Rayek's Forum Posts

  • I believe the OP is looking for a way to animate the camera/object along a predefined path. "On a rail".

  • Nice, thanks for the link.

  • Looking really good. I love the new referencing options. I just updated it, and the new referencing and frame by frame features work really well. A bit of a game changer.

    Also FBX support - if only Construct would be able to import these as animated characters.

    Subscribe to Construct videos now

    New features include:

    • frame by frame animation! (finally!)
    • layer referencing - including referencing objects in linked files. Great for team projects.
    • animated shape ordering, animated bone target, animated bone parenting
    • improved photoshop file import
    • tools and brushes improvements
    • show and hide animation channels (finally! I was waiting for this one!)
    • layer enhancements, such as group with selection layers.
    • "gradient mesh" type colour point tools for improved vector shape colouring

    And much more. You can find an exhaustive list, which includes tutorial videos, here:

    http://my.smithmicro.com/anime-studio-pro.html

  • The new version is out! This is a milestone release, with workflow improvements accross the board, and many new features such as:

    • placeholder layers to place external content. These update in realtime when changes are made to the external file;
    • a new colour to transparency adjustment layer (think unmultiply black, or any other colour!)
    • dehaze filter
    • wipe effect layer
    • variable width stroke options (wacom support)
    • guide creator for easy grids and column/row setups. Guides can now be set to a formula!
    • spot colours and overprint options;
    • improved stamp (clone) tool

    See http://www.pl32.com/pages/rnote.php for all the improvements. A more exhaustive list of all the smaller changes and improvements can be found here:

    http://www.pl32.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4726

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    Photoline is an image editor which provides a mostly non-destructive professional workflow. Full vector editing is also integrated. Its image editing is on par with Photoshop.

    Photoline is compatible with most common Photoshop plugins, such as Topaz, NIK, and FilterForge, and loads Photoshop compatible brush and gradient libraries.

    • 32 & 64bit versions, Mac and Windows. Fully Linux WINE compatible.
    • 8/16/32bit per channel / RGB, CMYK, Lab, greyscale & monochrome
    • Color management with ICC profiles and linear workflow
    • all functions, adjustments, effects, filters, layers and masks work with 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit images (full 16bit support unlike Photoshop which operates in 15bit)
    • 47 available adjustment layers
    • 18 available layer styles
    • a layer in the layer stack can be any image mode and bit depth
    • layer masks are regular layers, and may consist of multiple combined layers & groups(!)
    • layer opacity from -200 up to +200 for easy inversion of blend effects or doubling an effect
    • convert bitmaps to vector layers
    • vector layers can be anti-aliased, and be aligned to the pixel grid. Photoline also offers a pixel view
    • develop photos with a non-destructive RAW workflow
    • retouching tools such as a remove brush, liquify, and many more
    • PSD import retains most common adjustment layers & layer effects
    • Import & export multi-layered 32bpc EXR files
    • non-destructive rotate & scale
    • external app link for easy round tripping
    • rename images and create catalogs
    • powerful image management: search, edit IPTC & EXIF data
    • true PDF import & export with /x1a & /x3
    • multi-page documents
    • rich text & DTP functionality, spot colors
    • web export, including WebP, image maps & GIF animations
    • batch conversion
    • record actions
    • print multi-page documents, flyers & labels
    • portable app on a USB-Stick support
    • multiprocessor support
    • Linux WINE compatible with LittleCMS colour management option for improved compatibility; tested and supported by the developers

  • The same spammers are hitting the Adobe forums as I speak. Seems to have little effect, though.

  • Rayek - I'm pretty sure color quantizer is lossy. As you say yourself it uses far less colors, but in a clever manner that makes it difficult to perceive that there are fewer colors - but the fact is it modifies the content of the image, therefore it is not lossless. I would imagine with some types of images such as those with gentle gradients would show banding effects so there's still a risk of nasty surprises if you just apply this to an entire project.

    Of course this is a lossy method - it reduces the number of colours (although CQ also does non-lossy optimization). Having said that, during the process of designing and creating graphics many extremely similar colours are introduced - and CQ allows for easy colour reduction and simultaneously maintain full control over the quality of that reduction, so that visually there is no difference to our eyes between the optimized and the original asset.

    And yes, obviously one must be careful of going too far. With more colourful assets attention must be paid to the overall quality - CQ will display the original when clicking on the preview, and by zooming in twice or thrice I ascertain that even the zoomed in version looks visually identical to the original (bar a pixel here and there).

    Thus generating a version that is visually identical to the human eye (even when compared side by side at 2x zoom) and at the same time much smaller in file size.

    Since this is NOT an automated process (manual) the quality of each asset is assured, while my game download becomes much smaller.

  • Color Quantizer - the best bloody well kept secret on the web for PNG optimization. I am not kidding here: if you care about download size, optimizing those PNGs individually after exporting from Construct will save you at least 30%~50% (depending on the content).

    Here are some examples from our game. (The originals on the left were exported with brute settings in Construct)

    This is an non-lossy exported png file, thus making it viable to compare both versions.

    One of the reasons Color Quantizer is brilliant in optimizing png files is that you have full control over the number of colours, and that a quality mask brush tool offers you the option to perfectly optimize smaller areas which may be reduced in quality due to automatic conversion. CQ gives you absolute manual quality control over the smallest details in the final version.

    For example, the chimney for the small building asset had some pronounced issues with the initial automatic conversion - I then used the quality mask brush to paint over the affected area, and clicked OK once more to recalculate the optimized version. Problem solved: far less colours, but still (visually) the exact same quality.

    The windshaft in the center of the sails had anti-aliasing issues, which I again solved with the quality mask brush tool.

    It is beyond me why so few people are aware of CQ. I mean, look at those numbers for these four assets:

    246.2kb --> 33.6 kb!!! Seven times smaller!

    Granted, not every asset may benefit as much as these examples, but in overall CQ results in savings at 50% or more. And no difference in visual quality.

    Color Quantizer is THE definite PNG optimizer. Nothing else comes close. I cannot live without anymore. And it's free!

    Get it here: http://x128.ho.ua/color-quantizer.html

  • https://krita.org/krita-2-9-the-kickstarter-release/

    Some excellent new features, including index painting.

  • Here is a link to the shader.

    http://kushi.lv9.org/pixelartshader/Pix ... v1.0.0.zip

    This looks very nice.

    Edit:

    Cant even get the program to run. It pops open, and then closes again.

    That is exactly what happens if you click on the executable without feeding it a x file. Follow the instructions in the English tutorial I linked to in the first post.

  • You can model in any application, then import into Blender, and colour the model. The crucial part is the exporter: it exports a x file that is compatible with the stand-alone pixel shader converter.

  • Japanese artist Toshihiro Kushizaki has released the Pixel Art Shader: a free Blender shader that should convert any 3D model into old-school pixel art.

    To render out a pixel art image, you just need a 3D model in .x format and a palette texture, which defines the set of colours to be used; but you can augment the result with standard texture maps, even including AO.

    The image is generated in BMP format, and the results look pretty good, at least in the demo scene.

    There’s a detailed online manual, but like the rest of Kushizaki’s site, it’s in Japanese, so if you’re a non-Japanese-speaker, you’ll need to navigate Google Translate.

    Download the Pixel Art Shader on Toshihiro Kushizaki’s website (Automatic English translation)

    Read an English-language user-contributed tutorial on using the shader

  • Coincidentally, a very convincing case can be made that EQ gets you much further in life rather than a high IQ.

    But honestly: IQ, EQ, CQ, AQ, BQ, NQ, FQ, DQ, SQ, MQ, PQ, and all that - as long as you have passion for, and fun in whatever you do, who really cares? Human beings love to categorize and package everything in their lives (including their brain and all aspects of their consciousness) into comfortable boxes with a clear label stamped on top to comfort their small personal insecurities and anxieties.

    "Am I good enough?" "Can I ever be a good designer?" "Will a high IQ help me become a better game designer?"

    These are the wrong questions to ask yourself, and will only kindle more confusion. Fear and anxiety hold many people back from fulfilling their true potential.

    Do you really think Peter Molyneux, Hideo Kojima, John Carmack, Ron Gilbert, Sid Meier, Takashi Tezuka, and so on, ever checked their IQ to figure out whether they would have the potential to become good game designers/developers? Of course not. It's a ludicrous thought. They all created their games because they had a passion for games, and all of them shared the same urge to create their own games, all the while pushing the envelope because they could and had buckets of fun doing it.

    Just create, and find your flow. Do not second guess yourself (too much , and create the game YOU want to create, and create it for yourself, and not for anyone else.

    DO IT. And if (when) you fail, DO IT AGAIN. And have fun while doing it.

    It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end

  • There are two basic methods to create 2d animations in any 3d application:

    • model regular 3d characters or objects, texture, and add rigging to animate. Then animate, make sure things loop (if required), and render each frame in a sequence of files. The final result can be more realistic looking, or by utilizing a non-photo realistic style, can look like a 2d drawn result.
    • draw your characters in an illustration package (such as InkScape, Illustrator, Flash), segment the characters into animate-able parts, and import each part as an image projected (uv mapped with a texture) on a flat 3d plane. Then rig the parts together for an animateable character (or object), and animate. Render each frame in a sequence of files.

    The first method is more time-consuming, because you will need to model, texture, and rig a full 3d character. But if you require lots of turn-arounds, and full flexibility, this may not be possible/feasible with the second workflow. There are thousands of tutorials that demonstrate the concepts of building 3d textured animate-able characters and objects out there. For Modo, no so many, unfortunately.

    The second method is very doable, and a lot of fun. Here are some examples:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84503534&x-yt-ts=1421914688&v=VvbhfLBIjHI

    There is a nice thread on BlenderArtists, and you can even download a fully rigged 2d character for Blender that you can examine, and use as an example for Modo.

    http://www.glennmelenhorst.com/misc/ble ... _028.blend

    If you need more assistance with this, I recommend posting a question on the Modo forums: that community is very helpful.

    Also, if 2d flat characters are your goal, spend some time investigating Spriter: it will bring in fully animated characters with a rig right into Construct2. Rather similar to the second option I mentioned, but in this case the rig is retained in Construct, resulting in much smaller file sizes.

  • altervista.org has been rather impressive so far for me. Completely free hosting without any strings attached - no banners, no pop-ups, and the top altervista bar can be turned off as well in the control panel.

    I've been with these Italian guys for three months now, and no complaints - it feels more like a paid hosting service than a free one.

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  • Contact them, and demand that they amend the game's attribution to you.

    If they fail to do this, and do not respond at all after a couple of warnings, you have three options:

    1) legal action. Expensive, and probably not an option for you;

    2) do nothing. Learn to live with it;

    3) start making noise on forums, blogs, anywhere and any place Atomicgamer is advertising their site (their facebook is a good place to start). This may take a while before they take note, but it can be fairly effective. Write to larger indy game blogs how Atomicgamer abused your license. And so on.

    Good luck - next time be sure to include your attribution/developer info in the game itself.

    I, for one, will tell other people to avoid Atomicgamer. Let us know how this pans out.