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.

welcome to bwl.
I must have missed this post or I could have answered sooner.
can you post the bmp (or convert it to jpg then post) so I can see where your problem is?

depending on how you made the image depends on how to correct it. you might have worked on an image with a transparent background created a new layer, color dumped the 151,0,151 RBG then flattened the image. if so the semi-transparent parts might have combined to make a slightly different green/teal.
if so; use a black color dump, flatten the image, then flood fill with the right green/teal

if not; you might have lost the correct green/teal when you converted it to 256 color/indexed color.

lastly why would you use "ITEM GRAPHIC CONVERTER" when you can use BWS1

Hello thank you very much for your answer

I make my 2 bmp files for one bam with DLTCEP , someone told me we can also do it with Near Infinity; but i didn't found how yet.
I will post you a bam soon.
The weird fact is when i do nothing on the 2 bmp and make them a bam with the converter i don't see the green bottom IN GAME...
so it's probably a problem about setting the bmp as a RGB image like you say it.
I don't know much about graphism and i learned all by myself, searching in internet, and asking in much forums.
I will try with your advices, make a bam.
I didn't know BWS1, i was already happy find ITEM GRAPHIC CONVERTER; but i will try it for sure.

Thanks a lot for your support Sir-Kill

No problem. I learned graphics the same way . starting with bams and moving to making areas in 3d.
dont post the bam post the bmp I do not have anyway to view a bam on this comp (linux)

I do not think you can make bams in NI.

OH yes i mean post a bmp, it was a mistake .



This bmp image is in indexed colours, 1 layer.

There is something i don't understand with alpha canals, i want to copy the alpha canal of a bmp who works (thoses i didn't modified) to the bmp i modified. I tried work under "Lock alpha canal" it doesn't worked.

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)


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

Yes that's what i was wondering about: there is no alpha canal in an indexed colours image, cause i put an alpha canal on a indexed image and i got en error message telling me we can't do that. So it's really just the green color as you say who disapear in game; that mean changing colors make change the background color a little...
That's weird cause normally only colours in the selection change and i take care to not change colours of background (green and black shadow).

I will do your method; and make new trys !!!

Thanks you very much again

I think that DLTCEP uses the bright green 0,255,0 or was that bws2 (dont use bws2 btw) either way it does not matter. bws1 uses the teal green 0,151,151 as its default and it works so I don't try to fix it.

BTW you might need DLTCEP when you get your bam together to center the bam (if in-game it is sewed) it has a center bam button which is nice, you can adjust the bams position with bws1 but you need to know the correct coordinates.

This one work
If you watch well the black shadow is darker than the bams of the game; as you can see with BWS when you open a bam.



This one doesn't work

I've found a method under Gimp 2 after much ressearches (hours and hours), and i made this 2 bmp with (the 2 of the top); IT WORKED IN GAME; but i made another try and it doesn't worked, i probably miss something or mistaken myself or forgot something... i've found this by luck and i'm afraid have to ressearch it again...

I tried too paint and floodfill with the first two colors of the "palette" in BWS2; it could work but it's a lot of work for just one bam...
I'll try again tommorrow

HEY THERE !!!


A black 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 background and the green 120 100 100 0 255 0 in place of black 0 0 0 0 0 0 (GIMP 2 settings).

I found a quite good method; with your great advices Sir-Kill

I i've got that bmp you see at the end of my work in GIMP 2; i create a bam with Item Graphics Converter and in BamWokshop you just have to fill the green zones with the " dark shadow colour" ...cause that black 0 0 0 0 0 0 in GIMP 2 will appear transparent in BW and in game !

I tried many things and i think it's the best way to make some bams.

Now i can make some great bams; i really thanks you so much for your advices and patience Sir-Kill

After 15 hours ressearches it's ok ! It was not so hard in fact...

YES WE CAN

Cool I am glad you were able to get it working. At work so I cant talk long.

Hello BWL, hi Sir-Kill, i post a screen shot of my work on bams during last weeks; i've make a lot of progress and found how to make same bams (without painting fonts etc...) as the game with GIMP 2. I'll make a tutorial on my french language modding community; maybe after we'll traduce it in english.

cool.
did you use the overlay setting on your brush?

you might want to try to use some additional subtle color changes to different parts of the item. something like the belt or shoulder padding a different color.

No i didn't use the overlay setting and didn't use brush, i used tools of colors menu under GIMP 2, they're is many tools you can use, i was trying to do simple things; i've tried the overlay setting (on your advice) it can be useful but you have to take really care of pixels you paint, you can use overlay with floodfill tool. I think it's better than paint cause you can paint two times the same pixels if you don't take really care !!! Floodfill a selected zone with overlay setting is more simple i think and maybe brush for really little zones.
You can change part of the item colors: it depends how good are your selections of pixels zones, it's really important when you want put your bam in black and you touch at luminosity and in any case it's always better.

How to not have green fonts:
When you save your RGB image in indexed colours image you get a colors palette of this image and you have to reorganize it (--> reorganize colors palette) putting the green font color in first position in the palette (position 0); after doing that save it: with that kind of bmp indexed colours images you will see no green font in game or under Bam Workshop. Because bams are maked with two bmp images it can be useful to import the palette of the first bmp you worked on, like that you can save the other one with that palette (when you change it in indexed colour image chose the palette you imported). Now you're sure the two bmp of the bam have the same colors palette.

It's the global method but to make it works you have to make same colors changes on the two bmp images and the best pixels selections (it's quite some artistics and technical feelings, you will know what to do after experienced it) in your two RGB bmp image you worked on.

It's possible use many other tools of GIMP 2 to change colours of part of the item or of the entier item, personaly i used mostly the tools of the colours menu.

In any case i will be always curious know about other methods or possibilites !

My last work on bams : the next difficulty will be to get the good colours with DLTCEP to have the skin and the bam with same taint.

those would plt files iirc.
they look good now that you have coloring down you should make a completely unique bam from start to finish

OH !!! Do you mean i have to draw an item and paint it myself ? The charm of BG2 items comes from the so nice drawings, for example some of Icewind Dale 2 items looks 3D image maked and it don't look so bad but very different...not the same charm

well you do not have to but I know you can. Use an image from the net paint and shade it then crop and fit to bam size

I've made a Tutorial in four chapters to colorise bams using GIMP 2 (but in french : bam Tutorial). I have to traduce it in english and make screenshots with GIMP 2 in english, and i would be glad to give it to BWL ! I think in 2 weeks it will be OK there is not so much text and many screenshots.

Cool.
We can put it up on the tutorials section when you let BWL have it.

Hello BWL, hello Sir-Kill; a long time i didn't post (maybe 4 months), i have made this new armor with Gimp 2 using layers and other tools ! I finished to traduce the text of my bam tutorial in english but i have some problems making the screen shots in english, it's quite long to do : i installed Windows 7rc and GIMP 2 in english and i have now to install : internet, DLTCEP, and Baldur's Gate 2 ! I hope i will finish that things soon !

They Look good, Keep it up!
Sounds like a lot of work installing, good luck

You might be interested in BAM Batcher. I can mass-assemble BAMs from bitmaps, fix palette and offset issues, and other things. You don't need to mess with BAM Workshop or DLTCEP if you have a bunch of BAMs to make - just draw the bitmaps in your favourite graphics programme and this will do the rest. Particularly if you are just recolouring a bunch of BAMs this makes it quite easy.

Hello just wanted to announce that i finished traduce this tutorial for re-colorize bams finally (it toke me more time that i was thinking it should ) and that it is now available here : Bams re-colorization tutorial in BWL's Graphics-related tutorials section.

Thanks Tervadh for your advice, yeah i think i downloaded bam Batcher but didn't installed it yet, cause was not sure you can set transparency problems with it, but i will look at it cause its looks better in your words than in its "official" presentation.

Here some new original bams i created (maybe i will do another Tutorial for create original bams later) :

Nice work. Though it looks like the pommel of the second sword is cut off on the left a bit. You may need to expand the frame on the left by a pixel so it is a bit more round like the first sword's pommel.

yeah, its possible you lose some pixels when you reduce the size of your pic (by linearity or other method) and your item can look bad if you don't watch in detail. They look better in game, with this fluo green it kill your eyes. These bams were just some tries, think too the shadows are not very placed. I'll post my nexts who will be best cause i'll make them for my mod.