore, will I?;)