Making masked textures fast Created 12 years ago2011-12-28 22:23:00 UTC by zeeba-G zeeba-G

Created 12 years ago2011-12-28 22:23:00 UTC by zeeba-G zeeba-G

Posted 12 years ago2011-12-28 22:23:47 UTC Post #302183
I used photoshop to select the background of an image by color select and deleted it. Then I place it over a blue background and merge the layers. Then I copy and paste it into paint and re copy and paste it into wally to make it a masked texture. Wally then brakes the blue color sample up into many blue color samples making the image not masked because the bottom right color sample must be the one defining the blue masked area. Is there any quick way around this ie. to make wally not do this so that I don't have to re paint bucket in every masked area?
Posted 12 years ago2011-12-28 22:45:08 UTC Post #302184
User posted image
Archie ArchieGoodbye Moonmen
Posted 12 years ago2011-12-28 23:01:53 UTC Post #302187
Hip hip, hurray! Thanks m8! Damn water mark, I was gonna steal that! ;)
Posted 12 years ago2011-12-28 23:05:54 UTC Post #302189
.. and if your palette is already messed up (i.e. the background blue is 0, 0, 255, but its index isn't 255), use the translate colors tool in Wally (Colors > Translate Colors), which lets you swap color indexes quickly.

It's a total lifesaver in some situations.
Daubster DaubsterVault Dweller
Posted 12 years ago2011-12-28 23:10:58 UTC Post #302190
K ill check it out. In ps when I make the mode set to index colors it doesn't make one color sample the blue one but many.
Posted 12 years ago2011-12-28 23:16:36 UTC Post #302191
That shouldn't matter, but you can always use any random bright color for the BG before indexing the image. Then you can change the 255 index to blue and fill in the BG with it.

You'll also want to clean up the anti-aliasing of the transparent object before indexing. That usually forces a bunch of unused blues into your palette.
Daubster DaubsterVault Dweller
Posted 12 years ago2011-12-28 23:19:01 UTC Post #302192
Yea that's what i was trying to avoid. It lookes like when Archie did his it only created one blue color index.
Posted 12 years ago2011-12-28 23:36:13 UTC Post #302194
Zeeba, if you're getting many different blues, there are a few work arounds.

I usually put my pure blue on a layer above. Paint with the pixel brush where the blue is, and then paint the texture underneath that. If the texture is ABOVE the blue, you can get slight off-blue valued pixels that will show up on the Index.

If there are a few blues on the index anyway like 3 or 4, cancel the conversion to 8bit and collapse your layers, select all, and copy the image. Convert to 8bit and open the palette. Change the last color to blue no matter what color is already there and the duplicate blues to black or white or whatever. Click OK. Paste the copied image. The pasted image will look proper because when you paste stuff in PS into a color index image, the colors will reorganize to match as closely as possible. This will fix any off-blue values, and the colors that may have messed up from playing with the palette.

The best way to extract a mask is to use the first method with the above layer of blue and pixel brush.
Rimrook RimrookSince 2003
Posted 12 years ago2011-12-29 00:13:30 UTC Post #302195
If you have more blue indexes it's probably because your image has undergone compression at some point. This happens if you save it as a JPEG or take it through MSPaint.
Archie ArchieGoodbye Moonmen
Posted 12 years ago2011-12-29 01:30:28 UTC Post #302197
Ok awesome, thanks. Yes I always copy and paste into paint first bc it formats it for wally. Guess I should avoid this as well.
Posted 12 years ago2011-12-29 01:59:34 UTC Post #302200
If you set it to indexed colour in Photoshop you won't need to take it through Paint.
Archie ArchieGoodbye Moonmen
Posted 12 years ago2011-12-29 19:16:55 UTC Post #302217
I've managed to set it to RGB from Indexed and wally doesn't mess with it , works perfectly fine in Half life.
The whole 255th index thing seems completely pointless
Instant Mix Instant MixTitle commitment issues
Posted 12 years ago2011-12-29 20:42:51 UTC Post #302221
wally only works with indexed bitmaps. if you import any other image format it converts it to indexed bmp and its method of doing so is terrible. It'll make textures grainier and lose colour information. If you've managed to get a non-indexed image to work as a transparent texture after wally has converted it then it was a total fluke.
Archie ArchieGoodbye Moonmen
Posted 12 years ago2011-12-30 01:12:49 UTC Post #302231
User posted image
Nice Archie! Should code this up an add it to tutorial section, since it seems lots of people(myself included) have trouble with these.
Captain Terror Captain Terrorwhen a man loves a woman
Posted 12 years ago2011-12-30 04:28:53 UTC Post #302239
but official tutorials don't have wacky angled screenshots :3
Archie ArchieGoodbye Moonmen
Posted 12 years ago2011-12-30 04:54:05 UTC Post #302241
If they weren't angled it clearly wouldn't have made any sense.
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