Need help on creating flc with Animation Shop

[Dark Sheer]

This is my first attempy messing with the flc file using Flicster and Animation Shop. I managed to do a default flc for my terrorist and all the animation compiled fine. However, when I test the unit in the game with the default graphic, the shadow appeared as green color

Anyone know what did I do wrong?? Help will be highly appreciated And if I can get this right there will be more animation on the way I promise

I attach the TerroristDefault.flc for those who has been using Flicster and Animation Shop to take a look. I got the transparent part right, everything is fine except the shadow!!

 

[Moeniir]

I think I can help you here, DS. The short answer is, you got optimized. Ain't that grand?

Here's what gives: The green you used for your shadow either isn't at the end of the palette (last row, but not the very last spot, in psp) or it is, but the same color appears earlier in your palette. PSP optimizes by letting all pixels that share a color (RGB color value) also share a palette location, even if they shouldn't.

Try this: Reopen the frames in PSP. Pick a new color to be your shadow color, choose Edit Palette, and edit the next-to-last color. Set this next-to-last palette entry to be your shadow color. Make sure this is the only place the color appears in your palette. Now, use the fill tool (bucket) to replace the old shadow color with this new color. Re-save the frames into the FLCs, and re-build the Civ3 flcs. This should fix it.

BTW, are you using the latest version (build 5), and importing the PAL file into PSP when you begin editing each frame? Importing the PAL file ensures that (a) PSP is using 256 color mode, which is a must, and (b) PSP is starting with the correct palette. This should reduce the risk of palette optimizations, as long as you don't duplicate palette colors.

Note that Civ3 actually honors the last 16 palette positions for alpha blending, that is, shading. The last position is for 0% shading, in other words, transparent. The other positions represent different levels of shadings, which allow for more realistic shadow effects. The next version of FLICster, which is nearly complete, will allow you to view your work with alpha blending enabled (or at least approximated, since I don't have the exact values).

 

[Moeniir]

Downloaded and took a look at the FLC you attached. Nice! As I thought, the palette is the problem. Seems common for original game flcs to have the same color in like 64 palette positions, including the important one. I'm thinking about including an option in the new version to remap matching palette colors. At any rate, try the info in my last post. Should fix it. Others have had similar issues.

Also - When you view it in game, is the animation speed ok, or does it seem too fast? There's two different values in a unit FLC that affect speed, and the available documentation doesn't make clear what is used. I haven't had the time to experiment with various settings in game yet. The new version should have the ability to change the speed of the animation.

 

[Dark Sheer]

Thank you so much Mr Flicster!!

And yes, I am using your latest version of Flicster and I did use the PAL file created. I think the reason why this happen was because when I first compile the flc I forgot to use the PAL file and AS actually give me 180 frames on some of the flc

So I end up going back to remove the extra junks and recompile the flc. This time I remember to use the PAL I guess thats when the shadow thing happen as I was using one of the original file as a base and I didn't even edit the shadow color. Oh well.

 

[papajohns]

i have problems preserving animation frames...when i open ur origianal flt after the split, i see 8 frames, but if i save it, and then reopen it, it becomes like 100 frames....uh..how do i keep it 8 when saving..cant find any settings..

help plz..

thx

 

[Lavindathar]

Hey,

Could someone post a screenie of Dark Sheer's new terrorist.flc in action??

I wud alter it, but Im going out in a min, and my bro will want to play Civ. if ive changed the .bic are saved games never work!

 

[Dark Sheer]

Now I can't resplit the compiled files to fix the shadow??

It says encounter second chunk which is not 256 color , BYTE_RUN??

I am using Flicster 0.2.2 (build 5), this is the latest right??

 

[Moeniir]

papajohns - select all frames and set the display time to 1 second (in properties dialog) before saving. Animation Shop cheats by inserting multiple copies of a frame to simulate frame delay. 6 seconds is the default, and is good for viewing but BAD for saving.

darksheer - I replied to your post on the FLICster thread in the utilities section about the same issue. Known bug, see other thread for the full info.

 

[papajohns]

moenir,

i selected all frames, pulled frame properties, and set time 100 (since its said in 1/100th sec and you said set 1 sec.) then saved, and same thing, it stuck a gazillion frames in middle

 

[Moeniir]

Doh! I meant 1/100 of a second or whatever the scale is.... enter 1 in the box.

Sorry abt that. The default is 6, which works well for viewing, but be sure to set it to 1 when saving.