Re: Magic of Aquaria SPOILERS!!!!!!! new pics Feb 15

[Sindhi]

Thanks for the feedback. Yogoda helped me do this with the anemones; he said it was easy. I will ask him if he wants to do everything, but I think I will need to learn how to do this myself...

[Alphasoldier]

If you want I could try making a quick how-to tutorial, depending on what program you use.

Heck, if you want you could pass over all the graphics (and a level to test them in) and I could do it for you. Then I at least have helped SOMEhow in this amazing mod.

[Sindhi]

It's a deal. I can e-mail you the graphics file... do I have your e-mail? Thank you tons!

[Alphasoldier]

I think you already do, but either way it's alphasoldier [at] hotmail.com a very known and very spammed email account. =D

[Yogoda]

It is really strange because we already worked a lot to remove the white borders and we know how to do it. So I don't really understand when you says : "a LOT of the graphics have white outlines". I don't see any white outlines.

The only problem I could see is maybe with the mondo-grass (black grass), I tried to make it better but with no success in the past, and on a black background it looks too white. Also maybe you thought the Silver-fern had white borders, but it's its color. Maybe you saw old screenshots too ?

Silver fern


Mondo grass


Can you point what graphics seem to have white outlines and I send them to you by e-mail. Already sending the mondo-grass.

[Alphasoldier]

I guess I was talking about the old screenshots.

Also a LOT is very an overstatement, I just saw it a lot in one picture, that's completely my bad, sorry.

The Crystals on the big Gaia tree(?) have white outlines, but I guess it's an old picture.
The bark of the trees that grow in that secret garden has the same.

None the less, I've tinkered with the mondo-grass and I'll send you a link to it through PM seeing you took the effort to mail it to me, instead of publicly.

[Sindhi]

The crystals in the tree were all Derek's from Aquaria; don't think we can modify them. The background of Don Goldman's astrophoto of the Iris galaxy (used with his permission) has a lot of white in it.

BTW I believe it was Danger Mouse who told me he doesn't like combining photos and graphics, but I think it's a cool idea; see below:



Photo of Martian lava fields courtesy of NASA; I subscribe to the NASA daily feed. Plants were recolored in Gimp.



Another background of Mars used in the crystal cave in the Sunset Beach map, courtesy of NASA. NASA photos not recolored.

[Sindhi]

Oh, about the trees in the Secret Garden... that is the only time I have made something totally in Gimp by drawing and coloring in, layering different colors until I liked it. It turned out choppy, with segments of tree-trunk I had to cover up with lots of fern and ivy.  I don't see white outlines, though, just some lighter shading here and there. By the way, fans should recognize that the pink "flowers" are mushroom parts from the home cave in Aquaria. They make great Pandora-type flowers. I need to work on the tree trunks and try to make something that isn't so short and squatty. Those ferns are the same ones in the screenshot Yogoda posted (the Japanese Silver Painted Fern) but recolored in Gimp; also the same as the purple ferns in the same map, and the green ones with the rounded leaves were recolored a gaudy turquoise. I was an art teacher for years; love playing with colors and color schemes. By the way I change the first post in this thread all the time and it doesn't show up as "new". There's a new waterfall pic there and some others.


close-up of the Secret Garden

[Alphasoldier]

I don't see the white lines in the later pictures, but I'll show you what I meant anyway.


First is fairly obvious, second is shown with the many red lines.

[Sindhi]

Okay, the crystals are from Aquaria and we can't change them. I don't see what you mean about white lines in the crystals; there are highlights, but I don't see lines except for the red ones. If there is anyone else out there who is bothered by this please speak up! The tree parts don't exactly have a white line, but some of the edges are lighter than the middle bits. I can take them into Gimp and spray paint the edges so the highlights are gone. There's not much I can do about the crystals; sorry, Alpha.

[Sindhi]

We got y our changes to the black mondo grass, Alpha, and they are in the mod now; thanks. I see what you mean about the sort of grey lines in your crystal screenshot. And there are some white lines in some of the smaller crystals which are leaves on the tree. Don't think I can do anything about it. Here are a couple of screenshots of the Cave of Creation with close-ups of the crystals and the tree. I think this is about as good as it's going to get. Considering the time it took me to put all the leaves on the tree, removing the white lines would take me years.....Oh, and part of this is that Yogoda did an animation effect that makes the brightness go up and down as you move through the tree, and Gaia also has a special effect, which does funny things to the screenshots. Well, both Yogoda and I are waiting for next week when we can spend three weeks in the same timezone working on the mod... so we will have more to show you soon.

[Sindhi]

Okay, Yogoda has made two butterflies in My Paint and Sindhi shaded them in Gimp (the blue and orange ones) and
 Sindhi made two multicolored butterflies in My Paint (totally) and Yogoda animated them. We put them in the forest
maps, waterfall map and the tunnel map (from waterfall to forest). This is the first time Sindhi has drawn things totally
in My Paint without a sketch first; usually she colored the whole thing and scanned it into  Gimp for shading. Here are screenshots:



The waterfall map with flying butterflies. Right now Naija can jump around the map, but Yogoda will make her walk and climb
up ivy and other things. We want her to be able to climb trees in the forest map, especially in the Secret Garden. . Yogoda just
announced he has figured out how to make her climb!!!





Here Naija is taking a stroll in the forest, walking behind some ferns and in front of others, and if you move the cursor
 faster she runs. Yogoda did this animation yesterday, making her walk naturally and run. He had to remove the cape,
which was floating behind her at a distance,  like a pet.


We'll keep you guys posted except for the secret stuff (boss stuff, for surprises). We're getting a lot done working together in the same place.

[Lady-Succubus]

I feel bad because I can't think of anything to say other than... wow.

[Alphasoldier]

I probably deserve to be smashed in my face by saying this, but I once again see a white outline on the middle and right butterflies on the last picture.

Another thing I have to say, which you guys also aren't gonna like is that I find that so many different kind of pictures, grabbed from IRL pictures mixing it with the drawn style of Aquaria makes everything look a bit off, but that's just me being picky cause I can't find any other flaws.

[Sindhi]

Alpha, about the white lines: dude, you're colorblind. Maybe that affects how you see things. And I intend to replace all the photos with art, of course; I was just planning stuff out first to see if I liked it; you have to wait to see the final result. I kind of like that I can make stuff that looks pretty much like the photos . And I like using the astrophotos for backgrounds. If other people don't like the effect, well, you can't please everybody....so am basically pleasing myself and Yogoda. You guys should see the butterflies in action; they are pretty awesome. Yogoda is awesome.