Mac custom graphics

[BainIhrno]

I am indeed starting a new scenario. I don't know why, or if anyone will be around to see it, but I am.

 

When starting a new custom graphics file, what's the best way to go about this? What program(s) should I use. I'm trying to use the graphics off of Pixle Profusion, but can't find a way to organize them. I could do this on Windows, but can't seem to figure it out here.

 

Any ideas?

[Celtic Minstrel]

It's not particularly clear what you're asking here, but if you're looking for a paint program for the Mac, the best is probably GIMP (unfortunately). Seashore is decent, but it seems to have a bug causing copy-paste to brighten stuff. There may be others that I do not know about.

[BainIhrno]

Sorry about the confusion.

 

I have some paint programs, such as Seashore, but can't figure out how to use them the way I want to. With Seashore, after I paste, I can't figure out how to edit previous graphics inserted. I also tried using Paintbrush, but there's a bug that cuts off some of the graphic.

[Celtic Minstrel]

Are you asking how to edit graphics you have pasted into the Seashore document? Try the pencil tool? I'm still not entirely sure what you want to know...

[BainIhrno]

Okay.

 

Apparently, when I use Seashore, every time I paste something, it won't let me edit anything I have pasted previously. If I try to use the pencil over anything other than what I have most recently pasted, it doesn't work.

 

 

Essentially, what I am trying to do is create a custom graphics file by downloading images from Pixle Profusion, and then pasting them into a Seashore file, and then moving the graphics to align them into the proper places.

 

However, I am having difficulty doing that.

 

For example: I paste a Moon Knight into the file. I can move it to the proper position after I paste it. Then I paste a Royal Guard. I can move the Royal Guard around. However, after I paste the Royal Guard, I can no longer move the Moon Knight. This is problematic because I need to be able to go back and move it in case I position it wrong.

 

Would you know why this is?

 

Thanks.

 

 

[Celtic Minstrel]

Uh. Okay. Just move each one as you paste it in, then. If you move it to the wrong location and need to move it again, select it with the select tool, then float the selection so you can move it.

 

As for the pencil not working except on what you just pasted, the selection is probably still floating. You need to anchor it (but make sure it's not covering anything you want to keep first).

[BainIhrno]

Thanks.

I managed to create a graphics file where everything is aligned but I have another question.

 

All the monsters have white backgrounds. I know that this is a problem with the file, as the background is at white, but I don't know how to get it transparent. Nothing seems to work. Thanks.

[Celtic Minstrel]

Um... I'd suggest making sure the background colour in Seashore is set to pure white, then selecting the white areas with the wand tool and deleting them. (Make sure you reduce the tolerance of the tool to zero so that it doesn't select anything other than the whiteness.) If the problem is, as I suspect, that the background simply was off-white rather than pure white, this should fix it. If not... I've no idea what could be wrong.

 

Seashore provides a way to make your background literally transparent, but you don't want to use this as PICT does not support alpha transparency.

[BainIhrno]

That did the trick! Thanks.

 

EDIT: New problem. So I deleted all the white areas, they are now transparent in Seashore. However, I need to copy the graphics file to ResFool to make the .meg file, and when I do that, I end up with a black background in the scenario editor.

 

I have:

 

1. Deleted the white background with the wand tool.

2. Saved the document as a .gif, .jpg, etc.

3. Copied the document into ResFool (I have also tried pasting directly from Seashore)

4. Set ResFool to the appropriate settings (i.e. changed the '128' to '1')

5. Tried using the graphics in the scenario editor. I either end up with a white or black background.

[Celtic Minstrel]

You must have made the background transparent rather than white in Seashore; for whatever reason, the colour value of a fully transparent pixel is black by default. You need to make the background white, not transparent. At present I think you'll have to use the bucket tool to fill the backgrounds with white (make sure the tolerance is 0 as with the wand), but once that's done you can disable the alpha channel (it's in the menus somewhere, in an "Extras" submenu or something like that, I believe) and use the wand for future fiddling. You should try to remember to disable the alpha channel any time you are working with BoX graphics in Seashore.

 

Don't save as .jpg; that's for photos. GIF should work fine. Or don't save at all and paste directly into ResFool or GraphicAdjuster. (You could also save as .xcf if you're using layers and would like to keep an unmerged copy available for easier editing.)

[BainIhrno]

Everything works perfectly now. Thanks for your help!