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Topic: Could UQM 2D arts be updated? (Read 3599 times)
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ar81
Zebranky food
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Posts: 21
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I mean character portraits...
Could they be updated?
Those are good, but I bet they could be improved.
I bet it's possible to do so...
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ar81
Zebranky food
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Posts: 21
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What are the specs for the portrait anims?
How many frames per anim?
Max resolution?
Format?
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fossil
Core Team
Frungy champion
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Posts: 94
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We have not examined the comm animations in any kind of *great* detail. I can only tell you loose specs with specific caveats. Please also keep in mind that since the animation definitions are currently hard-coded in .c files (src/sc2code/comm/[race]/[race]c.c) the most you can do is make the current animations prettier, but you cannot change them a whole lot. Consult the source code for the animation definitions.
In general:
* The size currently used is 243x107 pixels, and since UQM can only handle the 320x240 mode internally, you need to stick to this size.
* The comm animations that do *not* use palette animation can be truecolor (16-32bpp, your choice), but the ones that do use palette substitution must be 8bpp paletted using the exact same palettes they are using now. The ones that do use palette substitution are the Slylandro home, Chmmr, Commander Hayes, Melnorme, Orz, Spathi home, Syreen. If I forgot some, look at the source and look for COLORXFORM_ANIM flag set on some animation definition and for the XFormPLUT() calls in the same code. Remaking the palette animations into regular kind is not currently feasible, since producing all possible animation combinations with all possible colormaps would be insane.
* Animation frames may or may not have to use transparency, that all depends on a particular animation and whether its frames step on other animations for the same race
* Some animations have to loop
* The frame rates are dictated by the current definitions in the .c files
Once the definitions are unhardcoded (placed into separate def files) some rules will change:
* There are no hard limits on animation length, except for "whatever makes sense". You should generally not exceed 40fps for the animations, but again, just use common sense.
I would also hold off on working on races that utilize palette animation until the palettes are separated from the main bulk colormap into the separate respective race colormaps.
I'd say overall it looks pretty grim right now.
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Deus Siddis
Enlightened
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Posts: 1387
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"The size currently used is 243x107 pixels, and since UQM can only handle the 320x240 mode internally, you need to stick to this size."
Hmm, I'm not sure how much of an improvement in quality could be made if it has to stay at that resolution. 
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ar81
Zebranky food
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Posts: 21
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I was just wondering about it, because if such hardcoding could be hacked, I bet many people might like to make their own comms, just as you can make your OGGs now.
If such anims were coded in a layered way, flexible and resolution independant, it would surely encourage artists to be part of this.
BTW, I found a BIG community of artists, called "Elfwood".
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/
There are LOTS of artists there and I bet that among MANY artists the chances of making things interesting for talented one might be higher.
Look at the SF&F galleries...
Some are good, some arent.
I'd help but right now I am making stuff for another game.
If you want to see my SC pics, those are at http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/fan/3drender13.shtml
I am mostly good for drawing, not very good for modelling and I don't know too much about layering/transparency, etc... but I bet making new comms anim would be interesting someday.
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Novus
Enlightened
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Fot or not?
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A few searches on Elfwood turned up two artists with Star Control fan art: Tiina Aumala and Kerstin Lönnberg. These ladies may be interested in doing new comm artwork.
Interestingly, both seem to be from Finland. Aumala seems to be quite talented (see e.g. this Yehat/Pkunk pic).
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Arne
Enlightened
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Posts: 520
Yak!
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I'll wait till there's some more dynamic forms of implementation/modding. XML-ish support and automatical recognition of resourses... that sort of stuff.
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