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Hosted Projects - Standalone => Fate of the Galaxy => Topic started by: CountBuggula on January 19, 2017, 06:38:29 pm

Title: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 19, 2017, 06:38:29 pm
Just a little something I've been working on.  Red Wing, Gold Wing, Blue Wing, Green Wing, and Gray Wing will all be well represented in Fate of the Galaxy.

(http://i.imgur.com/8yLUXnZ.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/7xW7PeV.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/c5YAQEH.png)
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Crossbow on January 19, 2017, 09:36:57 pm
Nice. :)

Blue A-wing looks OK.

Green A-wing needs a slight desaturation.

And the first one is supposed to gold I assume? It would probably be more recognizable to use yellow like the OT Y-wings rather than olive drab.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 19, 2017, 10:02:17 pm
Nice. :)

Blue A-wing looks OK.

Green A-wing needs a slight desaturation.

And the first one is supposed to gold I assume? It would probably be more recognizable to use yellow like the OT Y-wings rather than olive drab.

Thanks, I'll work on tweaking it a bit more to get the colors right.  I was kinda going for dirty with the yellow, but I see what you mean.  I'll see what I can come up with and post the results.  Also, I'm finding gray to be unexpectedly difficult with the tools I'm using.  I'm definitely not a texture artist, just doing my best to modify the incredible work that Brand-X gave us, and learning while I go.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Crossbow on January 20, 2017, 01:13:16 am
Also, I'm finding gray to be unexpectedly difficult with the tools I'm using.

I think 'Gray' wing would probably look identical to 'Red' wing (ROTJ Endor battle).
Although if you decided to actually make them appear gray instead of red, then a gray with a blueish tint may look better than using colorless gray.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Dain on January 20, 2017, 10:43:28 am
Yay for FG colours! If you do need a hand with this.. it's been a while since I did texture editing (but I *was* a texture editor) and I am hesitant to volunteer to do anything big due to a lack of time.. but I could definitely help out with something as simple as this. I could even try and do some more complex reskins of other textures.. a more OT style painted version of the corellian shuttle for example.

Grey Y-wing refs?

http://www.guntruck.com/Resources/BTLS3pic121.jpeg
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/xwing-miniatures/images/c/ca/Grey_Squadron_Pilot.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130427100132

Gold A-wing:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y2bLv0MpM38/U7mT4ZcRxNI/AAAAAAAAAU0/H3Ae83NEnCQ/s1600/20140706_130003.jpg

A wings just look great whatever colour they're painted.. I think this is true of most rebel ships..

https://dondueck.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/variousawings.jpg

This is an interesting idea for a "no paint" version of the A-wing
http://www.heavygauss.com/XWING/A-WingPrimer1.JPG


Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 20, 2017, 11:15:54 am
Yay for FG colours! If you do need a hand with this.. it's been a while since I did texture editing (but I *was* a texture editor) and I am hesitant to volunteer to do anything big due to a lack of time.. but I could definitely help out with something as simple as this. I could even try and do some more complex reskins of other textures.. a more OT style painted version of the corellian shuttle for example.

Grey Y-wing refs?

http://www.guntruck.com/Resources/BTLS3pic121.jpeg
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/xwing-miniatures/images/c/ca/Grey_Squadron_Pilot.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130427100132

Gold A-wing:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y2bLv0MpM38/U7mT4ZcRxNI/AAAAAAAAAU0/H3Ae83NEnCQ/s1600/20140706_130003.jpg

A wings just look great whatever colour they're painted.. I think this is true of most rebel ships..

https://dondueck.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/variousawings.jpg

This is an interesting idea for a "no paint" version of the A-wing
http://www.heavygauss.com/XWING/A-WingPrimer1.JPG

Thanks for those references!  I'm not a huge fan of all of them (some of the colors are a bit too bright) but it definitely gives me some good ideas.  As for the help, I think I've got a handle on it and am actually enjoying stretching out into a new area for me.  I will definitely keep you in mind if I need it though, so thanks for offering!
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Dain on January 20, 2017, 12:37:05 pm
Yes, the colours would probably need desaturating when not on miniatures, but I agree with the others in that the "gold" colour as seen on the Y-wings was more of a yellow rather than the oliveish colour on the current version:

http://www.nitestar.com/RPF/Y-1A.jpg
http://www.smallartworks.ca/Gallery/Starwars/Y-wing%201.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/6a/e7/bc/6ae7bc9414241c7f2784083f436e474f.jpg

Oh and much as the original X-wing FG colour was going to be blue, Gold was going to be red:

http://www.modelermagic.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/kg_red-jammer-004.jpg

Which apparently the Rebels cartoon is canonising again:

https://youtu.be/upN-7ALj2OU?t=160

(I think once again I've been carried away with looking at pictures of cool spaceships.. I love all the variation on the models in ANH)
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 23, 2017, 02:42:15 pm
Alright, I'm getting better at this as I go.  I've cleaned these up some more and taken some of your suggestions into consideration.  First, original red for comparison:
(http://i.imgur.com/LzkNcCV.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/Lptj8mA.png)

I tried giving a bit of blue tone to gray.  If it's too much, I can tone it down a bit more.
(http://i.imgur.com/U0lnLKx.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/agH3B4P.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/qMJDuFQ.png)

I'm gonna leave these mostly as-is for now and try a few of the other fighters.  Thanks for the input, all!
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 23, 2017, 04:35:10 pm
Ok I decided that was too much blue in the gray.  Here's a revision:
(http://i.imgur.com/BObpdJH.png)
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: LaineyBugsDaddy on January 23, 2017, 05:31:21 pm
I am impressed. The paint-job on the red one looks a lot like how the the player flyable A-Wing looks in Rogue Squadron 3D. That is, I think they even had dings in it like that one does. Not entirely sure though. I'd have to dig out the game and look.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 23, 2017, 06:11:32 pm
Ok the B-Wing was pretty easy.  Only 3 circles of color to worry about.  I might fade the blue a bit because it's pretty bright but otherwise I think these look good.
(http://i.imgur.com/31jcRIp.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/jOSWNaX.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/CBzFRqd.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/Pi16AsN.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/1rtCjJC.png)
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Dain on January 23, 2017, 07:25:09 pm
I always assumed the blue/grey on the B-wing was the flight group colour, with the red circle just being a highlight like the yellows on some of the red squadron x-wings or the blue on the gold squadron y-wings.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/63/45/c4/6345c4c1665453ff54b1b116d2f5fbe7.jpg
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/6/66/Blue_Squadron_Support_BotF.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150513032613

It all looks really good but the gold A-wing is still a bit greenish.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 23, 2017, 08:42:46 pm
Hmm.  I suppose that's entirely possible.  I'll play around with it a bit and see what I can come up with as an alternative to just the little dots.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 23, 2017, 09:26:20 pm
Ok, I'm going to tweak the color to better match the red circles, but as a proof of concept, I think that works.  Also, it's WAY more difficult to go from gray to color (selectively) than from a color to another color.
(http://i.imgur.com/rkG1Gy6.png)
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 23, 2017, 09:44:16 pm
Ok.  Here's the original "gray" model:
(http://i.imgur.com/bo1Frkz.png)
And here's our colors:
(http://i.imgur.com/RHxP99b.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/wksLIkE.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/GbiokNl.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/kdBu4hR.png)
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: chief1983 on January 24, 2017, 07:11:21 am
FWIW, I don't see any particular reason the red B-Wing should match the red in the circles, they probably serve different purposes and could easily be different shades of red in that case.  I think it'd be better that the shades match from one ship's team colors to another ship's.  I do like the current level of blue tint on the A-wing now, it's a pretty good balance.  It does seem like the B-wing's original 'gray' is a little more blue than the current A-wing's though.  Perhaps we could keep the original tint for the base B-wing, but for team colors use one more like the A-wing's tint, with a little less blue?  Right now it still seems a little close to the blue B-wing.

Phenomenal work overall on these, really loving it.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 24, 2017, 08:47:12 am
FWIW, I don't see any particular reason the red B-Wing should match the red in the circles, they probably serve different purposes and could easily be different shades of red in that case.  I think it'd be better that the shades match from one ship's team colors to another ship's.  I do like the current level of blue tint on the A-wing now, it's a pretty good balance.  It does seem like the B-wing's original 'gray' is a little more blue than the current A-wing's though.  Perhaps we could keep the original tint for the base B-wing, but for team colors use one more like the A-wing's tint, with a little less blue?  Right now it still seems a little close to the blue B-wing.

Phenomenal work overall on these, really loving it.

Thanks Chief.  Yep, I can definitely make one more similar to the A-Wing gray just so we have our options.  And yes, I'm going to aim for having as much consistency of colors across ships as possible.  I'll continue to tweak my existing ships as I go, as I'm getting better at this with each pass.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Dain on January 24, 2017, 11:15:39 am
The gold on the B-wings looks a better shade than the A-wing, I assume it's closer to what was on the original Y-wing texture?
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 24, 2017, 11:16:48 am
Some of the colors turned out a bit too bright here - I'll tone them down a bit.  But for now:

Original Gold:
(http://i.imgur.com/OI0ReeV.png)
And colors!
(http://i.imgur.com/WpaB9nM.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/LQHQ8IZ.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/sV7J0UZ.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/2OgjCJT.png)
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 24, 2017, 11:18:55 am
The gold on the B-wings looks a better shade than the A-wing, I assume it's closer to what was on the original Y-wing texture?

Yep, I'm going to go back once I'm done and am satisfied with my favorite colors to use as a baseline and try to get them to match as much as possible across ships.  Right now I'm kind of winging it to see how it looks and figure out what works.  The really difficult part is the setup - splitting the colors out into their own layer and making sure I don't get parts of the ship I don't want painted.  Once that part's done, I can go back and tweak the colors easily.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Dain on January 24, 2017, 11:29:43 am
Marvellous, the Y-wing really is a lovely ship.

Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: StarSlayer on January 24, 2017, 11:53:27 am
Take a look

It's in a book

A Rebel Rainbow!
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Dain on January 24, 2017, 12:01:21 pm
Thought, Diaspora had random pilot textures:

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=76700.0

Can the same thing be done for astromechs?
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 24, 2017, 12:06:23 pm
Thought, Diaspora had random pilot textures:

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=76700.0

Can the same thing be done for astromechs?

Yes - we have our models set up so the droid is a separate texture and we've got several to choose from.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 24, 2017, 01:09:56 pm
Z-95!  Original Red:
(http://i.imgur.com/bpg3TCb.png)
Colors:
(http://i.imgur.com/WRIHBKQ.png)
Yellow is surprisingly hard to get right.  I'll keep working on it.
(http://i.imgur.com/q5DMzwM.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/IWF59Im.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/3qDOvDG.png)
Brand-X also provided an alternate green texture for this ship:
(http://i.imgur.com/Zef8tv1.png)
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: niffiwan on January 24, 2017, 03:33:45 pm
If you're already separating the colours out into their own layer, I think you're super close to implementing textures that'll work with the current FSO team colours implementation. AFAIK, for the current team colours you just need the colour-changing parts of the texture in different channels in the -misc texture? Red channel for base colour, green channel for stripe? For what you've done so far, with the exception of the red dot on the B-wing you'd only need the red channel configured.

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Texturing#TextureName-misc-xxx

Having said that, I really like what you've done so far with all the textures  :yes:

Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 24, 2017, 03:43:33 pm
If you're already separating the colours out into their own layer, I think you're super close to implementing textures that'll work with the current FSO team colours implementation. AFAIK, for the current team colours you just need the colour-changing parts of the texture in different channels in the -misc texture? Red channel for base colour, green channel for stripe? For what you've done so far, with the exception of the red dot on the B-wing you'd only need the red channel configured.

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Texturing#TextureName-misc-xxx

Having said that, I really like what you've done so far with all the textures  :yes:
Thanks, I appreciate the support.  And yes, that's part of my reasoning for doing this method.  The end results from doing the recoloring first looks better, but until we can use texture replacements for team colors, that can serve as a placeholder.  Plus, it will work for additional team colors that I have no intention of pre-rendering.  At some point I'll convert these to team color format and make the appropriate tbl entries for them.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Crossbow on January 24, 2017, 06:04:37 pm
Some of the colors turned out a bit too bright here

I take it your not working from the original layered source file.
Are you editing .tgas or .dds files?
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 24, 2017, 06:50:50 pm
Some of the colors turned out a bit too bright here

I take it your not working from the original layered source file.
Are you editing .tgas or .dds files?

Correct.  Brand-X made them originally, and I don't believe we still have those anywhere.  I'm working off of the dds files.  If I had his original files, this whole process would be far easier.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Crossbow on January 24, 2017, 07:54:33 pm
I'm working off of the dds files.  If I had his original files, this whole process would be far easier.

Zookeeper did the conversions so maybe he still has the .TGA files you can use instead.
.DDS is already compressed so each time you resave the file the quality is being degraded.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: chief1983 on January 24, 2017, 07:57:48 pm
For brand's stuff we had psd files at one point, not tga, as he loved him some photoshop.  I would be surprised if we don't have them somewhere still, they were on the ftp I thought.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 24, 2017, 08:01:08 pm
For brand's stuff we had psd files at one point, not tga, as he loved him some photoshop.  I would be surprised if we don't have them somewhere still, they were on the ftp I thought.

Well...thank you for pointing out that I've been making this WAY more difficult on myself than I needed to.  I thought we didn't have them anymore but turns out we do!  Let's see what I can do with these...shoot I may have to buy a copy of photoshop now.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: chief1983 on January 24, 2017, 08:04:46 pm
sorry you were working so fast I thought you had them already or I would have spoke up sooner :p
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 24, 2017, 08:22:34 pm
sorry you were working so fast I thought you had them already or I would have spoke up sooner :p

I'm just that good!

Also, Adobe moved to a cloud subscription model for photoshop?!?  Yeah screw that.  I'll find another way.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Crossbow on January 24, 2017, 11:15:33 pm
For brand's stuff we had psd files at one point, not tga, as he loved him some photoshop.  I would be surprised if we don't have them somewhere still, they were on the ftp I thought.

.PSD is the photoshop source file I spoke of.
.TGA are exported from photoshop but flattened without working layers and have a smaller file size.

If you have the .PSD I can open them and change the color layer to match what Buggula did.
Or he can go find himself a copy of Photoshop.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Crashdown117 on January 25, 2017, 09:07:20 am
Or he can go find himself a copy of Photoshop.

I remember that some years ago Adobe made the old CS2 version of Photoshop (and those of other programs as well) available for free download due to the validation servers being shut down, support ending or something like that. They had the installers for quite a couple different programs as well as serial keys for them, but I don't have the link anymore and I can't seem to dig the website up on Google. They may be rather old versions, but if Google (or Bing or whatever you use) doesn't fail you like it did to me, they may be just what you need.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 25, 2017, 09:19:49 am
Or he can go find himself a copy of Photoshop.

I remember that some years ago Adobe made the old CS2 version of Photoshop (and those of other programs as well) available for free download due to the validation servers being shut down, support ending or something like that. They had the installers for quite a couple different programs as well as serial keys for them, but I don't have the link anymore and I can't seem to dig the website up on Google. They may be rather old versions, but if Google (or Bing or whatever you use) doesn't fail you like it did to me, they may be just what you need.
Yep, I think I have a solution, working on getting it set up.  If I was able to do this with crappy sources to work from, imagine what I'll be able to pull off with the original thing!  I'm actually really excited, even if it means recreating some work.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Dain on January 27, 2017, 02:00:24 pm
I have an old copy of PS. My offer to help out on some retextures for variety still stands! I have some ideas for some more scummy/neutral Y-wings/Z-95s.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Crossbow on January 27, 2017, 05:10:05 pm
I have some ideas for some more scummy/neutral Y-wings/Z-95s.

Not sure what you mean by 'scummy', but neutral Y-wings and Z-95s without markings sounds like a good idea for pirate craft.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Dain on January 28, 2017, 02:00:27 am
Sorry, as in a wretched hive of scum and villainy :P So yes, pirates and suchlike.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 31, 2017, 10:20:01 am
I've been poking at this in Photoshop and will hopefully have something to show for it soon.  Have to re-learn the process with the new program but in the end it'll definitely be worth it.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Dragon on January 31, 2017, 10:34:19 am
Any chance to use team colors for that? Not only would it make defining custom schemes trivial, it could allow for interesting two-color (hull/stripes) schemes and also trim down the number of texture files to be packaged.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: CountBuggula on January 31, 2017, 12:17:29 pm
Any chance to use team colors for that? Not only would it make defining custom schemes trivial, it could allow for interesting two-color (hull/stripes) schemes and also trim down the number of texture files to be packaged.

My early attempts didn't look nearly as good as baking the colors externally, but now that I have the sources, it's entirely possible.  I might give it another try and see if it works out better.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Tnadz on February 07, 2017, 07:28:09 pm
Very fun and can be useful when dealing with squads.  Nice work.
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Dragon on February 07, 2017, 07:48:49 pm
Just FIY, when doing team colors, make sure the shaders are set up right. I was doing some testing and it seems that something got messed up in the last two years (yeah, been away for a loooong time)...
Title: Re: Colors!
Post by: Dain on February 09, 2017, 11:30:21 am
Somewhat related, Darksaber did some nice XWA models of the original X-wings used in Star Wars

http://www.darksaber.xwaupgrade.com/craftdsredsquad.html

I think the CGI in the special editions ate a lot of the variety in paint schemes that was originally there, but the hero models were all slightly different. I think this illustrates it:

(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/e3/37/34/e33734804cf8a44ab7a9276f453e98bb.png)

Not that I'd suggest FOTG needs that much variety. That'd be more of a 3rd party mod.