This works for both normal- and flag leaderheads

You'll need:
1) The new flic(s) for the new leaderhead. I'll use my ownmade flag leaderhead, the US flag (get it from the attachment)
2) New icons. If you don't have them, you'll have to create them. This requires either a lot of patience with a bad picture editer (Paint), or a good picture editer (Paintshop Pro)
3) Make backups of everything you edit. It makes life simpler.
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Freeware programs:
.pcx editing: GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/downloads/#mirrors)
.flc to .pcx: Civ3Flc (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2321501&postcount=162)


Let's start!

There are two parts in this tutorial; 1) Replacing an existing leaderhead or 2) Making a new one.

Replacing an existing leaderhead

I'm going to replace the modern Abe Lincoln into the present American Flag.

First, replacing the flic:
Open \Art\Flics and delete Ab_d01.flc and Ab_d02.flc. These are the modern american filcs. Now copy-paste the United States.flc and rename it into Ab_d01.flc. Then copy-paste the Ab_d01.flc and rename the new file into Ab_d02.flc. That's it!

Next, replacing the large pics:
Open \Art\leaderheads and open every pcx that starts with AB. Then, erase everything, and just copy-paste the United States.gif into the picture. You might want to put a smily in the corner, to show what the picture means. Repeate this for every picture. That's it!

Next, replacing the round pics:
Open \Art\Advisors and open AB_all.pcx. This is the hard part, where a decent picture editor shows why its so good. Remove everything from the fourth picture on each row. Then copy paste the new flag, United States.gif into it and resize the flag to fit inside the circle. Then remove everything that's outside of the circle.

Next, replacing the Civilopedia pics:
Open \Art\Civilopedia\Icons\Races and open AmericansLARGE.pcx and AmericansSMALL.pcx. Then copy-paste the new flag, United States.gif inside it, and do some resizing.

That's it, were ready!

I personally don't do anything but replace the flic, but it's up to you what you do.

I'll be doing some screenshots to help the guidance.


Making a new Flag Leaderhead

* This tutorial is made to help create & add a new static leaderhead.
You'll need:
a) Some sort of program that can edit flics. I'm using Animation Shop, which comes with Paintshop Pro.
b) A picture with a max size of 200x240. I do not suggest enlargening the picture so that it comes out of proportion, as that looks dumb. Just make sure its no wider than 200 pixels, or non higher than 240 pixels.

The procedure:

1) Open some existing flic (I use AB_d01.flc). If possible only import the first picture, and skip part two. *If using Civ3Flc: File>Export to Storyboard*
2) Delete all but the first picture from the animation.
3) If your new flag/head is exactly 200x240, skip this part. Now fill the entire picture with some unnoticable colour (I use a very dark blue).
4) Copy-paste the flag or head into the flic. If it isn't exactly 200x240, try to fit it in the centre.
5) Save the flic with a new filename into your civ3\art\flics folder.
6) Now, open the scenario your adding this into.
7) Under "Edit rules->Civilizations", change the animation forward & backward name into your new flc (I saved mine as turtle.flc, so I put art\flics\turtle.flc in them).
8) Save the scenario, and that's it! To make the small pictures work, see the 1st part of this tutorial above.

The tutorial was updated. If you spot anything written wrong, please tell me!

This tutorial was very helpful, thank you very much

2) New icons. If you don't have them, you'll have to create them. This requires either a lot of patience with a bad picture editer (Paint), or a good picture editer (Paintshop Pro)
Great tutorial - it's been very helpful. I do, however, have a question : If I do use Paint(I've got more patience than $$$ :) ) , how do I save the finished product in PCX format?

Great tutorial - it's been very helpful. I do, however, have a question : If I do use Paint(I've got more patience than $$$ :) ) , how do I save the finished product in PCX format?

You can't, and if you convert it, you will likely lose any transparency in your image.

You can't, and if you convert it, you will likely lose any transparency in your image.
So...Paint is useless for editing Civ .PCX files?

yep, but try GIMP - it's a freeware graphics progra, which supports palette tables (which is what you need)

i would recommend Paint shop pro, from jasc :) i love that program its makin me blind :P but it is very easy to use i think. mmm GIMP havent heard of it myself might try that sometime. :)

Damn I totally forgot this thread! Paintshop Pro has a 30day tryout... If you want something that's totally free, you'll have to learn it without my tutorials :)

EDIT: So this is easy enough for noobies? Yay!

yes Paint shop pro would probly be better than gimp, but gimp is free :D mabey its just cause im not use to it yet lol :D

I use Paintshop Pro for all my editing. If you'd like to download the trial version, you can download it here (http://www.allianceweb.sk/free-download/paintshoppro.php).

I don't know about this version (Paintshop Pro 8), but I downloaded Paintshop Pro 5 and 6 before eventually buying Paintshop Pro 7, and those versions stated that the trial period was 30 days, but actually allowed me to use the program for 60 days.

Suppose one can't be arsed with the whole animation thing; I've got PSP, but only v.4.14 which doesn't have animation wossnames, and it really isn't important to me.

Is there any way of persuading the game to just take a plain .pcx image and using it in place of the flic?

At this stage I'm only wanting it as a civ for me to play as, if this limits the efforts I have to go to ...

Ta muchly for any help.

You could download some other program that can edit flc files. I don't remember any one by name, but you could search with google.

I don't want to edit the .flc or arse around with animations ...

If you want new Leaderhead graphics, you have to eidt/make new flc files. pcx's don't (propably) work. You could try to rename yourfile.pcx into yourfile.flc OR from your scenario file \art\flics\yourfile.flc into \art\flics\yourfile.pcx. This hasn't been tried out, so it will propably crash.

You could try to rename yourfile.pcx into yourfile.flc OR from your scenario file \art\flics\yourfile.flc into \art\flics\yourfile.pcx. This hasn't been tried out, so it will propably crash.

I'm absolutely certain it would crash horribly - they'll be completely different types of files. Damn. Free utilities for editing .flcs, anyone?

You could try flicster (available at civfanatics). Althogh it's made for units, you - maybe - could use it to edit the heads. It might give you a few errors on how the flic is not an unit anim.
Usage:
Open the flic you want to edit.
Export to pcx.
Delete all but the first frame.
Put the new picture in the frame.
Save the pcx.
Open it in flicster.
Save as .flc.
Done (If flicster let's you edit non-unit anims)

FLICster won't edit leaderheads.

Paasky, if you're capable of making all the revisions, why don't you include all images associated with your leaderheads, so the rest of us don't have to scramble to find a way ourselves?

Yeah -- I'm in the same boat as Jenny; I need a program so that I can make simple, static leaderheads for a mod, and have no animation programs in which I could do it. Help!

-B

Hmm... Just by googleing, I found this http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=91253

I haven't tried it, but could someone say if it works?

:bump:

Updated. Now includes freeware programs & the files needed for the tutorial.

Let us say I have a bitmap that I should like to use as a leaderhead; is there any way by which I may convert a bitmap into a flic?

Yes, just do everything that the tutorial says, except do it with your own bitmap. If you don't have a clue on what to do, I suggest trying to do everthing in the tutorial first, and then have a bit more experience to do the bitmap.

I've tryed this tutorial and the one by the frenchman and i keep getting "#" files not found. anyone know how to fix this?

What's the error message exactly? "#" files not found could be anything

How do you Make a File that is in One package like Inegrid work?

What does that all mean?

it says in a box : file not found : then under the file not found it just has a #.

If you've only edited the leaderheads then you haven't written anything in the leaderhead flic box. Civ is now trying to find a file named "#". Although I don't think those #'s are used for leaderheads, so it could also be that you've done something in the other parts of the editor and again forgot to write anything in the civilopedia entries. OR you've done a new civ and your pediaicons.txt is missing something...

As you see, there are many possible problems when I don't know what you've done.

I actually fixed it. thank you. it was the pediaicon.txt

I need to make a flc...just like the ones in Sengoku (Conquest #7) and othe r Conquests, but how can I change a PCX to a FLC?

Making a new Flag Leaderhead

a) Some sort of program that can edit flics. I'm using Animation Shop, which comes with Paintshop Pro.


I don't know of any other programs or how they work, you'll have to do some research. Any program which can save as .flc will do.

How do I tell which FLIC belongs to which Civ?

The names all have something to do with the leader's name, but you can check them by opening civ3.bic/civ3ptw.bix/conquests.biq and Edit>Civilizations. There, on the lower-right corner, it has all of the leaderhead graphic files per era & civ.