14 replies to this topic

[stewelement]

First off, I've looked through the stickied tutorials in the IE Modding thread and I couldn't find anything relating to editing creature animations(and the IWD>BG2 tutorial link was broken), but hopefully my request isn't too complicated. So here's what I'd like to do and I don't know if its possible : I'm currently in the process of writing a small NPC mod and I want to make a golem character with the earth elemental graphics as a starting point. I'd like to edit the earth elemental animations to suit the character I'm making. Is there an existing method to export the animations/edit them/import them back in as a new NPC?

I've seen something similar done in the Planar sphere mod where the Pain Elementals are palette swapped fire elementals.

Sorry if this is the wrong thread but I figured that if there was a resource available (tutorial, info, knowledgeable folks) I would find someone here to point me in the right direction.

Thank you.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Distinctive creature coloring.

I've seen something similar done in the Planar sphere mod where the Pain Elementals are palette swapped fire elementals.

No, don't think so.
ELEMENTAL_FIRE_PURPLE

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 31 March 2010 - 01:14 PM.

[Miloch]

There are issues with the colouring effects, which I summarised here. There's also a few tips and links to properly recolouring existing animations - basically you need to edit the palette with a graphics program and reapply it so that it gets the look you want. A lot of existing animations do this already (purple fire elementals etc.).

You can do more advanced editing by extracting the BAM frames, with perhaps something like BAM Batcher. It doesn't handle creature animations well though - it will dissemble them but you'll have to put it back together (with BAM Workshop or the like) when you're done editing.

[stewelement]

Please forgive the resurrection of an old post. I haven't been able to work on this at all due to RL stuff. I'm back in the States now with internet access so please bear with me. Miloch, I read your linked post about the palette swaps of various creatures. This is exactly what I'm wanting to do with the earth elemental, just a palette swap from brown to a steel type color. Can you (or someone else) provide me with a tutorial or where to start. To be clear, I'd just like to make a palette swapped minor earth elemental and be able to implement it in-game. I've downloaded BAM workshop 2 but I'm a complete n00b and don't know how to even begin.

Thanks to all in advance.

[Miloch]

It will be easier for me to just do this rather than describe how to do it, though I could try to draft a rough tutorial at the same time. The main reason is that, offhand, I don't recall all the details of what I do (so I'd have to do it again).

Roughly though from what I recall, it involves:
1) Export a frame from the creature's animation .bam with BAM Workshop as a bitmap
2) Open that bitmap with a graphics program (I use Paint Shop Pro)
3) Recolour the palette *without* increasing colour depth (i.e. maintain 256 colours in the same palette order)
4) Save that file as a new palette
5) Use BAM Batcher (link in my sig) to repalette the creature BAMs (exported from the game via DLTCEP, NI, WeiDU etc.). It's quite possible this option doesn't exist in the published version of BAM Batcher, so I'd have to update that too. The other option is to repalette each creature .bam with DLTCEP or the like, which can be really time-consuming.

If I forget about this, feel free to bump the topic. I'll try to look at it in a bit, but have a lot of irons in the fire right now.

Edit: incidentally, do you mean the IWD earth elemental or the BG2 one? IMO the IWD version is cooler, but it depends on the creature type you're going for. If you're making a golem, did you look at the IWD golem or other animations from Infinity Animations? Here are a few existing ones that might work (IWD earth elemental, IWD iron golem, fomorian):

If none of the current ones are suitable, a new one isn't a problem - it just needs to be assigned a slot in IA.

Edited by Miloch, 01 October 2010 - 10:19 PM.

[stewelement]

Ideally, I'd just like a Baldur's Gate 2 minor earth elemental, with the Iron Golem (or adamantite golem) palette. So essentially a very rough looking, small metal golem. While the Infinity animations are impressive, none of the creatures really fits with what I have already envisioned. I hope that doesn't sound terribly selfish or offend the creators of the mod. I'm still in the n00b stages but I'm trying to make an NPC golem that you can/must continually upgrade throughout the game with golem-only items, sort of an expansion on the NWN Maker's Isle golem idea.

Thanks for helping Miloch.

[Miloch]

While the Infinity animations are impressive, none of the creatures really fits with what I have already envisioned. I hope that doesn't sound terribly selfish or offend the creators of the mod.

Heh, no - of course not. The whole point of the mod is to allow as many animations as people want to add.

So by "minor" earth elemental, you mean the small one (e.g. measg11.bam)? The large one is in the meae*.bam series - this is also the animation that shambling mounds get, with a custom palette via meae_sh.bmp I believe. It would be very easy to desaturate either the default elemental or the shambler palette so it's greyish instead of brownish or greenish.

[stewelement]

Miloch,

Yes, I mean the small one, main reason being that it's the same size as human characters and should then fit through all of the entryways in the game. I'm looking to make the golem unique, so modifying the bitmap you spoke of wouldn't affect the other elementals, would it?

[Miloch]

modifying the bitmap you spoke of wouldn't affect the other elementals, would it?

It would affect shambling mounds, though you could test a tweaked palette that way fairly easily at least. Your animation would need to get assigned a new slot in Infinity Animations so it doesn't conflict with other animations.

[stewelement]

You mean that initially the palette change would affect shambling mounds, making it easy to test, but once it's implemented into Infinity animations, it would be unique?

Also, correct my logic here : If I extract the bams associated with this creature, measg11.bam and measg2.bam, and make the changes I want in BAMWorkshop, can they then be made into unique animations in Infinity animations?

If thats the case, then I've already begun editing the bam. I converted it to greyscale and I'm removing some of the rough spikes on the back of the elemental.

Thanks Miloch.

[Miloch]

You mean that initially the palette change would affect shambling mounds, making it easy to test, but once it's implemented into Infinity animations, it would be unique?

Essentially, yes, but if you're editing the animations directly, you don't need to mess with that external palette, because they'll use their own palette from the BAMs.

Also, correct my logic here : If I extract the bams associated with this creature, measg11.bam and measg2.bam, and make the changes I want in BAMWorkshop, can they then be made into unique animations in Infinity animations?

Yes, and there are instructions for that. Once you get to that point, it's a fairly simple process. If you are editing them manually, make sure they use the *exact* same palette though - same colours, same order, everything. I think you can save the palette and then use "Load Palette" from DLTCEP or something. Like I said, BAM Batcher (at least the version I've been developing) can also do that en masse for a bunch of BAMs at once.

Edited by Miloch, 04 October 2010 - 07:20 PM.

[stewelement]

I attached a screenshot of what I did so far, just to double check what I'm doing is correct. Are there any pitfalls that I should be aware of in editing the palette colors(other than using the same palette for all frames)? For example, some sprite work that I've done in the past required black and transparent values at the beginning of the palette. I would like to add a couple of blue values to this golem for detail if possible so I wanted to know if there is a 'safe' range for custom colors within the palette. If so I may just do an extensive revamp of the sprite to include the detail I envision.

Attached Images

• 

[Miloch]

It looks a bit dark to me, or rather there isn't enough contrast between what should be the lighter and darker parts. I imagine it might look like a vague shadow in-game, particularly in dark places, which includes a great deal of BG2. So here's where it might be a good idea to test overwrite meae_sh.bmp with your palette and then CLUA in a shambling mound to see how it looks. It will be bigger than what you want but at least you'll see how the colours look.

Each BAM uses the same palette, so it's not like you'll need to reapply it for every frame/sequence; however, you will need to apply the same palette to every meas*.bam. You can use whatever colours you want, as long as you stick to 256, or 254 because the first entry is transparent and the second one is the shadow. Also you need to keep roughly the same light/dark values as the original palette or it won't look good at all on the creature. The most painstaking part of what you're doing is that if you're changing the way it looks, you'll have to edit every single frame in every single sequence of every BAM for the creature. But if you've got the patience for that, more power to you.

Just a thought: you could also try the BAM Resizer to make the iron or adamantine golem animation smaller and see if that works for you. Might not be quite the look you're going for, but it's worth a look anyhow, and would be loads quicker than frame-by-frame editing.

Edit: also I would recolour it to blue tones first and then desaturate the palette slightly but not all the way - that might give you the look you're going for rather than editing every palette entry manually. Attaching a quick go of my own (original on left, edited on right). Might be a bit too blue or too light, but easy to tweak it.

Edited by Miloch, 05 October 2010 - 06:00 AM.

[stewelement]

Is testing the new palette as simple as putting the new meae_sh.bmp in the override folder and summoning the monster?

The bam resizer idea is a good suggestion, only for another idea that I had, so thanks for that bit of knowledge. I'm familiar with working on sprite frames so I will continue to play around with the colors/edits that I want to see. It might not be worth it but I'll at least test the waters.

[Miloch]

Is testing the new palette as simple as putting the new meae_sh.bmp in the override folder and summoning the monster?

It should be, but I didn't test it myself so I can't guarantee it works that way. You'll need to CLUA in something with the shambler animation, like CreateCreature("hgmound"). Or if you have something to summon a shambler, should work too.