[Killfrenzy]

Didn't somebody make one of these at some point? I think it was a triangle with shields....

[Alikchi]

Yeah, I think I saw that one for FS1, and there was a "circle" one that comes with the SB Vindhyachal mod

[Killfrenzy]

Sounds familiar.....

[Petrarch of the VBB]

The Gungnir sentry gun had one, it was very good, not to mention useful. I think its on the archives.

[Killfrenzy]

I'm after one for my fighters as I don't want to use any of the FS2 ones, and I can't make my own.

[Anaz]

Its not that hard to make your own...

[Killfrenzy]

Not if you're no 'pixel painter' like I am.

[Anaz]

I'm not kidding...just make a top down render, convert it to greyscale, mebby mess with a few other settings... Make a circle in another window or sommat, fill it with a gradiant fill going inwards (to a point). Quarter it with a line draw tool set to black or sommat. Combine the 2 images, and play with the amount of colors until you have all the images required for the shield ani...

Quick and dirty, but it looks ok..

[Killfrenzy]

And what sort of ani do I make in Aniview32?

[Anaz]

extract one of the other .ani to .avi, and go through it frame by frame to see how everything is aranged...

[Killfrenzy]

No, what I mean is this:

Ani options

- Ship/Weapon ani
- Command briefing ani
- Something else which I can't remember!

[Anaz]

ok killfrenzy, lets think about this, your trying to make a ship .ani...so the logical choice would be...

[Killfrenzy]

They're tech-room and selection anis.

[Anaz]

probably the something else or the ship/weapon. I would guess ship/weapon personally

[Killfrenzy]

I think I did try at one point - but it didn't come up.

[Sesquipedalian]

It doesn't matter which type you select in this case, Killfrenzy.  It only makes a difference in anis that play like a movie.

And I am doubtful that a simple render to grayscale will produce good quality hud images, Analazon.  Hud images have to be in a specific pallette, and it isn't a simple grayscale.  If you make a hud image using a standard grayscale, all colours which do not just so happen to coincide with the colours in the proper hud image pallette will be left out, producing a very grainy, spotty shield animation.

[Killfrenzy]

So SQ, what would you suggest?

[Sesquipedalian]

Assuming you already have the pcx files that you want to compile into an ani, just load them into AniBuilder and run it on its default setting.  It is what I do for shield anis, and works every time.

Or did you mean the part about getting the right colour pallette?  In that case, I suggest making your image in greyscale, and then copying it into a frame extracted from an already existent hud animation.  Provided you have a proper graphics program (Corel PhotoPaint, or failing that then something by Adobe), the error diffusion algorithims will smooth out any graininess caused by incompatible colour pallettes to produce a nice looking ani file.  If you don't have a proper graphics program, then open the extracted hud file and create your image in it directly so as to keep the proper pallette.

Probably the easiest thing, however, is simply to do a search for the SB Vindhyachal, and get the generic shield ani out of that.

[Killfrenzy]

I've got PSP4.

Go on - laugh.

[Anaz]

Originally posted by Sesquipedalian
Assuming you already have the pcx files that you want to compile into an ani, just load them into AniBuilder and run it on its default setting.  It is what I do for shield anis, and works every time.

Or did you mean the part about getting the right colour pallette?  In that case, I suggest making your image in greyscale, and then copying it into a frame extracted from an already existent hud animation.  Provided you have a proper graphics program (Corel PhotoPaint, or failing that then something by Adobe), the error diffusion algorithims will smooth out any graininess caused by incompatible colour pallettes to produce a nice looking ani file.  If you don't have a proper graphics program, then open the extracted hud file and create your image in it directly so as to keep the proper pallette.

Probably the easiest thing, however, is simply to do a search for the SB Vindhyachal, and get the generic shield ani out of that.

hadn't thought of the pallet thing...