I have an animal...a shark with a black background, and I want to transfer it to blue background. The shark from ZT1 has been recolored to have some brown coloring and a bit of red/orange in separate areas of the shark. I don't know if that makes any difference or not.
My question is: I am having difficulty transferring my shark to the new background because I can't get rid of the original background of black. I am clicking on tools-select by color and setting the threshold to 0. When I click on an area in the background and press clear, the background doesn't dissappear Sometimes if I click on a certain spot, just that small area will turn white, and not any of the rest. I get all those little white pixals around the black area, when I click on it, but still the black area doesn't clear.
Any suggestions on what I need to do?
Thank you in advance.
JohnRN1
Gimp Progm
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Jay
- african elephant keeper
- Posts: 11552
- Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2004 9:23 pm
- Location: Orlando, FL (M:66)
It is difficult to say what the specific problem might be. From GIMP's perspective, there are 3 types of backgrounds: the foreground color (which is usually set to black when first going in GIMP), the background color (which is usually set to white when first going in GIMP), or transparency. When it is not using a transparent background, the Edit->Clear sets the selected area to whatever the background color is currently set to. You can see the currently selected foreground and background colors in GIMP's Toolbox window. So it is possible you have the background color set to black.
I prefer using transparency, but this can be very confusing, so you might not want to use it, although I will mention it here just in case. Not all images have transparency and sometimes it needs to be added. To add the capability when it is not already there, click Layer->Transparency->Add Alpha Channel. Then when you select an area and click Edit->Clear, it should show a faint checkerboard pattern in the area that is cleared. But transparency can be confusing. Although the selected area's color might look gone, it is actually remembered. You can see what the color used to be by clicking Tools->Color Picker, making sure there is a checkmark in the "Info Window" box, and clicking in the transparent area. That also can change the foreground color if you are doing any drawing. I believe ZT, Zoot, and APE do not recognize the transparency layer, though, and still see this color that used to be there. So I usually fill that area (Tools->Paint Tools->Bucket Fill) with the same color I use for the top left pixel before I do the Edit->Clear.
Also, different tools can show those little white pixels around an area. So sometimes you might want to do Select->None to make sure there aren't little white pixels for something else before doing the Select->By Color. Hopefully your shark does not have black in its image, since that would also be selected when you do a Select->By Color for a black background, if both blacks are exactly the same shade. So if the Select->By Color selects more than just the background, the Tools->Selection Tools->Fuzzy Select might be a better choice.
I hope something in this post helps you. Good luck.
I prefer using transparency, but this can be very confusing, so you might not want to use it, although I will mention it here just in case. Not all images have transparency and sometimes it needs to be added. To add the capability when it is not already there, click Layer->Transparency->Add Alpha Channel. Then when you select an area and click Edit->Clear, it should show a faint checkerboard pattern in the area that is cleared. But transparency can be confusing. Although the selected area's color might look gone, it is actually remembered. You can see what the color used to be by clicking Tools->Color Picker, making sure there is a checkmark in the "Info Window" box, and clicking in the transparent area. That also can change the foreground color if you are doing any drawing. I believe ZT, Zoot, and APE do not recognize the transparency layer, though, and still see this color that used to be there. So I usually fill that area (Tools->Paint Tools->Bucket Fill) with the same color I use for the top left pixel before I do the Edit->Clear.
Also, different tools can show those little white pixels around an area. So sometimes you might want to do Select->None to make sure there aren't little white pixels for something else before doing the Select->By Color. Hopefully your shark does not have black in its image, since that would also be selected when you do a Select->By Color for a black background, if both blacks are exactly the same shade. So if the Select->By Color selects more than just the background, the Tools->Selection Tools->Fuzzy Select might be a better choice.
I hope something in this post helps you. Good luck.
Hi Jay,
I used the Tools->Selection Tools->Fuzzy Select because I think some of the shark color is the same as the background color. It worked but I had to click on about 4-5 different secitons of background to get it all cleared.
However, it still has some random pixcels that can't be eliminated; the transfer to the new background is white like the background of the shark after using the clear button as above.
The transparency is difficult to understand, so I will try some other animals, and see what happens.
Thanks again
I used the Tools->Selection Tools->Fuzzy Select because I think some of the shark color is the same as the background color. It worked but I had to click on about 4-5 different secitons of background to get it all cleared.
However, it still has some random pixcels that can't be eliminated; the transfer to the new background is white like the background of the shark after using the clear button as above.
The transparency is difficult to understand, so I will try some other animals, and see what happens.
Thanks again
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Jay
- african elephant keeper
- Posts: 11552
- Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2004 9:23 pm
- Location: Orlando, FL (M:66)
I agree with fern in using Zoot to extract images whenever possible. There are some types of images it cannot extract. But if you can see the image in Zoot, then you can extract the image in Zoot. To extract an image in Zoot, click on the image and then click the 7th icon in the icon toolbar. Its tooltip says "Save the currently selected ZT image to PNG format". If the image is an animation, it saves all of the frames of the animation in separate ".png" files.
As for eliminating random pixels in GIMP, you can use Tools->Selection Tools->Rectangle Select. You would then move the mouse pointer somewhere, press the left mouse button, and, while still pressing the left mouse button, move the mouse to form a rectangle or square around the random pixel or pixels you want to clear. Then release the mouse button. In order to do this more accurately, you might want to zoom into the image first using View->Zoom and one of the zoom levels, such as 8:1.
As for eliminating random pixels in GIMP, you can use Tools->Selection Tools->Rectangle Select. You would then move the mouse pointer somewhere, press the left mouse button, and, while still pressing the left mouse button, move the mouse to form a rectangle or square around the random pixel or pixels you want to clear. Then release the mouse button. In order to do this more accurately, you might want to zoom into the image first using View->Zoom and one of the zoom levels, such as 8:1.
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Jay
- african elephant keeper
- Posts: 11552
- Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2004 9:23 pm
- Location: Orlando, FL (M:66)
If you are trying to extract an image for an icon, usually the image used is the one set to idle in the Animations section of the ".uca". So if idle is set to subswim, for example, it is an image from the subswim animation that would normally be used for the icon. But, as fern indicates, you can use whatever image you feel is best. Sometimes designers want to point out 1 or more of their other animations and choose something other than what idle is set to.
yeah, I just choose the image I like the most from somewhere in the animation set!
I also make the background to the icon a size to suit the image. I have a number of different backgrounds which I made a while ago, just by taking a screenshot of grassland green terrain from ingame and cutting out various appropriately sized bits of it. I recolour the background to give whichever terrian I'm after. Then I paste the image from the animation set onto the icon background, position it where I want it and save.
I personally use APE to insert the icons because it has a really neat resize algorithm, so if the icon is too big, it just automatically resizes it for you. It can cope with icons to fit any zoot tycoon animal this way.
If I don't like the result, then I have two other methodologies that I use.
Either I resize the completed icon down to 37 pixels wide by 27 deep using gimp (which can do resizing using scale image, either set to interpolation none, cubic or sinc - I usually try all three and pick the nicest)
Or, I resize the image from the animation set to fit on a background 37 by 27, again using gimp, scale images set to interpolation none, and then paste onto a pre-made 37x27 background.
I then choose whichever of these pleases me most and use that.
I also make the background to the icon a size to suit the image. I have a number of different backgrounds which I made a while ago, just by taking a screenshot of grassland green terrain from ingame and cutting out various appropriately sized bits of it. I recolour the background to give whichever terrian I'm after. Then I paste the image from the animation set onto the icon background, position it where I want it and save.
I personally use APE to insert the icons because it has a really neat resize algorithm, so if the icon is too big, it just automatically resizes it for you. It can cope with icons to fit any zoot tycoon animal this way.
If I don't like the result, then I have two other methodologies that I use.
Either I resize the completed icon down to 37 pixels wide by 27 deep using gimp (which can do resizing using scale image, either set to interpolation none, cubic or sinc - I usually try all three and pick the nicest)
Or, I resize the image from the animation set to fit on a background 37 by 27, again using gimp, scale images set to interpolation none, and then paste onto a pre-made 37x27 background.
I then choose whichever of these pleases me most and use that.
small correction!! I only start with grassland green background if I want the result to be green, otherwise it is a lot easier to start with desert brown! Sorry about that - my memory is shot to pieces for various reasons. 
Just as an example, I'm working on a kangaroo at the moment, and the blue fang people used an animation out of the 'walk' set, so I have used the same image from my own creation to make my icons. The male and female animals are different colours so I have made two icons, one for female and one for male.
Just as an example, I'm working on a kangaroo at the moment, and the blue fang people used an animation out of the 'walk' set, so I have used the same image from my own creation to make my icons. The male and female animals are different colours so I have made two icons, one for female and one for male.