Irkalla's "Firaxis-Like" Civilization Icon Tutorial

[Craig_Sutter]

Good one on Northumbria.

Connacht, Dal Riata (influenced by Ulster), Denmark and Frisia. Those are the first four. Three of the final nine relate to HRE. Others are from the British Isles.

 

[Homusubi]

Strange... I live in Britain and can't figure out for the life of me who the other ones are. I'll just throw a few British 'nations' in as guesses. Mercia? Wessex? Kent? Erm, does the Danelaw count?

 

[Craig_Sutter]

White eagle is Mercia, dragon is Wessex, brown lion is Powys, silver spurs are Strathclyde, crowns are Munster. Cog is hanseatic league (imagined), horse is old Saxony and black eagle on gold is HRE.

 

[Carnarvan]

This probably has been asked but what should you do for fictitious civ?

 

[Putmalk]

This probably has been asked but what should you do for fictitious civ?

Make a unique symbol, and then follow the steps?

 

[Carnarvan]

Make a unique symbol, and then follow the steps?

Question is though what would i do for drasnia, a pair of eyes maybe?

 

[Arlokk]

Hm...Hi boyz and girlz, i have a...question (or a problem as all time ).
When i try to save in Photoshop (6.0.1 version with dds plug-in) the dds with demension 640x640 it say : "image widht or height are not power 2. Image mode only allowed."
But in civilization V used dds textures with this dimension! I try open exist image dds with that dimension, modify it and when i try to save it - that damn message pop up again!!

How i can resolve this?

No one tutorial in this place have noticed this. -__-

 

[Arlokk]

Only solve this maybe - Do 512x512 for example, but image making like 384x384.....

 

[Irkalla]

Hm...Hi boyz and girlz, i have a...question (or a problem as all time ).
When i try to save in Photoshop (6.0.1 version with dds plug-in) the dds with demension 640x640 it say : "image widht or height are not power 2. Image mode only allowed."
But in civilization V used dds textures with this dimension! I try open exist image dds with that dimension, modify it and when i try to save it - that damn message pop up again!!

How i can resolve this?

No one tutorial in this place have noticed this. -__-

Save it as 32 Bit ARGB (8:8:8:8)

This is as high quality as it gets, and in addition you can break out of the power of 2 restriction.

 

[Arlokk]

No way! It don`t save with message "Could not save (name of image) becase of problem with file-format module interface", but 512x512 it save in 8.8.8.8. 32 ARGB with no any problems.

 

[Arlokk]

Paint.net save me from death experiments!
This program no know error of "power2"!

 

[TPangolin]

Might as well post my Australian symbol here, thanks buddy!

Spoiler :

 

[Pouakai]

Maybe make it a bit thicker - at small sizes that would be very hard to see

 

[TPangolin]

Maybe make it a bit thicker - at small sizes that would be very hard to see

I get what you mean, but it seems to be ok for now:

Spoiler :

Now.... how to actually mod stuff....

 

[Craig_Sutter]

I would suggest a little thicker as well... and I think the spiral at the outside would be better if the separation from the inner ring was continued to the end. It appears to touch and separate before the spiral close finally.

Nice job though.

 

[TPangolin]

Oh, regarding that - I decided to keep that for the sole reason that it looked more hand-drawn. I'll also make it thicker, so thanks for the advice!

 

[abandag]

From the original post:

Now, time make our logo and get it placed on the icon background. I'll spare you making the logo, you should be able to do it with a bit of common sense and reasoning.

Unfortunately this is where I get stuck. I can't even make the logo. I have zero experience working with Photoshop or any other type of Paint program, so many of the things others take for granted are completely foreign to me. Anything I make ends up looking like a 3-year-old's finger-painting. I think I might actually be able to follow these steps if I were able to make a logo that I'd be willing to turn into a civ icon, even though I'm using GIMP.

Anyone know where I can find a good beginner's tutorial for GIMP? I suppose I could just plug that into a search engine and see what comes up, but if anyone knows of a really good one for beginners, that would be a big help.

 

[Craig_Sutter]

You don't have to be an artist really.

First, do an image search in google to find a template to use. Look for something simple that would represent your civ.

If it does not have an alpha layer add one (layers-transparency I think). Use the various selection tools...fuzzy select is most useful, but color select also is good) to select areas to delete, the parts you do not want in your logo. You may have to modify the sensitivity to select the proper areas. Keep selecting and deleting until what is left is the part you want for your logo. In the process of deleting the shift key is very useful for adding to the areas to be deleted... you can click on a deleted area and add to it by fuzzy select those areas you want to be deleted and clearly see what will happen when you press delete.

Once you have deleted everything you do not want, click with fuzzy on any part of the deleted area... go to select and invert selection. Go to edit-fill and fill with the foreground colour. Copy and paste into your icon image and resize to fit.

No artistic ability needed. Hope this helps.

 

[Craig_Sutter]

BTW I found gimphoto to be more useful than gimp although it does not save in dds. The interface felt better. I use paint.net for the final saves.

 

[abandag]

Thanks for the reply Craig_Sutter. Your post is exactly why I asked about a tutorial. When you talk about adding alpha layers and using fuzzy select tools, you make them sound like very pleasant, easy to do things, but I am nowhere near having any idea of what you're talking about. I need some kind of tutorial to show me the basics of how to use one of these programs. Like I said, I have absolutely no experience using these things. Once I grasp the basics, I'll be able to figure out this other stuff.

Is gimphoto free? I don't have the money to shell out for fun stuff right now. That's why I downloaded Gimp. I read on here it was free.