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Author Topic: Why nobody does not use Battleship Forever Ship Maker for ship sprites?  (Read 50588 times)

arcibalde

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Re: Why nobody does not use Battleship Forever Ship Maker for ship sprites?
« Reply #15 on: April 14, 2012, 04:02:12 PM »

I use this tool for sprite creation long time ago and i stop it because it wasn't... Hehe how do i say that... Look how can i import ALL Kae sprites in those 4 groups? Basic i only use them. As i see it i can only import 1 by 1 and there is over 500 of them...
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KlonTom

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Re: Why nobody does not use Battleship Forever Ship Maker for ship sprites?
« Reply #16 on: April 14, 2012, 04:19:33 PM »

I use this tool for sprite creation long time ago and i stop it because it wasn't... Hehe how do i say that... Look how can i import ALL Kae sprites in those 4 groups? Basic i only use them. As i see it i can only import 1 by 1 and there is over 500 of them...

As you see there is 4 group of parts, to switch between them you have to press ~ and use 1\2\3\4 keys for every group respectfully. But mine work flow goes around arranging needed parts in first group, and using rest three as storage for possibly usefull parts. So initially drag and drop all not used parts in first group to fourth group, just because they look bogus and we can use it only for getting some silhouette.
5) Look closely for sets of parts that you downloaded, and choose which one you like and will use in your ship. After this just drag and drop them to a groups 2-4. There is pretty much unlimited storage, but it can become really complicated to orient in them if there is too much parts, as it shows only in rows by 3, and to scroll it up and down you have to use only mouses scroll wheel.
6) Now drag and drop parts that you gonna use in your ship to first group. Close Group Arrange window by pressing Esc, and lets start constructing our ship.
So yeah, just drag and drop them in Group Arrange window, in any group you like. Select all of them in folder (ctrl+a, or just lasso em, or select first and shift click last) and just drag and drop in desired group. In group you can also select multiple parts by selecting one and then shift+click selecting whole bunch parts in between, and move after from group to group. To delete parts-select and press delete.

To open group arrange windo, go to Tools->group arrange

I recommend using first group as working group and the rest as storage. Every group can take 2-4 sets of parts without significant problem, and your working group will be filled with only usefull sprites.

Go to Tools->Save sprites ini. This will save our current sprite config. I recommend you to to use different sprite configs for different ships\ships series to not discontinue its "style".

To save you sprite groups profile, do what i said in quote. You can have specific sprite profile for every ship series, or ships individually, to not discontinue your style.
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arcibalde

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Re: Why nobody does not use Battleship Forever Ship Maker for ship sprites?
« Reply #17 on: April 14, 2012, 04:34:50 PM »

Tnx  ;D
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DarkStar076

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Re: Why nobody does not use Battleship Forever Ship Maker for ship sprites?
« Reply #18 on: April 14, 2012, 05:54:22 PM »

Thankyou for the comprehensive guide KlonTom, the BSF Shp maker looks like an awesome tool for people who have a hard time when it comes to kitbashing

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WKOB

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Re: Why nobody does not use Battleship Forever Ship Maker for ship sprites?
« Reply #19 on: April 15, 2012, 01:29:17 AM »

The sprites look a bit simple but I make take a piece or two to fill in blank space.
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Trylobot

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Re: Why nobody does not use Battleship Forever Ship Maker for ship sprites?
« Reply #20 on: April 15, 2012, 02:46:41 AM »

@KlonTom: Please don't be offput by the lukewarm responses of some of my fellow modders. In general we are aware of the BSF utility, and most choose not to use it for one reason or another --- but that's not really important. This is an excellent guide, many new modders will definitely appreciate it, and actually seeing such detail on its use has almost inspired me to try it out and see what I can make in the way of re-usable parts.

Thanks for the excellent guide!
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medikohl

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Re: Why nobody does not use Battleship Forever Ship Maker for ship sprites?
« Reply #21 on: April 15, 2012, 03:08:16 AM »

I have no problems with this, but I'll continue kitbashing.
I just like how a large number of the vanilla ships lend themselves to kitbashing easily, (or maybe I have an eye for it)

of course most of my ships have no particular plan in mind, I'll grab four or five different sprites then figure out someway to mix the various bits to get something new.
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WarStalkeR

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Re: Why nobody does not use Battleship Forever Ship Maker for ship sprites?
« Reply #22 on: April 15, 2012, 03:22:17 AM »

@KlonTom, thank you for great guide. Original BSF textures aren't good, but these custom texture packs fix that problem :)

...stupidly over-powered mods...
Against vanilla races? Maybe... But if you're putting them against decent enemies, you get an epic fight :)
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cp252

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Re: Why nobody does not use Battleship Forever Ship Maker for ship sprites?
« Reply #23 on: April 15, 2012, 03:59:05 AM »

Oops. Didn't expect to be taken that seriously. Sorry for any offence caused.
Personally it's very jarring to see something that doesn't match the art. It'd be fine in a 3d game I guess, but the line thickness and shadows and such don't even match. I personally haven't a clue how to mess with filters and colours, so forget it.
As for replacing the available parts, that's a lot of work. If someone were to do it first, perhaps. But the good kitbashes tend to have parts sliced up into little bits along panel lines, on-demand for when they're needed, not taken from a palette (as far as I can tell).
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DarkMajor21

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How did you get your ship to look like that?
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Sproginator

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Finally a decent tutorial, I've been wanting to get into spriting and this is gonna be sweet

@sproginator: Warning. Do not quote the entire first post, for any reason, when it is a post of this nature (an in-depth tutorial including many images). It makes viewing the thread ridiculous. -Trylobot
« Last Edit: May 25, 2012, 09:33:14 AM by Trylobot »
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Avan

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People have been using it, and for quite some time. (ie, even back when I was around and posting heavily XP)

Sproginator

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People have been using it, and for quite some time. (ie, even back when I was around and posting heavily XP)
I think this is a great place to start for new spriters, maybe make this thread stickied or something
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Sproginator

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So i've just made my first "sprite" but i dont have photoshop so i am unable to make the background layer transparent, Any suggestions?
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A person who's never made a mistake, never tried anything new
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FlashFrozen

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Have you tried gimp? it's an alternative to photoshop,

http://www.gimp.org/

That or paint.net

http://www.getpaint.net/

Both will probably take some time to get used to,
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