Background
So the other day I was going through my graphic collection for custom Ultima Online artwork. The idea that was going through my head was that I want to eventually package it up and give it to people in some sort of repository. The trouble is that people, in general, tend to be really obsessive as to which background colors they will use for items in the game; don't ask me why but some people prefer black colored backgrounds (r0, g0, b0), while others prefer white colored backgrounds (r255, g255, b255). So my thought was that if I release all this content, then I want to release all of the artwork with both white and black backgrounds; no exceptions.
With that said there aren't very many programs out there that will do this automatically. Even using a paint program requires you to sit there with the magicwand selection tool and click away; hoping you don't delete colors that are very close (in RGB value) to the colors you are trying to get rid of from the actual art on the canvas. So in the last two days I pieced together a program that will do exactly what I have been having issues trying to achieve with most other paint programs like Paintshop, Gimp, Paint.NET, and Adobe Photoshop. Now that I have completed it, I thought that it would be a great time to release it and let you guys enjoy it since it was created with UO pixel art in mind.
The Program
On A Final Note
The "Custom Image" pane has a feature that the "Original Image" pane does not have. This feature allows you to click the middle mouse button to drag, or move, your "Custom Image" bitmap around the pane. It also allows you to use the scrolling feature of the middle mouse button on that pane as well. This was implemented so I could compare the pixels from the original image with that of the custom image.
ScreenShots
So the other day I was going through my graphic collection for custom Ultima Online artwork. The idea that was going through my head was that I want to eventually package it up and give it to people in some sort of repository. The trouble is that people, in general, tend to be really obsessive as to which background colors they will use for items in the game; don't ask me why but some people prefer black colored backgrounds (r0, g0, b0), while others prefer white colored backgrounds (r255, g255, b255). So my thought was that if I release all this content, then I want to release all of the artwork with both white and black backgrounds; no exceptions.
With that said there aren't very many programs out there that will do this automatically. Even using a paint program requires you to sit there with the magicwand selection tool and click away; hoping you don't delete colors that are very close (in RGB value) to the colors you are trying to get rid of from the actual art on the canvas. So in the last two days I pieced together a program that will do exactly what I have been having issues trying to achieve with most other paint programs like Paintshop, Gimp, Paint.NET, and Adobe Photoshop. Now that I have completed it, I thought that it would be a great time to release it and let you guys enjoy it since it was created with UO pixel art in mind.
The Program
- is divided into two panes:
- When first launched you will load a file into the left "Original Image" pane.
- It will then duplicate itself into the right "Custom Image" pane
- this is your editing pane and will show all your modifications as you make them
- It will then duplicate itself into the right "Custom Image" pane
- When first launched you will load a file into the left "Original Image" pane.
- the middle controls have four options:
- Interpolation Mode:
- For Ultima Online pixel art you are going to want to select the "NearestNeighbor" option
- this will make both images appear like they would in any paint program
- zoomed and pixelated so you can see the differences of color in each pixel
- this will make both images appear like they would in any paint program
- For Ultima Online pixel art you are going to want to select the "NearestNeighbor" option
- Select Color To Replace:
- Here you will select whichever background color your "Original Image" has
- for Ultima Online pixel art this will either be true white or true black
- see the RGB values above as a reference
- for Ultima Online pixel art this will either be true white or true black
- Here you will select whichever background color your "Original Image" has
- Select Replacement Color:
- Here you will select whichever background color you want for your "Custom Image"
- for Ultima Online pixel art this will either be true white or true black
- see the RGB values above as a reference
- for Ultima Online pixel art this will either be true white or true black
- Here you will select whichever background color you want for your "Custom Image"
- Threshold:
- This feature allows you to contract your chosen background color by one or more pixels
- almost like inverting your image colors: like a negative of a photograph
- it was added to ensure that the images I loaded in to test the program weren't distorted after the background new colors were introduced.
- almost like inverting your image colors: like a negative of a photograph
- By default this setting is at 1%: this is the recommended setting for this feature
- This feature allows you to contract your chosen background color by one or more pixels
- Interpolation Mode:
- has three major buttons:
- Load Original Image:
- allows user to load an image to the "Original Image" pane
- ← Set Custom Image As Original:
- allows user to load their modified "Custom Image" into the "Original Image" pane
- Save Custom Image:
- allows user to save their newly modified bitmap to their local drive
- Load Original Image:
On A Final Note
The "Custom Image" pane has a feature that the "Original Image" pane does not have. This feature allows you to click the middle mouse button to drag, or move, your "Custom Image" bitmap around the pane. It also allows you to use the scrolling feature of the middle mouse button on that pane as well. This was implemented so I could compare the pixels from the original image with that of the custom image.
ScreenShots
