Unit design - image requirements
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2014 9:09 pm
A unit image should be:
- image should face RIGHT - the figure looks right, the horse goes left to right - as that is the default direction
- AOS/AOF: 32x32px sized (if single tiled unit) *
- AOW/AOG/AOD: 64x64px sized (if single tiled unit) *
- transparent
- compressed (see below)
- RGB colors
- Good looking: should look similar in feeling than existing units (to keep coherency of the game appearance)
- Player colored: this means there is a coloring that can be changed depending on the selected player color in the game setup (red, blue, yellow)
-> to achieve this you have pink colors to use, and the game engine will replace them with the corresponding player color.
-> You can use alpha in teamcolor!
-> Acceptable pink color shades: from RGB 255/0/255 to RGB 255/254/255 (so the green part can be any value between 0..254)
-> examples: RGB 255/100/255 and 255/20/255 and 255/135/255
- image name: name must only contain a..z, 0..9 and _ charcters, so no capital letters and no space characters either
- view angle: in most alternatives the view angle is closest to isometric so like side view, but little from above (so you see the top part of the eg. tank.) Also for units needs to face right and having side view (exception can be the too large ones with special facing directinos)
- unit image position: in AOW/AOMW/AOG, because of roads design, ground units should start from the 16 th pixel from the bottom (to fit on roads)
so wrong image position:
good image position:
*: the 32 px in vertical direction can be exceeded up to 40 or even up to 64 px (eg. a long lance is emerging from the units hand upwards - like the halberdier)
Tools
Utilities:
- Image drawing: You could use GIMP for PC and Pixly for mobile.
- In Total Commander there is a plugin that shows image pixel size instantly on lists: https://totalcmd.net/plugring/wdx_ImgSize.html
Compressed:
On exporting to png please
1. turn on compression
2. and do not include
- Exif
- Xmp
- iptc
- thumbnil
if u have Gimp on "export as" there is an advanced part and uncheck everything.
Player coloring (Teamcoloring) quick way:
in GIMP you can use a tool to easily teamcolor complete image parts(without doing it pixel by pixel manually):
- you select the part u want to be proper teamcolored
- select colors/"curves" tool
- select red channel and move "curve" to the topleft corner
- select blue channel and move "curve" to the topleft corner
- (optional) if you want to make result a bit more contoured, use the Green channel and play with the curve for a better color contrast
and you are ready, the image is still "shaded" - i mean there are diffecrent teamcolor darknesses - but all pixel is proper teamcolor.
sample, changing tank turret with one shot to teamcolored
Lights, Shadows:
UPDATE: since we have rotating units (turn left and right) all shadows should also be centered, so when flipping shadow should remain on middle position.
in AOS the light should be in this angle (top. left CENTER from behind):
- image should face RIGHT - the figure looks right, the horse goes left to right - as that is the default direction
- AOS/AOF: 32x32px sized (if single tiled unit) *
- AOW/AOG/AOD: 64x64px sized (if single tiled unit) *
- transparent
- compressed (see below)
- RGB colors
- Good looking: should look similar in feeling than existing units (to keep coherency of the game appearance)
- Player colored: this means there is a coloring that can be changed depending on the selected player color in the game setup (red, blue, yellow)
-> to achieve this you have pink colors to use, and the game engine will replace them with the corresponding player color.
-> You can use alpha in teamcolor!
-> Acceptable pink color shades: from RGB 255/0/255 to RGB 255/254/255 (so the green part can be any value between 0..254)
-> examples: RGB 255/100/255 and 255/20/255 and 255/135/255
- image name: name must only contain a..z, 0..9 and _ charcters, so no capital letters and no space characters either
- view angle: in most alternatives the view angle is closest to isometric so like side view, but little from above (so you see the top part of the eg. tank.) Also for units needs to face right and having side view (exception can be the too large ones with special facing directinos)
- unit image position: in AOW/AOMW/AOG, because of roads design, ground units should start from the 16 th pixel from the bottom (to fit on roads)
so wrong image position:
- unit_ger_tank_panzer_iv_f1_wrong_pos.png (1.59 KiB) Viewed 13462 times
- unit_ger_tank_panzer_iv_f1_good.png (1.59 KiB) Viewed 13462 times
Tools
Utilities:
- Image drawing: You could use GIMP for PC and Pixly for mobile.
- In Total Commander there is a plugin that shows image pixel size instantly on lists: https://totalcmd.net/plugring/wdx_ImgSize.html
Compressed:
On exporting to png please
1. turn on compression
2. and do not include
- Exif
- Xmp
- iptc
- thumbnil
if u have Gimp on "export as" there is an advanced part and uncheck everything.
Player coloring (Teamcoloring) quick way:
in GIMP you can use a tool to easily teamcolor complete image parts(without doing it pixel by pixel manually):
- you select the part u want to be proper teamcolored
- select colors/"curves" tool
- select red channel and move "curve" to the topleft corner
- select blue channel and move "curve" to the topleft corner
- (optional) if you want to make result a bit more contoured, use the Green channel and play with the curve for a better color contrast
and you are ready, the image is still "shaded" - i mean there are diffecrent teamcolor darknesses - but all pixel is proper teamcolor.
sample, changing tank turret with one shot to teamcolored
- unit_ger_tank_tiger_i_teamcolorhard.png (3.09 KiB) Viewed 18226 times
- unit_ger_tank_tiger_i.png (3.43 KiB) Viewed 18226 times
Lights, Shadows:
UPDATE: since we have rotating units (turn left and right) all shadows should also be centered, so when flipping shadow should remain on middle position.
in AOS the light should be in this angle (top. left CENTER from behind):
- obraz.png (4.05 KiB) Viewed 12561 times
- unit_bld_mega_roman_castrum.png (14.48 KiB) Viewed 12558 times
!