See if this will work. It has a transparent background to should fit over your work. It should come to about the right location over Slim's outline. (lower left)

I have also been working on Klingon Espionage but it is not at a show and tell stage.

Looking better and better. I'm thinking about splashing some blood over the helmet and the ground.

It is looking much better. The blood would look nice. I will wait to see what Slim says about the rest.
Space photos http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41278256/?b ... &GT1=43001

Slim was asking to see the image at higher resolution. That made me realize what the problem is. That image is at 270 x 225 px. This is the final image size called for in Mike's code. The detail and message is hard to pick out at best. I will play with it a bit and perhaps you can as well. The helmet and downed officer are clear but we lose much of the rest. Some highlights as you would get form a 3D model may help. We will see.

270x225 is the size of the structure image windows, but there are several instances where the game has larger display windows that require larger images, such as the Galaxy Background and the Intel screens. If Slim prefers to create images with lots of detail, then it might be better if he was to concentrate on making these. The size of the structure image window means the images need to focus on a small number of large objects/structures (Or even just one object/structure) rather than having lots of little ones that are difficult to see.

The game itself automatically and dynamically resizes images as and when they are displayed, based on the resolution of the monitor they are displayed on and the size of the display window in which they are called upon. There's also no problem in using images that are larger than the display window because the game will do the opposite and shrink them as necessary (Note that truly enormous images could have some performance impacts though).

We use 270x225 simply because that's the size of the structure image window. If Mike were to increase the size of this window then the game would enlarge all of the existing structure images to fit, although this would result in image stretching and a loss of quality. It also works the other way around; using images that are larger than the windows would simply cause the game to shrink them down.

Case in point: here's the Supremacy background image resized to 270x225 and then displayed ingame. The game automatically resizes it to my display size, which is 1280x1024. Notice the difference in quality between the buttons and the background. I've spoiler tagged it to prevent thread distortion.

Vjeko, Kenneth and Matress. Verrrry nice work!!!

I am back from my LOA. While gone I worked on learning to color and UV map 3D images. Getting closer and may have something this weekend. It was the big gap in my skill set. Photoshop is the next challenge. I may be asking for lots of tips from the experts here. Bashir

Ah yes, Photoshop my favorite tool for over 6 years now.

I've never even touched Photoshop. I make do with M$ Paint and Irfanview.

You should give it a try. You get better results simpler and faster with it.

You could go with GIMP. It is free

I worked with GIMP a bit trying to highlight the figures more. It is like standing on the shoulders of giants. Vjeko1701 did the real work here. Anyway here is the WIP at 270 x 225 and again at 540 x 450.

That is just soooo nice looking. Guys, we need to make Desktop wallpapers out of this. Vjeko, what about the Cardassian images I was supposed to do? I like them this way better I think. I'll try a ship for this image. Bashir

That would be fine as long as you keep the background images for that race all in the same style. I have the two Romulan backgrounds done as 3D models with light post render work in GIMP. If you do one Cardassian background in photoshope you need to do both of them that way.

If you want I can make backgrounds for all your images in Photoshop. I'm mastering scenery images and am able to produce good results.

I like the new Chalna images, but the two planets are not as visible as they were before. If you want more colors I can add them.

Thanks for pointing that out. I have to go back and look at the setting on that planet layer. It must have been turned down or off by accident.

BTW one of the "planets" in Slim's image was a spherical gas storage tank that is used by the buildings as an energy source. At least that is how I interpreted what Slim said about it.

OK I think I figured out what happened to the planets, (At lest it is back.) If you want to add the ship back in please have at it. I would say we put 540 x 450 images in the game and let it scale if it needs to.

Beautiful Gentlemen, Beautiful!! You should be proud. Vjeko, Go ahead and do the Obsidian Order and the other Cardassian image from the ground up. I think it will be much better then what I did. Throwin in the Bash towel

No, I can't do 3D stuff. I like the images the way you did them. I was just saying I can do the backgrounds for them. By background I mean sky, terrain, mountains... This image is not game ready. Atleast the first two people (Chalna and Kaylar) will have to be replaced with 3D models.

Here is the Chalnoth Ship image in 3D. I can easily recolor any portion of it if you desire.

I guess the other option is to send Kenneth my progress on the Cardassian female and see if he can make it work.

Captain B.

Here is another color with more specularity. Bashir

Excellent. My battleship is ready.

...

I made an animation to see how the Chalnoth image had evolved over time. The animation turned out to be 7mb though so I decided not to post it. But PM me if you want a look.

I like the way it looks. It is more graphic novel and not so photo real as a model. That is OK for these smaller images by me. For now we do not have the time to put humanoid models in anyway.

If you do not want to buy photoshope Captain B take a look at GIMP. It is free. If you take your model and render it with a transparent background ( or later make the background transparent in GIMP) you can set it as a layer over that Chalna image. You should try reducing it's opacity a bit as it is in the distance unlike the helmet model. This might be a good way to learn GIMP Captain. It is a good tool to have if you want to do textures for your models. There is online help for it and I could help with some questions.

Hey Kenneth.

I actually recently acquired Photoshop. I am still learning its use. In the past I have been a Paint Shop Pro user. I use it to composite these images simply because of familiarity with it. I tried GIMP for a while but was a little confused by it. I have actually had better luck with Photoshop, the limited amount of time I have played with it.

Here is the Chalna Image, one with a clear ship and one with a slight blur. I think it needs to be shrouded in some mist or something.

Bashir

The blurring is a good idea. It helps to give a sense of distance, and stuff that#s far away *wouldn't* be in focus anyways. The mist might be a good idea too. It could be engine exhaust, or a cloud layer to show the ship is high up. Don't add too much though or it'll obscure the ship and make it difficult to see/work out what it is. Remember the image is going to be shrunk down, so what matters is how it looks when it is small, not when it is big.

I suggest that first you render the ship in harsher light. Make the underside darker so the engine glow stands out more. Also add a material to the skin of the ship that gives it the more texture. A normal map or just some noise in the color will do. You can also copy some of the sky and set it as a partly transparent mist over the image of the ship. That may give it a better look as well.

I can try to blend it in.

Ok, this is the ship on my version of the image.

Good call on the harsher lighting Kenneth.

Yeah Vjeko, I was thinking of either mist or battle smoke. Something to make the ship look ominous. Just what you did.

I did two harsher ships, one with white engine illumination (as before) and one tinged yellow. CB

I have been experimenting with some materials and lighting for the ship. Unfortunately transferring the file to blender lost some of the objects. There are no engines and the humps on the back are also gone. I think it looks better without the guns.

Damn, it still looks good though! Can't wait to see it blended in with the rest of the image.