Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: stickpig on February 11, 2009, 08:30:10 PM

Title: squad art
Post by: stickpig on February 11, 2009, 08:30:10 PM
Looking to design a new squad art.

Can somone give me some tips on creating a good logo that will show up well.

Back ground color for instance.... I notice a lot of the squad logos have a grey or white back ground.

Which shows better?

I would like the logo to sit on top of the plane skin but not just be a square on top of the skin.

Not sure if I'm making myself clear but any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: 1701E on February 11, 2009, 08:54:15 PM
[. . .]
I would like the logo to sit on top of the plane skin but not just be a square on top of the skin.

Not sure if I'm making myself clear but any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance


I am not sure, since it has been a while since I uploaded mine, but are you attempting to make one looks like this on the plane:
(http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1f2c7c6f36520ce15795b29b5fe8394f6g.jpg)

Or would you want the background behind the Cat (in this art) to be a solid color and not the plane skin?
I need to clean this one up a bit, but I think White/grey is the color for transparency.

I take no credit for the creation of my current noseart, I am using it with permission for this.  Noseart for the VBF-18 squad.  I simply have cleaned it up and re-sized it for this.
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: Lord ReDhAwK on February 12, 2009, 05:27:47 AM
Heya Stickpig,

The nose art has to be a bmp (bitmap), 64 x 64 and 256 colors (8 bit indexed.)  By the way you are explaining it, you want a transparent background.  Make your background color 176, 176, 176.  Now place your squad logo on top of this background color.  Put this new bitmap into the CO's "squads" folder and name it after the squad CO like this....

redhawk.bmp

Have the CO log into the game and go to O' Club and click on Squads.  Click "Upload Nose Art".  It will generally take a few days before it is approved by HTC and available to all members on their a/c.

Let me know if you need help bud.

ReDhAwK

Title: Re: squad art
Post by: stickpig on February 12, 2009, 11:37:50 AM
I've got the size and all that but I like the way yours blends in.

Here is an example of an attempt I made.

http://www.sendpix.com/albums/09021123/x1p7kv4ylw/

I just dont like the square, boxy look.

I would like to do this one but I cant seem to make it work.

http://www.sendpix.com/albums/09021123/o34kct86zc/
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: Saxman on February 12, 2009, 01:05:37 PM
Wish they'd up the size for the artwork a little bit.

For that matter, still wish they'd allow personal art as well.
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: The Fugitive on February 12, 2009, 02:44:30 PM
I've got the size and all that but I like the way yours blends in.

Here is an example of an attempt I made.

http://www.sendpix.com/albums/09021123/x1p7kv4ylw/

I just dont like the square, boxy look.

I would like to do this one but I cant seem to make it work.

http://www.sendpix.com/albums/09021123/o34kct86zc/

I squared this up a bit, added the rest of the collar, and added a bit of color. The grey background should be transparent on the plane.

(http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii253/maddogjoe_photos/dog.jpg)
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: stickpig on February 12, 2009, 04:02:00 PM
I squared this up a bit, added the rest of the collar, and added a bit of color. The grey background should be transparent on the plane.

(http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii253/maddogjoe_photos/dog.jpg)

Sir.

Thank you very much. I appreciate the help. I will put it on a plane tonight and see how it looks.

Again, thanks to all the help from everyone :rock :salute
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: Kazaa on February 12, 2009, 04:20:42 PM
Here's mine.

(http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n268/Luke_831/3Badges.jpg)
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: stickpig on February 12, 2009, 07:14:08 PM
Fugitive,

I cant seem to get it to work. It downloads as a jpeg. If I convert it to a bmp its took large.

What am I missing?
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: Saxman on February 12, 2009, 07:22:38 PM
BMP compression isn't as good as JPG so it WILL be bigger.
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: stickpig on February 12, 2009, 10:10:46 PM
Yea but all the squad logos are bmp 5.05Kb

the jpeg is only 1. something and as a bmp its 12kb

So neither will load
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: Saxman on February 12, 2009, 10:50:27 PM
Make sure it's in 256 colors.
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: The Fugitive on February 13, 2009, 08:18:00 AM
The host site I uploaded it to changes it to a jpg file  :huh  This one should stay a bmp.

(http://webpages.charter.net/maddogjoe/cobra/dog1.bmp)
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: stickpig on February 13, 2009, 09:35:31 AM
Thank you  :salute

I will try it tonight when I get home.
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: FTJR on February 13, 2009, 09:39:53 AM
A quick question, when I try for the transpancy, the rgb 176, then I load it onto a plane just to look. The background sticks out. Is that normal with non approved squad art?
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: oboe on February 14, 2009, 10:19:17 AM
I'm not sure what causes the rgb 176 to not be invisible, but I know it has nothing to do with whether or not your art has been approved...
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: The Fugitive on February 14, 2009, 10:44:02 AM
I find that sometimes when you drop the number of colors to 256 it sometimes changes the background color just a bit and it is no longer 176. One work around I use is to get the image to 256, and select just the main part of the image and copy it. I then pull up one of the squad art in the squads folder in the game that has the same colors, and erase the image on that one, leaving the 176 background. Paste the selected image from the first into the second and save as a new name.
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: stickpig on February 14, 2009, 05:15:35 PM
http://www.sendpix.com/albums/09021319/n219qhhfpw/?a=view&i=0

Still comes in a box  :cry
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: 1701E on February 14, 2009, 07:53:01 PM
It needs a major make over from my version, but is this what you are looking for?

(http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/59766edc68a44d5e20b6c096e60c62496g.jpg)

Sorry about the angle/quality.
All I did was go into MS Paint, and put white over the gray Box, and cut/pasted onto my current Squad logo to make sure all colors were correct, and went online.  After making sure it worked I simply changed my VBF-18 back to the correct folder, and renamed the Dog one, so no worries, I'm not using your Logo. :)
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: Saxman on February 14, 2009, 11:06:37 PM
It looks like some of the stuff that's supposed to be solid accidentally got turned transparent.
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: 1701E on February 14, 2009, 11:10:04 PM
It looks like some of the stuff that's supposed to be solid accidentally got turned transparent.

Yea, I didn't really take any time on this, was just testing it.  Hence why it needs a makeover. :)
Not fully sure what was the same color, but I'm sure one of the more experienced people can fix it.
Title: Re: squad art
Post by: stickpig on February 15, 2009, 11:15:57 AM
Yes it along the lines of what Im looking for.

I want it to seem like some one painted the logo over the planes paint...Like in RL