MAKE YOUR OWN UNITS - FLICster Version 1.0.1 (build 18) now available! 2016-10-05

[Moeniir]

Thanks for the update, DS. I had no idea that a single-direction Unit FLC was possible.

originally posted by SWB, quoting Mike Breitkreutz of Firaxis
int directions: Bit flags representing which directions are present. If a bit is set, that direction is present.
Bit 0: southwest
Bit 1: south
Bit 2: southeast
Bit 3: east
Bit 4: northeast
Bit 5: north
Bit 6: northwest
Bit 7: west

I believe this was done so that you could have an animation with 4 directions and set bits 1, 3, 5, and 7 so that you have just the cardinal directions (for example). However, I don't think this will work for units in Civ3.

The above is a quote from the information about unit FLCs that Mike B of Firaxis very kindly shared with the Civ community - without which, there would be no FLICster. I, being the lazy programmer that I am , didn't really check every FLC, I just assumed the above info covered all the possibilties. I will definately account for this in the new version, which should be going beta before Christmas (i hope!).

 

[Dark Sheer]

Ah.....I thought you knew

Oh well, I guess the CruiseMissileDeath.flc might be the only one with one single flc inside

When Flicster extract the file, it ended normally with no error and the file extracted was CruiseMissileDeath_SW.flc (SW is always the first file, right?).

So I thought, fine, there is only one file. Then when I finish Flicster refuse to merge it back

 

[micmc_atl_ga]

I used to have a head of hair,
Now it's all laying in bloody clumps around the computer chair,

It's not flickster, it works great (thank you btw for putting the ongoing effort into perfecting the system. it's a lot of work for which you ain't getting paid, and those of us with all the computer skills of a dead hamster appricate it.) It's the damn shadows!*!*!*!*!*!

okay, here is the situation. I split the file, copy the cell from animation shop to paintshop, apply the flickster created pallette from the split file, the pallette has the rows of blues (ala the readme.txt) and the favorite end fushia (or the missing teletubbie color as it's known here) with the rest of the colors taking up about half way down the pallette load. The rest of the colors, up to the teletubbie-puke color are the 'shadow' color of the animation..red/green whatever.

now, here is the hair pulling part... I've tried using color 248, (as has been talked about in this thread) I've used all of the last 8 (except for the last of course) colors...and I keep getting blobs of whatever color it was...rather than the nice neat shadow that was intended.

now, *insert lunatic calm here* what am I doing wrong? Was it something I did in a previous life? Was it the fact I bought my wife an iron for christmas? Did my dog curse me for bringing in the stray cat? Is the IRS after me for that entire Amway thing a few years back and this is their revenge? Any help would be appricated.

Again thanks for the work you're putting in here. Hopefully the hair will grow back.

Also: this is a request for anyone with artistic talent. Any advice for how to get pics/animations not to have that aweful flat quality that comes when making them raw? (as opposed to recoloring a premade unit?) Everything I'm doing kinda just looks like...well, like jethro bodine's boots after he got done playing with the steam roller. Thanks in advance.

 

[Haverlock]

Ok. Here's the way I do it.

These instructions are to Paint Shop Pro:

1. Load palette that flicster produce in picture.

2. Choose in menus Colors/Edit Palette...

3. In Edit Palette window double click color number 248. You see another window. Color picker. I use for shadow color light blue (First in fourth row in Basic colors). But you can use what color you want. Just make sure that color you use is't in another location in unit palette. Make your choise and click OK. You should see your new shadow color in palette position 248. Click OK and you are done.

4. Choose in menus Colors/Save Palette, and save your new palette.

Use color number 248 for shadows. Remember that you must use that same palette in every frame in unit and when you save unit in Animation Shop.

 

[Dark Sheer]

Actually you can put your selected color into any slot from 248-255 as shadow. All this 8 position is for shadow with 248 being the darkest to 255 being the lightest (for shade of shadow of course, which I don't bother )

Personally I uses 253 as the shadow shade, not too light, not too dark Oh, of course remember that the same color should not appear anywhere else in the palette

 

[Haverlock]

Originally posted by Dark Sheer
Actually you can put your selected color into any slot from 248-255 as shadow. All this 8 position is for shadow with 248 being the darkest to 255 being the lightest (for shade of shadow of course, which I don't bother )

Personally I uses 253 as the shadow shade, not too light, not too dark Oh, of course remember that the same color should not appear anywhere else in the palette

Thanks for advice Now I know why my shadows are too dark.

 

[micmc_atl_ga]

Wow, amazing what works when you get good advice,

Thanks for explaining to me about not using a color that was previously already on the pallette....I'd never come up with that, (and clearly didn't, a shame I didn't know before, now all I want for christmas is a good scalp-rug, mebbe I'll jump a reindeer and use the pelt, though with my luck the one I'd catch would give me a big red light on the top of my head. Then I'd look like an ambulance whereever I went, put a siren up my sitdown and I could get through the mall in no time.)

My bazooka dude looked a lot better with a shadow, made the depth come shooting out, it still looks a little like grandma moses (that was the lady who started the folk-art revolt err revival in the states for them who don't know) and actually made him look like something more than a flat sheet of paper.

Merry Comercial-with-slight-religious-implications to all and to all a good Knight.

 

[Dark Sheer]

Moeniir.

Here is a new issue for your Flicster discovered by papajohns

papajohns has reduced the 15 frame flc for NuclearSubDefault to 1 frame each for all the 8 direction. However, Flicster seems to like to add a new frame to the flc when merging and this resulted in some of the original frame being lost

What I have found out when testing with his file is that Flicster seems to always add 1 frame to the animation in each direction but retain the total frame count for all the 8 direction

So if 1 frame then it becomes 2 and 2 becomes 3 (I tested all the way to 4 which becomes 5). So instead of say SW_SE_N_S_NW_NE_W_E it becomes SW_SW_N_N_NW_NW_W_W. This meaning to say Flicster increase one frame but retain the total frame count (this is consistent from 1 frame to 4 frame in my test). Maybe you can look into this issue?

EDIT: Ok, my bad Forgot about the ring frame, just ignore this message, heh

 

[Dark Sheer]

Ok, I just completed my Crossbowman flc and along the way it seems that Animation Shop mix up my transparent color vs canvas color

The animation looks fine in game. However, the little box on the right bottom corner that shows unit info has a transparent box around the unit and any terrain graphic will appear inside the box around the unit graphic.

When I did my first flc (ie the terrorist) I do not get this problem. In both cases, the last color (256) is also the pink color which I always use it as the canvas color in Animation Shop.

Can anyone shade some light on this matter?

 

[Don Sutton]

I have been following 'Make your Own Unit' with great interest. I have not managed to produce a unit that works correctly in the game as the background color and shadow change when merging the files.
I separate the files with Flicster, then 'Open' each one of them in 'Animator', then 'Save' each one without attempting to do any retouching or color changes.
At this stage each separated file appears unchanged.
Then I merge the files using Flicster.
When I open this merged file in 'Animator' each file of 8 frames has a different color background and shadow !!!

The reason I 'Open' and 'Save' every split file is that it appears that the files cannot be merged unless they are all treated in a similar manner.

I anxiously await the an improved 'Flicster'.

However I came across this web page which might be of interest to our technical experts:-

http://www.compuphase.com/flic.htm

Don Sutton

 

[Moeniir]

Don -

Thanks for the interest in FLICster. I know everyone has been having a tough time getting the colors to look right in the game. Sorry it has taken me so long to get a new FLICster ready. It's almost done! It's really taken longer than I ever thought, but it's a major overhaul. I'd like to release it sometime on new year's day, but that's still questionable. I have abt 2 minor features left to add and one <known> bug left to squash, plus I haven't written a lick of documentation, readme, faq, tutorial, what-have-you, and this is a huge re-write of FLICster. Hopefully, you won't even recognize it (save the name). On top of all this, I've been away from home on vacation with my family for over a week, so work on the app occurs late each nite after everyone else is abed.

As to your comments - first, thanks for the Compuphase link. That is the reference (for standard flcs) I've been using since the very first release, thanks to SWB. Second, as to your problems - The issue isn't really with FLICster, it's with Animation Shop. AS wasn't really designed for FLCs - it doesn't use the same timing mechanism, and it doesn't like the 256 color palette. With care and careful planning, it is quite possible to create a new unit via FLICster, AS, and the paint program of your choice - it's just a pain in the AS (animation shop... i didn't forget the S ). Most all of the problems folks have are with AS - changing palettes or adding frames.

So, for the new FLICster, the soon-to-be-released v1.0.0 (yes, it really has grown enough to be called version 1.0), I've eliminated the need for Animation Shop entirely, cause care and careful planning are for the birds . v1.0 will open a Civ3Unit FLC and let you export it straight to PCX for editing, in your choice of three layouts:

*Storyboard: 1 big PCX, with 8 rows (1 per direction). Each row contains all the frames for one direction.
*FilmStrips: 8 pcxs, 1 for each direction. Each PCX contains all the frames for a direction.
*Cels: 1 pcx per frame.

The storyboard and filmstips layouts can include optional borders (highly recomended).

The PCX files can be edited in your paint program of choice. As long as you do not perform any functions in your paint program that would change the palette order (such as increase/decrease color depth), the palettes remain safe and intact. Once the PCX files(s) are edited, v1.0 will create a new Civ3Unit Flc from them.

But the fun won't stop there! v1.0 will also let you increase frame size, add extra frames, load any civ-specific color set into a unit, change animation speed, and other neat stuff. Plus, v1.0 allows to view animations - both FLC and PCX versions, in any direction, with any civ color scheme, even with simulated alpha-blending (see how your shadows really look!). The PCX viewer also has a Popup mode, which places the animation in an "always on top" window so you can see how your pcx edits look in motion.

Well, now that the cat is firmly out of the bag, I guess I'd better go finish the app. I expect it will be released by next weeked (5 Jan '02), but I'll launch sooner if all is complete. In the meantime, thanks to everyone who has made FLICster 0.2.2 (and all the prior versions) worth my time.

 

[Don Sutton]

Moeniir,
Well thank you. I have made some progress since my last message but your progress is fantastic.
What can I say ? - Just waiting. It seems as if you will be solving all our problems.
Sounds as if we can soon have fun creating the units we want - to make a good game better.
Happy New Year to everyone

Don Sutton

 

[micmc_atl_ga]

Thank you so much for the upcoming changes, for those of us with limited artistic skill, (who insist on applying our nebulous talent to drawing rather than something productive) the changes sound like they will be a hUGE help.

The arrgh, is I just finished (litterally five minutes ago) creating a new pallet to make the team-colors (1-70 in psp) all one icky color, (since the game don't care it will take them in order anyway,) and then putting the useful colors into the main body of the pallette. Dunno if it's a good idea yet or not, it seems to work for recoloring units (no more zulu-yellow in the midsts of the armor-dude's chest/hair/feet/etc) dunno the downside here yet as the testing has only been with scenario units created to let me test the animiations/colors combo.

What you are going to do will help GREATLY with the ideas I have that I know I can do (read the above about a basic lack of artistic talent) without having to actually draw too much.

All the work you're doing on this is a big help to those of us out here, awhile ago someone said that Friaxis should at least buy you the tools you need, if not at least sending you a company t-shirt, and I'll add my voice to that call, ...or at least buy you taco's if I ever run into you somewhere *G*

Thanks again.

 

[Moeniir]

Version 1.0.0 Now Available

Well, It's finally done. FLICster v1.0.0 (build 17). Its a major revamp. Hopefully you won't even recognize it. Here the short list of new stuff:

* New FLC Viewer. Allows viewing of Civ3UnitFlcs. Each direction can be viewed. Units can be viewed with default colors or with any civ-specific colors. Also allows viewing with 'simulated alpha blending', to show how shadow effects actually look.

* New Export formats: StoryBoard PCX, Filmstrip PCX, and Cel PCX. Storyboard creates a single PCX containing all frames of all directional animation laid out in a grid. Each direction is tiled left-to-right in its own row. Filmstrip is similar, except that each direction's row of frames is saved to a different PCX file. Cel creates a separate PCX for each frame in each direction of the animation. Exporting to these formats also creates a FXM (FLICster eXport Manifest) file, containing information required to create a new Civ3UnitFlic from the PCX File(s). Storyboard and Filmstrip formats can include an optional border (recommended!).

* New FXM Viewer. The FXM viewer allows the animations stored in a PCX Storyboard, or PCX Filmstrips/Cels, to be viewed just like a completed FLC. Viewer features are the same as the FLC viewer. Additionally, the FXM viewer has a 'Popup' mode, which hides the full application, and displays an always-on-top version of the viewer, for checking your progress while editing the PCX file(s).

* Change more stuff - when exporting to PCX, you can change the frame size, frame count, filename, color palette, and animation speed.

* Start from scratch - Just select File|New... to create a blank StoryBoard (or other PCX format).

* Support for single-direction Civ3UnitFlcs, such as CruiseMissileDeath.flc

* Additional PAL file created with 'Alpha' coloring. See 'HOW TO USE IT' for important details.

* FLICster 0.2.2 style 'split' and 'merge' functionality is still supported, although it is deprecated. To split a file into standard FLC files, open the Civ3UnitFlc and set the export type to 'Multiple Standard FLCs'. Still creates an INI file. To merge the standard FLCs into a Civ3UnitFlc, Choose File|Open... and select the INI file. You may need to set the file type to "*.*"

* Help|About... function.

* Rewrote the readme file.



As always, I will send copies to the mods, to post at the beginning of this thread. In the interim, I've posted the full install and a small install to my Yahoo! Briefcase - http://briefcase.yahoo.com/moeniir. Note that in order to use the small install, you will need the latest comdlg32.ocx, mscomctl.ocx, mscomct2.ocx, and msvbvm60.dll. If you aren't sure, just grab the full install.

 

[Dark Sheer]

The must be the best New Year Present for anyone who want to mess around with Civ3's flc files

I will try it out now!!

 

[Don Sutton]

Moeniir,
Well you have suceeded !! When I learned to read your instructions correctly - I got a perfect test result.
Many thanks for all of your work - it must have been a slog - but intriguing ?
Our frustration is at an end. We can now create !!!
The world is my lobster !!! (sic)
With the powers vested in me. I dub thee LORD FLICSTER

 

[Moeniir]

Hope everyone's enjoying the new FLICster. I'm eagerly awaiting new units!

If you use the program and like it, post some feedback here. I'd like to know which PCX format people like. I thought Storyboard was the easiest and most intuitive when I designed it, but I was afraid some of the files might get large (export BattleshipDeath to see what I mean... the PCX is under a meg, but in-memory in your paint program, it will take nearly 9 meg... its 4821x1929x256), hence the Filmstrip format. Finally, I thought some people might already have animation tools for working with each frame as a separate file, so I tossed in Cel format. Besides, they all use the same basic code.

Also, anyone see any reason to continue support for the old behavior, i.e., multiple standard FLC files?

Lastly, let me know how to improve it. Some of my ideas for future enhancements are in the Readme.

Let's see those units!

 

[BeBro]

And I don´t know what the others think, but I would nominate you for the CivFanatics "Hall of Fame" for that...

 

[Dark Sheer]

I am sure there are pople like me who still uses the old format of individual flc files

The reason why I prefer the old file format is:

1) I study the original flc to see how movements are applied in the animations. Sometime the diff between frames are just a few pixels and watching the individual flc is the best way to see it

2) I am so used to the relation between AS and PSP now I started to love it

3) I generally use the original flc as a guide for size and placement of the unit. I used the original Destroyer's flc frame and also size to make sure that my Perry Class Frigate is about the real size when placed next to a Destroyer.

So keep up the good work and I will keep those new units flowing

 

[Moeniir]

originally posted by Dark Sheer
1) I study the original flc to see how movements are applied in the animations. Sometime the diff between frames are just a few pixels and watching the individual flc is the best way to see it

2) I am so used to the relation between AS and PSP now I started to love it

3) I generally use the original flc as a guide for size and placement of the unit. I used the original Destroyer's flc frame and also size to make sure that my Perry Class Frigate is about the real size when placed next to a Destroyer.

1) This is why I added the popup viewer. Would it help if the viewer let you pause the animation, and flip/flop between two frames or just view a few sub-frames as a loop?

2) Um, okay. I won't even comment on that

3) The grid in the PCX formats are meant to help with size and placement. Would it help if the popup viewer underlayed a smaller grid of some kind when in alpha-blend mode? Or some other way of guaging proper size and position?

Thanks DS - Keep those comments & suggestions rolling!