Icons question(s)

[Chirac75]

I've been trying to slightly modify the awesome CatTacticalIconsCMFI mod, but I'm having trouble with the finishing touch.

The corners on that ammo carrier unit -even though I did not modify them- do not disappear in game as they should. Also, I haven't changed colors, but it seems brighter or less see-through maybe?

I'm obviously missing something, please advice, help, slight berating...

PS: I know it's a CMRT forum, but it's a general icon issue and this area is more likely to see traffic

[Der Alte Fritz]

I had the same problem. The icon image is square and the way you make it any other shape is to add an 'alpha' layer. What happens is that this gets lost when you mod the icons and you have to put it back in.

[A Canadian Cat]

I've been trying to slightly modify the awesome CatTacticalIconsCMFI mod, but I'm having trouble with the finishing touch.

The corners on that ammo carrier unit -even though I did not modify them- do not disappear in game as they should. Also, I haven't changed colors, but it seems brighter or less see-through maybe?

That is coming from the editor you are using discarding the alpha channel. You will also notice that the mortar icon is not totally solid a little of the background comes through. I go the idea for that form @billy_sp's original low vis icon mode.

So you need an editor that preserves the alpha layer (preferably also allows you to control it). Here is what I know about editors and what they do with alpha layers:

Photoshop: can handle them but I found that I had to draw the icon in colour and then draw the transparency separately - it was like drawing the icon twice. I am not sure if that was my failing to understand a better way to work or if that really is what you have to do with Photoshop.

GIMP: I have no personal experience but I know that other modders are using it and they are transparency that works.

Paint.NET: this is my favourite light weight image editor but it is totally useless for editing bmp files for modding. It discards the alpha information and makes your whole image opaque. There is a plug-in that is supposed to support 32bit bmp files but I cannot get it to work.

Greenfish Icon Editor: This is the editor I am currently using. It is small and suitable for editing icons - it is not designed for general image editing but for icons it is ideal.

A crap load of icons editors over the years: I cannot count the number of icon editors I tried. I cannot remember their names and they have long since been removed from my systems. There is a lot of buggy hard to use icon editors out there. Give Greenfish Icon Editor a try. I know the name is just silly but the program works.

[Chirac75]

Thanx guys!

I'll try the Alpha channel thing with my photoshop and when I fail and cry, I'll look up Greenfish.

[Canada Guy]

I also just downloaded Greenfish and it does work very well. The problem that I had was that it was very difficult to find. I finally found it on a Chinese language website and I had to get my wife to translate for me. Not the most ideal.

If you also have trouble finding it, I might have the install file somewhere.

[A Canadian Cat]

Bummer, sorry you had trouble. It came up first in google when searching for "greenfish icon editor":

Since it is open source and not a commercial page here is the link:

http://greenfishsoftware.blogspot.ca/

It even has a Canadian domain - cool I did not notice that the first time.

[Der Alte Fritz]

Thanx guys!

I'll try the Alpha channel thing with my photoshop and when I fail and cry, I'll look up Greenfish.

I did mine in Photoshop 7 and it is very straight forward once you get the knack. You do not need another editor just master the one you have.

Basically, you create a new CHANNEL called 'alpha 1' which is black ie transparent

Then you create a "window" to see the image through - by drawing a white shape round it

Then you save the channel making sure that the alpha channel box is ticked

Save and you are done,

[Canada Guy]

Ian,

I must have put in a wrong search term or perhaps too generalized. Greenfish does work very well though and is very easy to use for simple editing. I am now in the process of cobbling together a few different peoples work to get exactly what I want. It is kind of fun when I have some spare time to play around.

People though do have some skill around here as some of the blending of colours is amazing.

[Rake]

I've been trying to slightly modify the awesome CatTacticalIconsCMFI mod, but I'm having trouble with the finishing touch.

The corners on that ammo carrier unit -even though I did not modify them- do not disappear in game as they should. Also, I haven't changed colors, but it seems brighter or less see-through maybe?

I'm obviously missing something, please advice, help, slight berating...

PS: I know it's a CMRT forum, but it's a general icon issue and this area is more likely to see traffic

In Photoshop, and I presume other editors, the alpha channel is a black and white "mask" The black portion hides anything behind it and the white allows everything else to show through.

This is a cut from my PS desktop showing an icon with the channels tab selected. There are 3 color channels, 1 each for Red, Green and Blue, plus the combo rgb channel. If I don't pay attention when saving these, I also wind up losing the alpha channel...

This screen shows how the alpha channel hides the corners of the icon. In the distance, the German icons are diamond shaped and have and diamond alpha channel...

The white portion of your alpha channel needs to be the exact shape of what you wish to show through... the remainder needs to be solid black.

Disclaimer: These icons are from BilH's Period Based Icon set... I have edited them for my use simply because they are easier for me to pick up on the field.

[Rake]

Chirac... After walking away from the computer for a second, it occurred to me that the easiest way for you to make the alpha channel is to "Select" the black corners, invert the selection (Shift/Ctrl/I on PC), click on the Selection tab & save the selection. When the box pops up just name the channel "Alpha". When a selection is saved, the selected part is white and the unselected is black.

Or, if you have another file with an alpha channel of the same shape, just "Shift/Drag" that channel into the file with the missing channel.

[Chirac75]

Update:

I had no problem finding the Green monster. Here's the result so far.

It's easy and one task minded.

But you guys have, basically given a step-by-step of PS Alpha mastering, I now have to give it a go as well.

Thanx again.

[A Canadian Cat]

I did mine in Photoshop 7 and it is very straight forward once you get the knack. You do not need another editor just master the one you have.

Which is good advice. No, excellent advice.

However, I would remind people that you should also use the right tool for the job. Don't hammer that nail with your screw driver

I have been a user of PhotoShop for over a decade. My experience is with working on photographs. So, it is possible I have something to learn about icon editing. But I read through several tutorials and after using and being frustrated with PhotoShop on previous icon editing projects I went looking for something else.

Basically, you create a new CHANNEL called 'alpha 1' which is black ie transparent Then you create a "window" to see the image through - by drawing a white shape round it Then you save the channel making sure that the alpha channel box is ticked Save and you are done,

And that is just what I mean. The icons I did have a solid back symbol lines with semi transparent central field and a more transparent background field with a semi transparent border and then fully transparent corner areas. In Photo shop that means drawing the icon. Then drawing it again in grey scale in the alpha channel. It drove me nuts and took double the time.

I fully understand for creating a circular symbol area like the example that @Rake did no problem I would use PhotoShop. I would create a template icon with the circular shape and then just go to town. But for the style that @bill_sp and I used no fun at all.

Like I said it is possible that there is a way to get PhotoShop to let you draw with colour and transparency but I do not know how and I could not find a tutorial that showed me.

[Rake]

I fully understand for creating a circular symbol area like the example that @Rake did no problem I would use PhotoShop. I would create a template icon with the circular shape and then just go to town. But for the style that @bill_sp and I used no fun at all.

Like I said it is possible that there is a way to get PhotoShop to let you draw with colour and transparency but I do not know how and I could not find a tutorial that showed me.

Ian... Knowing your way around PS will help... I learned from playing with my photography, also. I have personally given up trying to draw, paint or anything similar. Anything I do unrelated to photography is cut and paste from another image.

I can't give you a tutorial on creating alpha channels with varying grayscales, but I'd recommend playing around with "Calculations" under the Image tab... This will allow you to combine various channels and blending modes and you can save the result as either a new file, channel or selection. I've had some success with Calculations when trying to build masks for my photos, but it can be finicky and I certainly don't have a clue as to how it works. Photoshop is not just a tool that I use; sometimes it's a toy that I play with just to see what I get... kinda like a box of chocolates:eek:

Edit: I dl'd billy_sp's icons and opened one up just to look at the channels. I now see better the issue you've been facing. Try Calculations and save something you like as a new channel. I often just use the Quick Selection Wand to grab a fast selection, refine it if need be. B&W can always be adjusted using Levels