In the prop window (shown above) select a prop and clcik EDIT PROP on the right side, this opens the editor with that prop in it.
Or in the main chat window press Ctrl-A to open the editor "as is".
AV Editor.
In the prop window (shown above) select a prop and clcik EDIT PROP on the right side, this opens the editor with that prop in it.
Or in the main chat window press Ctrl-A to open the editor "as is".
There are nine main areas in the AV Editor.
A - The AV sized section. You can copy the contents of this image and the main edit image back and forth as you are working using the small cyan arrows under it.
B - the main edit image, here you will edit the prop. It is magnified 3X to make it easier to edit.
C - The magnified section, which is magnified at 7X to allow you to work in detail on tough areas. Changes you make here are immediatly updated in the main edit image(B).
This section has its own drawing controls visible to its right.
D - The main AV controls. With these you can copy between the AV sized image(A) and the main image(B) as well as save the AV sized image(A) or load into it. You can use ctrl-V or the paste can icon to paste to the normal AV sized image. You can also send the AV sized image(A) to the prop chest or set it on yourself in the room.
The Circular arrow button is an UNDO button. Which may save you if you make a mistake. I often send the main editor image to the normal sized image frequently as I edit as a safety net.
E - The main edit image controls. These determine what drawing opperation takes place. You can mouse over most of the controls and see what their function is. The two buttons on the far right allow you to apply drawing opperations to color and or alpha. You can for example turn OFF color and apply only alpha to sections of the image. Which would allow you to make areas of the image semi-transparent irrespective of their color.
Under them is a text entry box where you can type to chat in the room while you are editing.
F - The Color and Alpha selection section. Here you can specify the attributes of the active drawing color. You may set its R, G, B, and Alpha manually or click on the color palette to set color and use the Alpha slider to set Alpha. An Alpha of 0 would be fully transparent, an Alpha of 255 would be fully solid.
G - Lets you set the talk balloon locations and Name location for the Prop.
H - Lets you make a sprite (*.blb) used for scripts and effects from a 64x64 section of a Prop. This way the same editor can be used to make props AND sprites. Use the small arrows to move around to select the part to use as a blb.
Tips for making a prop with a transparent background.
Once you have sent a copy of the normal size image(A) to the main edit image(B) using the left pointing cyan arrow under the normal size image(A) you will want to start working to eliminate its background.
To do this you want to select a color that will stand out. In this case I chose green. And then slide the alpha bar down to 0. This will paint with a fully transparent green, no matter what tool you use to draw with.
Since this particular image has a gray rectangle at the bottom from where the original resized image didn't fill up the full 150x150 section we want to start with the fill tool.
Clicking on the gray rectangle will fill it with green with an alpha of 0. This will be transparent.
Next we will select the polygon tool this allows us to quickly color or erase uneven areas.
The polygon tool works slightly differently than most of the other tools. With the polygon tool you need to right click to stop the polygon. Each left click adds a point to the polygon and redraws the polygon.
Here you can see the result of my clicking in the upper right corner to start the polygon and then clicking down to the righ along the edge of the shirt. After about a dozen clicks we can see that it has replaced a part of the image with our selected color/alpha setting.
Here you can see the results of several polygons. It is easier to use a few polygons and work from an initial point that will let you reach into the edges you want to preserve. Trial and error will give you a feel for the process. I often leave sections untouched and then use the magnifing glass tool to work in the magnified section(C) on the difficult areas. This is nearly finished, but it has areas I would like to fix. For example the top of the hair needs to be cleaned up.
By comparing this image to the one above it you can see that I have not only cleaned up the hair. But also I have paid some attention to "spotty" sections of the image. After about 5 min of such work the image looks a bit better. And is more usable as an AV.
I can now use several of the buttons under the normal sized AV image.
First I will send a copy of the main image to the normal sized image with the right pointing cyan arrow button.
Next I will save the AV with the Arrow to Disk button.
And send it to the prop chest with the "to props" button to the right of the normal sized AV image.. 
AV Editor Shortcuts:
Ctrl-V = Paste.
Ctrl-P = Send normal size image to prop set.
Ctrl-I = Open AV Importer.
Ctrl-O = Open Prop Dialog.
Ctrl-S = Save Prop Dialog.
Ctrl-X = Clear.
Ctrl-U = Undo.
Ctrl-R = Send edit image to normal image.
Ctrl-L = Send normal image to edit image.
Ctrl-E = Erase mode.
Ctrl-F = Flip Vertically.
Ctrl-H = Flip Horizontally.
Ctrl-K = Rotate Clockwise.
Ctrl-J = Rotate Counterclockwise.
Shift Left Arrow = Slide Image 10 Pixels.
Ctrl Left Arrow = Slide Image 1 Pixel.
Shift Right Arrow = Slide Image 10 Pixels.
Ctrl Right Arrow = Slide Image 1 Pixel.
Shift Up Arrow = Slide Image 10 Pixels.
Ctrl Up Arrow = Slide Image 1 Pixel.
Shift Down Arrow = Slide Image 10 Pixels.
Ctrl Down Arrow = Slide Image 1 Pixel.
Tutorials |
Home |