Illuminating Sprites
EDIT THE SPRITES WITH YOUR GRAPHICS PROGRAM
I use Adobe Photoshop (and an old one at that) so I'm afraid you'll have to translate to your own program for this bit. You should read through this bit anyway for the general idea of what I am trying to get done as it's all pretty basic stuff and I am sure you'll know exactly how to make it work in your own program.
Said in the most basic terms we are going to open each and every one of the TableRave-lights sprites (and only the "lights" ones) and block out the table part so only the strips of neon light is showing. Do this in the P sprite first and then match the exact shape and position of the lights you left in the A and Z. Maintaining the exact position is VERY important particularly on the Z-buffer.
Here's how we do it with Photoshop:
Open the following three files into photoshop all together:
sprite0101_TableRave-lights_large_all_a.bmp
sprite0101_TableRave-lights_large_all_p.bmp
sprite0101_TableRave-lights_large_all_z.bmp
and line them up side by side.
Zoom into the P sprite if you need to while working on it and using a selection tool (the Polygonal Lasso Tool or (if you have a nice steady hand the Lasso Tool) is perfect for this). You can use the SHIFT key to add to your selection if you need to (which is handy for selecting all four lights together as a single selection) and the ALT key to take away from your selection, allowing you to work it to the perfect shape quickly.
Inverse your selection (CTRL+SHIFT+I) so everything except your lights is now selected.Using the same yellow as the Sprite's background paint the entire rest of the table away, leaving nothing but your strips of lights. I tend to use the pencil tool for that because it does not have any feathery edges and wont leave stray bits behind that are impossible for me to see but the computer will pick up on them. Do not deselect.
Unzoom if you were zoomed in for this and put that P sprite back next to the others. You are going to slide that selection from the P sprite to the one next to it.
Choose the selection tool again and click into your P sprite without releasing the button. Hold your shift key down and while both the mouse and the shift key are depressed drag over to the next sprite. Once you've reached the next sprite you can let go of both buttons. The SHIFT button is what will make the selection snap into the exact same position on this sprite where it was on the P sprite.
Switch back to the pencil and pick up the background color of the sprite you are working on so you can block out the table shape on that sprite just as you did the P sprite.
Switch back to the selection tool and click-shift-drag the selection to your final sprite and eliminate the excess table from that sprite as well.
Since we never changed the color depth from Indexed to RGB we can simply save all three sprites now.
Those not using Photoshop may have needed to switch color depth to mask the lights off exactly on each of the three sprites. Don't forget to reduce the color depth back down to 8-bit (or 256 colors).
Repeat this process with the medium and the small zooms.
When you are done you should have one complete set of sprites (the id#100s) that's the table (with lights painted on) and another set of sprites (the id#101s) that's just the light strips.
Whew. Now ... aren't you glad we used such a simplistic object that only had 9 sprites to do? Dork that I am I started with counters. Two states (stand alone and corners) and those each have 4 sprites per zoom ( for a total of 72 sprites to edit.)
OK back to work. We've a bit yet to do.
Continue to next page: Import and Reposition your Lights
Mac Users: Return to IffSnooper Tutorial