How to make Starcraft II icons

[Statharas]

Welcome to the Starcraft II
Icon Creation Tutorial

Download

• Gimp (Or Photoshop)
• Gimp DDS Plugin (Photoshop has it implemented)
• SageThumbs (optional, and not recommended anymore)

Start by installing Gimp (or Photoshop)
(Unless you already have it installed)

Installing the GIMP DDS Plugin
Put the .exe from the Rar you downloaded into GIMPFOLDER\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins

Creating the actual image
Launch Gimp or Photoshop
(Not neccessary, but I installed SageThumbs for quick view of DDS pictures)

Now, create an ALPHA picture.
Size: 119x111 is the size used by the original probe, try different sizes.
Now, put anything you want your icon to have. For example, i made one with 4 Probes.

(The white is because the picture is in JPG format, which doesn't support Alpha)
MERGE ALL LAYERS and do NOT MAKE IT FLAT.
You need alpha.
It's something even i forget.
Now, save your icon as DDS, I find dx3 with no mipmaps fine when saving via Photoshop.

(The filesize of my probes is around 50kb, so it's prety small, and yours should be the same.)
And there you have it! Your first icon!

The background will change if, for example, the button is zerg or protoss, and the inside will gray out if it is disabled., so you don't need disable, etc.

Screenies

 

[overload119]

So no need to make more than one icon? Sweet!

 

[Statharas]

Exactleh.

 

[overload119]

Also, can you update in your post the ~filesize for each icon. Would be good for some of us to know.

 

[Hero_Lief]

Oh, so it uses alpha channels and makes the frame itself? And we only need one version?
+rep for Blizzard.
...And +rep for discovering this.

 

[Pyramidhe@d]

well its about time. wc should have had this instead of making people upload 8 icons of the same thing.

 

[Statharas]

My probes are 52kb.

 

[Statharas]

Well, the game is going to be released next year. And anyway, you don't need a lot of skill when you got alpha.

 

[Tleno]

Now we need only one picture for BTNs, DISBTN's and all other icons at the same time? Cool!

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

I agree with '8 icons of the same thing', and good job Stathisdjs. The game will be released July-August most likely.

 

[Hero_Lief]

I suggest that Ralle create an icons, textures, and maps section now for StarCraft II, like the broken link maps tab at the top when in StarCraft II mode. And then when in SC2 mode, a tab to go back to WarCraft 3 mode.
What, seeing as we are already making textures, can upload maps, and make icons... Very simple ones at that.

 

[Statharas]

Well, i don't want to release any info, but Ralle made sure that there will be separate sections for each game.

 

[Hero_Lief]

I know, he said so, but I mean, now that we can mod, I believe he should fulfill that promise.
I'll ask him when he plans to add the sections.
The earlier we establish THW as a grand modding site for Wc3 AND SC2, the better and more popular it will become for SC2.

 

[Statharas]

Indeed!

 

[Bloody_Turds]

i dont see a need for seperate sections, if we can get a reliable converter prog, to convert models between sc2, and wc3 (if there not the same filetype)

textures should be fairly easy to make a prog for,

and icons aswell (the prog would throw out all the dsbtn ect, and remove the boundary layer..

that way, once a file is selected for dl, it could prompt asking for which game you plan to use it on ^^

 

[Hero_Lief]

Seems like a lot of work on Ralle's part. Plus, what if some artists want their work used in Warcraft III but not StarCraft II? If they really want them in both they can convert them themselves.
Just do the separate sections, Ralle.

 

[Statharas]

i dont see a need for seperate sections, if we can get a reliable converter prog, to convert models between sc2, and wc3 (if there not the same filetype)

textures should be fairly easy to make a prog for,

and icons aswell (the prog would throw out all the dsbtn ect, and remove the boundary layer..

that way, once a file is selected for dl, it could prompt asking for which game you plan to use it on ^^

You, sir, are honestly psychotic. Are you drunk?

The only converter that there is at the moment is an .m3 to Obj, and from obj to mdx. Total time taken by those tools to do that, is 3 min at LEAST.
And anyway, models that Sc2 has could never be used in wc3. They use 3 layers of textures, while wc3 uses 1, which is BLP. Sc2 uses DDS, which is 10 times better. There could never be a way to make them available for both games. Only if Blizz could put something in both of their games...

 

[Statharas]

UPDATE: I found that Starcraft II has an awesome model engine! The models it can support are REALLY high poly! A Zealot has at least 10 times more vertexes than a Grunt!

 

[AKAIMAX]

So im guessing the M3 file decreases the models size?

 

[Statharas]

Well. I have Hax'd the .m3h, and it looks like .m3h files have the total control of the models. THEY ARE ANIMATION FILES! Animations take up a bit. So, along with the compression Blizz did, m3 files are lightweight, and we can edit their mesh without *beep*ing their animations

 

[Hero_Lief]

Well. I have Hax'd the .m3h, and it looks like .m3h files have the total control of the models. THEY ARE ANIMATION FILES! Animations take up a bit. So, along with the compression Blizz did, m3 files are lightweight, and we can edit their mesh without *beep*ing their animations

YAAAAY!

 

[AKAIMAX]

Why is it better to have animation files though?

 

[Hero_Lief]

We finally know what M3H files are for. And we can mod easier.

 

[overload119]

Post a M3H file. Is it just text?

 

[Statharas]

Post a M3H file. Is it just text?

Nope.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/932170/TechPurchasePortraitTurn.m3h

 

[Eccho]

Shouldnt this be in the tutorial submissions forum before it gets approved and moved <.<?

 

[Statharas]

Nah, this is the tutorial section anyway. Ralle will move all approved tutorials to the new tutorial page.

 

[kola]

Nice, it will be a lot quicker to import icons now.

 

[killer1390]

Sweet find. This is awesome news.

 

[Pyritie]

By the way could you attach those images to your post instead of using dropbox?

 

[Statharas]

By the way could you attach those images to your post instead of using dropbox?

I save bandwidth from the site

Besides, they'll stay there for ever. Don't worry
Why?

 

[Pyritie]

I save bandwidth from the site

Besides, they'll stay there for ever. Don't worry
Why?

In case something happens and your dropbox account doesn't work any more. Plus they're just general tutorial rules (I forgot to check earlier)

 

[Statharas]

Dang. Unless you can do it for me, i will have to do it next week. Or this Thursday...

 

[CloudMax]

The plugin link does not work for me. I have been searching for a decent dds plugin for quite a while now :|

Edit: I found the plugin somewhere else

 

[Statharas]

It SHOULD work.

UPDATE: Found a new link at Google Code.

 

[fancy]

Thanks for the tutorial man!
+Rep for this awesome thing!

 

[Zypher]

Useful tutorial. Thanks.

 

[TKF]

One question:

Must it be 119x111 resolution?

Is there any programs that can compress textures/icons? Can I use warcraft3viewer or do i need a different program to nerf size?



About map sizes in SC2; I don't think map size would be a big problem since bnet 2 gives you optimized download speed which is much faster than in WC3 download there bad connection limits dl speed.

 

[Statharas]

There is no need for compression, and i am sure it must be in that scale. Like in Wc3, Sc2 requires icons to be that scale. Check existing icons.

 

[Zhall]

Wierd dimensions.. is that really what it is?

Hmm importing one instead of 2-4... Much easier! Way to go blizzard.

 

[Zhall]

Sry for double post.

Im importing a file as btn-unit-terran-marine.dds but... it isnt replacing the marine icon.

 

[Aslit]

any program to convert war3 models into star2 models?

 

[-Grendel]

this is good.. maybe i should try this sometime

 

[CloudMax]

If im not totally wrong, i think there is different icon sizes depending on where they are used. i cant remember ever using the size mentioned here for making any icon, and i have made quite a few for own use. (about 20)
Also, all you really need to do is make a picture, choose picture size and make it a dds file, there is nothing more into it.

 

[Statharas]

Well, yeah, but i based my icon on a pre-existing icon, sooooo..........
And anyway, it's just a simple tutorial to make a Sc2 icon.

 

[Colt556]

Hmm, just found this tutorial and followed it, but I hit a snag. When I imported my icon into my map, and used it, the background is just pure white. Like, every other icon has the stylized background, with the green and the little brackets on the corners. But my background is simply white and my image. I looked for various merging things, and alpha channels, and all I could find was a 'merge down' option that I used. Why is it that my icon's not working right?

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

Icons need to have alpha channel in order to appear with 'stylized background, with the green and the little brackets' as the guy above says. Should they do not have an alpha, the icons will show without these brackets and borders around the icon.

Icons can be any size you want but my suggestion to above poster: make sure you're using DDS file, make sure it is a square - any size I suppose in the range of 30-100 like 30x30 64x64 etc, 76x76 but not 30x60 (havent tested but not good idea).

Another possibility can be - you haven't imported your icon to: Assets\Textures\ path that I think is needed.

Recommended that you name your icon btn-(ability)-terran-(name)

 

[Colt556]

I made it a .dds file, and when I imported it I typed in Assets/Textures as the path. I even renamed it as you said. Only things I did different was, it's not a perfect square. I used the 119/111 size in the OP. And I don't know how to make them alphas or whatever.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

Well, why not resize it to 111x111 using GIMP or photoshop. It won't become too flat or ugly. It probably wants a square texture, Alpha channel means transparent parts. Icons work without the need to add alpha but the borders around the icon show only if there is alpha in the icon.

 

[Colt556]

I resized it into a square, but still nothing. I mean, I think my icons have alpha channels, nobody's mentioned any special method to give the icon an alpha channel. So I just don't get why they show up as white squares with the image on it.