How do you make your own leaderheads with FLCedit?

[Steph]

I suppose it's because the algorithm used by each tool is not the same, and so they give different result.

It could be easily tested.
1) Use "reduce to 256 colours"
2) Use 'reduce to X colours", where X = 256.

 

[Vuldacon]

Graphics Programs take into consideration the number of colors as represented on an image by the Percentage of times they are in the image.

When Reducing colors to 254, the program is computing fewer colors than 256 as well as other programing.

Here are two .pcx Images. Both Images used the same 16 Million Color Image to start.
#1 was Reduced After Placing a Pixel of Magenta and Green on the Image.
#2 was directly Reduced to 254 Colors.

You can see the "Splotchy" areas of Colors on #2, especially on the Hat and Uniform.

By Placing 1 pixel of Magenta and 1 pixel of Green on a 16 Million Color Image, we are only adding an extremely Minor amount to the image. When we then Reduce the Colors to 265 Colors, The Graphics Program can compute all of the percentages of Colors for a 256 Color Palette and provide better Representation of the Colors over all.

Edit: Steph... Just so you know, Reducing Colors to "x" Colors and setting 256 Colors is Not as Good as Reducing to 256 Colors. This is a difference in factors that the program uses to Reduce Colors.

 

[Steph]

I tried to program my own colour reduction system to automate the generation of CivIII palette.

It was a bit more complex than the percentage.
Basically, you count how pixels are of each colour, and then you keep the most use colour. But the next colour is not necessary the next mose use : it is weighted by the closeness of the colour.

To make a very exagerated idea. If you have a 10x10 pixel, so 100 pixes, one is green (0,255,0), 90 are red (255,0,0), and 9 are red (240,10,0), and you want to reduce to two colours, should you keep both reds and get rid of the green, or consider the red are very close, and it's more important to keep the green?

If you have a picture or a large grass field, full of grass, and one little white rabbit in the middle, you can have many green pixels, and if you just count the number of pixels, the rabit can "disappear". If you weight the number of pixel with the difference "distance" between colours, you could keep your rabbit and the grass, except the grass will have less different hues of green.

However, my program did not work very well, because I could find a really nice way to compute the distance between two colours. It kept colours that were quite distance for the program, but to a human eye (at least mine), they were almost identical.

 

[Vuldacon]

Steph... Yes, the way Graphics Programs compute Color Reduction is not simple. My statement that "Graphics Programs take into consideration the number of colors as represented on an image by the Percentage of times they are in the image" was more to convey some understanding than explain all factors a Program uses to Reduce Colors

 

[D551]

i didnt have the animation shop program before now but just tried it out and it all came together perfectly! thanks guys for all the help.

 

[Vuldacon]

i didnt have the animation shop program before now but just tried it out and it all came together perfectly! thanks guys for all the help.

Glad to hear that D551 and Hope you get the Tutorial as I was prompted to make it from your questions

 

[D551]

ill be looking for it! thanks again.

 

[Vuldacon]

D551... I posted the link to it on post 16 earlier. I Placed it in the Tutorials Section as well... the Download is here

 

[D551]

oh ha ha! wow thats kinda funny...

 

[D551]

D551... I posted the link to it on post 16 earlier. I Placed it in the Tutorials Section as well... the Download is here

sweet. this should be real helpful since i dont know a whole lot about the palette stuff. awsome

 

[Balthasar]

You can see the "Splotchy" areas of Colors on #2, especially on the Hat and Uniform..

No, I couldn't. In fact, the only difference I could see was that the buckle on the hat of #1 has a slight green tint to it. There could be all sorts of reasons for our differing results.

 

[Vuldacon]

Balthasar... if you downloaded the Images I uploaded on Post #22, you should see exactly what I am saying. Unless your Graphics program and or Monitor is not adjusted or able to see the details.