Help for cards

[GhostOfDeath91]

Hello,

 

I am writing this topic to get help for the cards. I started to create heroes cards, but I have a pretty annoying problem. In the game, when I do "status" on my new character. The blue will not disappear as the encyclopedia and the window of the defenses of the planet, the blue disappears.

 

I said that I use good programs photos: PAINT.NET, PHOTOPHILTRE and GIMP

 

Here, the two heroes:

 

The Arbiter from Halo.

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/1138/arbiter.png

 

My character, Phantom.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/4347/phantomjd.png

 

Thank you in advance.

[Antonius]

I think what is ur problem.

Every time when u create a character picture, u have to put a BLUE DOT on the LEFT CORNER of that picture.

The blue color must be the same blue color that u have behind the characters body.

[GhostOfDeath91]

It does not work.

 

At the same time, I do not know if it is I who made ​​a mistake or if it's simply your solution does not work...

[MrPhildevil]

The problem is this. Basically, Rebellion is an old game and use a limited color spectrum, called a palette, Rebellion's pallete in this case. The pictures you are working with do not use this pallet. When Rebellion tries to use your pic, it can't use some of the colors in your pictures. If you want to make some new picture cards, here's what I'd do, if I were you.

 

Find the picture you want to replace. Say If you want to replace Veers, use RebEd or Ressource Hacker, whicher you use to modify your game. You have to extract 4 or five pictures:

-Build

-Fleet List

-Tactical

-Extra Pic

and maybe ency pic.

 

Now to working with these. If you wish to completely replace the picture, use the tool that let you select colors, select the blue color and fill the whole picture in blue.

 

I suggest you open the picture that you will be working with to replace the character in your program (personnally, I can't work with GIMP and Photofiltre just don't have what it takes to do the job, but that's me...). That would be the "arbiter" for you. Now I suggest you duplicate this pic as much as you will make pictures for it (in our case, that would be 4-5).

 

Keep in mind that there are two instances in which your pic will loose quality: when you will reduce their size (number of pixel) and when you will transfer them to REbellion pallette (color quality). Now you'll need to be very good with the tools to select the part of your original picture you want to keep for the game. But before that, here's the tricky part:

 

you need to resize your picture to fit in the rebellion picture you'll be using. This is where you'll see if you want to keep the original Veers on the picture that will be the actual in game picture, or make this all blue, so that you make sure your Arbiter don't Overlap with original Veers.

 

So step one, resize your duplicate to fit in the Rebellion icon (on a try basis).

Step two, select the pic you want in Rebellion

Step 3: copy the picture and paste-it on the Rebellion picture (you'll see the color transition which can be quite ugly...).

 

If you don't see that color transition, probably your program don't recognize the Rebellion pallet. Personnally, Photoshop 6.0 is perfect for me in this regard.

 

Last, you need to heed Antonius' advice about the blue dot. That is basically what tells Rebellion which color has to be invisible. That is why you can also use other colors than blue, when you know you'll have that color in your picture and don't want to have holes in your pics.

 

I could make a tuto with pics, but I don't use the same program and can't help you with yours. If you still wish me to do so, I may just do it though...

[GhostOfDeath91]

I managed to get hold of a Photoshop CS3.

 

If you do not mind, could you give me a tutorial?

 

Thank you in advance.

[MrPhildevil]

Okay, let's start this. First thing to do is gather your material.

 

Objective: make a new card for Jorj Car'das, protagonist in sourcebook Outbound Flight.

 

I want to make him imperial side (same as Thrawn).

 

To get started, I need:

my reference picture(s)

An extra pic background,

An imperial bg

A character build bg

a fleet bg

and a tactical bg

 

http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y339/Mr_Phil_/Rebellion/Tuto1.jpg

 

For this card, I'll be using 2 ref pics. Usually, the larger the better, but small pics are fine for the small in-game icons.

All that I need are put in one folder.

 

Now there is a small problem: there is one file I don't have, that is the tactical bg. No problem, I'll use RebEd to extact another character's tac pic and start with that one.

 

I open all that in photoshop.

 

http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y339/Mr_Phil_/Rebellion/Tuto2.jpg

 

First step, I have to be sure I can use my picture. Do I want to cerrect-it? Now is the best time. So I'll start by removing the alien's head and trying to recreate Car'das's shirt.

 

http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y339/Mr_Phil_/Rebellion/Tuto3.jpg

 

Then, you have to resize the ref pic to fit on both the extra and the impbg. Be sure you keep the proportions. I'll use 200 px for this one.

 

http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y339/Mr_Phil_/Rebellion/Tuto5.jpg

 

Then, one of the most crucial: selecting. You'll have to use more than one tool, use what your'e better with. Personnally, I use a combination of magnet tool and polygon tool, sometime circle or square when preferable...

 

http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y339/Mr_Phil_/Rebellion/Tuto4.jpg

 

When selection is done, Ctrl+C, then select the extra BG and Ctrl+V to paste. Since I don't have my character's arm, rather a poor recreation, I'll put him in the corner. Bemember to put a blu dot there, just in case...

 

http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y339/Mr_Phil_/Rebellion/Tuto6.jpg

 

Now all you need to do is repeat the process with IMP BG. Not as long; use magic wand to select blue area (remember to set a high enough tolerance, but not too high, or you'll select parts of your image), then press Ctrl+Shift+I to invert selection. Now copy paste to imp BG.

 

http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y339/Mr_Phil_/Rebellion/Tuto7.jpg

 

You can save and close your extra pic and imp bg, they're done.

 

Now to build pic, same process, but keep mostly the head. Same for the others too. If you need more specific help, don't hesitate to ask about the steps...