button graphics? and/or 2d artist wanted

[davidlallen]

I am trying to make new buttons for new abilities, but I can't quite figure it out. If you open the unreal editor and look at the buttons, they are 32x32 graphics, which appear totally black. Some of them are dark grey. When I export these files and open them in photoshop, they are equally black. I suppose all the information could be on the alpha channel. I have access to photoshop elements 11 and gimp, although I've never really used gimp. How do I edit these files and make new ones? I know how to put and get data from the unreal editor; I just can't work out the photoshop/gimp part.

 

If anybody is interested in contributing to the playable advent mod and can make buttons, that would be even better. Here are the custom abilities which need buttons. They need to be 32x32 monochrome icon type images. If you can do art but don't know unreal editor, that's fine, I can put the images into the mod easily enough.

 

Molt: a snake shedding its skin

Slither: a snake moving really fast

Blend In: a snake which is camouflaged? maybe wearing a mask?

Jiffy Lube: represents a mec being repaired in a shop; maybe an auto repair rack?

Damage Control: represents a mec repairing itself in the field; maybe an oil can or similar?

Regenerate (not released yet): represents a mec repairing damaged armor; a shield with a patch on it?

 

If anybody is interested in this type of art, there is a whole art request list in the discussion thread:

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/3879390-playable-advent-mod-details-feedback/

[tracktwo]

The ability icons are all just alpha channel masks, yeah. If you open it in photoshop and see all black, switch to the channels tab and click the box next to the alpha channel to make it visible (and uncheck the RGB ones). You should see the icon at that point and you can edit it with greyscale values to adjust the opacity. The icon will get whatever color tint you assign it in the ability template.

[Zyxpsilon]

Something else worth mentionning, i guess... is that the masking process (in the XC2 Icons case) is a simple toggle switch between negative/positive states. Thus, the alpha channel can either be on/or/off at any given time.

This can also be detected with the bottom-left-side tactical abilities stack.. mostly yellows but at time, the special Shaken icon would show up -- in two shades of RED.

 

david, i'd be interested in working on those. Gimme the whole week to come up with some stuff and i'll upload the results in a DropBox link here once ready. ;)

[davidlallen]

@ zyxpsilon, that is so cool! Thanks. I am sure you can get the mod and any details in the playable advent discussion thread. I don't have any concrete ideas about what the icons should look like apart from my post just above. I am hoping to do a release during the weekend, so hopefully we can line it up. BTW if you have a chance, look at the alien armors in the mod upk. They could really use an assist also: too dark, not blue enough, no halo like the other icons. I have the original artwork for those available if you want. We can discuss by PM.

 

@ tracktwo, I will try that; but for me, having an artist volunteer is much better than trying to make icons myself which usually look lame.

[Zyxpsilon]

Alright David.. here are my versions of the 6 Icons as described in your previous post.

 

http://s15.postimg.org/w7k63nsor/Viper_Trio.png --- http://s30.postimg.org/8jvs5g28x/MEC_Trio.png

 

And the link to the zip file; https://www.dropbox.com/s/m14dcd1fcx4o4dy/Viper-Mec_David.zip?dl=0

 

For the other stuff -- you mean the 3d model textures? If so -- it would probably be a simple matter of fiddling with the image files (or certain areas only) by adding brightness slightly. But it could be very hard for me to test any results. I'd suggest that the original author of such custom assets should make these kind of adjustments.

[Maclimes]

 

For the other stuff -- you mean the 3d model textures? If so -- it would probably be a simple matter of fiddling with the image files (or certain areas only) by adding brightness slightly. But it could be very hard for me to test any results. I'd suggest that the original author of such custom assets should make these kind of adjustments.

 

Awesome! Thanks, Zyx! And I believe he's referring to the icons for the armors (shown on the loadout screen), not the textures on the armors themselves.

Edited March 15, 2016 by Maclimes

[davidlallen]

That is super! A week must pass swiftly in your part of the world :laugh:

 

I have sent you a PM with some details of the armor icons I was referring to.

[davidlallen]

I put them into the game and they look great! The only feedback I could give is that especially for the button bars, the three viper shapes may be a little too similar. Same thing for the two mec icons, where the difference is which way the wrench points. Maybe, the blendin mask could be bigger like a Kabuki mask, and some kind of bigger difference between the molt lines and the slither lines?

 

http://i.imgur.com/XppRJwv.png

http://i.imgur.com/ObMb5Dd.png

http://i.imgur.com/qMEyswn.png

http://i.imgur.com/NJXTQBz.png

[Zyxpsilon]

Looks good to me. For the "similarity" concern you expressed -- there's a rational reason for choosing such thematic principles. As a package, they are somehow presented within visual context rather than indirectly contrasting with neighboring others. At 32x32... it's an extremely limited workspace area. So the generic bilinear filter would make things a lot worst very easily. Thus -- there's a need for accuracy or blurry effects. Too much of both and you'd get terrible lack of details. Don't forget the Viper tagging locations are tight as well. Molt had to be dotted only (( in exactly five but not two or more! )) while the Blend-In "Aura" couldn't be expanded without touching the square edge. That's the logical steps anyway.

 

I've purposely added the "side-box" to Jiffy-Lube in order to further put the second wrench in focus (even if oriented quite differently) for the same reason.

 

Anyhow -- i feel the current design should do the trick. :wink:

 

PS; Welcome guys -- i'll do my best for the other stuff too. Stay tuned.

Edited March 16, 2016 by Zyxpsilon

[TeamDragonpunk]

All:

If Zyxpsilon ever gets too busy, I highly recommend @zelenks ! He does all our Dragonpunk XCOM2 UI work and is already doing all our custom icons, so is willing to do other XCOM 2 icons at a reduced rate. I'm posting for him, but you can message him directly.