[Zanar]

OK so i know I'm asking a lot of questions but i really need help with message animations

so i need to know how to use gimp or Photoshop to get the frames so they don't look pixelated on screen while mission is running
anyone know

if it helps the images i'm using are sort of gray and white in color and I'm also using anibuild  to make animations so far i haven't had problems with weapon animations just the head animations.

oh and i tried blender but i cant get that to work

[Shivan Hunter]

What do you mean by "Pixelated"? You mentioned weapon ANIs so I assume you know how to make them.

If I'm reading you right... the FS HUD is normally 1024x768, stretched out to your monitor resolution, which can make some elements look pixelated. There is code in FSO now to have HUDs at your resolution but not much has been done with the artwork necessary for HD HUDs.

[mjn.mixael]

This sounds like a pallet issue. Those animations require a very specific pallet and I can't for the life of me remember what it is off the top of my head right now. I'll look it up and post it here.

Actually, let's take this back. How, exactly, are you making the ANIs? Tell me step by step.

[Zanar]

ok so it turns out it was a pallete issue but now anyone know how to mass import palletes?

[Shivan Hunter]

Yeah, if what you're seeing is random pixels everywhere instead of your HUD thingy then it's a palette issue. You can extract a .pcx file from one of the FS2 ANIs and use Bright to make sure yours have the same palette, I guess. (indexed images suck)

[EDIT] More detailed instructions in case you need them: Extract a .pcx frame from a FS2 head .ANI using ANIViewer (you can save all teh frames as pcx), and use Bright with the -palette image.pcx option to force all your images to that palette.

[-Sara-]

1) Your files most likely have to be PCX files (so that it uses the proper pallete you should be able to import from excisting ANI's), compiled as frames into an ANI I believe.
2) You must make sure you're matching the pallete of the original ANI's / PCX.
3) The image size must be exactly 160x120, making sure you start with that size rather than cropping can increase quality.

Head ani's are quite archaic. Maybe someone'll adjust the code someday to a point it'll accept and automatically crop different formats, image sizes etc.

[Spoon]

for photoshop I use this pallete http://www.mediafire.com/?quqwi0dz4wz

[Zacam]

Well, I don't know about cropping/resizing, much less automagically, but I was under the impression that somebody had made a change to allow other formats to be usable.

[Spoon]

Well, I don't know about cropping/resizing, much less automagically, but I was under the impression that somebody had made a change to allow other formats to be usable.

nope.
Swifty's hud code doesn't apply for head ani's

[mjn.mixael]

Keep your eyes on this topic.

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,74636.0.html

When I finish it later today, it should explain everything you need to know about getting this to work.

[Droid803]

Well, I don't know about cropping/resizing, much less automagically, but I was under the impression that somebody had made a change to allow other formats to be usable.

nope.
Swifty's hud code doesn't apply for head ani's

Yeah
I only found that out after spending four hours making EFF versions of all my head anis \o/

[mjn.mixael]

Ok, check out this one and read through it. Pay attention to the "Special Cases for .ani" section as it should help you with this problem!

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=74636.msg1475207#msg1475207

[Zanar]

ok so thanks for the help ill see what i can do

and again thx a lot to all!