Project Perfect Mod Forums
:: Home :: Get Hosted :: PPM FAQ :: Forum FAQ :: Privacy Policy :: Search :: Memberlist :: Usergroups :: Register :: Profile :: Log in to check your private messages :: Log in ::


The time now is Tue Mar 19, 2024 10:03 am
All times are UTC + 0
How to Make a Quick Cameo
Moderators: Global Moderators, Red Alert 2 Moderators
Post new topic   Reply to topic Page 1 of 1 [31 Posts] Mark the topic unread ::  View previous topic :: View next topic
Author Message
ConMan
Tiberian Beast


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Location: Toronto, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Apr 04, 2009 1:50 am    Post subject:  How to Make a Quick Cameo Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

This is a quick tutorial outlining how to make a cameo. What I am going to show you will hopefully be very quick and easy.

THings needed:

-SHP Builder (You can download it at here http://www.ppmsite.com/?go=shpbuilderinfo
-Google Images Laughing

Step 1 - Find an image that you want to use as your Cameo
Im going to demonstrate this by using this image: http://spaciode.com/About%20us/LongbowApache.jpg
Once you have your image, save it somewhere on your computer. It DOES NOT matter what FORMAT the image is in (e.g. jpg, png, gif, etc...)

Step 2 - Open up SHP Builder and convert your image file to an SHP

a) Go to File > Import > Image -> SHP
b) Uncheck "View only the first file of the package" (Idk why its necesary, but it works for me!)
c) Browse for the image file that you saved earlier
d) Go to the "Colours" Tab
e) For "Background Color", check "None" (This helps the image stay uncorrupted during the game)
f) For "Colour Conversion Method", check "3D RGB Infurium" (Since the file is so small, you might as well make it this way)
g) Go to the "Frame Size" Tab
h) For "Frame Size", choose "custom", and make the width and height 60 X 48 respectively. This will resize your image to the appropriate cameo size.
i) Click OK

Step 3 - Make the cameo look better.
You can do this by going to Tools > Effects > Smooth (Conservative) > Conservative Smooth. Play around with the other options for possibly better results.

An even better way to achieve higher results is to smooth the stock image before it is resized, and then use it as a cameo. The result is shown below

Step 4 - use the cameo generator.
Press Ctrl + G, or go to Tools > Misc > Cameo Generator
Important thing is to add text, the name of your unit will go here. The rest of the options, you can just play around with.

So there you have it. Your own cameo for your own unit! Heres a preview of what I ended up with:



longbow1 0000.png
 Description:
Smoothing after image was resized
 Filesize:  2.93 KB
 Viewed:  46028 Time(s)

longbow1 0000.png



longbow2 0000.png
 Description:
Smoothing before image was resized
 Filesize:  2.96 KB
 Viewed:  45765 Time(s)

longbow2 0000.png




Key Words: #Tutorials #Cameos #SHPs #Graphics #Media #TiberianSun #Firestorm #RedAlert2 #YurisRevenge #OpenRA #OSSHPBuilder 

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ludvigpasse
Cyborg Engineer


Joined: 24 Mar 2010

PostPosted: Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

As a noob, the guide only took me so far, so i could create a picture, with the right atributes, can you also say how to save the pic, for red alert 2 yuris revenge usage, and how to give a unit the picture, maybe you could show how to change the cameo of nighthawk transport into the one you have in your guide. And also show how to make it work in game. Some pictures would be nice, so every1 can understand.

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
001010011100101110
Commander


Joined: 18 Aug 2009

PostPosted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 12:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Well, if you have researched more, you should know that the cameo should go directly in the RA2YR directory, in an expandmd mix file, or an ecachemd mix file. To replace a unit's cameo with yours, all you have to do is replace Cameo=(OLD)ICON with Cameo=(NEWFILE) with the .shp part excluded. This is all done in ArtMD.ini.

Seriously? This is a pretty big bump right here.

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ludvigpasse
Cyborg Engineer


Joined: 24 Mar 2010

PostPosted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 1:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

found the expandmd.mix file, but how do i open it? So i can put in my cameo there.

_________________

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Comr4de
Gauss Rifle Trooper


Joined: 23 Feb 2010
Location: The Netherlands

PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2010 1:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

You open them in the unittemp.pal... changing it to cameo.pal will completely corrupt the thing.

_________________


Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Allied General
General


Joined: 19 Mar 2004
Location: United Kingdom

PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2010 1:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Comr4de wrote:
You open them in the unittemp.pal... changing it to cameo.pal will completely corrupt the thing.


Mig Eater wrote:
WTF ...



Just put the shp file in RA2 folder, or read the documentation about mix files.

http://www.ppmsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4038

_________________

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website ModDB Profile ID Facebook Profile URL Twitter Channel URL
GeneralSturnn
Soldier


Joined: 07 Nov 2012

PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 8:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Nevermind, just had to run as Administrator, lol...

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Atomic_Noodles
Defense Minister


Joined: 05 Oct 2011

PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 11:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Speaking of Cameos... do people still use SHP Cameos? You'd think people use PCX Cameos now though...

_________________
~ Excelsior ~

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Graion Dilach
Defense Minister


Joined: 22 Nov 2010
Location: Iszkaszentgyorgy, Hungary

PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 11:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Yea, the ones who doesn't use Ares, do. And yea, there are a lots of them being pure YR modders, or NP modders... or they do use Ares, but just don't want to abandon the old ways.

_________________
"If you didn't get angry and mad and frustrated, that means you don't care about the end result, and are doing something wrong." - Greg Kroah-Hartman
=======================
Past C&C projects: Attacque Supérior (2010-2019); Valiant Shades (2019-2021)
=======================
WeiDU mods: Random Graion Tweaks | Graion's Soundsets
Maintainance: Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters! | BGEESpawn
Contributions: EE Fixpack | Enhanced Edition Trilogy | DSotSC (Trilogy) | UB_IWD | SotSC & a lot more...

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website ModDB Profile ID
Atomic_Noodles
Defense Minister


Joined: 05 Oct 2011

PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 11:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Hmmm I thought NPatch supported PCX Cameos... Well I could understand from other mods though...

_________________
~ Excelsior ~

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
NimoStar
Commander


Joined: 07 Nov 2012
Location: Buenos Aires

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 5:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

.shp cameos have other advantages; for example, things like reverseengineer don't read .pcx cameos as far as I know, or other mechanics.

Anyways, this method of cameos is actually slower than the one I use:

1- Use image search on the interwebz, pick your image
2- Right click - Copy image
3- Paste in Photoshop (or gimp, or whatever)
4- Crop and resize (Actually the photoshop crop has the auto-resize, you can have it to default 60 px X 48 px as I do, and do both things with just a click and drag)
[Use any enchancement on this step, from the image editor]
5- Copy

6- Create (or open an existing) RA2 cameo .shp in shp builder
7- Put the cameo palette on
8- Paste your image
9- Use the Tools > Misc > Cameo Generator
10- Save and you're done!

_________________

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Speeder
Commander


Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Location: Czechia

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

When does reverse engineer read cameos? SHP cameos have absolutely no advantages.

_________________
mentalomega.com

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website YouTube User URL Facebook Profile URL Twitter Channel URL
OmegaBolt
President


Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Location: York, England

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Well IIRC PCX cameos didn't work for spying enemy production, although they do work fine for reverse engineered units.

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Starkku
Cyborg Commando


Joined: 28 Dec 2007
Location: Finland

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Speeder wrote:
When does reverse engineer read cameos? SHP cameos have absolutely no advantages.


Well at the moment they do, but that's more of a bug than anything else. SpyEffect.RevealProduction does not currently work properly with PCX cameos, it just always displays xxicon.shp instead.

_________________

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website ModDB Profile ID Twitter Channel URL
Speeder
Commander


Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Location: Czechia

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Exactly, it's a bug. Not an advantage.

_________________
mentalomega.com

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website YouTube User URL Facebook Profile URL Twitter Channel URL
Millennium
Commander


Joined: 09 Mar 2008
Location: Osaka (JP)/Hong Kong/Germany

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 10:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

What he meant was that SHP cameos are NOT subject to this bug, which grants an advantage VS pcx ones. It's propably reasonable to expect that this bug will be fixed in the not-so-distant future tho.

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Speeder
Commander


Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Location: Czechia

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 10:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I know what he meant.

_________________
mentalomega.com

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website YouTube User URL Facebook Profile URL Twitter Channel URL
NimoStar
Commander


Joined: 07 Nov 2012
Location: Buenos Aires

PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 12:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

It's an advantage that they are not affected by the bug...

If something has a bug and other thing doesn't, it is clear that the non-bugged thing has the advantage.

(unless you actually want to have the bug Laughing )

Also, I find .shp cameos easier to make as with the tool on the builder.

PD: Also, they have the definite advantage that they can always be used by anyone, with or without ares.

_________________

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
OmegaBolt
President


Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Location: York, England

PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 12:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Anyone who wants to make decent cameos is not going to be using SHP Builders cameo generator in any case. PCX's have the massive advantage of not needing to use the limited palette which simply makes them better IMO. You can easily convert a PCX into SHP as well.

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Graion Dilach
Defense Minister


Joined: 22 Nov 2010
Location: Iszkaszentgyorgy, Hungary

PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 2:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

B-b-b-but... I am using SHP Builder's Cameo Generator tool on a blank SHP to have the text on my PCX cameos correctly placed... D:

_________________
"If you didn't get angry and mad and frustrated, that means you don't care about the end result, and are doing something wrong." - Greg Kroah-Hartman
=======================
Past C&C projects: Attacque Supérior (2010-2019); Valiant Shades (2019-2021)
=======================
WeiDU mods: Random Graion Tweaks | Graion's Soundsets
Maintainance: Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters! | BGEESpawn
Contributions: EE Fixpack | Enhanced Edition Trilogy | DSotSC (Trilogy) | UB_IWD | SotSC & a lot more...

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website ModDB Profile ID
Earthman
Soldier


Joined: 11 May 2012
Location: Viet Nam

PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 2:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Yessssss!!! I do the same your way...Graion Dilach . But the Veteran Symbol is at the top left or top right of the Cameos ?

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Graion Dilach
Defense Minister


Joined: 22 Nov 2010
Location: Iszkaszentgyorgy, Hungary

PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 3:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Usually top left, but the cameo template I used had a layer for that.

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website ModDB Profile ID
Earthman
Soldier


Joined: 11 May 2012
Location: Viet Nam

PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 3:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Yes ! I made a veteran symbol layer , a glass background as screen layer and the last is the image of units/Structures

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
NimoStar
Commander


Joined: 07 Nov 2012
Location: Buenos Aires

PostPosted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 2:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Well the vanilla game has acceptable cameos overall and I consider that quality satisfactory. It's only a 60x48 image after all and they don't need rainbows pouring on them (unless it is that MLP mod...)

_________________

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Atomic_Noodles
Defense Minister


Joined: 05 Oct 2011

PostPosted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 9:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

NimoStar wrote:
Well the vanilla game has acceptable cameos overall and I consider that quality satisfactory. It's only a 60x48 image after all and they don't need rainbows pouring on them (unless it is that MLP mod...)


Cameo Palette on its own doesn't have enough teals (for power glows), lighter red/pinks or purple (if you use purple in Cameos) For example... this touched up Yuri Engineer Cameo.


_________________
~ Excelsior ~

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
NimoStar
Commander


Joined: 07 Nov 2012
Location: Buenos Aires

PostPosted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 2:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I know, I have found that when converting most purples become blue, but that doesn't bother me as much as portability...

Also, you could make your own custom cameo palette if you wanted to. The color would still be limited but at least you get to choose (if you like variety it can be like unittem.pal)

_________________

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
OmegaBolt
President


Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Location: York, England

PostPosted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 4:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Or just, you know, have every cameo using it's own internal palette. #Tongue

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
NimoStar
Commander


Joined: 07 Nov 2012
Location: Buenos Aires

PostPosted: Wed Jan 18, 2017 10:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Is that last fgeature even supported? I know with Ares you can do it on animations, buildings, etc., but not on cameos, can ypu?

_________________

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
ApolloTD
Commander


Joined: 19 Nov 2003

PostPosted: Thu Jan 19, 2017 6:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Sure you can do it... Smile

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
TwinkyBong
Vehicle Driver


Joined: 01 Jan 2021

PostPosted: Fri Jan 01, 2021 5:54 am    Post subject: Question Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

The tutorial finish with
"Step 4 - use the cameo generator.
Press Ctrl + G, or go to Tools > Misc > Cameo Generator"


But my problem is there what to do after that?
The export option mention SHP but TD or TS formats, not RA2.
When I use any of these formats my icons are broken or black.
Soooo... what I need to do to make that cameos work properly?

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Banshee
Supreme Banshee


Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam)
Joined: 15 Aug 2002
Location: Brazil

PostPosted: Sat Jan 02, 2021 6:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

TS and RA2 use the same file format. So, save it as TS Wink.

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website Skype Account
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic Page 1 of 1 [31 Posts] Mark the topic unread ::  View previous topic :: View next topic
 
Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on Google+Share on DiggShare on RedditShare on PInterestShare on Del.icio.usShare on Stumble Upon
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum


Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group

[ Time: 0.1892s ][ Queries: 15 (0.0131s) ][ Debug on ]