[RA2/YR] Creating Cameos from Voxels for Voxel Units

Atomic_Noodles · Defense Minister **Joined**: 05 Oct 2011

Well I guess i'll get started on this tutorial. Cameos is a bit of a double-edged sword. Most often you'll be having to use a bit of your imagination on creating them or touching up cameos. For this tutorial I'll be using my Athena Cannon. Do note this is how I make my cameos some people may have different approaches but so far this way has seem to do good for me.

For this Tutorial I shall be using Photoshop CS5, but I think GIMP may also suffice...

1) Find a suitable background.

For this Tutorial I shall be using this Image:

2) Next make a voxel with all the parts of your unit in it. In my case a turret and the chassis. Go to the Display 3D Window and change the House Color to the side of your choice. (More often than not you may opt to instead recolor these to the same hue of your unit itself.)

3) After you've done these two it's time to start work on the actual cameo. Start cropping & resizing your background to exactly 60x48. This is the standard Cameo Size.

4) Now remember that screenshot of the Voxel. This time remove everything else that you do not need and copy that over to the 60x48 image. Resize to the appropriate size of your choice.

From here I usually make 3 copies of the Unit. Layered from Top to Bottom:

Resized with Gaussian Blur (25% opacity)
Resized with Blur Effect (50% opacity)
Resized with Sharpen Effect
Resized

You should now end up with something like this:

5) Next add a shadow layer, The Shadow Layer is a jet black color with opacity set to 50-65% usually.

Also I've opted to touch up the background by namely adding a sunlight from the top left corner for the shadow to seem more believable.

It should now look something close to this:

6) Next step is to apply the same glass effect as per Red Alert 2 Style. I've made my own version of it with the Transparency set up already so you just need to copy this over as the top-most layer for now. (Original Glass Effect is somewhere here in PPM)

All that's left now is to add in the Text and the Text Bar. Download the Template somewhere in PPM (Again...Sorry I can't remember Laughing

) Write up the name accordingly to your unit's name. Remember name's are all centered and are 1 pixel off from the bottom. The Upper Text is always pure white and the Bottom Text has the shading.

The Chevron is 2 pixels off from the top and top-left.

Here we have the pre-final version:

All that's left now is to export this into SHP Builder.

And here it is as exported using the RA2 Cameo Palette... with some touch-ups of course.

As SHP Builder isn't always that great, results may vary greatly from what you want and as always this is a trial-and-error thing so don't get disappointed too much.... With Ares you may opt to use PCX instead which allows you to keep the details of the original image.

Hope this helps. Razz

Key Words: #Tutorials #SHPs #Cameos #Graphics #Media #Photoshop #GIMP #OSSHPBuilder #RedAlert2 #YurisRevenge #OpenRA

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Crimsonum · Seth **Joined**: 14 Jul 2005 **Location**: Fineland

Usually a frog's-eye-view works best for big and mighty units. I'd also recommend some touch-ups in photoshop like making the windows look more realistic (i.e. not black).
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OmegaBolt · Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 8:29 pm Post subject:

Some suggestions and my own method:

1) You should also draw shadow on the voxel, otherwise it just looks flat (obviously).

2) I personally also apply a scratchy metal texture (screen blend) as a cheap way of getting extra detail.

3) Then if there are any tracks visible I use a track texture and morph it to the right shape to fit the voxel.

I have also attached a copy of a PSD as example.

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m7 · Commander **Joined**: 17 Apr 2009

This is a good basic cameo tutorial, that would work best if you redid all your voxels to match. I think you should do the effort to find the photoshop element you used or upload it (with proper credit given) so that people can easily use your tutorial.

Earthman · Soldier **Joined**: 11 May 2012 **Location**: Viet Nam

Atomic_Noodles · Defense Minister **Joined**: 05 Oct 2011

As stated, on its own the Voxel will still look... voxelly. Usually you'll need to touch it up yourself with your own brush strokes dabbled here and there. The One I posted is a pretty quick one with some very few brush strokes here and there.

A final one usually has alot of layers with it. So it does take time. This one I made is just a quick one which should be sufficient enough for most basic voxels.

Another tip I may suggest is coloring the Sections you want to the appropriate hue you want before resizing the Screen Captured Voxel as it may prove to be more difficult when recoloring it after the downscaling.
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DaRTzO · Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 7:42 am Post subject:

I read the points in this guide and took a quick screen capture at an angle I thought might look good, though later on I realized that it's not right.

Still for testing purposes I did some editing of the tank image and placed it over the same background used by the op.

I manually added some shadows and adjusted brightness and contrast of the layers to what I thought were good values.

Here's the end result.

Atomic_Noodles · Defense Minister **Joined**: 05 Oct 2011

Looks nice, although the Text is covering some of the Voxel and the Voxel is on the wrong perspective. But overall it's okay, just needs to be in the right perspective and it'll be perfect.
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Sir Shockwave · Cyborg Firebomber **Joined**: 06 Sep 2011

Many thanks Noodles for a most useful Tutorial. I'll see what I can come up with X3

Earthman · Soldier **Joined**: 11 May 2012 **Location**: Viet Nam

@Noodles : Could u show me the way to make a Cameo like OmegaBolt's owns in above post ? Thanks alots Smile

Sir Shockwave · Cyborg Firebomber **Joined**: 06 Sep 2011

Here's a quick something I hammered together. I couldn't find all the functions you listed however, so I had to cut corners. The final text had to be edited in SHP Builder.

Also, I used the Voxol Viewer rather than the 3D Viewer in the editor. Couldn't find a way to paste the turret into the same voxol without getting an internal system error.

Speeder · Commander **Joined**: 03 Sep 2004 **Location**: Czechia

With such positioning text will cover 40% of the unit itself.. what do you need so much sky for? Move the whole picture up, unit should be in the middle of the cameo, not at the bottom.
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Krow · Commander **Joined**: 30 Jan 2010 **Location**: Malaysia

Shouldn't this be in the media hut tutorial?
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Atomic_Noodles · Defense Minister **Joined**: 05 Oct 2011

On Step 4, Opacity is specified in the Layer's Window. From 0-100% with 100% being solid and lesser being more transparent.

Gaussian Blur,Blur are in (Filters -> Blur) Tab in the Top Windows

The Same goes with the Sharpness Effect (Filters -> Sharpen)

To save to as a 8-bit PCX hover over to (Image -> Mode)
In there the settings should be set as Indexed, 8-bit.

Exact Palette
Colors: 256
Forced: Primaries

Then Save As : PCX
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Starkku · Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 2:24 pm Post subject:

DaRTzO · Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 6:24 pm Post subject:

In other words you're losing quality? #Tongue

This is a good tutorial and explains rather clearly how to make good looking cameos on your own.

@ Earthman. If you're incapable of following and learning how to make cameos of any style from this it's your own fault.

Just try out different methods and experiment.

EVA-251 · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 5:41 am Post subject:

Interesting. I could help you build on to this tutorial. Know a thing or two about voxel cameos. :>
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Atomic_Noodles · Defense Minister **Joined**: 05 Oct 2011

Orac · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 8:22 am Post subject:

Don't allied vehicles have a green colour in camoes?

Atomic_Noodles · Defense Minister **Joined**: 05 Oct 2011

Earthman · Soldier **Joined**: 11 May 2012 **Location**: Viet Nam

Thanks alot. And here's my first one Razz

. It's looking good ? huh ? Razz

Yuri Land Staker.rar

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Aro · Alcohol Fueled **Joined**: 10 Sep 2006

It's looking... something...

SMIFFGIG · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 10:19 pm Post subject:

Atomic_Noodles · Defense Minister **Joined**: 05 Oct 2011

@ Earthman,The Cameo looks too blurry like something from jpeg. When saving images for preview use PNG or GIF, Jpeg has a known tendency to distort images.

@ Sir Shockwave usually I make a dummy voxel unit which has all the sections of the unit.

You can import a section in VXLSEIII under (Section -> New -> Import from another Model) Then just add the Turret or whatever you need added.

Then open HVA Builder to adjust the hva of the unit. You can do a screenshot from there (I just use Print Screen Button) then paste that into a new file in photoshop.

That's how I got the turret into the Athena Cannon Cameo.
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Earthman · Soldier **Joined**: 11 May 2012 **Location**: Viet Nam

Thanks all Razz

@Noodle : I made it from the vxl's turret. So , the object in the icon is the big turret Very Happy

. I made it as *.jpg , rename it's to 0000.jpg and then import it in to SHP Builder. I did by that way because i have a problem with the text , if i made it by Paint Shop Pro , the text will be 7 pixels height. But add the text will take much time Sad

Until now , I don't know how to make a icon like OmegaBolt's one Confused

I like that vxl style...huhuhuhu .

Sir Shockwave · Cyborg Firebomber **Joined**: 06 Sep 2011

Nyerguds · Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 9:48 pm Post subject:

Earthman · Soldier **Joined**: 11 May 2012 **Location**: Viet Nam

Thanks u so much Smile

. I'll try doing by other ways...

Earthman · Soldier **Joined**: 11 May 2012 **Location**: Viet Nam

Here are my 2nd time cameos.

Graion Dilach · Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 8:36 pm Post subject:

Much better, if you ask me. Top right seems good.
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OmegaBolt · Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 10:47 pm Post subject:

Hey they don't look too bad at all. The top right as Graion said looks best to me, although the unit needs a bit of sharpening.

Earthman · Soldier **Joined**: 11 May 2012 **Location**: Viet Nam

Thanks u all Razz

. I have made some color styles of it. Could u help me choose any one of them for Cameo ? Razz

Earthman · Soldier **Joined**: 11 May 2012 **Location**: Viet Nam

Why my avatar name is "Vehicle thief" Sad

Banshee · Posted: Sat May 19, 2012 4:18 pm Post subject:

ROFL! These ranks are just based on PPM: Final Dawn units. After some posts, your rank will become the name of another unit. In short, nothing personal.

Earthman · Soldier **Joined**: 11 May 2012 **Location**: Viet Nam

Oh yes !

OmegaBolt · Posted: Sat May 19, 2012 6:41 pm Post subject:

For fitting with currently Sov cameos the bottom right would probably work best.

Earthman · Soldier **Joined**: 11 May 2012 **Location**: Viet Nam

Yeah .So the bottom right will be my Cameo Very Happy

Thanks..

Sir Shockwave · Cyborg Firebomber **Joined**: 06 Sep 2011

I had another go at the tutorial. I'm still dealing with malfunctioning technology, but I decided to apply the same process to something a little different.

I ended up using Auto Sharpen as my photoshop doesn't appear to have a Sharpen filter. It still seems to look okay though.

Atomic_Noodles · Defense Minister **Joined**: 05 Oct 2011

Earthman · Soldier **Joined**: 11 May 2012 **Location**: Viet Nam

Give me the Screen shot from Hva Builder or Vxl Editor of that Unit. I want to try to make cameo for it. Very Happy

Bu7loos · Commander **Joined**: 27 Jul 2011

My own Edit #Tongue

Ra2 with Ra3 style but Ra3 Style need a custom plate which is supported by ARES and also supports PCX which makes the job alot Easier.

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Earthman · Soldier **Joined**: 11 May 2012 **Location**: Viet Nam

Cool cameos Smile

. I think i should learn u more Smile

Natit_Titan · Grenadier **Joined**: 20 May 2012

I get ideas from the final war, but when add original text, cameo is too large Sad

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OmegaBolt · Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:58 pm Post subject:

I don't want to get "heavy" but did modder666 allow you to use that cameo template? I'd rather it was Final War exclusive as long as modder wants it, unless he gave you permission.

Not sure what you mean though about adding text.

DaRkGlAcEoN · Rocket Cyborg **Joined**: 13 May 2013 **Location**: Canada

Thanks, this was helpful
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Zero18 · Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 12:00 am Post subject:

I made two cameos of my own. And test it to see how it looks inside the game, but apparently I forgot how to make it fit to the right palette. It shows weird color. I can't believe I forgot how to do it... I need someone to tell me how to fix it.

And by the way, how does my cameos looks? Is it good?

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DaRkGlAcEoN · Rocket Cyborg **Joined**: 13 May 2013 **Location**: Canada

They're not bad. Better than what I can do. Laughing

m7 · Commander **Joined**: 17 Apr 2009

@Natit_Titan: Me not answering the PM doesn't give you consent to imitate my graphic style for cameos (which, btw, you're missing a lot to achieve the same look) so I would appreciate it if you didn't use that in a public mod.

This thread is good, I'll have to upload something similar on how I work on my cameos and then the community can give me the feedback received here.

freedom fighter · General **Joined**: 14 May 2009

@Zero18: Your palette should be Red Alert 2 --> cameo.pal if you're not using custom palettes.
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Atomic_Noodles · Defense Minister **Joined**: 05 Oct 2011

I've been meaning to update this for a long time but haven't had the time to do so though... If you need a glass template download the Cameo Package i also put up in here.
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