Dwight's Camo Sprayshop

[El_Condoro]

Absolutely fantastic! Thanks for all the time and effort that you have put into this application. Next task, for me, is to find out if the Americans used camouflage - I want to skin their nasty Shermans (and others)! Cheers and thanks again.

[rezaf]

What I meant, was does it have to have those exactly rgb values for magenta and cyan?
Magenta - 255, 0, 220
Cyan - 0, 255, 255
I understand why you are using it. And I agree it's the best way.
Sorry for not having be clear enough.

Ah, ok, I apologize for misunderstanding you.

I had to pick some colors, and those were always clearly visible when drawing the masks in Paint.NET, so I picked them.
If I had to change them for some reason, that'd probably be possible, but for the time being, I think they do their duty. Hopefully I can get the tutorial up by tomorrow.

I find the tool, quite good as the way it's now.
During my work with applying texture's to PzC base icons, I've come to the conclusion that in some cases, you would benefit if you could apply a sharpness and adjust the lightning of the model.
I've this example to illustrate the differences between having the normal base icon and with adjusting the light and sharpness.

I'm not currently sure if/how I could add this functionality, but I'll look into it.
You have to see, I virually had no experience in picture processing before I started coding this app (and it's predecessor), so it was a stony road to get it where it's now.
I can't promise anything, but like I wrote, I'll look into it.

- A slider for zooming texture

I'm not sure what you mean here. Do you want this in the portion of the app that creates the skins from a picture?

I can also consider, If people think that would look better, creating myself the base icons with sharpness and/or lightness on.

Personally, I'm not such a big fan of the washed out or rough look toying with sharpness produces - though some icon makers like DMP make heavy (HEAVY) use of this, I know, so other people must like it more than I do.

As far as it concerns the different national markings, I don't think we can get an easy solution.
So to apply the national markings it has to be manual.

Actually, my main problem is getting rid of the existing insignias on the icons. I'm trying to make this work programmatically, but I ran into a number of problems implementing it.
If I fail, the worst that can happen is that people (or myself, I guess, if no volunteers can be found) need to re-touch the existing base icons to get rid of the existing insignias and then add a rectangle to the mask where the original insignia was located. (I guess it would be wiser to reverse those two steps Then it's at least possible to automate the process for the vast majority of icons.

In my case, I'll surely use it in all my projects. It will help tremendously. I'm very grateful.
Thanks a lot.

You're welcome VPaulus.
_____
rezaf

[VPaulus]

- A slider for zooming texture

I'm not sure what you mean here. Do you want this in the portion of the app that creates the skins from a picture?

Not necessarily. Your program calculate automatically the size of the pattern. For example, sometimes I want to use a different size, so I scale the pattern according to my needs.
So basically what I'm referring with Zoom function, is to reduce or to enlarge the size of the pattern.

I can also consider, If people think that would look better, creating myself the base icons with sharpness and/or lightness on.

Personally, I'm not such a big fan of the washed out or rough look toying with sharpness produces - though some icon makers like DMP make heavy (HEAVY) use of this, I know, so other people must like it more than I do.

It depends on the unit. Sometimes if you increase slightly the sharpness you'll notice better those details, that otherwise they would just fade into the camouflage pattern. Sometimes it's just enough to increase slightly the brightness.[/quote]

As far as it concerns the different national markings, I don't think we can get an easy solution.
So to apply the national markings it has to be manual.

Actually, my main problem is getting rid of the existing insignias on the icons. I'm trying to make this work programmatically, but I ran into a number of problems implementing it.
If I fail, the worst that can happen is that people (or myself, I guess, if no volunteers can be found) need to re-touch the existing base icons to get rid of the existing insignias and then add a rectangle to the mask where the original insignia was located. (I guess it would be wiser to reverse those two steps Then it's at least possible to automate the process for the vast majority of icons.

I can help in removing the insignias, if you need.
Manually, I use the Smudge function for painting over the markings with the neighboring colors (it's a technique that I use since Amiga). After that I insert the new markings. In the end it's impossible to detect the old markings.
Also when I'm implanting the new markings, I usually don't use 100% opacity. It depends, but it can go from 60% to 90%. This way it will look a little more wearing.

[bebro]

Created a handful of units yesterday in the evening, all nice.

A minor suggestion: could there be an option to leave the saved unit's names as they are in vanilla, so without the camo type attached to the name?

Dunno what the others think, but I save them in a specific folder anyway indicating the camo. With the vanilla names I could just move the finished units over and use them in my game without renaming them (or the eqp entries) again.

It's certainly no biggie, but maybe one of those "nice to have" options.

[rezaf]

Not necessarily. Your program calculate automatically the size of the pattern. For example, sometimes I want to use a different size, so I scale the pattern according to my needs.
So basically what I'm referring with Zoom function, is to reduce or to enlarge the size of the pattern.

I understand what you mean, yes. Unfortunately, while I think I could pull this off, it's more of a v2.0 feature than a v1.1 feature.
If you take a look at the folders, you'll see that the finished patterns are actually stored in a file before any skinning takes place. This part of the app was finished before I implemented the skin generation.
Skin generation isn't solved using picture processing classes but instead is more of a mathematical operation where colors are calculated as a mixture from the color in the base icon and the color in the skin file.
Anyway, I guess with what I've learned when I programmed the stuff for generating skins I could now implement something like what you suggest, but it'd require a complete redesign of the application.
I'm afraid I'll have to put this onto the "Maybe later" list.

It depends on the unit. Sometimes if you increase slightly the sharpness you'll notice better those details, that otherwise they would just fade into the camouflage pattern. Sometimes it's just enough to increase slightly the brightness.

Like I wrote, I'll look into it.

I can help in removing the insignias, if you need.
Manually, I use the Smudge function for painting over the markings with the neighboring colors (it's a technique that I use since Amiga). After that I insert the new markings. In the end it's impossible to detect the old markings.
Also when I'm implanting the new markings, I usually don't use 100% opacity. It depends, but it can go from 60% to 90%. This way it will look a little more wearing.

I wasn't trying to conscript you or anything, like I said, my preferred goal would be to solve this programmatically. Manually, it works very good on most icons by using a low-radius Median filter on the area containing the icon.
My problem is figuring out how to do this myself in the app instead. I'll keep you posted about my progress.

A minor suggestion: could there be an option to leave the saved unit's names as they are in vanilla, so without the camo type attached to the name?

That shouldn't be a big problem. Could be something to use the currently mostly vacant setting dialog for.
_____
rezaf

[VPaulus]

I'm afraid I'll have to put this onto the "Maybe later" list.

Yes of course. It's just a suggestion, anyway.
Like it's now it will work well with my purposes.

I wasn't trying to conscript you or anything, like I said, my preferred goal would be to solve this programmatically. Manually, it works very good on most icons by using a low-radius Median filter on the area containing the icon.
My problem is figuring out how to do this myself in the app instead. I'll keep you posted about my progress.

I know you weren't conscripting me, I was just self volunteering to the task.
It was because I thought it would be hard to remove programmatically, that I initially stated that it could only be done manually.

[Chris10]

I have to say Iam pretty amazed about this tool...it seems this comunity, as tiny as it may be, has some very dedicated members which always encourage others to become more active in doing stuff too. As Iam by no means into the skinning thingi I dont wanna interrupt the discussion with silly questions and leave this to you "skinny" specialists ...I just wanted to express my greatest respect for pulling this off...I know this was a truckload of work

[flakfernrohr]

@ chris10: There are some guys on this forum that are very very talented. I am humbled by their "giving" to all of us for the enjoyment of this fantastic game. All games "run their course" in time, but I have a small feeling that PzC will live a longer life thanks to these people.

Then there is VPaulus. Tremendously dedicated, tremendously self sacrificing with his time and patience. To my knowledge he gets no paycheck as a moderator when he should.

I have never met any of my friends on this forum in person, yet I feel that should I have the opportunity to meet them face to face, we would be just like "old friends" reuniting.

It doesn't make any difference the "contribution" someone makes whether it be troubleshooting, feedback, an icon, a major mod/tool, a bit of information or even just a tip. It is the spirit and the willingness to give something for the benefit and enjoyment of all of us. My hope is that more people from the Matrix forum, the PzC regular forum and the DMP forum will come and participate with us in the "modding section" to see what marvellous tools are there for the taking to make this game the one they envision with their imaginations. It is the game of my past dreams that is now reality for me.

[4kEY]

Created a handful of units yesterday in the evening, all nice.

A minor suggestion: could there be an option to leave the saved unit's names as they are in vanilla, so without the camo type attached to the name?

Dunno what the others think, but I save them in a specific folder anyway indicating the camo. With the vanilla names I could just move the finished units over and use them in my game without renaming them (or the eqp entries) again.

It's certainly no biggie, but maybe one of those "nice to have" options.

Alternatively, a mechanism that automatically makes entries into the EQP/EFX files...

[VPaulus]

Then there is VPaulus. Tremendously dedicated, tremendously self sacrificing with his time and patience. To my knowledge he gets no paycheck as a moderator when he should.

Me and El-Condoro accept donations. El_Condoro, as a good Aussie, also accepts beers. Thinking well, I too accept beer.

[El_Condoro]

Then there is VPaulus. Tremendously dedicated, tremendously self sacrificing with his time and patience. To my knowledge he gets no paycheck as a moderator when he should.

Me and El-Condoro accept donations. El_Condoro, as a good Aussie, also accepts beers. Thinking well, I too accept beer.

I accept virtual beers but credit where it's due: VPaulus does the lion's share of the 'work' around here.

[VPaulus]

Then there is VPaulus. Tremendously dedicated, tremendously self sacrificing with his time and patience. To my knowledge he gets no paycheck as a moderator when he should.

Me and El-Condoro accept donations. El_Condoro, as a good Aussie, also accepts beers. Thinking well, I too accept beer.

I accept virtual beers but credit where it's due: VPaulus does the lion's share of the 'work' around here.

Not true. And I hope you're being only polite, because that would be tremendous unfair and above all it would be incorrect.
We complement each other quite well.
A virtual drink to you, my friend. It's on me.

[El_Condoro]

Cheers! Now back to the show...

[VPaulus]

Cheers! Now back to the show...

Right. Who do you think we should ban today?

Sorry rezaf. The OT ends here.

[4kEY]

Also, beer accepting mechanism.

[bt2steam]

Thank you ,Thank you !! for this amazing tool to actually change skins and all the patterns are amazing im building an uber looking ss unit just wondering will more be added as time goes on? thanks for all the hard work i bet this thing was a $#@! to put together!

[4kEY]

Dost mine 's deceive me? The new SS ambush pattern contains more detail than the original.

[4kEY]

By creating another skin group containing the thumbs of these camos, one finds they create a much more complex pattern.

[flakfernrohr]

@4key: That is the whole idea, to involve members to be creative and realistic to make skins we all can share. At some point I would like to see a thread with skins made by members that everyone could download or copy icons they made with their skins. It opens lots of possibilities.

The BIG advantage with this tool is that while making the skin, you can actually see what it will look like on the icon while you make it and do the necessary tweaks and adjustments you want. I did not have that opportunity when I made the first batch of skins, accordingly the second batch got better (I think).

Here are two examples of Ambush skins I made yesterday with the use of the tool to guide me a little. The skins are not in the mod yet, I am working on a skin pack to put on the forum soon.

[nikivdd]

Can you also skin units from different nations resulting in the impression that all those skinned units could from the same nation?