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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 39</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>
              
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              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.32/pop/">Creating 
                a Space Scene (part one)</a>: Part one of Rick's ongoing tutorial.</font></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../1.35/pop/index.html">Creating 
                a Space Scene (part two)</a>: Part two of Rick's ongoing tutorial.</font></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../1.6/index.html">DRAW 
                Partner!</a>: Chris Buecheler's article on games and 2D art.</font></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../1.26/feat/index.html">Two 
                Programs, Two Dimensions</a>: Rick Grossenbacher's tutorial on 
                using <b>Photoshop</b> and <b>Illustrator</b> to create original 
                2D images.</font></p>
              
              
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        <p align="LEFT"><img src="../../images/pop.jpg" width="200" height="200" align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"><b><a target="" href="../../corner/index.html"><font size="-1">Painting 
          on Polygons</font></a><font size="-1">:</font></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"><br>
          Creating A Space Scene <font size="+1">(part 3)</font></font></p>
        <p align="LEFT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="LEFT">&nbsp;</p>
        
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Rick "<a href="mailto:flat@iserv.net">Flatness</a>" Grossenbacher<br>
          </font></b></font><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"></font></b></p>
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        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="../../images/letters/t.jpg" width="26" height="40" align="LEFT">f 
          you follow this column even somewhat regularly, you’ll notice that I’ve 
          been quite late (a month -- yikes!) with getting a new tutorial out. 
          I’ve been quite busy lately working with a new company developing <b>Nintendo 
          Gameboy Color</b> games (out of all things!). I never thought I’d be 
          working on pure 2-D games again, but boy, it brings back memories of 
          the olden’ days of 2-D low-palette sprite-based game making. I love 
          it! So, needless to say, I wasn’t able to devote the time I wanted to 
          this part of the space tutorial. Since my explanations haven’t been 
          nearly as detailed as I’d hoped for, you can e-mail me if you have a 
          particular question about something in here.</font>
        <p></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Before I get started on the 
          third (and final) part of this tutorial, I need to back up a few steps. 
          At the end of part two I talked about how it was necessary to delete 
          the alpha channel in order to save you image as a JPG. Well, thanks 
          to a couple of readers I’ve been turned on to something new. Actually, 
          it’s not new at all, just something I never bothered to learn -- and 
          perhaps maybe you too. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There is an interesting little 
          (not talked about very much) option in the <b>File</b> menu in Photoshop. 
          It is called <b>Save a Copy...</b> </font></p>
        <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="savecopy1.jpg" width="207" height="242"></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The beef with this option 
          over the regular <b>Save As</b> is that <b>Save a Copy </b>has some 
          extended parameters that can be checked, such as <b>Exclude Alpha Channels</b>.</font></p>
        <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <a href="savecopy2.php"><img src="savecopy2.jpg" width="96" height="74" border="1" alt="click to enlarge!"></a></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>Click the thumbnail to 
          see a larger image.</i></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Basically, you can take care 
          of a lot of overhead by checking the boxes you deem necessary, and save 
          yourself a few steps. I did a couple of tests and found out that you 
          don’t even need to check the <b>Exclude Alpha Channel</b> box if you 
          are saving as a JPG -- it does that automatically for you. After looking 
          at the <b>Save a Copy</b> box, I started to wonder why they even made 
          it in the first place! I mean they should have incorporated all that 
          bullshit into the <b>Save As</b> box. Ahhhhh...... &lt;sigh&gt;</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks again to V Andre Lowe 
          and Scott Roberts for bringing this to my attention. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Now on with the tutorial...</font></p>
        <p>&nbsp;</p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><u>Making Stars</u></b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The planet was finished up 
          in tutorial parts one and two. Now it’s time to create a space background 
          with stars. Obviously, the first thing you need to do is create a brand 
          new document with a plain black background. Good. Now let’s add stars.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Here is tip number one. When 
          making stars, don’t just plot a single white pixel for each star -- 
          it looks fake, and bad. It’s better to have them blend with somewhat 
          of a glow (or at least a simulated one). So, to do this, they need to 
          be subtle with some slight color variances to them. Some stars will 
          be very bright. Some will be dimmer. And some will be so dim that they 
          are barley noticeable. The majority of the stars (more likely than not) 
          will have more than one pixel in either height or width, or both. The 
          brightest part of the star might be one pixel, but the edge around it 
          giving it the glow is key.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Take a look at these zoomed 
          up stars to see what I’m talking about in action.</font></p>
        <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="stars1.jpg" width="375" height="234"></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">You may need to bring this 
          into Photoshop if it is difficult to see. Notice how random the make 
          up of each star is, and how they are varied in brightness. Also notice 
          that some are somewhat vertical and some are horizontal. At first this 
          might seem dumb (zoomed in so closely), but it looks very nice if done 
          correctly from a zoomed-out view.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">You will probably also want 
          some much larger stars too. Here is a zoomed up version of one way to 
          create a larger star.</font></p>
        <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="closestar1.jpg" width="141" height="185"></font></p>
        <p> </p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Notice that I put some <i>subtle</i> 
          light rays coming from the star. If they aren’t subtle enough, the star 
          will look too fake, and the rays will be distracting. So, take caution 
          there.</font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><i><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">(<a href="index2.php">Continued 
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      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"> <b>Credits:</b> 
        Painting on Polygons is &copy; 1999 Rick Grossenbacher. All other content 
        is &copy; 1999 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
        productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so 
        don't do it, or we'll paint you white against a white background.</font></i></p>
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