﻿PANZER CORPS TOOLKIT
CREATE UNIT MASK
USER MANUAL

Manual Version 1.0

For Panzer Corps Toolkit
Unit Paint Studio

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1. INTRODUCTION

Create Unit Mask is the vehicle-mask creation assistant in:

Tools
  > Unit Paint Studio
  > Create Unit Mask

A mask tells Paint Unit which parts of a unit icon may receive the main skin, secondary colour, tertiary colour, and replacement insignia. It also identifies background and shadow pixels that must remain black and vehicle details that must remain transparent in the finished mask.

The current workflow is designed primarily for vehicle icons.

2. FILES AND ICON VIEWS

A standard unit icon normally contains four views on one PNG canvas. All four views must be masked separately. The program does not automatically mirror mask work because the visible details and insignia positions may differ between views.

An optional BigUnit image can also be loaded when available.

Use PNG files with transparency. Keep a backup of the original icon.

3. MASK COLOURS

The creator uses fixed mask colours. Do not substitute similar colours.

- Main skin area: the program’s main-mask colour
- Secondary-colour area: magenta
- Tertiary-colour area: cyan
- Insignia Bounds: RGB 72, 0, 255
- Insignia Pixels: RGB 33, 0, 127
- Background and excluded ground shadow: black
- Unpainted vehicle details in the final mask: fully transparent

4. GENERAL CONTROLS

Only controls relevant to the active step are enabled.

Mouse and keyboard:
- Mouse wheel: scroll vertically when zoomed
- Shift + mouse wheel: scroll horizontally
- Ctrl + mouse wheel: zoom in or out
- Middle mouse button + drag: pan the canvas
- Undo: reverse the latest action in the active step, view, and region
- Redo: restore the latest undone action
- Save: save the current mask-in-creation
- Controls: show the available mouse and keyboard commands

The painting cursor reflects the selected pencil, brush, or eraser size. Regular colour-area steps use a circular cursor. Insignia Replacement uses a square cursor.

5. SAVING WORK IN PROGRESS

A Save button is available throughout the wizard. Save regularly.

A work-in-progress save preserves the mask data needed to continue later, including the four icon views, painted regions, background and shadow markings, insignia regions, transparency-cleanup progress, and current step.

This intermediate save is separate from the final exported mask.

6. STEP 1 — SELECT UNIT ICON

Select the source unit PNG.

Check that:
- the correct icon is loaded;
- transparency is intact;
- all four views are present;
- the image has not been resized or converted to an unsuitable format.

7. STEP 2 — OPTIONAL BIGUNIT

Load the matching BigUnit image when one exists and is useful as a painting reference.

Choose Skip when no BigUnit is available. Skipping this step does not prevent mask creation.

8. STEP 3 — SECONDARY-COLOUR AREAS

Paint the parts that should use the secondary colour in Paint Unit.

Use the pencil or brush for manual work. Use the eraser to correct the active secondary region. Run Automatic Suggestion may provide a starting point, but always inspect the result.

Undo and Redo affect only secondary-colour actions in the active icon view. The first colouring action can also be undone.

9. STEP 4 — TERTIARY-COLOUR AREAS

Paint the parts that should use the tertiary colour.

The tertiary history is separate from the secondary history. Undo in this step must never remove work from Step 3.

Use Automatic Suggestion as a starting point when appropriate, then correct the result manually.

10. STEP 5 — IGNORE BACKGROUND AND SHADOW

Mark the image background and excluded ground-shadow area.

These pixels must remain black in the final mask. Do not include actual vehicle-body pixels unless they are genuinely part of an excluded shadow or background area.

The information from this step is used later by Transparency Cleanup.

11. STEP 6 — INSIGNIA REPLACEMENT

Define two separate regions for every icon view:

Insignia Bounds
Mark the complete area in which a replacement insignia may appear.

Insignia Pixels
Mark only the pixels belonging to the original insignia that must be removed.

Define both regions separately for all four views. Do not mirror them automatically.

The insignia painting cursor is square and follows the selected tool size. Undo and Redo work one action at a time and are isolated by icon view and insignia region.

12. STEP 7 — TRANSPARENCY CLEANUP

This step prepares the final mask structure.

At the beginning of the step, the current mask and remaining unpainted vehicle body must be visible.

The correct result is:
- painted mask regions remain visible;
- background and excluded shadows remain black;
- remaining unpainted vehicle-body pixels become fully transparent.

Manual cleanup:
Use the cleanup eraser to remove only the remaining unpainted vehicle-body areas. Painted mask regions are protected.

Automatic cleanup:
Run Automatic Suggestion to remove the remaining unpainted vehicle body automatically. Inspect every view afterward and correct any mistakes manually.

13. STEP 8 — REVIEW ALL ICON VIEWS

Review the exact finished mask produced in Step 7.

This review must show:
- black background and excluded shadows;
- transparent unpainted vehicle details;
- all painted secondary, tertiary, and insignia regions;
- no original unit artwork underneath.

Inspect all four views carefully. Return to an earlier step when corrections are needed.

14. STEP 9 — PREVIEW AND VALIDATE

Run validation before the final save.

Typical checks include:
- required image views are present;
- no temporary editing colours remain;
- background and shadow areas are valid;
- transparency cleanup is complete;
- insignia regions use the exact required colours;
- mask dimensions match the source icon.

Warnings should be reviewed rather than ignored.

15. STEP 10 — SAVE MASK

Save the final mask as PNG.

Use the correct naming convention expected by Paint Unit. Preserve the original image dimensions and alpha transparency.

Do not overwrite the source unit icon. The mask is a separate file.

16. AUTOMATIC SUGGESTIONS

Automatic Suggestion is an assistant, not a substitute for inspection.

After running it:
- zoom in;
- inspect edges, wheels, tracks, tools, antennas, open compartments, and gaps;
- compare all four views;
- correct overpainted and missed pixels manually.

17. UNDO AND REDO

Undo and Redo are action-based.

Histories are separated by:
- wizard step;
- icon view;
- mask region.

Undo must reverse only the latest action in the active context. It must not remove work from another icon view or an earlier painting step.

The untouched state is stored before the first action so that the first brush stroke, fill, erasure, or automatic suggestion can be undone.

18. RECOMMENDED VEHICLE WORKFLOW

1. Load the unit icon.
2. Load or skip the BigUnit reference.
3. Paint secondary-colour areas.
4. Paint tertiary-colour areas.
5. mark background and excluded shadows.
6. Define Insignia Bounds and Insignia Pixels.
7. Run Transparency Cleanup and correct it manually.
8. Review all four finished views.
9. Validate.
10. Save the final mask.

Save work in progress after each major step.

19. TROUBLESHOOTING

The image jumps while painting
Use the current build with preserved zoom and scroll position. Panning or painting should not recenter the canvas.

Undo removes another region
Make sure the latest build is installed. Histories should be isolated by step, view, and region.

Step 8 shows the original icon
Step 8 must display the finished Step 7 mask directly, without source artwork underneath.

The final mask contains visible vehicle artwork
Return to Transparency Cleanup. Unpainted vehicle details must be transparent.

The background becomes transparent
Background and excluded shadow areas must remain black.

Automatic Suggestion misses details
Correct the result manually at a higher zoom level.

Insignia replacement looks wrong in Paint Unit
Check both Insignia Bounds and Insignia Pixels in each of the four views and confirm the exact RGB colours.

20. FINAL NOTES

Vehicle masks often require careful pixel-level correction. Automatic tools are most useful for producing a starting point, while the final quality depends on inspecting all four views at high zoom.

Keep the source icon, work-in-progress file, and finished mask together in a backed-up project folder.
