For the record: Recoloring is not for Noobs

[Vexorian]

Is anybody else tired of people saying SUcks! it is a recolor! burn da witch! ?

Well I am tired of them.


recoloring actually takes skill, seriously.

This is what takes to take a texture and recolor it to green:

SDL_Surface* GreenIFy(SDL_Surface* src)
{

   //SDL_GetRGBA(Uint32 pixel, SDL_PixelFormat *fmt, Uint8 *r, Uint8 *g, Uint8 *b, Uint8 *a)
   
   Uint32 rmask,gmask,bmask,amask;
   
    #if SDL_BYTEORDER == SDL_BIG_ENDIAN
        rmask = 0xff000000;
        gmask = 0x00ff0000;
        bmask = 0x0000ff00;
        amask = 0x000000ff;
    #else
        rmask = 0x000000ff;
        gmask = 0x0000ff00;
        bmask = 0x00ff0000;
        amask = 0xff000000;
    #endif

    Uint32 w=src->w,h=src->h;

   SDL_Surface* r = SDL_CreateRGBSurface(SDL_SRCALPHA|SDL_HWSURFACE,w,h,32, rmask, gmask, bmask, amask);
   Uint8 bp= (src->format->BytesPerPixel);   
   SDL_LockSurface(r);
   SDL_LockSurface(src);
   
   Uint32 tm=0,tm2=0;
   Uint8* src_pix= (Uint8*)(src->pixels);
   Uint8* r_pix= (Uint8*)(r->pixels);
   
   Uint8 rd=0,g=0,b=0,a=0,aux=0;
   
   
   Uint32 i,j;
   for (i=0;i<w;i++)
       for (j=0;j<h;j++)
           {
           	    tm= *((Uint32*)(src_pix));
           	    SDL_GetRGBA(tm, src->format, &rd, &g, &b, &a);

                aux= (Uint32)((rd+g+b)/3);
                rd=b=0;
                g=aux;
                



           	    
           	    tm = SDL_MapRGBA( r->format, rd, g ,b, a );
           	    
           	    (*(Uint32*)(r_pix) ) = tm;
                src_pix+=bp;
                r_pix+=4;
           }
   
   
   SDL_UnlockSurface(r);
   SDL_UnlockSurface(src);
   
   
   
   
   return(r);
                                  
                                  

}

edit: note that those symbols were white on white background so they were invisible, after recolor they got visible, demonstrating that recolor is also very useful

 

[Leopard]

Well, it depends on the result of recoloring. If he sure has a skill on recoloring, it will produce a color combination which match to each other, doesn't hurt any eye.

I don't care about friggin code which work behind that, I will see just a result, like most of people.

I agree that recoloring sucks, eventhough someone got skill on recoloring, skinning/texturing is not only about recoloring. He can do more than just recoloring.

 

[Horn]

The 'newbiness'ness about it is that, like clicking two buttons to convert a m2 to mdx file, recolouring takes absolutely no skill to do, but some knowledge and skill to make look good.

 

[Vexorian]

Well, it depends on the result of recoloring. If he sure has a skill on recoloring, it will produce a color combination which match to each other, doesn't hurt any eye.

I don't care about friggin code which work behind that, I will see just a result, like most of people.

I agree that recoloring sucks, eventhough someone got skill on recoloring, skinning/texturing is not only about recoloring. He can do more than just recoloring.

Some recolors are much better than some skins from scratch

 

[Sansui]

you have to look at it like this.


a good scratch skin > good recolor.

a bad skin is just a bad skin.

you cant compare products of diff quality, its like comparing an american football team to real madrid.

 

[Vexorian]

a good scratch skin > good recolor.

That's not always true. Some recolors are really good and do keep the style used by blizzard, some scratch skins might be as good as hell but look weird in game

 

[Horn]

I think the real problem is down to 'You took a Blizzard skin and changed the colour' compared to 'You spent several hours on a skin from scratch'. Sure, its likely the Blizzard recolour may look better in many occasions, but that should not give the author greater praise.

 

[Vexorian]

Then you should say that scratch skins are a better excuse to make the author feel better.

But I fear that at the end what matters is the result in game, the product.

We don't really need the artist's ego in game.

 

[Leopard]

But I fear that at the end what matters is the result in game, the product.

We don't really need the artist's ego in game.

If anyone prefer to use recolored blizzard skin because it has blizzard style, then go ahead.

Well-recolored blizzard skin surely is good in-game, it because blizzard who made it and they are the author of the model at the first place, not because the author's skill.

The lame one is the author who feel proud with his recolored skin and publish it to the rest of the world, not the skin.

 

[Metal_Sonic]

You might as well get down to the facts: If you plan on playing the game with the ksin(s) on b.net, then chances are people won't care whether the custom material is good or not, they'll appreciate anything. I know I'd rather have a few recolours to spice up the game a bit then simply nortmal units. When it comes down to it, it's not aobut the quality, but whether it's there or not.

 

[Afronight_76]

Then you should say that scratch skins are a better excuse to make the author feel better.

But I fear that at the end what matters is the result in game, the product.

We don't really need the artist's ego in game.

then why skin in the first place unless you can create better skins than blizzard?