Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 6:57 pm Post subject:
[RA2/YR] Creating Cameos from Voxels for Voxel Units
Subject description: Image Heavy...
Well I guess i'll get started on this tutorial. Cameos is a bit of a double-edged sword. Most often you'll be having to use a bit of your imagination on creating them or touching up cameos. For this tutorial I'll be using my Athena Cannon. Do note this is how I make my cameos some people may have different approaches but so far this way has seem to do good for me.
For this Tutorial I shall be using Photoshop CS5, but I think GIMP may also suffice...
1) Find a suitable background.
For this Tutorial I shall be using this Image:
2) Next make a voxel with all the parts of your unit in it. In my case a turret and the chassis. Go to the Display 3D Window and change the House Color to the side of your choice. (More often than not you may opt to instead recolor these to the same hue of your unit itself.)
3) After you've done these two it's time to start work on the actual cameo. Start cropping & resizing your background to exactly 60x48. This is the standard Cameo Size.
4) Now remember that screenshot of the Voxel. This time remove everything else that you do not need and copy that over to the 60x48 image. Resize to the appropriate size of your choice.
From here I usually make 3 copies of the Unit. Layered from Top to Bottom:
Resized with Gaussian Blur (25% opacity)
Resized with Blur Effect (50% opacity)
Resized with Sharpen Effect
Resized
You should now end up with something like this:
5) Next add a shadow layer, The Shadow Layer is a jet black color with opacity set to 50-65% usually.
Also I've opted to touch up the background by namely adding a sunlight from the top left corner for the shadow to seem more believable.
It should now look something close to this:
6) Next step is to apply the same glass effect as per Red Alert 2 Style. I've made my own version of it with the Transparency set up already so you just need to copy this over as the top-most layer for now. (Original Glass Effect is somewhere here in PPM)
All that's left now is to add in the Text and the Text Bar. Download the Template somewhere in PPM (Again...Sorry I can't remember ) Write up the name accordingly to your unit's name. Remember name's are all centered and are 1 pixel off from the bottom. The Upper Text is always pure white and the Bottom Text has the shading.
The Chevron is 2 pixels off from the top and top-left.
Here we have the pre-final version:
All that's left now is to export this into SHP Builder.
And here it is as exported using the RA2 Cameo Palette... with some touch-ups of course.
As SHP Builder isn't always that great, results may vary greatly from what you want and as always this is a trial-and-error thing so don't get disappointed too much.... With Ares you may opt to use PCX instead which allows you to keep the details of the original image.
Usually a frog's-eye-view works best for big and mighty units. I'd also recommend some touch-ups in photoshop like making the windows look more realistic (i.e. not black). _________________ QUICK_EDIT
This is a good basic cameo tutorial, that would work best if you redid all your voxels to match. I think you should do the effort to find the photoshop element you used or upload it (with proper credit given) so that people can easily use your tutorial. QUICK_EDIT
As stated, on its own the Voxel will still look... voxelly. Usually you'll need to touch it up yourself with your own brush strokes dabbled here and there. The One I posted is a pretty quick one with some very few brush strokes here and there.
A final one usually has alot of layers with it. So it does take time. This one I made is just a quick one which should be sufficient enough for most basic voxels.
Another tip I may suggest is coloring the Sections you want to the appropriate hue you want before resizing the Screen Captured Voxel as it may prove to be more difficult when recoloring it after the downscaling. _________________ ~ Excelsior ~ QUICK_EDIT
Looks nice, although the Text is covering some of the Voxel and the Voxel is on the wrong perspective. But overall it's okay, just needs to be in the right perspective and it'll be perfect. _________________ ~ Excelsior ~ QUICK_EDIT
Here's a quick something I hammered together. I couldn't find all the functions you listed however, so I had to cut corners. The final text had to be edited in SHP Builder.
Also, I used the Voxol Viewer rather than the 3D Viewer in the editor. Couldn't find a way to paste the turret into the same voxol without getting an internal system error. QUICK_EDIT
With such positioning text will cover 40% of the unit itself.. what do you need so much sky for? Move the whole picture up, unit should be in the middle of the cameo, not at the bottom. _________________ mentalomega.com QUICK_EDIT
Even though it might not have noticeable effect, this is a stupid move since it forces the primary colors (you don't say?) into the palette, possibly wasting good color slots that could've been used for something else. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: evanb90 Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Location: o kawaii koto
Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 5:41 am Post subject:
Interesting. I could help you build on to this tutorial. Know a thing or two about voxel cameos. :> _________________ YR modder/artist, DOOM mapper, aka evanb90
Project Lead Developer, New-Star Strike (2014-)
Former Project Lead DeveloperStar Strike (2005-2012), Z-Mod (2006-2007), RA1.5 (2008-2013), The Cold War (2006-2007) QUICK_EDIT
Even though it might not have noticeable effect, this is a stupid move since it forces the primary colors (you don't say?) into the palette, possibly wasting good color slots that could've been used for something else.
Oh yeah, sorry about that. I just usually forget that mine is set to Primary by default. But yeah Forced:None is the best choice.
Everybody can help in on this tutorial. After all this is for the betterment of everyone's mods after all. _________________ ~ Excelsior ~ QUICK_EDIT
@ Earthman,The Cameo looks too blurry like something from jpeg. When saving images for preview use PNG or GIF, Jpeg has a known tendency to distort images.
@ Sir Shockwave usually I make a dummy voxel unit which has all the sections of the unit.
You can import a section in VXLSEIII under (Section -> New -> Import from another Model) Then just add the Turret or whatever you need added.
Then open HVA Builder to adjust the hva of the unit. You can do a screenshot from there (I just use Print Screen Button) then paste that into a new file in photoshop.
That's how I got the turret into the Athena Cannon Cameo. _________________ ~ Excelsior ~ QUICK_EDIT
@Noodle : I made it from the vxl's turret. So , the object in the icon is the big turret . I made it as *.jpg , rename it's to 0000.jpg and then import it in to SHP Builder. I did by that way because i have a problem with the text , if i made it by Paint Shop Pro , the text will be 7 pixels height. But add the text will take much time
Until now , I don't know how to make a icon like OmegaBolt's one
I like that vxl style...huhuhuhu . QUICK_EDIT
@ Sir Shockwave usually I make a dummy voxel unit which has all the sections of the unit.
You can import a section in VXLSEIII under (Section -> New -> Import from another Model) Then just add the Turret or whatever you need added.
Then open HVA Builder to adjust the hva of the unit. You can do a screenshot from there (I just use Print Screen Button) then paste that into a new file in photoshop.
That's how I got the turret into the Athena Cannon Cameo.
Thanks for the heads up...though I think HVA Builder has broke. Again. QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 22 Nov 2010 Location: Iszkaszentgyorgy, Hungary
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 8:36 pm Post subject:
Much better, if you ask me. Top right seems good. _________________ "If you didn't get angry and mad and frustrated, that means you don't care about the end result, and are doing something wrong." - Greg Kroah-Hartman
=======================
Past C&C projects: Attacque Supérior (2010-2019); Valiant Shades (2019-2021)
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WeiDU mods: Random Graion Tweaks | Graion's Soundsets
Maintainance: Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters! | BGEESpawn
Contributions: EE Fixpack | Enhanced Edition Trilogy | DSotSC (Trilogy) | UB_IWD | SotSC & a lot more... QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Sat May 19, 2012 4:18 pm Post subject:
ROFL! These ranks are just based on PPM: Final Dawn units. After some posts, your rank will become the name of another unit. In short, nothing personal. QUICK_EDIT
I had another go at the tutorial. I'm still dealing with malfunctioning technology, but I decided to apply the same process to something a little different.
I ended up using Auto Sharpen as my photoshop doesn't appear to have a Sharpen filter. It still seems to look okay though. QUICK_EDIT
I had another go at the tutorial. I'm still dealing with malfunctioning technology, but I decided to apply the same process to something a little different.
I ended up using Auto Sharpen as my photoshop doesn't appear to have a Sharpen filter. It still seems to look okay though.
That's strange for me the Smart Sharpen is listed in a dropdown from the Filter Effects i.e: (Filter - Sharpen - [Various Filter Types])
Maybe make the Zeppelin bigger. (Like the Kirov Cameo) _________________ ~ Excelsior ~ QUICK_EDIT
I don't want to get "heavy" but did modder666 allow you to use that cameo template? I'd rather it was Final War exclusive as long as modder wants it, unless he gave you permission.
Not sure what you mean though about adding text. QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 10 Dec 2012 Location: I'm too busy conquering the world!
Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 12:00 am Post subject:
I made two cameos of my own. And test it to see how it looks inside the game, but apparently I forgot how to make it fit to the right palette. It shows weird color. I can't believe I forgot how to do it... I need someone to tell me how to fix it.
And by the way, how does my cameos looks? Is it good?
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PrismTank.png
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CameoError.png
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_________________ Mod Leader and founder of World Domination
@Natit_Titan: Me not answering the PM doesn't give you consent to imitate my graphic style for cameos (which, btw, you're missing a lot to achieve the same look) so I would appreciate it if you didn't use that in a public mod.
This thread is good, I'll have to upload something similar on how I work on my cameos and then the community can give me the feedback received here. QUICK_EDIT
@Zero18: Your palette should be Red Alert 2 --> cameo.pal if you're not using custom palettes. _________________ The future belongs to The Forgotten! QUICK_EDIT
I've been meaning to update this for a long time but haven't had the time to do so though... If you need a glass template download the Cameo Package i also put up in here. _________________ ~ Excelsior ~ QUICK_EDIT
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[RA2/YR] Creating Cameos from Voxels for Voxel Units
) Write up the name accordingly to your unit's name. Remember name's are all centered and are 1 pixel off from the bottom. The Upper Text is always pure white and the Bottom Text has the shading.
. I made it as *.jpg , rename it's to 0000.jpg and then import it in to SHP Builder. I did by that way because i have a problem with the text , if i made it by Paint Shop Pro , the text will be 7 pixels height. But add the text will take much time 
