Bitchass McGrass Posted November 10, 2022 TL:DR, I basically just want to know how to make good looking muzzle flashes when converting images to doom graphics. Any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you! Still reading? Okay cool. So basically I'm interested in making my own weapons for doom wads. Right now I'm just making replacements for currently existing weapons in the game, mostly just taking prop weapons and taking pictures of them before editing the colors and scale and throwing them into the game. There's still a lot of rough edges and there's corrections that can be made, but I think it looks fine for now. I'm more concerned about the muzzle flashes. There's no way for me to recreate a muzzle flash for a sprite, and I'm not the best at drawing, so I resorted to using a free image from the internet and editing it for a muzzle flash. However, converting it to doom graphics makes the colors harsher, and removes the half transparent pixels. I've adjusted the color to the muzzle flash for my smg sprite, but it still looks a bit weird in my opinion. Spoiler: Before and after images when converting my muzzle flash sprite Spoiler I think it looks okay when converted, but are there any techniques you guys use when making weapon sprites or muzzle flashes? Any advice helps, thanks! 1 Share this post Link to post
eharper256 Posted November 10, 2022 (edited) Are you modding for GZDoom? If yes, then just forget the Doom Palette and use True-Colour PNG's. Otherwise, basically, you'll notice transparent pixels don't work and you can't use them. The old palette does not store Alpha data. So you'll have to photoshop something manually yourself. There are no big shortcuts in sprite-work like this, sadly. Some of the sprites I've made for Walpurgis have taken an hour or more per frame, and that is fairly normal. The eraser tool, set to block format, whilst zoomed into 400% with a 1-pixel grid and a optionally, a mask layer, are your friends. 2 Share this post Link to post
Bitchass McGrass Posted November 10, 2022 6 minutes ago, eharper256 said: Are you modding for GZDoom? If yes, then just forget the Doom Palette and use True-Colour PNG's. I'm working with vanilla Doom right now (Chocolate Doom to be exact), I figure that once I can get the hang of getting around the limitations of the original game to the best of my abilities, then it'll help me build base level skills for when I move onto GZDoom oriented projects. 10 minutes ago, eharper256 said: Otherwise, basically, you'll notice transparent pixels don't work and you can't use them. The old palette does not store Alpha data. So you'll have to photoshop something manually yourself. There are no big shortcuts in sprite-work like this, sadly. Some of the sprites I've made for Walpurgis have taken an hour or more per frame, and that is fairly normal. The eraser tool, set to block format, whilst zoomed into 400% with a 1-pixel grid and a optionally, a mask layer, are your friends. Thanks, I had a feeling that transparent pixels wouldn't work, thanks for the advice. Is there any way to import the palette from doom to help adjust the flash colors as I edit the sprites together? I should probably mention that I'm using paintdotnet for my sprite creation. 0 Share this post Link to post
eharper256 Posted November 10, 2022 (edited) You can get the PLAYPAL here, and download it as another image to keep on a seperate tab or layer: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/File:Doompal.png As Doom is VGA at heart, you are restricted to those colours. I believe you use 255's pink for transparent but don't quote me on that. You should be able to export the original iwad one with SLADE as well if preferred. I use an old version of Photoshop CS6 I got on a big work discount, so I can't give you much advice on Paint.net though I'm afraid. Keeping Vanilla compatibility is definately super-hard-mode with mods, as there are many, many restrictions, but good luck. 1 Share this post Link to post
Doomkid Posted November 11, 2022 Hopefully this old tutorial by Scuba Steve will help you out, I always thought it was great: https://www.doomworld.com/gbd2/weapons/tutorials/muzzle1.htm His weapon tutorial can be very helpful as well: https://www.doomworld.com/gbd2/weapons/tutorials/gun1.htm 3 Share this post Link to post
Bitchass McGrass Posted November 11, 2022 4 hours ago, Doomkid said: Hopefully this old tutorial by Scuba Steve will help you out, I always thought it was great: https://www.doomworld.com/gbd2/weapons/tutorials/muzzle1.htm His weapon tutorial can be very helpful as well: https://www.doomworld.com/gbd2/weapons/tutorials/gun1.htm This kicks ass, thanks! 0 Share this post Link to post
