PREVIEW: Cut 'n Paste Pack v. 1.0!

[Dom Pedro II]

mrtn, the changing of the skin color is a multi-step process. The pallette for the storyboard for the creator's unit will not be the same as the original storyboards he/she is working off of.

One must change the colors in the original, select and copy the entire storyboard, and then paste it into the new storyboard with its own pallette.

 

[A Viking Yeti]

I agree with LouLong; if this Pack is able to all it says it can, then we could get a lot of good units from this. I think, with how populated these forums are, LOTS of people would put this program to work. I would think at least 100-200 people would use and actually make a couple or so units. Sifting through all the 300-600 units, you could probably find at least 100 very good units. With all the inovative ideas going around for units, and the prospected simplicity of this program, there could be a lot of new units coming out very quickly. Then again, I could just be an idiot; and whoever is reading this could have just wasted 5 mins of their life trying to read through all the typos that I know I'll see just seconds after I post it .

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Just to update, y'all...


I'm using the same model Kinboat uses for his units so that way we have a standard model in case more designers want to make more special poses not included in the base pack. It renders REALLY fast and is much easier to pose so I'm flying with this thing...


So far, I've finished:

Default
Run
Fidget
Victory
Death1
Death2
One-Handed Slash
Two-Handed Slash
Double Slash
One-Handed Jab
Two-Handed Jab
Bow Attack
High-Arch Bow Attack
FortifyOne-Handed
FortifyBow&Arrow
FortifyRifleStanding
FortifyRifleKneeling

and I'm also going to include some of the CnP goodies Kryten uses as well as try to include a number of bits and pieces like swords, axes, bows, guns, etc. rendered from lots of different angles.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Alrighty... I HOPE to have the first version of the Cut and Paste Pack out by this weekend. It's going to include a number of basic animations and a brief tutorial on how to use this.

I'm going to work with some of the animators to come up with a better tutorial that gets much more in-depth in the nitty gritty of cutting and pasting in general, which I am not nearly as familiar with as someone like say Kryten.

I will be releasing more animations as time goes on, and I'll take requests if you really need something completely unique. I'll also release props as I get new stuff.


I encourage all 3D modelers to pitch in.

To the modelers: Just take a prop in your program and make a quick render from say 24 different angles. 15-degree rotation for each frame ought to do ya.. put them in a storyboard or convert the individual frames into .pcx files. Not only will it be helping them, but it'll be helping you. As I said before, if they do it, you don't have to..

And if you'd like to make your own animations with the harlequin, it's Kinboat's "paperdoll" which he's been so kind to post, and I'll upload the texture files. I suggest downloading Kinboat's default setup for Poser users, so that way there is more uniformity in the animations.

 

[mrtn]

Originally posted by Dom Pedro II
mrtn, the changing of the skin color is a multi-step process. The pallette for the storyboard for the creator's unit will not be the same as the original storyboards he/she is working off of.

One must change the colors in the original, select and copy the entire storyboard, and then paste it into the new storyboard with its own pallette.

I may be stupid, but why not make it as easy as possible for the cut and pasters? In the palette you posted in the first post you have turqouis (sp?) as the civ colour and blue as the head colour. If it was the other way around it would be easier.
If I were to use Sid I'd start by making a whole lot of changes in the palette, to get the right look to the base figure, and then just paste in the (let's say) centurions helmet, with civ colours and all. I prefer to mod an existing palette, rather than applying another one.
This way I know that the transparent colours are correct, for example.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Well, the pallette in the preview was merely a demonstration. When I render these things, I render them as BMP files which are RBG color, so the pallette can pretty much be any which way. If you'd rather I make blue the civ-specific color for the purposes of a single pallette, it shouldn't be difficult at all to do that. I am not, however, going to go back and re-render everything, so I'll use my own methods then to do it.

But it doesn't matter because if you're going to want a civ-colored tunic or leggings, you're going to have to copy and paste into a new storyboard anyway because even if you change the chest color to blue, the FLICster isn't going to register it as a civ-specific color.

EDIT: I had intended to just post this all as a set of .pcx files, but otherwise, I'm going to have to but the FXM files in there too because you have to make a new storyboard otherwise, and that's going to involve palette editing, copying and pasting and the whole shabang.

 

[mrtn]

Originally posted by Dom Pedro II
... I am not, however, going to go back and re-render everything, so I'll use my own methods then to do it...

Of course!
I was just, in my own clumsy inimitable way , trying to point out that there are different ways to do things, and that it would be good if Sid was as multi-purpose as possible.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Indeed, and in fact, I am grateful you pointed that out to me. It hadn't occured to me.

 

[LouLong]

Originally posted by Dom Pedro II
Alrighty... I HOPE to have the first version of the Cut and Paste Pack out by this weekend.

[dance]

Now about the palette. A good useful one would be an important part of this project actually. Now I don't understand wallbash: ) all the technicalities mrtn refers to but I agree with his idea 200%.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Alright, well, as I said before, the palette will have gradient colors (now that I know how to do it).

And since I've already rendered all of this with a blue head and hands, I'm going to make the storyboards, change the blue slots to turqouis, copy the storyboard, and paste it into a new storyboard with the "preferred" palette.


But I remind you though, if you want to have civ-specific tunics, you have to change the palette for the storyboard you're working on, select the whole storyboard, copy it, and then paste it into a new storyboard with the standard palette.


Don't worry... for anybody who feels a little confused by all this, a fully illustrated tutorial will be produced. And hopefully, as our expert cut and pasters play around with this, they'll have more tips and instructions to add to it.

 

[mrtn]

Sounds good Dom!

 

[Dom Pedro II]

If someone would be so kind, would somebody who uses Paintshop or any other non-Photoshop art program kindly upload some screenshots of the work area and the menus to get to the palette? Thank you..

 

[A Viking Yeti]

YAY!!!

I'll have to remeber to get on this weekend, though I probably would've anyway . I almost understand the technical stuff mrtn and dom were talking about, but I'm sure when the tutorials and tips start coming out, it'll all clear up (I hope) .

 

[Drift]

Originally posted by Dom Pedro II
If someone would be so kind, would somebody who uses Paintshop or any other non-Photoshop art program kindly upload some screenshots of the work area and the menus to get to the palette? Thank you..

Will this do? Paintshop Pro 7.00 I slapped together a palette, the work buttons, menus, an open image and the route to palettes.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/cutnpaste.jpg

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Splendid! Yeah, it doesn't really have to be any particular palette. It's just to show where to find it in the different programs. Thanks.

 

[Gogf]

Any progress to report?

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Unfortunately, no progress to report, but one PROBLEM to report.

I have everything all rendered, and Thursday night I started working on making the storyboards, and turning all of the frames into storyboards with Steph's Storyboard Builder went well, but once I took the .bmp storyboards and tried to convert them into .pcx I ran into some problems...

As has been said before, one of the problems with using Poser is that it every so slightly blends the figure with the background, so that there's a halo of pixels around the figure that really kill the smoothness of the animation. Also, certain pixels get cut that cause a misshaping of a body part in one frame and not another... its a pain basically.

And even if you try to take a larger render and scale it down in Photoshop or in the SBB, it doesn't get rid of those pixels. So I've been in communication with Kryten trying to figure a way to fix this.

One of the other problems is that there are these few pixels in various parts of the body that aren't quite in the same line of colors as the others and so when you change the others' color, those other pixels don't change... and its partly related to the above issue.

I have, however, found a way in Poser to effectively remove the halo, but its going to mean rerendering this stuff again, which, since the posing is already done means it would likely take another day or so. I want to wait and see if Kryten has anything to add before I go to that length.

No worries though, we'll get this thing done!

 

[Gogf]

Well, a day or two is hardly a long time, IMO. I have waited this long, and I can keep waiting. Quality of er... speed. Well, I still can't wait. Is it going to have a tutorial in the first version (I have no clue how to make units)?

 

[Dom Pedro II]

There will be a tutorial in the first version, yes.

Basically, the first version of the tutorial will include:

1) How precisely to use this figure to change its colors and such.

2) How to make civ-specific colors with this figure.

3) How to use FLICster in coordination with cutting and pasting.

4) Some tips for cutting and pasting.

I refer you also to Dark Sheer's tutorial in the Tutorials section since I personally do not have a lot of cutting and pasting experience.

Kryten said that he would like, once the pack is released, to make a unit using the pack and then write a step-by-step process of how he did it. But that won't be for a little while anyway depending on how long it takes him to finish a unit with this.

 

[Gogf]

Where can I get a demo/trial version of FLICster?

The tutorial sounds quite helpful.