HD Label Misuse

[Pyro]

I think you just confused haravikk with VR.

[Graydon]

I'd like to add that the two terms "Alpha Maps" and "Alpha Channels" in the case of myth development are not synonymous terms.

An Alpha Map would refer to a black and white 8bit indexed bitmap that acts as an "alpha channel" once mapped on top of an existing colour 8bit bitmap in a collection. This produces transparency in a bitmap in game, like is used with many of the special effects particles.

An Alpha Channel describes the 'layer' in photoshops channels pane that Ooga has so elegantly described in his reiteration of my original walkthrough for him. This layer can be included as part of the normal 8bit indexed render, utilized to beautify the render in its antialiased glory, and removed before finally moving on to Oak.

I'll note that Ooga's taken some advancements and refined my original process in several ways. I just learned a couple of new tricks there myself.

[carlinho]

I think you just confused haravikk with VR.

I'm that fucked up today, hahaha
sorry about that

[oogaBooga]

IMO Myth units don't benefit much from anti-aliasing in the render process, and if you're rendering hi-res units then you don't really need it anyway. You end up with "harder" edges on the sprites, but on OpenGL and Direct3D Myth should blend these anyway, if they're even that noticeable in the first-place.

In terms of putting them over units in oak/amber to correct edges, no, its not a good method.

However, the advantage to rendering with anti-aliasing on is so that the core of the image has that great anti-aliased smoothness, and with the steps ive described you can get rid of the inherent problems that anti aliasing causes on the edges. The best of both worlds - nice crisp edges and a nice-looking "body" (interior) of the sprite.

You're right, I would definitely not advise using an alpha map imported over a units bitmaps in oak/amber as a solution to bad edges.

[Point]

oog you have or at least had the model for that unit and the others .... .easy to re render at a higher res in poser...

as for the animations true they arnt your standard animations they take into account many more options...

and that unit has even more I added for the art of myth version bowman etc... simply atticipated artifact variations..

as far as rendering goes antiliasing does look better in game.. at least with my video card... as far as how to the blue hue is easy to get rid of simply export the color plate open with photoshop select that color range and change it to the transparent blue color reimport the color plate and wham its gone... i do this last because i often add body parts and other things later which use the old color table.. ..

[Zeph]

Alpha channels dont fix edges, but they certainly make high quality animations

Here's the predator with MOTION BLUR


I'm sorry the shadows aren't in yet!

[oogaBooga]

oog you have or at least had the model for that unit and the others .... .easy to re render at a higher res in poser...

I had them at one point, and poser, but I don't use poser.

Are your units going to all be using alpha maps, or just animations that use motion blur?

as far as how to the blue hue is easy to get rid of simply export the color plate open with photoshop select that color range and change it to the transparent blue color reimport the color plate and wham its gone...

You should _REALLY_ use the method i outlined, point - you'll get much better results. I cant thank graydon enough for showing me how. It's a lot less convoluted, and you will have many more open color slots in the end to work with (resulting in better looking units).

Also zeph... are your predator units going to be 100% alpha-mapped or are you only using them for motion blur?

[Zeph]

currently its 100% but as you know, a predator can go cloaking so it makes sense to use alpha maps everywhere

[oogaBooga]

How many pixels tall is he? He looks great btw.

[vinylrake]

he looks a little blurry to me, but maybe that's my mac graphics chip...

[Zeph]

He looks blurry because of motion blur, but I'll have to rerender since all of him is

Norml stand is not blurry at all.