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          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">- <a href="index.html">Contents</a><br>
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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 6</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>

              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">New!!</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> The Archives have been cleaned up, fead links fixed, and printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments <a href="../../index.html">on the front page</a>!</font></p>
              
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../2.15/feat/index.html" target="">Livin' 
  With The Sims</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">: 
  theAntiELVIS explores the wild and wacky world that is Will Wright's <b>The Sims</b>, 
  asking the inevitable quesiton, &quot;is <b>The Sims</b> the first step toward a virtual 
  life where everyone is Swedish?&quot;</font></p>
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../2.15/pixel/index.html" target="">Pixel 
  Obscura</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">: Josh 
  Vasquez on <b>Omikron: The Nomad Soul</b>.</font></p>
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../rl/index.html" target="">Real 
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        <p align="LEFT"><img src="../images/cover1.6_sml.jpg" width="188" height="376" align="right" hspace="4"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"> 
          DRAW, Pardner!</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Chris &quot;<a target="_self" href="mailto:cwb@aqueous.net">shaithis</a>&quot; 
          Buecheler</font></b></font></p>
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<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.15/">2.15: Livin' With The Sims</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.14/">2.14: To the Extreme</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.13/">2.13: Not Just a Passing Wind</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.12/">2.12: It's Not Easy Being Green</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.11/">2.11: Inside Origin Systems</option>
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<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.7/">2.7: 1999 loonygames Awards</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.6/">2.6: PC Fight Club</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.5/">2.5: Paul Steed '99</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.4/">2.4: Sounds From All Over</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.3/">2.3: Kicking Back with a Bear</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.2/">2.2: End of the Line</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.1/">2.1: American McGee's Alice</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.41/">----- Volume 1 -----</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.41/">1.41: Put a Little Love...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.40/">1.40: Game Programming...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.39/">1.39: More loonygames @ E3!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.38/">1.38: loonygames at E3!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.37/">1.37: The ReRuns Issue</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.36/">1.36: Inside Raven Software</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.35/">1.35: Waking Graeme Devine</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.34/">1.34: Writing the Game</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.33/">1.33: Totally Tribal</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.32/">1.32: Under His Skin</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.31/">1.31: The Glory of G.O.D.</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.30/">1.30: Chillin' w/Jason Hall</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.29/">1.29: Extreme Annihilation</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.28/">1.28: Adventures in ASCII</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.27/">1.27: Serious Brass Ones</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.26/">1.26: Two Programs...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.25/">1.25: The Unreal Cliffy B!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.24/">1.24: Gimme Your Money!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.23/">1.23: Old Crusty Gamers</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.22/">1.22: Bugs!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.21/">1.21: 2001</option>
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<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.19/">1.19: The Rise and Fall...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.18/">1.18: romuluSngan HoH!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.17/">1.17: A Very Geeky Christmas</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.16/">1.16: 5 Years of Doom!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.15/">1.15: Tune Up Your Game!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.14/">1.14: NT + Games = ???</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.13/">1.13: Blue and Levelord...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.12/">1.12: When It's Done!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.11/">1.11: Hangin' With John Romero!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.10/">1.10: Still Sick of Games</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.9/">1.9: Gettin' Odd with the loonies</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.8/">1.8: LAN Parties...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.7/">1.7: The Community Summit</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.6/">1.6: DRAW Pardner!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.5/">1.5: Taking Aim at Paul Steed</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.4/">1.4: Play Where You Like!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.3/">1.3: *Special Duke Issue*</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.2/">1.2: Are You Sick of Games?</option>
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        <p align="left">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="left">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="CENTER"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>"You've 
          got to get tons of art *experience* if you want that dream art job!"&nbsp;<br>
          -Mike Hadwin, <a href="http://www.ritual.com">Ritual Entertainment</a></i></font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">You don't hear 
          much about them often, but they're out there. The silent masses. The 
          quiet guys with long hair and paint smudges on their clothes. The 2D 
          artists. Though not the most outspoken members of the gaming community, 
          2D artists' work, and the methods they use to create it, are an integral 
          part of the game design process. Their role has changed quite a bit 
          in just a few short years, from creating relatively simple 8-32 color 
          sprites (think <b>Duke Nukem</b>, <b>Commander Keen</b>, <b>Jill of 

          the Jungle</b>) to creating highly involved, photo realistic texture 
          maps in 24-bit color, to be wrapped around polygons and lighted in real-time. 
          Accordingly, some of their methods have changed as well. Programs, techniques, 
          and even communication methods have all been affected by the rise of 
          the 3D (and in this particular article, first person) game. </font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As a 2D artist 
          myself, I've always been interested in finding out how other members 
          of the industry (who, honestly, I feel a bit weird grouping myself with, 
          since they're all people I look up to) do their work. When <b>loonygames</b> 
          first came out, I contacted Jason "loonyboi" Bergman (editor-in-chief 
          of this fine publication) almost immediately to ask if he had anyone 
          writing up any articles on this aspect of gaming. He didn't, and I volunteered 
          to do so. Like Kiwidog, I wrote for Demonews in the past, so this isn't 
          my first journalistic endeavor. Those were tutorials though, and this 
          is an article, so forgive me if I make some mistakes along the way. 
          :)</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">At any rate, 
          onwards...</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8" size="+1"><b>Tools</b></font></p>
        <p align="CENTER"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>"Man, we 
          got the TOOLS, and we got the TALENT!" <br>
          - Winston, </i>Ghostbusters</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Photoshop</b> 
          is the king here, no question. An image editing program from <a href="http://www.adobe.com">Adobe 
          Software</a>, <b>Photoshop</b> is one of the most versatile programs 
          available to industry artists. It works on a pixel-by-pixel level, meaning 
          you could (as is often necessary in texture creation) single out a single 
          dot of color and change its hue, saturation and intensity values. Hue 
          is the actual color value (i.e. "red" "blue"). Saturation is how close 
          or far the color is from "gray" (ie "very washed out" is low saturation, 
          "very vibrant" is high saturation). Intensity represents how light or 
          dark the color is. The lowest end would appear totally black, the highest 
          end would be a "pure" strain of the color. For example, a medium gray 
          would have <i>no</i> color saturation, and a middle intensity. White 
          has <i>no</i> saturation, but very high intensity. An almost white pink, 
          then, has very little saturation, but very high intensity. All three 
          could have a hue of "0", which is a very red hue. You can go from 0 
          to 100 in each category. Saturation and Intensity make sense, with low 
          being desaturated/dark, and high being supersaturated/bright, respectively. 
          As for who came up with the order that the hues go in...I have no idea. 
          As you move from 0-100, you move in this basic order:</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">red-->orange-->yellow-->yellow/green-->green-->turquoise-->blue-->purple-->pink-->red</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Photoshop</b> 
          contains a wide variety of tools, and is definitely one of those "always 
          learning something new" programs. This is a good thing, since it keeps 
          the art field from stagnating and becoming similar-looking. Out of all 
          of the artists who answered my survey, only one didn't mention <b>Photoshop</b> 
          as his most-used tool on a daily basis. My own experience as well is 
          with <b>Photoshop</b>. It's an industry standard for a reason, and just 
          about every 2D artist out there is familiar with it. Other programs 
          mentioned include <b>Deluxe Paint IIe</b> (which everyone describes 
          as "obscure", despite the fact that it's still in widespread use by 
          many game companies), and <a href="http://www.corel.com">Corel</a> <b>Photopaint</b>. 
          Ruben Cabrera of <a href="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.6/feat/5" target="">3DRealms</a>, contends: "I have 
          a tip, if you are going from 24 bit to 8 bit don't use Photoshop to 
          re-map the colors, use Corel <b>Photopaint</b> instead. I have tried 
          many programs and <b>Photopaint</b> gives the best results."</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Deluxepaint 
          IIe</b> is a pixel-editor, much like <b>Photoshop</b>, but which serves 
          a somewhat different purpose. While <b>Photoshop</b> can handle many 
          types of "bit depth" (i.e. how much data is stored per pixel of color), 
          <b>Dpaint </b>(as it's normally called) is built specifically to work 
          at a 256-color level (which has a bit depth of "8", and is thus referred 
          to as "8-bit"). <b>Dpaint</b> is useful in this fashion because it actually 
          performs some actions that<b> Photoshop</b> <i>will not </i>do. When 
          working in 8-bit, everything you draw has to be composed of colors from 
          a 256-shade palette. You can define this palette yourself, but everything 
          on screen will contain <i>only</i> those 256 colors. <b>Photoshop</b> 
          doesn't care for this at all, and it disallows the use of many of its 
          tools while in 8-bit mode. The reasoning behind this is that it's very 
          difficult to do convincing blurs or gradients, for example, with only 
          256 colors to work with.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Deluxepaint 
          </b>handles these very admirably, however. It can smear, blur, shade, 
          and make colors translucent, all within whatever 8-bit palette it has 
          been assigned. I'm not a programmer, so I don't know the exact specifics, 
          but what it appears to do is run the effect and then choose whatever 
          color is closest to what the output <i>should</i> be. For example, say 
          you move a red square (hue: 40) which is 50% translucent over a yellow 
          square (hue: 180). For right now, we won't worry about saturation and 
          intensity, but rest assured they're calculated as well. At any rate, 
          <b>Dpaint</b> will see that the resulting color should be "110", which 
          is the halfway point between 40 and 180. Your closest color in the palette, 
          however, has a hue of "115", so <b>Dpaint</b> picks that. More often 
          than not, it's barely noticeable. I've never seen a program that does 
          this as well, or as quickly, as Dpaint, and I suspect that's why it 
          remains an industry standard, even though much of today's work is done 
          at higher bit-depths.</font></p>
        <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Many artists also mentioned 
        in-house tools, such as 3DRealms' "<b>Cannibal</b>", or the modified version 
        of <a href="http://www.idsoftware.com">id Software's</a> "<b>3D Paint</b>" 
        program, used by the team at <a href="http://rogue.stomped.com">Rogue</a>. 
        I worked on a freeware RPG project awhile back called "Prophet" from my 
        friends at <a href="http://www.bitshift.com">Bitshift Software</a>, during 
        which time I used a custom tool of theirs called "<b>Animate-x</b>", which 
        was without a doubt the best tool available to do the type of sprite animation 
        we were doing. This, I suspect, is often the case. While tools like <b>Photoshop</b> 
        and <b>Dpaint</b> remain great for widespread uses, sometimes you need 
        a custom tool to do a custom job. </font> 
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">For more basic 

          information on computer art in general, and on some of <b>Dpaint's</b> 
          tools in particular, I'm going to be egotistical for a moment and recommend 
          a series of tutorials I did awhile back for a newsletter called "Demonews". 
          They're currently archived <a href="http://www.hornet.org/info/gfxzone/aindex.html">here</a>. 
          These articles cover everything from "what is resolution" to "what the 
          hell do I do with the constrained aspect ratio tool in Dpaint?". They're 
          a bit old, however, and I've learned a lot since then. They're definitely 
          aimed at the novice user, but in that respect I think they're pretty 
          educational. The series ends abruptly. Sorry... a change in life and 
          a change in direction brought it to a halt. Who knows...I may do some 
          tutorials for <b>loonygames</b> in the future. :) </font></p>
        <p align="LEFT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1">(<a href="feat/index2.php">continued 
          on next page</a>)</font></p>
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    <td><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
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