2 replies to this topic

[wimlore]

[SOLVED]Hello! Thanks for reading!

I have a proccess for making tile sheets in a top-down game that I feel requires too many steps.

My main goal is to find a simpler way to take a 4608x64 PNG Strip and convert it into a 512x576 PNG that I will use a background for a tilesheet.

For better understanding of these tilesheets, let me show you what a finished one looks like...

(This is a zombie's death animation, with his head exploding)

This is not a tutorial, I am just going to go over the steps I went through in order to produce this tile sheet.

Step 1: Create a Model/Figure in the free 3d program: Anim8or
Step 2: Create a 8-frame sequence animation
Step 3: Render the 8-frame sequence from 9 different camera angles at 256x256(72 images total)
Step 4: Create a Sprite in Game Maker, using all 72 rendered images.
Step 5: Reduce Canvas Sizes(Centered) to 50%(Cropping all images to the inner 128x128) in GM.
Step 6: Stretch(reduce) the images to 50% at excellent quality in GM.(Now all images are 64x64 retaining maximum detail).
Step 7: Save as a PNG_Strip in GM.
---Here is where I get annoyed with all my steps, the rest are while using the free art program: GIMP---
Step 8: Load PNG_Strip into GIMP.
Step 9: Using Hotkeys, I quickly settup a grid that is 512x64, with 64x64 snapping.
Step 10: Resize Canvas to 4608x576, resizing layers as well.
Step 11: Cut & Paste 512x64 chunks of the strip, stacking them from top to bottom(Repeate 7 times!!).
Step 12: Autocrop image to a 512x576 PNG that will be loaded and used by the Game.

So my dream is to be able to just run a simple console program that takes the PNG_Strip and stacks the 512x64 chunks for me. But before I go diving into IDEs and Compilers and having to learn C++ (which is what I think I will have to do) I was wondering if anyone had any clever ideas on how to shorten my proccess?

It is not THAT much work and I am getting faster and faster, I am just concerned about my poor tendons and all the clicking and dragging and what not. Thanks for your interest! And yes, that tile sheet is free to use... IF YOU KNOW HOW!! MWUAHA

Edited by wimlore, 27 January 2012 - 10:40 PM.

[thaaks]

So my dream is to be able to just run a simple console program that takes the PNG_Strip and stacks the 512x64 chunks for me. But before I go diving into IDEs and Compilers and having to learn C++ (which is what I think I will have to do) I was wondering if anyone had any clever ideas on how to shorten my proccess?

Check out ImageMagick, it should do all that you need, is a console program and you can write little batch files for it

Here's the link: Image Magick

Hope that helps,
Thomas

[wimlore]

Thank you Thomas, I really appreciate that. I downloaded the Image Magick program and could not seam to figure it out So I made a little program with game maker that uses surfaces and stuff to convert the strips into tilesheets.

Here it is if you are interested:
mza tilesheet creator.zip
Just have to select the strip that came with the exe, convert, save, and wall-ah.