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[LastGreen]

Hello, i made a small tile set for a creature i made with ms paint and iv run into an issue, the picture ingame seems to keep its background color and im not sure how to get rid of that effect. can anyone help?

edit: I noticed that adding an _H like [DEFAULT:PHOEBUS_H:0:0:ADD_COLOR:DEFAULT] seems to change the image completely. though I don't understand how or why.

[Rydel]

Changing the name shouldn't affect anything.  Perhaps that name is already in use by another file?

When you say that they "keep [their] background color," do you mean that the canvas you used is still showing?
I don't think MS Paint supports transparency.  If you get a better program, such as GraphicsGale or GIMP, you could erase that background, and it will show the unit's background color instead.  There isn't a way to have creatures show the tile beneath them, though.  That kind of transparency isn't in the game.

If you mean something else, perhaps you could provide a screenshot?

[Dirst]

1. Use GIMP or a paid app like Illustrator to edit DF graphics.

2. If you ignore 1, try using magenta (255,0,255) as the background color.  Making that garish color transparent is a very old convention in image processing, and it might still work in DF.

[LastGreen]

Changing the name shouldn't affect anything.  Perhaps that name is already in use by another file?

When you say that they "keep [their] background color," do you mean that the canvas you used is still showing?
I don't think MS Paint supports transparency.  If you get a better program, such as GraphicsGale or GIMP, you could erase that background, and it will show the unit's background color instead.  There isn't a way to have creatures show the tile beneath them, though.  That kind of transparency isn't in the game.

If you mean something else, perhaps you could provide a screenshot?

yeah im really not sure I just noticed that the files were using [CHILD:PHOEBUS_H:3:0:AS_IS:DEFAULT] even though there is no such file that I know of. also what had happened is I was changing the human PHOEBUS files and my edited version would have this nearly white background where before it was vary dark.

actually realizing they all actually have backgrounds made me feel dumb lol, I just needed to use a dark background and they look fine now.

MY:NEW:GUY:IS:IN:THE:MIDDLE: I edited in the weird looking one that was bugging me on the side

so ya im alright now can get back to working on my new creature / civ.

1. Use GIMP or a paid app like Illustrator to edit DF graphics.

2. If you ignore 1, try using magenta (255,0,255) as the background color.  Making that garish color transparent is a very old convention in image processing, and it might still work in DF.

1.yeah I figured I may need something like that, I don't have any such programs though sense I suck at drawing so much.
2.ah I actually tried that but it didn't work sadly. guess DF likes that crazy color lol.

[Dirst]

1. Use GIMP or a paid app like Illustrator to edit DF graphics.

2. If you ignore 1, try using magenta (255,0,255) as the background color.  Making that garish color transparent is a very old convention in image processing, and it might still work in DF.

1.yeah I figured I may need something like that, I don't have any such programs though sense I suck at drawing so much.
2.ah I actually tried that but it didn't work sadly. guess DF likes that crazy color lol.

GIMP has pros and cons.  Pros: It's free, and it has real layers which makes content creation a lot easier once you get a hang of them.  Con: It has some counter-intuitive bits to its interface, but nothing within three orders of magnitude of what you're used to from DF

[Wannabehero]

GIMP is an excellent program with many features found in more expensive paid raster image editing programs.  But like Dirst says, the interface can be very difficult for dabbling graphics artists.

There is another program called Paint.net (paint dot net, or PDN).  It doesn't quite have all the functionality of GIMP or Adobe Photoshop, but it does have layers, alpha channels, color editing and filter effects, and the interface is very very user friendly, very similar to MS Paint.

I highly recommend PDN to newbie image editors.  It can be found here.

[Rydel]

PHOEBUS_H isn't the name of the file, it's the name of the tile page.  The file used for that tile page is phoebus/humans.png
You shouldn't be calling your stuff Phoebus anything - that will only result in confusion and RAW conflicts.

Relevant bit:

Code: [Select]

[TILE_PAGE:PHOEBUS_H]
[FILE:phoebus/humans.png]
[TILE_DIM:16:16]
[PAGE_DIM:12:22]
I don't think Illustrator would work for this.  It's for making vector graphics, which DF can't use.
If you are looking for free programs, GIMP, GraphicsGale, or Paint.net are good.  Personally, I prefer GraphicsGale for sprite work.  It has a lot of useful features, like layers and alpha channels, without all the painting and photo editing features you won't use for sprites.