Having a palette problem with fading a unit - need help!

[Grandraem]

Hi all,

I'm trying to create 2 versions of the death for a wizard king unit I'm making. For the alternate death, I wanted him to rise into the air and fade away at the same time.

The problem I'm running into is that I can't figure out how to get a working palette for this. I've messed around with the look of the fade and the palette so very many times and I'm just leaving it how it is now unless I can get some help making it look better. I've attached a sample picture of the problem, and also a zip folder with all my files for 'DeathB' of the unit, in case anyone wishes to give a stab at helping me with some better results.

What is happening to me is that when I convert my image to 256 colour indexed format for CivIII flc., the fading part gets all "pixely" (or whatever the word is). I tried adding a slight pink tone to the palette to reduce that slightly, but then the unit gets too noticeably pink before it fades. I thought of redoing the storyboard in grey, as I wouldn't mind him fading greyish as he fades away, but then I thought that the grey in his beard might appear transparent at the start of the animation, if I replaced all the pinks with greys. So there it is... I don't know how to not have this unit get so pixellated as he fades away... I don't mind the light haze around him, but the pixellation on his robe really bugs me. If anyone has the time and can help, then I'd appreciate it very much. Otherwise, I'll live with it as it is, as I have a regular death animation already anyways, and this is just a 'DeathB' alternate, but I'd still love to have it look nice, if possible.

In the sample pic is first a row of how I'd like it to look, then how it turns out looking instead, and then a slightly blown up version of it to show the problem better.

In the zip folder is a full storyboard in 16 million colours, a full storyboard in 256 colours (with the pixellation problem), and then a full storyboard without the fade, and a partially transparent pink fade gradient that I applied before converting.

So, once again, anyone who can give assistance, it would be very appreciated!

 

[Supa]

It's Saint Nicolas !

You shouldn't reduce the palette with color dithering options, in fact. I can make you an appropriate palette, if you want.

Edit: Had 5 minutes. Done. It's not a zip, just rename it to .act. There is one bug : the beard turns pink for one frame, but it can be corrected. Just need to hunt the pinkish gray color in the palette.

I used Steph's technique to create the palette. I reduced the colors to 230, but one could reduce it to 256, even 300, to get more colors - with the amount of pinkish colors, I really used 50 colors out of the 230.

 

[Grandraem]

It's Saint Nicolas !

I guess he does kind of look like him, doesn't he?!

Thanks, Supa. I used that palette, and initially ran into the same pixellated problem, but then I looked into the colour dithering you'd mentioned and mostly solved the problem. I see what you mean about the beard. Thanks alot, that was a great help. I'm much happier with the unit now!

 

[Supa]

You're welcome. Whatever can bring us closer to a Holiday Conflict scenario.

 

[Grandraem]

Whatever can bring us closer to a Holiday Conflict scenario.

Oh, I wish I had the time to make a Jack Skellington unit.

 

[Vuldacon]

Grandraem... Not sure what you came up with but here is another palette you can try. Flcs, pcx storyboards and .bmp color files you can also look at.

 

[Grandraem]

Thanks, Vuldacon! I'll check out the files tomorrow when I'm on my other computer.

 

[Vuldacon]

Grandraem... I have not seen the palette you are using for your unit at this point.
This was just my interjection.

Notes: Rather than shadow shades around your unit as it disappears, perhaps graduated "Smoke Shade" (light translucent shades) would be better.

...as for the transition from normal to vanished, perhaps use bright colors as a sort of flash then transition to Grey scale (which would be Shadows and Smoke Shades) to have the unit vanish.

You could do any of this manually and yes, I know that would be a chore but it might be worth the effort.

just interjected thoughts

 

[Grandraem]

Hi Vuldacon,

Thanks again for the files. I think I've got the final .flc decided upon now. The palette I used originally was the palette on the .pcx file included in my .zip folder. I should have mentioned that the palette I had been using was included there.

What you were saying about the flash, then transition ... if you meant incorporating the lighter pink colours in the second row of the palette (in photoshop that's where they're located), then to be honest I was never sure how those lighter pinks worked. I have only made a few units and never experimented with those, as I never needed to, so I don't know anything about them. I think I'll leave this unit be for now, as I still have a lot left to do in my mod, and I'm trying to finish it as soon as possible, and do some quick experimentation with some blank .flcs for future units. Then I'll probably kick myself that I didn't incorporate it into this unit, but I've already been working on this unit slowly over a few weeks, so I think I need to move on to other ones now.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

[Vuldacon]

Grandraem... Yes, the "Smoke Shades" are those lighter pink Translucent shades on the palette.
Not sure if you have seen the TARDIS I made but if you check out the Death Storyboard you can see How I used Shadow Shades and Smoke Shades for it to vanish.

To assist you for future use... Here are the actual way the "Smoke Shades" and Shadow Shades from the Unit Palette appear in game:
...(These are Smoke Shades on top and Shadows Shades on bottom)

 

[Grandraem]

Thanks! That's quite helpful, and saves me some time. I'll take a look at the Tardis unit again. I saw it when it came out, but don't remember exactly how the death looked. I'll have another look at it.

 

[Vuldacon]

Grandraem... I made the TARDIS Unit Brighter for a few frames as it approached the Smoke and Shadow Shades transition. This allowed a smoother transition from color to no color. More Shadow Shades were used for the Fad Out.

Change to alpha.pal palette then 16 million Colors.
You increase and or decrease the Brightness of the Unit on the Frame where you want to start a transition. Then on the next few frames, increase or decrease more for each frame as you continue the transition you are going for. You then start with the last of those altered color Frames and change it to Grey scale. You can then increase or decrease Brightness and apply an alpha.pal palette that only has the Smoke and Shadow shades on it to get those palette shades on the unit. You can also use alpha.pal palettes that only have the Smoke Shades on one palette and the Shadow Shades on the other palette when you only want to apply one of those types.
When you have finished all frames as you want them such as all the way to Fad Out that uses just the lightest Shadow Shades, save the transition Frames. Note that you will want to apply a normal .pal palette for Smoke and Shadow Shades to the frames that only use those shades.
...If you need a Fad In and a Fad Out transition, you only need to make one transition of frames because you can simply reverse the 1st transition you make.
Using either both Smoke and Shadow Shades or either of those Shades separately, you can get the effects you want.

Making the New Palette... you remove any Smoke or Shadow Shades or CIV Specific Colors from your Storyboard and use what ever method you prefer to reduce colors to 160 colors. Those colors are added to a Civ Unit Palette that has the CIV Specific Colors, all Shadow Shades and all Smoke Shades already on the Palette... (I do not use the last 3 Whitest Smoke Shades because they show as Dark Shades). Save and apply this palette to your saved 16 million color Storyboard using Nearest Color Matching. Save the Storyboard as a .pcx to generate the flc.

 

[Grandraem]

Thanks again for that info, Vuldacon. It'll be helpful to have, and at least, being in my own thread, it'll be easy for me to locate again for a reminder.