Sherlock Holmes (26/02/10)

[Plotinus]

Thanks for the comments, all.

Not to be particular Plotinus, but can you make a version in which the cape and deerstalker aren't civ-colored? It's showing up terrible in-game, unless I change the Civ color (which is white for the hero civ) ....

Yes, he does really need a dull civ colour; I got rather sick of the bright civ blue while making him, hence the preview in civ colour 21. Fortunately Vuldacon has already made a non-civ-coloured version - see the OP for preview and download. Vuldacon also did some fiddling with the sounds so I have re-uploaded the original version too.

If anyone wants to change the colours of this unit or any of my others then please feel free to do so. In general, it should be fairly straightforward, if a bit time-consuming, to change civ colour to any other colour you want. Say you want to turn civ colour to green. Use Flicster to export the storyboards, setting the civ colour to green. Then change the palettes of those storyboards so that the green shades are in the main part of the palette, not the civ colour section, and change the civ colours to some colour that isn't used. Then use Flicster to convert the storyboards back into flics. I'm fairly sure that that, or a similar procedure, should work, although I haven't tried it.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Incredible and unique .

Just like yourself, really !!

 

[Balthasar]

I've got Vuldacon's version of your Sherlock and it looks great; and even though the cloak is very dark in his remake, the animation of the cloak shows up wonderfully. Thanks both of you guys, and Tom too, for the offer!

 

[Vuldacon]

One easy method to change CIV Specific Colors of a Unit are:
1. Export all Flcs to storyboards using Flicster.

2. Open a storyboard in your graphics program and Change it to greyscale by reducing the Color Saturation to 0 (This keeps the same palette indexes rather than going to 16 million colors) then you can simply colorize it as you want using any of the "Tools" to do so such as "Colorize" or adjust the Red, Green, Blue saturation. You can also increase contrast, color saturation and tweak it as you want.

3. Open the colorized Unit Palette and take a Screen Shot of it and paste it as a new Image.

4. Close the Storyboard you used and do Not save. Then Re-Open it as the Original storyboard.

5. Open the Original Unit Palette so it is On Screen with your Colorized Palette side by side and replace all four rows of CIV Specific Colors with the new colors in your Colorized Palette.

6. Save the New Unit Palette as "1st Color Palette" or what ever you want to call it.

7. Apply this new palette to ALL storyboards using "Maintain Indexes" then SAVE them ALL.

8. Open and Combine any storyboard that uses different colors such as the Attack or Death on a single storyboard by using copy and paste. First Change the Frame Lines and all "Smoke and Shadow" shades to Black so the lines, Smoke and Shadows will not be any problem. The Magenta Background is also changed to Black. This leaves only the Unit Colors.
This storyboard is Not saved and is only used to obtain the Unit Colors for the new palette.

9. After combing any other storyboards that use different colors, change the storyboard to 16 Million Colors.

10. Reduce the Colors to 160 Colors. Open the Palette and Add Green, Red, Yellow, etc... as a Color not used for the image to the palette that you want to use as a Block Out Color for the CIV Specific Colors. Take a Screen Shot of the Palette and save it as a .bmp image. You do not save this storyboard unless you want to but save it as another name such as "New Unit Colors" so it does not overwrite your already saved storyboard.

11. Open Pedit palette editor or what ever palette editing program you use and Open the Original Unit Palette and Open your .bmp Palette Color Image. Replace all of the Civ Specific Colors in the Four Rows with the Green. Red, Yellow, etc... Color you want to block out the CIV Specific Colors with. Then you simply start at the Unit Colors section and replace all 160 Colors with your New Colors from your .bmp Palette Image, leaving the "Smoke and Shadow" shades as they were originally.

12. Save the Palette as a .pal New Palette, named as you like.

13. Open the saved storyboards that you have already applied the "1st Color Palette" to that Changed the Civ Specific Colors earlier. Apply your New Finished Palette to them using "Nearest Color Matching".

14. Save each Storyboard after applying your New Palette.

15. Open the storyboards in Flicster and generate the New Flcs...Finished

Other Notes:
There are some colors you can keep in the CIV Specific Colored Four Rows that will not affect the CIV Specific Colors but usually I remove them all. You can also select one Frame from the Original Unit Storyboard to apply only the CIV Specific Color Change to so you can see the Changes with the Original Unit Colors. There are fast and simple procedures that you will discover and develop as you go through these procedures.

Unit Palette Images to Explain the Color Slots:... If this will help anyone
Actually, this thread is Not the most appropriate place for this post. Sorry Plotinus

 

[Takhisis]

That should be stickied into the Tutorials section, Vuldacon. You've just upgraded yourself to Master Vuldacon. :=)

 

[Vuldacon]

Takhisis... This thread is really not the most appropriate place for that post but I wanted to interject it as it was brought up from the Non CIV Specific Colored Sherlock.

Plotinus did an Excellent Job on Sherlock Holmes and that is what this Thread is for

 

[Spidernova]

I love the pipe smoke animation

 

[BadKharma]

I love the pipe smoke animation

That is my favorite as well.

 

[Plotinus]

Glad you like it. It was difficult to do that one, and annoyingly I made a mistake with the lighting effect for the match and had to re-render the whole thing.

 

[KingArthur]

What more can be said than hasn't already been said. A brill unit Plot - you always manage to imbue your units with great character.

 

[Balthasar]

I wouldn't worry too much about dropping that tutorial in there, Vuldacon. Sometimes a little tutorial is appropriate. I'm always explaining the mechanics of what I've done at length; I figure that for every hundred regulars that already know the process there are likely a couple of newbies that have never heard of it, but if they can learn it, they might become contributors and the whole group benefits. It's good for would-be modders to know that the process is neither mystic nor arcane. It would likely help that they can see a real-world result, and then learn how you've gotten to it. Holmes himself never minded explaining his thought process - at length; he might have said, "One cannot be elementary without being elementary - it's not an aspiration, it's a manner of doing things properly."

 

[Takhisis]

I actually said it as a compliment because I thought a copy of that tuorial would be handy for everyone instead of being buried here.

 

[Vuldacon]

Balthasar... I thought it might serve to help someone if I posted a method to Remove the CIV Specific colors from a unit and because Sherlock was also made without the CIV Specific Colors, I wasn't "worried" about the post, just acknowledging that this thread isn't the most appropriate place.
Takhisis... I understood your post was a compliment and thanks

I like the Pipe Smoke Plotinus added to Sherlock Holmes as well... The Dynamic Cloth looks very Good and adds more realism. The Magnifying Glass Sherlock Holmes whips out and uses is a Great Addition for this Special Character

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

This unit is elementary my dead Plotinus..

Would definitely fit as a Victorian Spy maybe? Good work.

 

[CurtSibling]

I've not even played CIVIII for years, but as a big fan on Holmes, this is superb!

The game's afoot!

 

[Grandraem]

This unit is elementary my dead Plotinus..

Um, I think a little spelling check is in order here.

 

[Takhisis]

That emote just goes with this thread.

Um, I think a little spelling check is in order here.

Maybe Plotinus is a zombie with greenish grey skin...

 

[antares60]

Excellent unit...I'm going to use him for a King unit.

Any possibilities of creating a Winston Churchill unit?

 

[Goldflash]

I would like to point out that in this thread Swoggy killed Plotinus with a typo.

 

[timerover51]

Hmm, did you have to add the dying sequence? Sherlock Holmes is one of the characters that I thought should live forever. Not even A. C. Doyle could kill him off permanently.