Create units with OpenFX

[muffins]

I know that this isn't directly related to OpenFX ... but I think that it can be very useful to us unit-makers anyway

I was getting fed up with dark patches of alpha-shading appearing in-game in unexpected areas of my units so I decided to investigate that region of the palette

I created a single-frame unit that contained only blocks of alpha-shading in the exact order that they apear in the palette. In FLICster they appear as below ...

 

[muffins]

However, in-game it appears as below. The smoke/haze region is not in any way a gradient at all, regardless of how it appears in FLICster.

I guess that if you want good alpha-shading coming off your Glow effect (or semi-transparent object) then you have to cherry-pick your palette entires

 

[Smoking mirror]

Aha! Thats just what I was looking for. Thanks muffins, Aluminium posted a text version showing the exact RGB values for each alpha pallette entry, but this shows it better.

Yes, you'll have to pick the colours first. Hope this doesn't mess up any of my old units.

 

[Megatherion]

First of all...thanks for some great tips for creating units. I still have some problems with my Palette, but I think it's just a matter of practice.
Then...I don't know if this problem has been solved yet (don't have enough time for reading this whole thread...even though I read a lot of it), but there seemed to be a problem with shattering Models so you can use the explode effect properly. All you have to do is load your model in the designer and choose Actions->Seperate Polygons. After that, save it, preferably in a new file....now you can blast up your model.
Only problem is, that rounded objects aren't smooth after you have seperated the polygons...but I guess that's not a problem, if you leave out the one frame where the model is still in one piece and just go to the first exploded frame.

 

[muffins]

I used that effect myself in with my terminator unit. It's quite a fun little feature

If you need help with palettes you only have to ask

 

[Megatherion]

Well, before I ask I should get my animations coherent. Stupid idea to scale one up and not doing the same for the other anims...d'oh!

 

[Olorin0222]

Oh Masters of OpenFX, a question I humbly submit to thee

What are the best settings to set the laser postpro effects to achieve laser bolts? Here is the unit I've been working on, a Star Wars: Clone Wars V-19 Torrent Fighter (my first):



I have kind of gotten stuck at this point, so any help, or just posting the page of this tutorial where it might be located. I saw how to do laser beams earlier, bot not the laser bolts.

Thanks in advance!

Olorin

 

[muffins]

I've always found the laser PostPro pretty weak in OpenFX. The Glow PostPro works better but you need to make a laser-bolt model with a colour not used elsewhere on the model (like green etc) and given the internal texture 'Luminous'. You then just have to choose that exact colour in the Glow pop-up window.

 

[warmwaffles]

hmmm....I gotta try this....animate in OpenFX and then import it into Swift3D and export it as workable flash material....


Any ways muffins you rock at this thanks for takin time to explain this

 

[Olorin0222]

Thanks for your help muffins!

Here's a preview. What can I do to make it better, in your expert opinions ?

P.S. It's faster in-game.

 

[muffins]

Thanks for your help muffins!

Here's a preview. What can I do to make it better, in your expert opinions ?

P.S. It's faster in-game.

Looking sweet!

Make sure that the laser-beam things have 'tween' selected in all their movement keyframes so that they move at a constant speed. 'Spline tween' will have them move as if they're accellerating from a stand-still.

Insert a gunflash light! That always looks cool. Just select 'attenute' and scale it's size so it only lightens part of the model.

 

[Olorin0222]

Muffins,

I set it to tween and inserted some gunflashes. However, when I render it, the background does some funky things. What should I do now? I would just fill the background color in my image editor (Ulead PhotoImpact), but when I have done that, it messes up with the gunflashes, which are semi-transparent and show either the dark purple/magenta colors through it.

 

[muffins]

That's easy to solve. Right-click on your gunflash light and select "Light Settings" and make sure the "no shadow" option is chosen.

 

[Olorin0222]

D'oh! Didn't think about that...obviously.

 

[Varlin Saliptor]

Okay...My turn for a question...I have made the Storyboard with SSB, and have chosen a random civ unit. I can get the pallettes and everything to work, but If I make the pcx storyboard with borders, the image is all screwed up. If I do it without borders, the Image 'slides' to the right, in every animation of every direction in flicster.
What is going wrong?

 

[muffins]

You might want to post a picture of the problem so that we can understand better. Making a pcx with or without borders makes no difference - it shouldn't effect anything. If the colours are screwed then make sure that when you load the palette for the pcx that you chose "maintain indexes" or "maintain palette order" (depends on what graphics program you use). Only then copy the SBB storyboard into the pcx storyboard.

If your animation slides in any direction whatsoever in FLICster then you're probably either using a SBB storyboard and a pcx storyboard with different frame sizes or in copy-and-pasting into the pcx it was a few pixels off. If it's the first then check the frame sizes. If it's the second then zoom into a corner after pasting and use the "mover" tool of your graphics program to place the floating selection exactly right (both pcx and SBB storyboards should have the same frame sizes and numbers so should be exactly the same size)

 

[Varlin Saliptor]

Okay, I am going to check to make sure they are lined up correctly...
This is what is how it is messing up with the borders on:

 

[Varlin Saliptor]

Nevermind, I figured it out. The SSb storyboard was bigger than the Flicster Storyboard.

 

[Varlin Saliptor]

Okay, with one problem solved, another arises:

The civ-color wraps around the entire outside of the unit when I view the flic:

Any Ideas on how to fix this?

 

[muffins]

That can be one of two things. Most likely you've got the unpatched version of FLICster.

In FLICster click Help>About. It should say "Build 18". If it says "Build 17" then you need the patch http://forums.civfanatics.com/attac...64601_Small.zip

If it does say "Build 18" then it's probably the case that the graphics editor you're using can't properly handle pcx files. I'm told that a graphics program called GIMP ( http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html ) can handle them and is a 100% free program. I've never tried it myself (I use paint Shop Pro 7) but it's supposed to be quite good.

EDIT - ignore the above. You solved the problem before I replied