Feral Heart

Help & Guidance => Game Help => Topic started by: jackthealpha on July 07, 2016, 06:53:44 pm

Title: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: jackthealpha on July 07, 2016, 06:53:44 pm
Hello everyone! Could someone help me? I'm making my first ever FH preset: Temmie from Undertale! Thus far, everything has worked out just fine.

Except the mane.

It's extremely blocky and weird looking. So, I tried basically everything on the face of the earth I could think of, including messing with the coding a bit

Here it is:
material preset_3_maneMat
{
        technique
        {
                pass
                {
                       cull_hardware none
                       cull_software none
                       alpha_rejection greater_equal 128
                       texture_unit
                       {
                                texture preset_3mane.png
                }
          }
     }
}



It's supposed to be a feline mane, if that makes a difference. Not sure. Anyways, I've tried everything. Using just the normal mane, using just the mask, using both (The normal mane a .jpg, the mask using .png. I would try switching it, but the normal mane doesn't work with .png for me)

It just seems so stubborn! I've tried looking it up, but it's just not making sense to me. If anyone has the foggiest clue what might be wrong, please let me know. This is my first preset, and it's actually not as bad as I thought it'd be so far (trust me, it sucks, but it's not as sucky as I expected which I'm quite proud of myself for), and I really want to finish it. Help, please?

Edit: When I tried using just the mask, it looked really ugly and weird.
Edit2: I'm using Paint Tool SAI, by the way.
Title: Re: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: G4RG0YLE on July 07, 2016, 07:40:53 pm
Code: [Select]
material preset_#_maneMat
{
technique
{
pass
{
lighting off
cull_hardware none
cull_software none
scene_blend alpha_blend
depth_write off
texture_unit
{
texture preset_#mane.png
}
}
}
}

Try using this fluff. Just simply replace the # with the number of your preset (e.g texture preset_8mane.png). You might also want to change the .png to .jpg as that is what you've decided to use. ^_^
Title: Re: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: Kynvuu on July 07, 2016, 07:41:37 pm
You should ideally use the mask, as it's important to have the transparent part there in order to get rid of the blocks in it. I would suggest pasting the black mask on top of what you already have, then select the inverse of the black, lock the transparent particles, and then erase the mane that appears in the transparent part. Hope that made sense? xD I can try and explain it better if ya don't understand.
Title: Re: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: jackthealpha on July 07, 2016, 08:52:47 pm
Code: [Select]
material preset_#_maneMat
{
technique
{
pass
{
lighting off
cull_hardware none
cull_software none
scene_blend alpha_blend
depth_write off
texture_unit
{
texture preset_#mane.png
}
}
}
}

Try using this fluff. Just simply replace the # with the number of your preset (e.g texture preset_8mane.png). You might also want to change the .png to .jpg as that is what you've decided to use. ^_^

Thanks for the help! However, it didn't seem to fix the blockiness. Thanks anyways, though!
Title: Re: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: jackthealpha on July 07, 2016, 08:53:43 pm
You should ideally use the mask, as it's important to have the transparent part there in order to get rid of the blocks in it. I would suggest pasting the black mask on top of what you already have, then select the inverse of the black, lock the transparent particles, and then erase the mane that appears in the transparent part. Hope that made sense? xD I can try and explain it better if ya don't understand.

Ah, I'm not really sure how to do that ^^" I'm quite new to using Paint Tool SAI ^^"
Title: Re: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: G4RG0YLE on July 07, 2016, 08:55:07 pm
Hm. It may then be that the mane would possibly work as a .png file, which also means that you'll have to rename it to .png in the preset .mat file. If all else fails, I can happily take a closer look for you if you have a Skype or anything.~
Title: Re: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: Kynvuu on July 07, 2016, 08:58:31 pm
Ah, I'm not really sure how to do that ^^" I'm quite new to using Paint Tool SAI ^^"

I use photoshop, but I'm sure its not entirely too different from SAI. If you would like I could post screenshots and walk you through how to get the mask on the mane c:
Title: Re: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: jackthealpha on July 07, 2016, 09:13:06 pm
Hm. It may then be that the mane would possibly work as a .png file, which also means that you'll have to rename it to .png in the preset .mat file. If all else fails, I can happily take a closer look for you if you have a Skype or anything.~

Still nothin', sorry to say ;; And I don't have a skype. If you have a DA or email, I might be able to send pictures of the preset?
Title: Re: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: jackthealpha on July 07, 2016, 09:13:31 pm
Ah, I'm not really sure how to do that ^^" I'm quite new to using Paint Tool SAI ^^"

I use photoshop, but I'm sure its not entirely too different from SAI. If you would like I could post screenshots and walk you through how to get the mask on the mane c:

That'd be awesome, thanks!
Title: Re: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: G4RG0YLE on July 07, 2016, 09:20:48 pm
I'll allow Kynvuu to help you for now, and if that doesn't work then I will happily contact you via dA. c:
Title: Re: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: jackthealpha on July 07, 2016, 09:21:42 pm
I'll allow Kynvuu to help you for now, and if that doesn't work then I will happily contact you via dA. c:

A'ight, thank you so much! :3 I'll PM you if needed, if you don't mind :3
Title: Re: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: Kynvuu on July 07, 2016, 10:01:32 pm
 Sure, no problem! Hope this makes better sense!
Alrighty, well I start with both my mane and mask files open. Using the select tool, I select the entire are of the mask and copy it over onto a new layer above my existing mane layer.
(http://i63BannedImageSite/34j2gcw.png)
(http://i63BannedImageSite/6tcqo9.png)

Then I use my magic wand tool (Or any tool that will select only one color) to select the whole black area of the mask.
(http://i64BannedImageSite/1zl3loj.png)

Then I right click on the image and hit "Select Inverse" You may have to search the toolbar at the top of SAI to find this option, not quite sure how it works.
(http://i63BannedImageSite/4ue3vo.png)

Once the inverse is selected, I go over to my original mane layer, and then hit the delete key, which will delete the mane in the transparent area of the mask, which is what we want.
(http://i65BannedImageSite/2vuf2hl.png)

After that, you can simply delete the black mask, as it is no longer needed. I like to go over the pointy triange area with a smudge brush to *slightly* smudge it. If you smudge it too much, you might get the blockiness back again.
(http://i68BannedImageSite/6h59qu.png)

Hope this works!
Title: Re: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: jackthealpha on July 07, 2016, 10:30:04 pm
Sure, no problem! Hope this makes better sense!
Alrighty, well I start with both my mane and mask files open. Using the select tool, I select the entire are of the mask and copy it over onto a new layer above my existing mane layer.
(http://i63BannedImageSite/34j2gcw.png)
(http://i63BannedImageSite/6tcqo9.png)

Then I use my magic wand tool (Or any tool that will select only one color) to select the whole black area of the mask.
(http://i64BannedImageSite/1zl3loj.png)

Then I right click on the image and hit "Select Inverse" You may have to search the toolbar at the top of SAI to find this option, not quite sure how it works.
(http://i63BannedImageSite/4ue3vo.png)

Once the inverse is selected, I go over to my original mane layer, and then hit the delete key, which will delete the mane in the transparent area of the mask, which is what we want.
(http://i65BannedImageSite/2vuf2hl.png)

After that, you can simply delete the black mask, as it is no longer needed. I like to go over the pointy triange area with a smudge brush to *slightly* smudge it. If you smudge it too much, you might get the blockiness back again.
(http://i68BannedImageSite/6h59qu.png)

Hope this works!

I followed it basically exactly as you said (with a tiny change here and there because of Paint Tool SAI being stubborn ^^"), but unfortunately, it's still blocky, and now has a bunch of weird white triangles on the top... However, if I color over where the white is on the picture, those triangles disappear (even though in every preset I've seen, they don't color over those). Aaaand still blocky. I've heard that the 'mask2' makes it look better, but I don't know how to do that ;;
Title: Re: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: Kynvuu on July 07, 2016, 10:56:25 pm
The white triangles can be fixed by taking "Lighting off" out of your code, I believe. Try replacing your code with this:

material preset_3_maneMat
{
   technique
   {
      pass
      {
         cull_hardware none
         cull_software none
         scene_blend alpha_blend
         depth_write off
         texture_unit
         {
            texture preset_3mane.png
         }
      }
   }
}
Title: Re: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: jackthealpha on July 08, 2016, 08:18:47 pm
The white triangles can be fixed by taking "Lighting off" out of your code, I believe. Try replacing your code with this:

material preset_3_maneMat
{
   technique
   {
      pass
      {
         cull_hardware none
         cull_software none
         scene_blend alpha_blend
         depth_write off
         texture_unit
         {
            texture preset_3mane.png
         }
      }
   }
}

Ah, thanks! Turns out, though, that I actually made the white part of the mane, well, white, instead of transparent like it was supposed to be. That, along with fixing the coding, helped a lot! Thanks! The mane still looks a bit weird and spiky, but certainly much better. If there's a way to make the mane less spiky, that'd be cool, (since Temmie's mane is rather flow-y, not very spiky), but if not, that's fine as well. Thank you so much! *squeal* *nuzzle*
Title: Re: Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Post by: Kerriki on July 08, 2016, 08:25:07 pm
Glad it's working for you! As for your mane question, feel free to check out Ressy's tutorial here:

http://www.feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=53567.0

I'll be locking this up, but feel free to pm me if you have any more questions! c: