MAKING BAMS, problems about making original BAMS and green bottom visible IG Options

[Rigel]

Hello i'm working on a MOD for BGT-BG2 called "GOODS of FAERUN". It's a MOD who add some merchants, few little quests and a lot of new items. I will make a merchant who sell armors and helmets of diferent colours but with no special caracteristics, it's just a black helm, or a dark red plate for fun, just to be fashion; however...

I will also create new ITEMS, and in that purpose, i need to create new bams; i will recolorize existing bams with news colours schemes.
I make 2 bmp files with a selected bam and after i work on them under GIMP 2. Next i use ITEM GRAPHIC CONVERTER to get a "quite" new original bam.

It's quite easy to do but i've got a big problem: i see the green bottom of the bams IN GAME; i've made some ressearches and i think it's a ALPHA CANAL (who set transparency) problem. It's like some graphical zones were losing their transparency during the change betweeen bam file becoming 2 bmp files.

So if someone know something about that graphical problem, i would be so glad if you can help me, and explain me how it works exactly, and how dissmiss that green bottom, if you can indicate me a tutorial it would be nice too. I'm not afraid of complicated explanations: i want to know all about that subject, cause i need to be a pro item creator.

This post has been edited by Rigel: Jan 30 2009, 08:19 PM

[Sir-Kill]

well first off, you are using a 256 (indexed) color image there is no actual alpha channel. that would require a 32 bit image format.

what IE games use is a color that, when used, is transparent. now it seems to me that it is the first color in that (256 color) pallet, and the second one is supposed to be a semi-transparent used for the items shadow. But it doesn't work many have tried all have failed. so don't bother with it. However you can use a dark gray it simulate the shadow.

I could go on on how you might want to deal with these issues but instead I'll tell you how I make a bam

I get my image ready working on a transparent background. Once it is as good as it is going to get,
I create a new layer, [layers-> new layer]
color fill the new layer with black,
switch the new layer with the old [by dragging them in the layers window]
your image should now be on a black background.
clean up any pixels that did not get properly erased,
Flatten the image,
Then do a color dump (set to 0 tolerance) of RBG color 0,151,151 on the black part (this step can be dont in any color but it might save you a step later).
convert to indexed color
save as .bmp

So far as working with BWS1 here is a tut I used (the full link is in the first part of my tut in previous link)

1. Open BAMW.
2. In the Sequence box on the right, right-click and hit Add Sequence.
3. Click the Frames tab.
4. Right-click the box and hit Create Frame.
5. Change the image size to 1x1 (this doesn't really matter, but I think smaller is better).
6. Save your BAM as whatever you want.
7. Close BAMW.
8. Reopen BAMW.
9. Load the BAM you just saved.
10. Click the Manage button.
11. Select the frame you created and hit delete. Hit Close when you're done.

Now that that is done… Click Sequence 0; then hit the Frames Tab. Right-click and hit Import Frame. Select your first image (the one that appears when moving items around in the inventory). That’s one sequence done. Go back to the Sequence tab. Right-click and hit Add Sequence. Click Sequence 1; then hit the Frames Tab. Right-click and hit Import Frame. Select your second image (the one that appears when an item is just sitting in your inventory). Now use File->Save, and you’re done. Yay.

when you edit an items color you might want to use 'overlay' and not 'normal' normal will color over the colors where as overlay will change the colors to what you want, leaving the original details

This post has been edited by Sir-Kill: Feb 8 2009, 10:15 PM